Irlen describes these visual problems as Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (SSS) and includes such problems as dyslexia. From my reading of Superlearning (1979) and Superlearning 2000 (1995) by Sheila Ostrander and others, I had become aware of many techniques to learning as well as those learned in education courses for teachers but using colors for reading was new to me.

The correctional library programs, for which I was director, had developed a reading lab which houses special reading materials and uses peer tutors to help inmates and school students with their reading difficulties. I spoke with Laws, who was also a Certified Special Education Teacher and we began to discuss what we might do at the state prison. She was hired as a consultant through a Department of Education grant for “Innovative uses of Technology in Education.” This program would allow us to develop a program based on the use of visual testing and use of colors in reading training. An acquired color machine allowed printed text and graphics to be focused onto a TV monitor with selected colored backgrounds or letters. These would be switched until an optimum combination was found for each student. With the machine we could also alter the size of the letters. By coordinating information from school TABE tests, our library brought together twenty-eight men who volunteered to be part of this program and Laws began meeting one-on-one with the inmates.

She would test the men for their current reading ability and their ability to see through various color overlays or color backgrounds with enlarged type on the color machine. Laws would also test for right and left brain coordination. After doing this for each inmate, she would write a “prescriptive” program for each. Exercises, including eye, breathing and relaxing, reading lists, color overlays, and sometime relaxing music, were all part of the prescription. Twenty-six of the twenty-eight students, we found, could read or see words better with the color overlay, one or two with larger print. Gary, (pseudonym ) on the other hand was found to have no sense of “visualization.” He couldn’t remember what he learned from one day to the next. He hardly could talk, as words did not come to him because of brain damage.

Laws started helping Gary by asking what he was interested in – Cars. He had been a mechanic and knew a great deal about cars. Laws drew a picture of a car and had Gary tell her what the parts of the car were – the hood, the trunk, the bumper, wheels. After about eight items, she wrote the names of the parts with arrows to the drawing of the car. Then she had him make up a large drawing for a book. Each time he and the tutors met, he would learn more words that went with the parts of the car he knew. About two months after this all started, I was present when Gary was able to put together about ten words into a sentence. Not only could he retain the words, but he was beginning to relearn how visualization could help him learn. It was the beginning of retraining the wounded brain. By the time the program ended, Gary had a vocabulary of about 30-50 words.

Many of the other students made remarkable progress as well. At the start of the program, one other inmate was adamant, no one could help him to read. He not only became a model student (less disruptive) at the prison school, but became an advocate of the lab and started helping other students increase their reading ability. Within two months, twenty-six men were reading at least 2-3 grades, if not more, above the ABE tested level when they started working with Laws.

There has been much research on visual and brain cognition, and software from many agencies has helped. Not all the software out there allows for color background or varying text color. Many computer programs in the assistive technology arena are for reading comprehension, not for help with vision. One program which includes adaptive facility for vision and colors, Easy Reader, is now available via Dolphin.

Libraries that aren’t yet involved need to get on board with assistive software for reading. With the visual and brain training techniques we now know of, I believe crime and disruptive behavior in schools and cities could decrease. Having worked ten years with inmates, I believe the frustrations, lack of achievement and concurrent disruptive or unacceptable behavior in adults are more likely to be directly related to the lack of reading ability than any other outside event or condition.¹ Even though reading may not solve all behavioral problems, we can strengthen the whole country through a focus on correcting reading problems through the newest technologies and machinery we already have available.

References

1. Are Reading and Behavior Problems Risk Factors for Each Other? Paul L. Morgan, George Farkas, Paula A. Tufis, and Rayne A. Sperling.

The post Reading With Colors first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Created by Jordan Lloyd Bookey and her husband, Felix Brandon Lloyd, Beanstack is a specialized service for libraries and their patrons that offers personalized book recommendations and specific tools for learning. Beanstack librarians as well as the specific library system’s librarians work together to recommend books for young readers based on the young person’s individual interests. These specialized recommendations not only make reading enjoyable for the children, but also help build literacy at an early age.

“Beanstack is a web application, and it is mobile optimized,” says Bookey. “That means it is very easy to use on your phone, as we build first for the mobile experience. We consider it a family engagement tool, helping to better connect libraries and families. By signing up, families will receive personalized recommendations for their kids, along with recommended events and more. We know that librarians themselves are the best answer—nothing beats a librarian at readers’ advisory! Our goal is to help people begin and continue their discovery process of all the amazing things their library/librarians have to offer.” All recommendations are titles already in your library’s specific catalog.

The system has learning activities, reading logs, and an engaging badge system to entice young readers to not only read but also continue reading.

This product is helpful on its own but can be paired with a number of your own library system’s programs. “Beanstack has worked great with the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program and we’re excited to see how parents use the product in other ways,” says Garrett Hungerford, assistant director of Salem-South Lyon District Library in Michigan. Many systems have promoted it along with their summer reading programs. Beanstack also sends out a weekly reminder to visit your library for more information from librarians, and thus becomes a community engagement tool, as well. “It helps engage local families by providing personalized recommendations, tools for earning incentives, and content curated by librarians. 43% of Beanstack users do not have a library card when signing up. The flagship summer reading client experienced a 25% increase in registrations and completions,” says Bookey.

Beanstack has now partnered with over fifty public libraries throughout the United States and even into Canada. A video demonstrating how Beanstack can be partnered with your summer reading program can be seen here.

The post Beanstack: A Readers’ Advisory Tool for Young Readers first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Why Tech Planning?

You might be in one of two camps when it comes to tech planning: either you’re required to create one by your administration or board or you’re making one of your own volition. But in both scenarios, you should have an understanding of why you’re creating a tech plan and what it can accomplish for your organization. This understanding will help propel you through the process. In a blog for TechSoup, Kyle Andrei of Idealware frames tech planning like this:

“Technology should be helping your organization, not holding it back. Luckily, some simple planning can go a long way toward resolving problems and preventing future issues.”

Instead of looking at it as a chore, however, you could look at tech planning as a road map to all of the amazing things you want to accomplish for your library in the next three years.

Getting Started

Now that you understand why you’re creating this tech plan, you can start building one. Block off a few hours across a week or two because this is not something you’ll be able to get done in a single afternoon. You’ll need a good sense of what technology you currently have in order to get started. Therefore, reserve your first chunk of time for doing an inventory of your current technology (computers, software, online services, staff skills, your network, and tech-related programming.).

Next you’ll want to pick a few key areas that connect to your library’s overall goals and objectives. Do you want to increase your library’s online presence? Improve your public access computers? Amp up your technology-related programming? Focus on how these things might tie into your library’s strategic plan and mission.
As you’re building out your plan, be prepared to make multiple drafts. The first time your write something out won’t be the final version. Get input from other staff on your plan, since something you have down as a goal might already be happening or in progress. Additionally, inviting outside input can help drum up support for your plan and engage other staff.

What to Include in Your Tech Plan

Libraries are different in their needs, budgets, and sizes so your tech plan isn’t going to look identical to the library the next city over’s plan. Julie Elmore, library director of the Oakland City-Columbia Township Public Library in Indiana, made some recommendations for what to include in a tech plan during TechSoup for Libraries’ Technology Planning Tips for Small Libraries webinar.
1. Mission statement. Including a mission statement can help remind you what your library’s overarching goals are and set the direction for your plan.
2. Technology inventory. Make sure to include web properties such as your website, ILS, and social media profiles in addition to hardware and software.
3. Goals and objectives. Be explicit in what you want to achieve with this plan.
4. Professional development strategy. Staff training for new technology should be incorporated into your plan.
5. Budget. Stating your budget upfront can help you stay focused on what technology goals and plans are realistic.
6. Evaluation process. Be clear in how you’ll determine what technology or software to purchase.You can make those tech dreams of makerspaces, innovative STEM programming, and new computers a reality for your library. It just requires a little (tech) planning.

More Tech Planning Resources for Libraries

Webinars:
• Technology Planning Tips for Small Libraries (TechSoup for Libraries webinar)
• Tech 101: Tactical Technology Planning (TechSoup webinar)
• Webjunction’s Tech Planning topic page

Templates, planning tools, and samples:
• Indiana State Library’s template (automatic download) (your state library may have a different template – be sure to ask!)
• TechSoup for Libraries’ Six-Step Technology Planning Tool
• Thirteen Ed Online’s tech planning questionnaire (for schools, but still can apply to libraries)

The post Tech Planning Tips for Libraries of All Sizes first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

As the application’s tagline suggests, capturing and sharing moments at the library is considerably easy but it requires some digging to uncover inspiring posts. Discovering the accounts of prominent public libraries such as the New York Public Library and your own local libraries can be simple enough. The accounts could be searched for by name using Instagram’s search function, but discovering new libraries and library related trends can be overwhelming.

Hashtags allow content on Instagram to become accessible to a wider audience. Instagram users can explore content that are publicly uploaded by searching the hashtags that the creators have coupled with their posts. Browsing results of the most popular tags can prove to be impractical and daunting. Exploring the popularly employed #librariesofinstagram, for example, yields thousands of images that are related to libraries; searching for #library yields million of hits. As of yet, the only way to browse results on Instagram is through infinite scrolling. Since the results are ordered from the most recent to the least recent, seeing all of the posts for a given hashtag depends on one’s willingness to continue scrolling.

Results that are more relevant to your interests are accessible by searching for specific hashtags. Here is a sampling of hashtags being used by libraries today:

• Examples of tags that encourage participation include #bookface and #bookfacefriday which showcases creative uses of book jackets. #libraryshelfie features library shelves with or without library staff members to accompany them. Newly created #libraryinmyhand promotes electronic resources and services offered by libraries.
• Librarians that are fashion conscious may be keen on viewing posts tagged with #librarianwardrobe or #librarianstyle to see what librarians are wearing.
• Teen librarians may be interested in posts that are tagged with #teenlibrary, #teenlibrarian, #makerspace, and #yalit.
• #childrenslibrarian, #storytime, #flannelboard, and #earlyliteracy are relevant to librarians working with children. Some libraries have also chosen to have Instagram accounts for teens such as Franklin Park Library Teens.
• Anyone seeking inspiration on promotional displays may be interested in those tagged with #librarydisplay.
• Examples of responses to reference questions appear upon searching for the cheeky tag #letmelibrarianthatforyou.
• Posts of programs at the library can be seen by searching #libraryprogram and #libraryevent. (Some nationwide programs have their own tags such as the early literacy program #1000booksbeforekindergarten.)

While hashtags offer a way of accessing Instagram posts from the perspective of the library, location tagging is unique in that it offers a way to re-discover the library as it is experienced by its visitors. Library users on Instagram are publicly uploading their own content and are tagging the library’s location. Regularly reviewing the content allows libraries to assess how visitors are using the library and uncover what patrons like and dislike about the library.

The post Libraries of Instagram first appeared on Public Libraries Online.