Monday, January 30, 2012

Finding Information Cont.

After a discouraging start to my inquiry, I took a day or so off to think about my next approach.  I knew I was going to have to look at the topic a little differently but was not sure where to go from there.  I am very fortunate in that my mother is the LMS in the school where I work.  She just bought five Nooks for her library so I decided to talk things over with her.  After I got through explaining my frustration, my mom said she had a similar experience when trying to choose what e-readers to purchase.  She dealt with this by coming up with a list of things she was looking for in an e-reader and then bought the option that most closely fit this list.  What she ended up purchasing was the Nook Simple Touch.

Interviewing my mom gave me something to think about and I felt like I had a little more direction than when I started researching.  I was ready to start looking for information again.

At this point, I decided to try using the bookmarking site Delicious to find some information on e-readers in school libraries.  I stumbled upon a blog that was really helpful in reforming my topic question.The creator of the blog brought up the question "What is the purpose for the eReader or mobile device in my library, classroom, or school?" Reading this blog made me think that my research question should have less to do with specific products and more to do with how to choose an e-reader.  How the e-reader will be used and its purpose in the library should be taken into account.

From there, I was able to find a website that gave me some good ideas on different questions to be asked when trying to decide on an e-reader.The website is not geared towards schools or school libraries but many of the topics would be applicable.  For instance, librarians will need to decide whether they want the devices to be solely for reading or if they want students to have additional features like games and internet.

I also looked at a few articles from the School Library Journal and found a series of e-reader reviews in the form of YouTube Videos that were really interesting.

4 comments:

  1. Johanna,
    I had trouble focusing my inquiry at forst too. It looks like you have a great start on your research and have found a direction. The librarian at the school I work for is interested in purchasing eReaders for our school. She has been doing research on what is the best fit, and is leaning toward the iPad because it has several other funtions that would benefit the students. Our school is very small so everything and everyboday must multitask. I will be interested in reading your blog as you post more information.

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    1. I have recently been looking at iPads as a possible answer for the same reason - multitasking. I work in a school that has both iPads and Nooks so I have been trying to find the time to sit down and compare the two (except the Nooks are always checked out!)

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  2. Johanna,

    I noticed that Peter and I too are doing our inquiry research topic on e Readers. I also noticed that you and I had some similar linked resources and stumblings. I found interviewing different librarians and directors to be helpful in understanding what I wanted the purpose of my e Reader to be in my library. I also asked them how they determined which e Reader to go with. This greatly helped me. As I told Peter, my stumbling in this inquiry process is in determining not so much which e Reader to go with at this point but which lending service to buy eBooks from due to the DRM and usability terms. To help you out I too will post some resources to help guide you along in your researching process. Hope some will help since we have similar topics. Also, I will be sure to check out your posted YouTube video's :)

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    1. Thanks! It has definitely been helpful to look over your blog, as well as Peters, as I continue my research!

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