Bound to Stay Bound has several strong points. First, it offers many different services for processing for their books, including laminated jackets, bar codes, catalog cards, date due slips, MARC records, spine labels, and support for different reading programs, among others. These services can be packaged and added on to suit the needs of the school library, which is appealing - no need to pay for circulation cards if your library doesn't use them! Bound to Stay Bound claims that its binding processes and materials will "last through hundreds of circulations." Though there isn't a money-back guarantee, there are videos of tough testing (run over by a school bus!) and several testimonials. SO it would be nice to know that the books would last a long time. Also, Bound to Stay Bound allows the user to search for books based on reading programs (Accelerated Reader and Reading Counts) or reading levels (Lexile and/or Fountas & Pinnell), which would be very helpful for librarians and classroom teachers. While it does also advertise a Common Core search, in reality the search does not seem to limit the results - a search for a specific search in 4th grade Reading for Information yielded 2500 results, which is still too many to sort through! There is an option to add on limiters from the advanced search, but that requires an account. Being able to limit the search further, however, would make the Common Core feature much more useful.
It seems like the prices on these books are high, but the services seem extensive, and the searches are nice to have as a reference, if nothing else. Also, if there were books that I knew were going to be very popular and would be checked out frequently for many years, it would probably be worth paying a little extra for the more durable binding.
Follett is a company that I was already familiar with as my school uses Follett Destiny as its circulation program and I spent a significant amount of time working in the library as an assistant. This connection between the circulation program and ordering through Titlewave is an appealing aspect of Follett, because it ensures cohesiveness in ordering, cataloging, and importing. Also, similar interfaces are always easier to deal with! As opposed to Bound to Stay Bound, Follett's emphasis is not on the security/durability of the book binding (though they do offer a guarantee for their FollettBound Platinum books), but on different services and products that they offer. For the librarian who subscribes to School Library Journal, they offer an easy link to order any of the books reviewed in recent months in the magazine. Additionally, Follett's connection with the Common Core standards is significantly better than Bound to Stay Bound. Follett provides a list of 5 or 6 books as exemplar texts for Common Core standards. There is also a curriculum map with 30 or so books for different standards as well. Follett also has a wide variety of digital tools available, with Follett Shelf available as a tool for managing ebooks.
I couldn't find specific costs on library bound books without a Titlewave account, so I do not know how the prices compare to Bound to Stay Bound. However, the other services offered does make Follett an appealing choice, as long as the prices would be comparable.
You would be hard pressed to find a teacher or librarian (or just a regular person, for that matter!) who hasn't heard of Barnes & Noble! But they are also a good partner for libraries and schools, in addition to being a major book retailer. Barnes & Noble already provides discounts for teachers purchasing books for their classroom use, and I assume those same discounts would apply to librarians ordering for the library. Barnes & Noble also will allow teachers/librarians to order with a purchase order, if they order in store. This includes books that are only available online, as they will order the books for you from the store, and let you pay for them with the purchase order. Additionally, many schools have Nooks, and Barnes & Noble has a variety of apps and books available to be used on their Nooks. Barnes & Noble also has a variety of textbook options, and a discount for bulk ordering.
While it may not be good as a primary source for a library because the books are not bound for library use, Barnes & Noble would definitely be a good secondary source for books, ebooks, and textbooks.
I was immediately drawn to this page because of the Smallville reference! I love the approach that she is taken, and the idea of extending the perception of graphic novels beyond flying and tights. However, as much as I am a superhero fan, I am not as up to date on graphic novels as I would need to be as a librarian. One thing I have noticed in the last few years I've been in the classroom is the rise of graphic novels that are not superhero stories. Books like Dork Diaries, Sisters, and many others have students of all types reaching for graphic novels, and I am just not as familiar with them as I would need to be in a library. Therefore, a site like this would be a great way to keep up on the newest graphic novels available. Robin B. (the site's creator) has categories for Kids, Teens, and Adults, where the posts are categorized, which would make it easier to find suggestions. I do wish that the site had a better search function, because it is difficult to search for a specific graphic novel on this site. However, it would definitely be a blog that I would subscribe to and stay updated on as a way to see the "latest and greatest" in graphic novels.
At first I was a little turned off on this site because my preference is to be in an elementary library, and this one is geared towards middle school students. However, since I will be certified K-12, and it is entirely possible I will end up in a secondary library, that might be all the more reason to be familiar with sites like these! I'm pretty familiar with elementary books in general, but I would need sites like this to help with a middle school.
That being said, I did like how Ms. Yingling structured her reviews. She starts with a general synopsis, then strengths and weaknesses of the book, then her actual thoughts. I like that she includes strengths and weaknesses for each book, despite what she thinks of them. It would help me make a more objective decision if I was deciding on a book. Another feature I liked on her blog was the inclusion of posts about other topics that still revolved around literature. For example, she had a post about an upcoming Anne of Green Gables movie. Not specifically a review, but still pertinent information for a librarian. I also thought that her lists of books broken down by topic (Adventure, Fantasy, Historical, Humorous, and Sports) would be very helpful in a library. Within each page she also breaks down the topic further (for example, Historical includes sections on different wars through the ages). However, the lists are just that- lists. They are not interactive, there aren't any links to sources or reviews, just title, author, date, and a brief description. Also, these lists don't seem to be very updated - on the Humorous page it says that it was last updated 9/2011. So these pages might be useful if you were looking for a certain type of book, but not necessarily the most recently published!
That is how I would probably use this site in a library, in addition to following to keep an eye on books that she reviewed that were newly published books.
Well, this website definitely delivers on its tagline! It promises "Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists" and that is definitely what it delivers. I couldn't help but laugh as I read some of the list names along the sidebar (Fanging Around, Home Fries, and Historical Fiction for Hipsters in particular), and I couldn't help but click on others to see what was included (The Coolest Classics You Never Even Heard Of! and Inquiring Minds Want to Know). I imagine a teen looking for a book to read would have the same reaction! What I really like about the site's setup is that there is an announcement at the top of each list that describes what is included in the topic. I found this very helpful, especially since some of the categories have questionable names (like Stoned). The reviews are written in an engaging way that would really speak to teens. I really like that she encourages teens to recommend books to their parents, to read what their parents are reading, and to be adventerous in what they read. I do think that, in my rather conservative school/district/town I might not be able to link to this site from the library site or promote it widely, I would certainly use it for my own research, to find books to recommend for students, and for some students to look through on their own. In a public library, however, I would definitely link this site to the homepage and recommend it for teen readers! I think they would have as much fun reading the reviews as the books that are recommended!
Please find information about different book review sites below.
Google Slide Presentation
Ordering Tools:
Bound to Stay Bound
It seems like the prices on these books are high, but the services seem extensive, and the searches are nice to have as a reference, if nothing else. Also, if there were books that I knew were going to be very popular and would be checked out frequently for many years, it would probably be worth paying a little extra for the more durable binding.
Follett Titlewave
I couldn't find specific costs on library bound books without a Titlewave account, so I do not know how the prices compare to Bound to Stay Bound. However, the other services offered does make Follett an appealing choice, as long as the prices would be comparable.
Barnes & Noble
While it may not be good as a primary source for a library because the books are not bound for library use, Barnes & Noble would definitely be a good secondary source for books, ebooks, and textbooks.
Online Tools:
No Flying, No Tights
Ms. Yingling Reads
That being said, I did like how Ms. Yingling structured her reviews. She starts with a general synopsis, then strengths and weaknesses of the book, then her actual thoughts. I like that she includes strengths and weaknesses for each book, despite what she thinks of them. It would help me make a more objective decision if I was deciding on a book. Another feature I liked on her blog was the inclusion of posts about other topics that still revolved around literature. For example, she had a post about an upcoming Anne of Green Gables movie. Not specifically a review, but still pertinent information for a librarian. I also thought that her lists of books broken down by topic (Adventure, Fantasy, Historical, Humorous, and Sports) would be very helpful in a library. Within each page she also breaks down the topic further (for example, Historical includes sections on different wars through the ages). However, the lists are just that- lists. They are not interactive, there aren't any links to sources or reviews, just title, author, date, and a brief description. Also, these lists don't seem to be very updated - on the Humorous page it says that it was last updated 9/2011. So these pages might be useful if you were looking for a certain type of book, but not necessarily the most recently published!
That is how I would probably use this site in a library, in addition to following to keep an eye on books that she reviewed that were newly published books.
Reading Rants