![]() After a few quick taps on the app, children were taking books home to share with family and friends. Again using the Booksource app on the smartphone, we tapped on the “Check Out” button, scrolled to the child’s name, and touched the scan button again to enter the child’s selected book’s ISBN, which displayed on the spreadsheet. Further, we offered workshops with teachers and parents on important ways to read books with children. We also modeled how to care for the books before assigning children to librarian roles. In addition, we provided each child with his or her own special library card and created ways to motivate the children to read books through book talks and reading incentive charts. Last, we used the “Student” option to add names of children at the center who would check out the books from the library. We then opened Booksource on the laptop, entered the Teacher Page, and used the “My Library” option to edit and personalize the spreadsheet columns. Next, we tapped “Add to Library” and the information entered onto the app’s spreadsheet. To do so, we held the phone over the book’s ISBN before touching the “Scan” button, which brings up book information on the phone. Within one afternoon, we easily made an inventory of 490 children’s books using a free app downloaded from Booksource Classroom Organizer to a smartphone. ![]() Through donations of Spanish and English children’s books brought to Uvita from the United States by volunteers, we established a library in Forjando Alas Kids’ Club, an after-school center for K–5 grade children. Children’s books were not available in the community, and libraries were not in the schools. Recently, I helped establish the first library in Uvita, Costa Rica, four hours south of San José on the Pacific Coast in a primary rainforest. I also offer Internet sites to extend access to books beyond a classroom library. In this blog, I describe how I used a cell phone and laptop to create a library for children living and learning without books. Today, classroom teachers, after-school programs, and anyone with a collection of books can easily use a cell phone or tablet, laptop or computer, and apps to make a book inventory, create a library, and establish a checkout system for parents and children. At that time, however, I didn’t have access to apps or to a mobile device to make the process more time efficient and productive. As a teacher, I spent summer months collecting books, labeling them, and creating new categories to add books to my library. Additional research demonstrates that the frequency of reading to children, regardless of income, affects brain processing and reading development.Ĭlassroom teachers understand the importance of establishing a classroom library. Outside the United States, countries like Guatemala and Costa Rica have rural areas that have no access to books. Research suggests that access to books in the United States often varies on the basis of income levels and reading practices established in home cultures. ![]() But that could change with the growing popularity of digital books.In this day and age, the fact that many children have limited or no access to books and do not know the pleasures of listening to books read aloud is hard to believe. For now, Book Retriever only works for physical books. “They really want to use this as a tool.” Among the difficulties parents have had are how to distinguish what an ISBN is and how to use technology in general. “The nice thing is that the customers are giving us free product development,” Benjamin says. So far, according to Benjamin, most of the feedback that Classroom Library has gotten has been positive. Orders placed using the app go directly to Classroom Library, which offers a flat 30% discount. Teachers can use the app to create ISBN barcode labels for their classroom libraries and to keep track of who checked out which titles. This month’s list includes The Hunger Games, several titles by Rick Riordan, Seriously Scary Poems by John Foster, Eve Bunting’s The Wednesday Surprise, and Miss Bindergarden Takes a Field Trip with Kindergarten by Joseph Slate, illustrated by Ashley Wolff. ![]() This is meant for parents and teachers.” In addition to the scanning function, Book Retriever contains a “hot list” of 10 books that change monthly that parents and teachers might be especially interested in. Other people have different apps that you can use to catalog your books. ![]() The app, which has a 136,000 title database, debuted at IRA in Chicago, where, says Benjamin (who continues to update it almost weekly) “it went through the roof. ![]()
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