Beyond the Book: Technology Integration into the Secondary School Library Media Curriculum »

SANDRA L. DOGGETT is Library Media Specialist, Urbana High School, Ijamsville, Maryland.

What does the secondary school library media specialist need to know about technology in the twenty-first century? This book answers the question with a wealth of practical information. Doggett explores the pros and cons of using technology in the schools and describes how it affects the roles and interaction of media specialists, teachers, students, administrators, school system, community, and parents. She also demonstrates how to get off to a successful start with technology. Various research processes, emerging technologies, filtering, and search engines are just some of the topics covered in this valuable guide.

VOYA

Doggett examines the pros and cons of technology, policies related to technology use, selection of electronic sources, and research process models before examining the roles of stakeholders and discussing the development of a technology plan. The author then describes technology components, offering lesson plan examples and providing an overview of the options for deploying computers. The sections related to curriculum offer outlines of common research models and online searching techniques. The balance of the book addresses the implementation of technology and is focused on the administration of technology within the school environment. The six lesson plans, two for grades six through eight and four for grades nine through twelve, are less than stellar examples of technology integration in the curriculum. Although "Exploring Health Related Careers" could provide a rich opportunity for technology integration, the lesson plan is based, with the exception of one Web site, entirely on print resources, requiring the completion of photocopied worksheets and one written paragraph for assessment. The introduction to this resource states, "This book discusses... newer technologies in a way meant to assist the library media specialist in dealing with so many changes and challenges." The book, however, does not provide a focused in-depth investigation of the integration of technology into the curriculum as the title suggests. One also might argue that not all the technologies presented are "newer." Nevertheless the book does accomplish the purpose of providing clear information regarding the changing environment of library media centers and programs in schools today and will be useful as such.Index. Biblio. 2000, Libraries Unlimited, 200p, $29.50 Oversize pb. Ages Adult. Reviewer: Kim Carter

SOURCE: VOYA, October 2000 (Vol. 23, No. 4)