Exploring the internet for specific information often leads one to being side tracked, yet, on many occasions a little gem of information or a link to an exciting online tool comes your way.
I very recently found one such website whilst browsing an excellent blog Heart of the School which recognises and promotes the role of the school library in learning and teaching. I was viewing the Christmas TV list which links films and television programmes on over Christmas to books. It was presented in such a way that it viewed like an online magazine, where one could actually turn virtual pages. Now this was rather impressive and got me thinking (baring in mind the work currently being carried out on a Reading Guide) that some library documents, and potentially newsletters, etc could be disemminated in this way as well as in the traditional paper-based ways.
Issuu is an online digital publishing platform which allows anybody to publish reports, magazines and many other types of document. Documents can be ‘broadcast’ to the world or kept private within the Issuu site itself. They can be embedded into web pages or set up as links so you can highlight them to those you want to see them.
As with many Web 2.0 tools (which include social networking sites, blogs, photo storage, etc and may well be the subject of a later post) you do have to be aware of internet safety issues, evaluating what you are using and reading and being careful about personal details.
So, here is the first attempt at publishing an online document in a visually interesting way. This is the ‘Library Guide’ which is available for staff and pupils in the library.
Enjoy! F.S.
