We are now closed for the summer, but all emails will receive a prompt response.

Please visit the media center anytime during our extended hours during the school year.

On Special Schedule days, the library will be open one hour after dismissal, unless there is a faculty meeting requiring Ms. Swedo’s presence, then it will be closed after school.

Ms. Swedo will be doing library instruction for summer Freshman Success classes so they receive library orientation and library instruction on research, academic integrity, plagiarism, and MLA citation style. On June 30th, she attended the remote NECC conference at the OC Dept of Ed which was videoconferenced live from Washington D.C.. In July, Ms. Swedo will be attending the national ALA conference for five days in Chicago. At ALA, Ms. Swedo will be speaking on a panel for the interdivisional AASL/ACRL Information Literacy Committee about collaborative projects. She will also be attending to her national LIRT committee duties at the Transition to College brownbag discussion on David T. Conley’s college knowledge and transitional articles. Librarians from all types of libraries will be present. In August, the librarian will be visiting UCLA to collaborate with Esther Grassian, Information Literacy Librarian in the UCLA Undergraduate Powell Library. Ms. Grassian is the founder of LILi (Lifelong Information Literacy Instruction).

Ms. Swedo will be joining the library director and staff from St. Margaret’s Episcopal School on their CSLA Book Cart Drill Team and performing at the annual CSLA (Calif School Library Assn) conference to be held November 19-22 in Ontario. Hopefully we will bring back to SJC the coveted Demco First Place prize.

Google is listening. They are designing new ways for users to view information. They have a few new features like the Wonder Wheel, which produces a visual concept map, Google Squared, which makes spreadsheets on any topic, and a new mobile phone app called Sky Map. Sky Map uses a cellphone’s GPS system, compass and accelerometer to draw a real-time map of the stars that accurately reflects the user’s location and what direction the user is facing. To access these new tools, go to www.google.com and conduct a search. At the top of the page, you will see a link for “more options”. Click that link.

Ms. Swedo spoke on behalf of secondary school librarians through a panel in the virtual world of Second Life on April 29th. Esther Grassian, Info Lit librarian and adjunct instructor at UCLA, formed a panel of librarians from various types of libraries across the country, including one from Cuba! The slideshow is available in Second Life on Info Island Sim near the Open Air Auditorium. The presentation will also be published on the SOCLibraries blogspot. In spite of typical SL technical difficulties, the presentations were successful and the UCLA students enjoyed them very much.

The University of California and the California Digital Library have released a database of over 150,000 digitized images, photos, newspaper pages, works of art, diaries, cultural artifacts, and more, all available for use in education. The database covers California history and culture. There are Themed Collections, a Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive, Cultures relating to four ethnic groups, and much more. The database is entirely searchable. For more info, see the link: Calisphere.

Visit the CA Digital Library to download books for FREE! All you need is a library card. The Mission Viejo and Newport Beach city libraries offer this service. See this link: Digital Books.

The OC Public Library has a new historical photo collection with pics from all over OC. There is the Laguna Niguel Regional Park and Alicia Parkway in Aliso Viejo, plus cows in Moulton Ranch. Check out this link: OC Photos.

Do you think libraries and librarians will become obsolete? Do you really know what a librarian does? Did you know you need a Masters degree to be a professional librarian? Did you know that soon there will be a shortage of librarians across the U.S.? School librarianship is where education, information literacy and technology meet. Libraries are real life places and virtual places. It is an excellent and rewarding career path. See the link called “Libraries & Librarianship” under “News Articles” on the right side-bar and do some exploration into librarianship.

I have launched the new school library collaborative which includes librarians from the Diocese schools, independent schools, and public high schools from Saddleback and Capistrano Valley districts. College librarians and ed tech specialists are also members of the group. We have F2F and virtual meetings and share programming ideas with one another through our Blog and Wiki. To reach the Blog, see this link: SOC Blog. The Wiki URL will be released shortly. For more information, call or email me.

Tutors are now available after school in the JSerra Library. The tutoring schedule will be released after school begins in September. This is a drop-in service, so come by when you need extra help with homework or projects. Four tutors will be available each day.

I am establishing partnerships with local academic librarians to assist our seniors with transitioning to college-level research and the LC library system. I am also visiting librarians at the K-8 schools that send students to JSerra to share information on curriculum and programming in order to assist 8th graders who enter JSerra as freshmen. I am developing a new opportunity to have our seniors take a class online in order to prepare them for college and its widespread use of WebCT and Blackboard Course Management Software systems. This class will be tied into English curriculum and utilize Blackboard and WIMBA.

I am currently adding to the library collection, but our LMC can always use your help in growing this excellent print resource for our students. Consider buying a magazine subscription for the library, or perhaps donating a reference book, non-fiction materials, or literature that support JSerra curriculum. If you would like ideas, please contact Ms. Swedo anytime. The library can always use more friends.

Ms. Swedo has been appointed to a two-year term on the ALA committee Transitions to College under the Library & Instruction Roundtable. In this role, Ms. Swedo will work with academic librarians and other school librarians to foster partnerships amongst various types of libraries, including JSerra’s, to support and encourage the information literacy skills of seniors when they leave high school and move onto higher education. She will be speaking at ALA National in Chicago (July 2009) for the interdivisional AASL/ACRL info lit committee. For more info on LIRT, see this link: LIRT.

The mission of the JSerra Library Media Center ("LMC") is to create an environment in which students and faculty are empowered to be effective users of information and technology in a learning community, according to the standards and practices established by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and written up in a publication called Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning. The goal of the LMC is to ensure that all JSerra students gain information literacy, which is central to becoming lifelong learners. “Effective collaborations with teachers help to create a vibrant and engaged community of learners, strengthen the whole school program as well as the library media program, and develop support for the library media program throughout the whole school” (AASL 51). 

In support of the LMC’s mission to provide a proactive instructional partnership between the classroom and the media center, students receive library instruction throughout each term to teach them to develop information literacy and critical thinking skills, and train them to be effective researchers.  Library classes will include library orientation, use of the Dewey decimal system, online library catalogs (OPACs), leased research databases, Big 6 and I-search research work, skills to avoid plagiarism, Internet navigation, website evaluation, critical thinking, MLA 6th edition citation, and much more.

The librarian collaborates with faculty to develop online webquests, based on specific subject areas and tasks.  These webquests enable the students to use their laptops in the classroom.  They are also accessible through the Internet at home.  All webquests are on this library page under the right side-bar under the link called "Webquests".

The LMC is directed by Ms. Jeanne Swedo, who has been JSerra’s information facilitator since January 2004. Ms. Swedo has a Masters degree in Library & Information Science specializing in school librarianship. She is a Certified Blackboard Instructor (2008). Blackboard is a course management software system used to deliver courses online to students. Ms. Swedo is an active member of the following professional associations: (national) ALA: LIRT, AASL, LITA, and ACRL; NCEA and CLA (for Catholic educators & librarians); (state/local) CSLA, CARL-SCIL, Diocese of Orange Librarian’s Assn., and LILi (Lifelong Information Literacy). Here is a link to LILi’s webpage at UCLA: LILi.

JSerra is a wireless laptop campus eliminating the need for a computer lab in the library. We do have 3 Internet-ready desktop computers which students can use to browse the library catalog, check Aeries, or do a quick research or Word processing project on the Student Network. The LMC provides access to information in both digital and print formats. The digital collection includes multiple online research databases by Facts on File and Proquest/SIRS. The databases can be found on this page under the right side-bar under “Links”. The print collection is dynamic and grows each year with its emphasis on free-reading fiction and curriculum-based fiction, non-fiction, and reference materials. We subscribe to several periodicals, including the daily L.A. Times and the Orange County Register, which we receive MWF for free under the RIE (Register In Education program). The library also has a xerox machine that can be used by students.

JSerra Catholic High School Library

26351 Junipero Serra Road

San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

Lost textbooks that are found on campus are sent to the library, where Ms. Swedo keeps them locked up. If the student’s name is in the book, an email is sent to the teacher of that subject for the student to come and retrieve his or her textbook. Please be sure to write the student name in each textbook!