Canandaigua Academy Library

We welcome Mrs. Glover’s and Mrs. Tepedino’s health classes to the library this week to find information to support a group presentation on a specific disease.

Remember your essential question: what do we need to do to convince the Board of Directors at Strong Hospital to award us a $1,000,000 grant to fund research for our disease?

After defining the task, we decided that someone in the medical community would be the ideal source for this health-related project, so we set out to find information that we knew was written or reviewed by medical professionals, or at least was sponsored by medical organizations.

Since we are looking for 3 reliable sources for our brief presentations, we decided Wikipedia wasn’t the best source because of the uncertainty of the original authors, as well as the extensive medical terms that are used in the rather long articles.

We decided that since many of the overview articles at WebMD were written and reviewed by medical professionals, and couldn’t be changed by just anyone, that site might lead us to reliable sources.

We also considered the search process itself, and briefly discussed how Google and other search engines rank their search results; not by how reliable or “good” the information is, but by how many other web sites link to it — essentially, a popularity contest.

SweetSearch was introduced as a search engine that does give an indication of how reliable the search results may be, since “every web site in SweetSearch has been evaluated by [their] research experts” — sweet!

EasyBib and BibMe (both free!) are resources to keep in mind when it’s time for producing bibliographic citations. The bibliographic robots don’t always get it right, however, so we should check the suggested citation against the Research Manual Style Guide to make sure it’s accurate, and make changes as necessary.

We welcomed Mrs. Albright’s Speech and Debate class to the Academy Library today.

We started with a look at search engines, with Google being the most popular. We determined that Google ranks search results based on how many other sites link to individual websites, not necessarily by how useful or reliable the sites are.

We also explored some other search options on the CA Library webpage. Sweet Search is a nice option for finding websites that have been evaluated by research experts. The Custom Search Page at the CA Library blog helps focus on specific types of websites, hand-selected by me.

EasyBib and BibMe (both free!) are resources to keep in mind when it’s time for producing bibliographic citations. The bibliographic robots don’t always get it right, however, so we should check the suggested citation against the Research Manual Style Guide to make sure it’s accurate, and make changes as necessary.

During our next session, we’ll assess some websites based on relevancy, accuracy and authority using the Website Evaluation form.

2010 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults

In addition to the 90 titles selected for the full list of Best Books for Young Adults (covered in earlier posts), these books have been selected as the top books for young adults published in 2009:

Here’s another great list from my colleagues in the Big Apple: the New York Public Library Stuff For The Teenage 2009. In its 80th year, this list compiles some of the best books, movies, music and games for teens. I really like the categories they put the books in…

The Undead — The undead are very hot right now. You can’t swing a garlic necklace without clocking a vampire, a zombie, a ghost or some other formerly alive person in young adult literature these days.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman — One of my favorite books ever. This 2009 Newbery Award-winner follows the story of orphaned Nobody, or Bod for short, as he’s raised by the ghosts in a graveyard near where his family had been murdered by a shadowy figure who wants to finish the job. Humorous, chilling, suspenseful and tender, all in one fantastically told book that I didn’t want to end.

Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley — After dying, high school senior Charlotte Usher is as invisible to nearly everyone as she always felt, but despite what she learns in a sort of alternative high school for dead teens, she clings to life while seeking a way to go to the Fall Ball with the boy of her dreams.

Bliss by Lauren Myracle — Having grown up in a California commune, Bliss sees her aloof grandmother’s Atlanta world as a foreign country, but she is determined to be nice as a freshman at an elite high school, which makes her the perfect target for Sandy, a girl obsessed with the occult.

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters — When dead teenagers who have come back to life start showing up at her high school, Phoebe, a goth girl, becomes interested in the phenomenon, and when she starts dating a “living impaired” boy, they encounter prejudice, fear, and hatred.

Girl Drama — We’ve seen it a million times: girl likes boy, boy likes girl, girl’s BFF steals boy, girl starts vicious campaign to besmirch the reputation of the former BFF. Fortunately, none of these books are like that.

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway — While trying to score a date with her cute co-worker at the Scooper Dooper, sixteen-year-old Audrey gains unwanted fame and celebrity status when her ex-boyfriend, a rock musician, records a breakup song about her that soars to the top of the Billboard charts.

The Fortunes of Indigo Skye by Deb Caletti — Eighteen-year-old Indigo is looking forward to becoming a full-time waitress after high school graduation, but her life is turned upside down by a large check given to her by a customer who appreciates that she cares enough to scold him about smoking.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson — Fifteen-year-old Scarlett Marvin is stuck in New York City for the summer working at her quirky family’s historic hotel, but her out-of-work actor brother’s attractive new friend and a seasonal guest who offers her an intriguing and challenging writing project improve her outlook.

The Market by J.M. Steele — When Kate Winthrop learns that she is ranked seventy-first out of 140 high school senior girls on a popularity scale called the Millbank Social Stock Market, she and her two best friends set out to change her from a “junk bond” to a “blue chip,” and win some money in the process.

For Guys — It’s tough to be a guy these days. Academics at school, real work at home, scraping together a few dollars, maybe some sports, trying to live up to what the media defines as masculine — not to mention trying to figure out just what the heck is up with girls (good luck with that one). At least you’re not being interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow — After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security following a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg — As Bobby Framingham, quarterback of his high school football team, finally acknowledges to himself that he is gay, events start to spin out of control when his sexual orientation is revealed in the student newspaper and then in the local press, and he learns that his father has cancer.

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers — Operation Iraqi Freedom, that’s the code name. But the young men and women in the military’s Civil Affairs Battalion have a simpler name for it: WAR. In this new novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at a contemporary war with the same power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam war of his classic, Fallen Angels.

What I Was by Meg Rosoff — Set in the 1960s at an English boarding school, this novel chronicles an unlikely friendship between two boys and a scandal that shatters the idyll that has shielded and nurtured their relationship.

The 2010 Best Books For Young Adults list continues with these titles available at CA Library:

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon — In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father’s nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick — While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali.

Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson — Presents a collection of five suspenseful stories, including “Hellhound” and “Fireworm,” incorporating the powerful and enchanting element of fire.

Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachmann — In 1986, when seventeen-year-old Daniel’s father arrives in Madison, Wisconsin, after five years of torture as a political prisoner in Chile, Daniel and his eighteen-year-old “gringa” girlfriend, Courtney, use different methods to help this bitter, self-destructive stranger who yearns to return home and continue his work.

The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson — Seventeen-year-old Destiny keeps a painful childhood secret all to herself until she and three classmates from her exclusive boarding school take off on an unauthorized road trip in search of “one fair day”.

We Were Here by Matt de la Peña — Haunted by the event that sentences him to time in a group home, Miguel breaks out with two unlikely companions and together they begin their journey down the California coast hoping to get to Mexico and a new life.

Surface Tension: a Novel in Four Summers by Brent Runyon — During the summer vacations of his thirteenth through his sixteenth year at the family’s lake cottage, Luke realizes that although some things stay the same over the years that many more change.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan — Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith — During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl “passes” for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

How To Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford — After moving to Baltimore and enrolling in a private school, high school senior Beatrice befriends a quiet loner with a troubled family history.

Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater — On the day of an important music competition, talented but painfully introverted and nervous Deirdre Monaghan is helped to perform by the compelling and enigmatic Luke Dillon and finds herself inexorably drawn into the mysteries and dangers of the faerie world.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater — In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor, with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo — Contains three short stores of supernatural love, each focusing on a kiss that has consequences for the kissers’ souls.

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine — A photographic negative and two surprising new friends become the catalyst for healing as fifteen-year-old Rowan struggles to keep her family and her life together after her brother’s death.

Breathless by Jessica Warman — At boarding school, Katie tries to focus on swimming and becoming popular instead of the painful memories of her institutionalized schizophrenic older brother.

Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt — Remy, a talented, seventeen-year-old auto mechanic, questions his decision to join his girlfriend when she starts college in Pennsylvania after a visiting artist helps him to realize what his family’s home in a dying West Virginia mountain town means to him.

An Off Year by Claire Zulkey — Upon arriving at her dorm room, eighteen-year-old Cecily decides to postpone her freshman year of college and return to her Chicago home, where she spends a year pondering what went wrong while forging new relationships with family and friends.