In July of last year, I decided that I was going to create QR codes to put in the books of my personal library – a reaction to students wanting book talks (which I was happy about) while I was trying to teach a small group of students.

The project fell flat when a number of my books, which were on the bookshelves in my classroom, were destroyed on purpose. This led me to move the books into the cupboard in an effort to preserve the collection.

After months of thinking about this QR code project, and thinking about the hundreds of books in my collection that aren’t read because students tend to gravitate toward what they can see, I decided that I needed to reevaluate what I was trying to accomplish and decide whether or not the implementation of the project was meeting the objectives I set at the beginning. The solution I came up with was the creation of a card catalogue containing bibliographic information and a QR code for more information.

In reflecting on this project over winter break, and finally making the decision to give LiveBinders a try, I created a digital card catalogue containing information about the available books in my collection, most often including format (hardcover, paperback, ARC, ebook and/or audiobook), the number of pages in the book and the Lexile level (since I’m using Read 180, this information is helpful for some students). Running the card catalogue through my blog also allows me to include pictures and video (the reason the QR code is still necessary is tied to the district’s internet filters, which disallow streaming of video in many cases).

Currently, many of the books lack pages from the (book) supplier, which makes me thankful for Goodreads, which is not blocked in my district, and provides filler for the gaps until I have caught up with the scale of my project.

The plan is to make my collection searchable by subject and series in addition to the by author pages that are currently available.

I’m excited to see how my students react to this project, and I’m hopeful that once we really get into the swing of things, some of them will contribute their own thoughts on the books they’re reading to the catalogue.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad