@BiblioNasium: Where a School Library, a Home Library, and a Social Network Connect

Last summer I was introduced to a company called BiblioNasium through my friends at CiteLighter.  At the time, BiblioNasium represented themselves as an innovative new free social network that promotes and enhances the independent reading process for elementary school age children.  Their platform safely connects elementary children with their teachers, librarians, friends and parents in order to exchange and share book recommendations and to create a virtual village of reading support.

I did not know much about BiblioNasium as they were a very new company, but as we spent some time talking and as I explored their site, I found that they had some amazing ideas that would be very useful to many of us.  The results of those first few conversations and exploration of their site is what led to the review originally written for TBA posted here.  Many of the opinions I shared in that original review centered heavily around the usefulness of this platform in relation to the teacher and/or student, but I realized just recently that I did not go into very great detail regarding the very major third party to whom BiblioNasium caters: the parent.

As we are preparing to move and boxing up our home library for the transition to a new house, my husband and I were discussing how we could catalog the books for our kids easily, without having to create a confusing system of note cards or totes within the house.  Flashback 6 months to my talks with BiblioNasium, and the light bulb came on.

As pictured below, through the parental controls on my husband's BiblioNasium account, you have the option to add books to your family library, create challenges for your kids, or learn about the reading levels of the books they are reading.  Your tour guide, Chip Manzee, is never far away to give you some guidance if needed.

From the home screen, you can make a few different selections, for example, if you want to set up some constructive challenges for your kids...

Or if you want to add books to your shelf:



So, just like the kids do in the video above, you can search for your title, and then select which kids to recommend it to:

Add a personalized message:

And just like that, it's on both your shelf and theirs:

For cataloging purposes, we use that personal message to let them know what shelf it is on: for example, in the note for Hello Sparty, my husband typed in Sports Shelf, and now in the recommendations tab of my daughters site, you can see where she sees that "sports shelf" below:

There are tons of great ways to use BiblioNasium.  The reading log application allows teachers and students to communicate their reading adventures without all the paper and mess.  Students can recommend books to classmates, family members, and friends, or view the recommendations of others before selecting a new title.  The site is 100% secure and easy to navigate.  If you ever get stuck, even for a second, Chip Manzee, the animated tour guide, pops up to come to your rescue.

There are countless possibilities for parents, teachers, and students to utilize this tool to help encourage, inspire, and engage in a community of readers.  Many of these great ideas were highlighted in October at Van Meter Library Voice, which you can read here.

Attention All Teachers and Librarians:

View Shannon Miller's awesome post on BiblioNasium at Van Meter Library Voice. 

Follow BiblioNasium on Twitter 

or like them on Facebook

On a special side note...

Riley, my daughter, had to get tubes put in her ears eairler this year.  She had been using BiblioNasium for a few weeks and loved the site.  I also follow them on Twitter.

When she was in the hospital, I posted this photo to Instagram and automatically sent it to Twitter and Facebook.  I was overwhelmed by the kind messages and notifications I received from my friends on social media.

One Tweet made Riley especially happy.  As soon as I received the Tweet below, I showed Riley.  She just beamed.  My phone was quickly taken from my hands as she just stared at the Tweet.  She was so excited.  It was as if her favorite pop star just sent her a card in the mail.  How cute!

  

Thank you so much BiblioNasium!  Your kind words meant the world to my special girl on such an emotional day.  The smallest tokens of kindness make the largest impact on others.