The OLD Top Shelf

Wow – it’s been a while since I posted here. Things are really busy getting ready for TLA and the Strong Libraries Strong Scores conference, but that’s a topic for another day.

I have several blog postings, annoucements and resources that I’ve been wanting to share, so here goes:

In his blog 2¢ worth, David Warlick writes about 12 steps (a 12-step program?) we can take to become educators who are literate in the skills needed for the 21st century. I found it very interesting that several of his steps advocated the use of the web 2.0 tools that we used in our Learning Through Play program.

The Cool Cat Teacher summarizes a great podcast in her post, Envisioning the Future of Libraries, and posts a link to the original audio file. Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza were the presenters. One of the most interesting things they discussed was the idea of the “invisible collection” which is the same idea we were all starting to kick around at our last librarians’ staff development. With the advent of this invisible collection, we are going to have to revamp our idea of what a “balanced” collection really is – especially at the secondary level. Give this podcast a listen! (BTW, Joyce Valenza will be presenting two programs at the TLA conference – you should try to go to at least one of them!)

Another post from 2¢ worth that I found fascinating is one in which David Warlick reports on a conference session he attended that was led by brain research guru, Patricia Wolfe. Pat points out that good teachers often do things intuitively without knowing why. While that’s great for the intuitive teacher’s students, the students in the non-intuitive teacher’s classroom don’t get the same level of instruction. Educators must start being aware of the educational research that is being done and using the findings to improve their teaching. In other words, teachers should know and be able to tell someone else why they are use the strategies they do. (Sounds like a TEKS student expectation, huh?)

Apparently we won’t have to worry anymore about whether we should still be ordering encyclopedias in print and feeling guilty when we find other ways to spend our money. The Blue Skunk Blog by Doug Johnson tells us that the New York Times has declared the traditional multi-volume encyclopedia to be the first casualty in the world of print. Read Doug’s post here.

Here’s another feed for your RSS reader: AASL has a new blog! The AASLBlog is intended to be a source of general AASL news, as well as a forum for important discussion on issues and concerns of school library media specialists. Recent topics include, for example, copyright issues and parent involvement in school library media program advocacy. Voice your concerns, share your experiences, and be a part of the broader AASL community on the new AASL blog! Visit the blog (and comment) at http://www.aasl.ala.org/aaslblog/.

April is School Library Media Month. Celebrate by giving your teachers a little “thank you” from the library, having a contest for students or hosting a special event. For other ideas, see the page on the AASL web site.

Julie Andrews, Academy Award recipient and honorary chair of National Library Week (April 13-19, 2008), shares her view on the value of libraries in a video available on YouTube. Library media specialists are encouraged to use the video on Web sites and blogs to promote National Library Week. Watch the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieUD9vCeXu0

Now that I’ve shared these little items with you, I can go home and watch American Idol with a clear conscience!

From the AASL Hotlinks for  September 2007…

In August, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills released an updated version of its Framework for 21st Century Learning, which creates a clear vision for 21st Century student outcomes in the new global economy. It also defines how school systems can best support these outcomes by focusing diligently on 21st Century standards, assessments, professional development, curriculum and instruction, and learning environments.

AASL has been active in the Partnership since 2005.

Here we are on the last day of TASLA 2007. After a wonderful breakfast sponsored by Permabound, we heard Gloria Meraz on the just completed legislative session.

Gloria began with the biggest school library news to come out of the session – the $2.5 million dollars for library online resources. She credits this win for school libraries to all of the librarians who wrote e-mail and made phone calls to the legislators.

The next step is to plan for what happens in the future – getting the databases funding in TEA’s budget, rather than on a rider; incorporating online resources into the curriculum; working on the school library study of issues and needs that was also mandated by the legislature.

The study opens the potential to bring up the issue of requiring a certified librarian on every campus.

Question – Who gets the results of the study? Governor, Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House and others
It falls to us to make sure that the results of the study are well-known to agency staffers as well as legislators. We will use this as a forum to begin conversations about additional funding, staffing, etc. It’s critically important that we work with and educate other school groups about these issues to create allies.

Thank yous to the following legislators are in order:
Lois Kolkhorst
Warren Chism
Dan Branch
Judith Zaffirini

Q: What are the legislators expecting to see?
Some kind of communication and assurance that now all students have access to quality online information. Letters/pictures from principals, teachers and students regarding how they are using the resources would be great.

Someone brought up the point that training in the use of the databases is huge. It is important that TASLA members work on promoting use and sharing training materials created, so that districts without library leadership or even certified librarians can take advantage of these resources as well.

TLA thanks TASLA for donating $1000 to the Legislative fund, which pays for legislative day and other opportunities for communicating with legislators.

Other bills of interest:
SB 1788 – Shapiron
Deals with distance ed for high school; mentions online library resources
passed

HB 2930 -
offers exemptions to certain school districts for size of science labs and libraries
did not pass

Bill to put 65% rule into law put forward by Sen. Patrick went nowhere

Rep. Dutton’s bill regarding putting school libraries into the state accountability system died in committee, due to the revision of PEIMS. The issue, however, is not dead and with the completion of the school library study will be revisited.

Peggy Rudd, Texas State Library and Archives Commission

TEA Rider 88 provides up to 2.5 million from TEA’s technology allotment for library online resources, which only is 65% of previous funding for TLC. TEA and TSLAC will enter into an interagency contract to transfer the funds. It is unknown at this time when the funds will be transferred and in what amount, but TSLAC hopes to have a program in place by September. The vendor has not been selected at this time. There is a fact sheet online that can provide more details.

There is a possibility that TexShare will be an option for school libraries.

Last year TSLAC went under sunset review and was given a directive by the legislature to work with TEA to determine the needs of school libraries and figure out which needs should be met by TEA and which needs should be met by TSLAC. The study must be completed by December 31, 2008 for the 2009 legislative session.

Another Rider directs TEA and TSLAC to explore creating an after school homework assistance program with their current budget.

Winners of the Newbery, Caldecott and other awards were announced at ALA’s midwinter meeting earlier this week. The winners are:

Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature.

• The Higher Power of Lucky (S & S/Athenuem/A Richard Jackson Bk.) by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan

Newbery Honors:

• Penny from Heaven (Random) by Jennifer L. Holm
• Hattie Big Sky (Delacorte) by Kirby Larson
• Rules (Scholastic) by Cynthia Lord

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children.

• Flotsam (Clarion) by David Wiesner
  

Caldecott Honors

• Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet (Walker) written and illustrated by David McLimans
• Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun) illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Carole Boston Weatherford

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults.

• American Born Chinese (Roaring Brook/First Second) by Gene Luen Yang 

Printz Honor Books

• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; v. 1: The Pox Party (Candlewick) by M. T. Anderson  
• An Abundance of Katherines (Dutton) by John Green 
• Surrender (Candlewick) by Sonya Hartnett
• The Book Thief (Knopf) by Markus Zusak

Coretta Scott King Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults.

• Copper Sun (S &S/Atheneum) by Sharon Draper

King Author Honor Book

• The Road to Paris (Putnam) by Nikki Grimes

King Illustrator Book

• Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun) illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Carole Boston Weatherford

King Illustrator Honor Books

• Jazz (Holiday House) illustrated by Christopher Myers, written by Walter Dean Myers 
• Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes (Sterling) illustrated by Benny Andrews, edited by David Roessel and Arnold Rampersad

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award

• Standing Against the Wind (Farrar) by Traci L. Jones

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children.

• Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon (Houghton) by Catherine Thimmesh

Sibert Honor Books

• Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement (National Geographic) by Ann Bausum
• Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea (Houghton) by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Nic Bishop
• To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel (Novel (S & S/Atheneum/A Richard Jackson Bk) by Siena Cherson Siegel, artwork by Mark Siegel

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.

• The Deaf Musicians (Putnam) by Pete Seeger and poet Paul DuBois Jacobs, illustrated by R. Gregory
• Rules (Scholastic) by Cynthia Lord
• Small Steps (Delacorte) by Louis Sachar

Theodor Seuss Geisel Beginning Reader Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book.

• Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways (Candlewick) written and illustrated by Laura McGee Kvasnosky

Geisel Honor Books

• Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride (Candlewick) by Kate DiCamillo
• Move Over, Rover! (Harcourt) by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by Jane Dyer
• Not a Box (HarperCollins) written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis

Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.

• Lois Lowry, author of The Giver (Houghton/Lorraine)

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.

• Author-illustrator James Marshall for his George and Martha books, the Fox easy reader series, The Cut-Ups, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video.

• Author/illustrator Mo Willems and Weston Woods Studios, producers of Knuffle Bunny, a DVD based on Willems’ book Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. The
  DVD is performed by Willems, his wife Cheryl and their daughter Trixie.
  It is directed and animated by MaGiK Studio, with music by Scotty Huff
  and Robert Reynolds.

Mildred L. Batchelder Award for the most outstanding children’s book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the United States.

• Delacorte Press is the winner for The Pull of the Ocean. Originally published in France in 1999 as L’enfant Océan, the book was written by Jean-Claude Mourlevat and translated by Y. Maudet.

Batchelder Honor Books

• The Killer’s Tears (Delacorte)
• The Last Dragon (Hyperion/Miramax)

Alex Awards for the ten best adult books that appeal to teen audiences.

• The Book of Lost Things (S & S/Atria) by John Connolly
• The Whistling Season (Harcourt) by Ivan Doig
• Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and A High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska (Bloomsbury) by Michael D’Orso
• Water for Elephants (Algonquin) by Sara Gruen
• Color of the Sea (Thomas Dunne Bks.) by John Hamamura
• The Floor of the Sky (Univ. of Nebraska) by Pamela Carter Joern
• The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (Norton) by Michael Lewis
• Black Swan Green (Random) by David Mitchell
• The World Made Straight (Holt) by Ron Rash
• The Thirteenth Tale (S & S) by Diane Setterfield

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture recognizing an
individual of distinction in the field of children’s literature, who
then presents a lecture at a winning host site.

• David Macaulay will deliver the 2008 lecture. Macaulay’s work varies from the Caldecott Medal-winning Black and White to the satiric fiction of Motel of the Mysteries.

Blogged with Flock

Kristin Dawson, librarian at Motley Elementary, was recently honored by the Mesquite City Council. She was given a plaque commemorating her service to the Mesquite Municipal Library Advisory Board for the past six years.

Kristin recommends this volunteer opportunity and encourages librarians looking for a place to serve to consider it. If you have questions about what is involved, contact Kristin or other board members, Sandra Eckstein (PHS) and Karen Allen (HHS).

If you’re ready to volunteer, call John Williams, Director of the Mesquite Public Library, at 972-216-6220. There are several spots open. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month at the Main Library.