ISLMA Exhibits Report

Looking for an author to come to your school check out the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators? The Illinois chapter has a Speaker’s Directory. It is broken down by areas of the state, Chicago Area, Northern Illinois, and Central and Sothern Illinois. For more info go to their website.

Speaking of writing, The Illinois First Amendment Center has many resources for teachers on the First Amendment. Among those resources are teaching curriculum, Tips for starting a school newspaper, a Freedom of Speech Poster Contest for grades 9-12 with a deadline of January 3, 2010 and a High School Newspaper Context with a deadline of March 1, 2010. Learn about the center and their materials at their website.

Do you have books that are falling apart and need repair? Do your students or administration produce information that would best be presented in a binding? The answer to these questions may lead you to a machine called Cover One. Central A&M schools have one and love it. Check it out at their website.

Technology anyone? You all probably know about the Illinois Learning Technology Purchase Program (ILTPP). The purpose of the program is to develop partnerships with suppliers to make available quality hardware, software, and peripherals to Illinois K-12 educational facilities. Catalogs are printed in April and October and are mailed to all K-12 schools, libraries, RPOE, and LTC’s in Illinois. Want more information check out the ILTPP website.

ALA Planning Forum

The Illinois School Library Media Association Conference was held in Springfield Oct. 29-31. For the next couple of weeks I will be sharing with you the information I gathered and learned about when attending the conference. As I have come to expect it was a jam packed conference with great sessions, good exhibits, great speakers at the meal events and so well organized everything ran seamlessly. Now on to the first session I attended.

How often do you get a chance to tell ALA what your needs are? Your answer might be, " not often." Those attending the recent ISLMA Conference did have that opportunity. Ann M. Martin the immediate Past President of AASL was there to hear what school librarians had to say. Ann posed four questions for the librarians to respond to.

What are the most important things that ALA can do to help you as a librarian or member?

What are the mot important tings ALA can do for libraries?

What are the most important things ALA can do for the public?

What are the most pressing/most important issues facing libraries and the profession?

If you had been at that session how would you have answered those questions?

Illinois Author’s Luncheon Oct. 9, 2009

This is my last post about the ILA Conference, Next will be ISLMA

Vicki Myron, Author of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World was the speaker at the Author’s Luncheon ILA traditional final event of each conference. First I must say that I am NOT a cat person and I did not know if I would really enjoy the luncheon or not but I did. I had read the book and it was OK. I found it fascinating how the town folk came together not only in support of Dewey but in support of each other and the continued existence of the town. Vicki was recovering from a cold but persevered in giving us a look at Dewey and an insider’s view of publishing a book that no one tells you about till you do it.

Next up for Dewey is a feature film starring Meryl Streep and yes, Vicki said she will have a small walk-on role in the film.

StoryTubes

A project of the Gail Borden Public Library District, StoryTubes is a contest for students Kindergarten through twelfth grade. They can make a video by themselves or with a group about their favorite book that lasts 2 minutes or less. All the information about the contest can be found at their website. There are links to help you under the “How do I…?” tab.

You may wonder why I should bother. Well the Gail Borden Staff say, “This program used kids’ interest in technology and the Internet to promote reading. Learn how research supports the StoryTubes goal by reading the 2008 Kids and Family Reading Report

The winners of the contest are added to the website. You can view and share them with your students. They are funny, creative, and a great way for students to share their excitement about a book. If students do not want to be part of the contest, this is still a very easy and exciting way to introduce technology to the students. Check out StoryTubes.

To see our own Paula Lopatic from Vespasian Warner PLD, Clinton participate in a StoryTube done during the conference session click here. At that same site you can also view the entire PowerPoint presentation given at ILA.

Lobbying for Libraries in D.C.: What’s Hot and the Obama Difference

First, I want to say that Emily Sheketoff is one smart lady. We could not have a better advocate for libraries in Washington.

Here are the key nuggets of information I heard.

1. Libraries are the first responders for people needing information.
2. Advocacy is education. I know some of you think advocacy and lobbying are the same, they are not. Think of advocacy as educating the elected official about libraries.
3. When you are an advocate, you are putting a face on a public policy issue.
4. Statistics are nice but not as good as a story. As an example you can say “The library is the only place in your community for 50% of the people to have access to the internet.” But when you tell them, “Residents of my community have to wait two hours to access the library computers.” That is a story that has impact.
5. Prepare before talking to the legislators or their staff. Have key point you want to tell them. Be specific in what you want them to do. Give them specifics if they cut a program this is what people lose. If the library goes away services go away.
6. Always thank them for what they do to support libraries, for their time to talk with you , and tell them you are watching them.

My advice to you is to not be afraid of being an advocate for your library. If you and your board or administrators don’t do it no one else will!!

From the ILA Exhibits (part 2)

There was a small glass room sitting in an exhibit booth as I walked by and I had to stop. Was it something for cell phone use, a time out room? I did not know so asked. The glass room was a representative sample of a product called Genius Architectural Walls. These are glass or panel walls that can be set up with no construction, taken down, moved or reconfigured.

They will not be the answer to every building problem but it is an interesting concept to provide office space or meeting room space that has the potential for reconfiguration with out construction costs.

To view a photo gallery of Genius wall applications visit this website.

From the ILA Exhibits

I spent some time in the exhibit hall. One stop was at the Renaissance Learning booth. You may know this company as Accelerated Reading (AR). Now I am not a big fan of AR, but many of our schools do use it and we had one new librarian that needed training so I stopped to see what they had online. There is training available www.renlearn.com click on the training center, then professional Development.

Now I should note that the program itself is not a bad program but my concern is that the program is not being used as it was designed. This is an incentive program, not a reading curriculum. As an incentive program it is not appropriate to limit students to narrow areas of reading levels or to require earning so many points that the students are burnt out on reading.

If you are at a school where staff has not been trained in the proper use of AR or AR is being used inappropriately, I suggest that you go to the training center on the website and see where training is being offered. Good Luck.