I walked the ALA exhibit floor several times over the conference period, looking at all the products, asking questions and picking up information. One time I was a search and find mission concerning the topic of RFID. Another time I had specific questions for a vendor. Then there are those times when I walked by a booth and something caught my eye. What follows are items that did just that, caught my eye.

The first two are similar but also different in their approach. Both of these products will scan books, documents, photos and then convert them to formats that you can download onto a jump drive and take home. The first is the e-Scan, Self-Service Bound Documents Scanner. It is by iimage retrieval, inc. and they say it is, “Digitizing made easier & easier.” To learn more about this product go to their website. The second was called the Bookscan Station made by CCP Solutions, Inc. They claim it’s now simple to scan, save and share book pages, documents, photos etc. Their literature also said, eco-Friendly – no paper, toner or drums. Check out this product at the CCP Solutions website.

Do get tired of using flip charts? Do you have a chalk board that has seen its better days? A new product from Demco may be the answer. IdeaPaint will turn any flat surface into a marker board, even a table top. Paint a wall, or an old chalk board and suddenly you have a hub of creativity and collaboration. The cost for water-based ideaPaint to cover 50 square feet is $174.99. To learn more go to demco.com and type ideapaint into the search box.

ALA Mid-Winter

ALA Mid-winter was held in Boston January 15-19. There were all the usual numerous committee meetings and business meetings that have to happen to keep the association running. There were presentations, the exhibits, author talks, receptions, and the highlight the announcement of all the children’s book awards.

I am a member of two ALA committees the National Library Week Committee and the Campaign for America’s Libraries Committee. One of the tasks of the ALA committees was to review the draft strategic plan of ALA and give feed back on is ALA focusing on the right strategic goals and how we saw our committee in the draft plan. This was a very interesting discussion.

I attended two ASCLA (Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies) sessions one about possible changes to the governance structure of the group. The other session was a consortial managers discussion of issues that are impacting the management and survival of consortia in the U.S. This was a lively discussion with representation from New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Utah, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida, and Illinois.

There are other meetings that I want to report on and my findings in the exhibit hall. More over the next few days.

Authors, Authors, Authors

One thing about the ISLMA conference you will see and hear from many authors. You will hear authors not only at the author breakfasts but in sessions. I attended the Author Awards Breakfast and heard Ellen Hopkins author of Crank the winner of the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book award and Kevin O’Malley the 2009 Monarch Award winning author for Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude. They were interesting and spoke from very different perspectives. This is to be expected as one wrote an edgy teen novel and the other a picture book. However, both had words of wisdom for librarians.

Another session I attended was titled “First Books, An Inside Look: Debut Teen Lit Authors Discuss Why They Write About Severed Arms, Missing Parents, Drugs, Sex, and Talking Cockroaches.” With a title like that how could you resist? The authors were Cynthea Liu, Daniel Kraus, Susan Fine, and James Kennedy. Each spoke of how they started their writing career and what inspires them to write the stories they do. It is reassuring to know that there are young authors out there writing books, different types of books for the teens of today.

AASL Standards

I knew that new standards had been released by AASL but I had not studied them closely. Ann M. Martin presented a session on the “Standards for the 21st-Centruy Learner” There are four areas under which they have identified Skills, Dispositions in Action, Responsibilities, and Self-Assessment Strategies for students to use for each standard.

The four standard areas are:

1. Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.
2. Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.
3. Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.
4. Pursue personal and aesthetic growth.

If you want to learn more the entire standards document can be downloaded.

Library Education Alive in Illinois

This year there were five alumni receptions at the ISLMA Conference.

• Illinois State University that as begun a school library certification program
• University of Illinois with their Graduate School of Library and Information Science
• Dominican University with its MLS program
• Northern Illinois University has a program to obtain the Library Information Specialist Certificate
• National-Louis University that has started a program towards certification

Looking for classes and certification? Check out these universities.

GLBT Literature

Finding just the book for teens, especially those that are dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender issues is often difficult. Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins presented an overview of titles that include these issues in them. They reviewed books from 1999 through 2009. Many titles on their list were not discussed. There were so many to cover in just one hour and the list contained over 2000 books.

The trend in books is that the main character is male by a 2 to 1 margin, usual, white, middle class and dealing with issues of coming out. In their discussion they pointed out the books where this was generally not the norm. If looking for a list of books look at the Rainbow List from ALA. It is an annual reading list of books for beginning readers through 12th grade that validate same-gender lifestyles, including portraying GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or questioning) characters in a realistic and prominent manner.

While this is a subject difficult for some of us to deal with we need to be award of what is in the literature so that we can guide students to the most appropriate and best that is out there on a topic.

WIU and Technology

Western Illinois University provides professional Development online and onsite in several areas of Technology; from Smart Boards to Podcasting, Microsoft Office Suite to Internet Safety. They have many classes to choose from and at affordable prices.

Summer 2010 you can join them at Camp Tech-a-nada where you can learn to use the most current technology tools for student learning. The exact dates are Aug. 3-4, 2010. You can learn 9 CPDU’s from 16 different sessions.

Want more information check out their website.