Thursday, May 28, 2009

ALA | American Libraries - Education Reform Won't Spare Washington's School Librarians

ALA American Libraries: 2009 May 28

"Basic education reform came to the state of Washington May 19 with the signing by Gov. Christine Gregoire of a bill (PDF file) that adds a credentialed, but not necessarily funded, teacher-librarian in every K–12 school to the definition of what constitutes a basic education."

netvibes enhanced!

NeverEndingSearch: 2009 May 28

"I must admit, I've been a longtime fan of iGoogle and PageFlakes for organizing my own information life and for helping me to guide students in doing the same. Netvibes is now a far more serious contender for my personal portal app love."

Monday, May 25, 2009

District, Two Schools Nab NSLMPY Awards

School Library Journal: 2009 May 25

"A district in western New York and schools in the suburbs of Kansas City and Chicago are this year’s winners of the National School Library Media Program of the Year (NSLMPY) award, which recognizes library programs that are fully integrated into the curriculum and ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information."

Sunday, May 24, 2009

WV schools face budget cutbacks

North Shore News: 2009 May 24

"FACING a budget shortfall, the West Vancouver School District has cut $1.8 million from its budget.

The Board of Education voted Tuesday to adopt the budget for the next school year, which for the first time in almost a decade contained significant cutbacks.

...teacher-librarian time at elementary schools..."

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Changing Canada's Copyright Legislation - add your suggestions!

Public Policy Wiki - The Globe and Mail - The Dominion Institute : Download Decade

"At some point over the last 10 years, copyright became a sexy topic. An issue that was once purely the domain of lawyers, politicians and record industry executives has seeped into the consciousness of everyday Canadians — people who feel that something just isn't quite right about the way copyright works in this country.

During the digital-media revolution — what we're calling The Download Decade — copyright issues moved from the boardroom to the living room, as interpretations of these laws began to have a tangible impact on the way we consumed music, movies and television."

What do kids love most? Their parents reading to them

Vancouver Sun: 2009 May 23

"Almost two-thirds of children want their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed, and most prefer Mom's storytelling to Dad's, researchers said on Friday.

They conducted a study that showed younger children aged three to four were most hungry for more stories, with more than three-quarters saying they wished their parents read to them more often."

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Facebook’s Book Clubs Gets Kids Excited About Reading

School Library Journal: 2009 May 21

"What better way to get kids talking about books than on one of their favorite pastimes—Facebook.

Book Clubs is a new application on the hugely popular social networking site, offering students a free and convenient place to share ideas about books, authors, and related interests. Facebook members can instantly create or join a reading group devoted to any category, region, interest, or author."

CASL Announces the Winner of the 2009 Angela Thacker Memorial Award

CLA: 2009 May 20

The Canadian Association for School Libraries is pleased to announce
British ColumbiaTeacher Librarians’ Association Executive
as the 2009 recipient of the
Canadian Association for School Libraries/Angela Thacker Memorial Award
This award honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or information literacy.

The British Columbia Teacher Librarians’ Association Executive has worked collaboratively with the British Columbia Public Library Services Branch in support of a range of provincial initiatives on cross-sector collaboration, database licensing, digitization, and literacy. The BCTLA Executive and its members encouraged and challenged people across the province of British Columbia to “Drop Everything and Read” for 20 minutes on October 27, 2008 to recognize National School Library Day. Also, the BCTLA Executive has been funded by a grant from the Ministry of Education to support a teacher inquiry project looking at evidence-based practice in order to show the ways in which BC school libraries contribute to learning.

The work of the BCTLA Executive with British Columbia Public Library Services Branch exemplifies the far-reaching and positive effects of collaborative work. They are to be congratulated for their excellent contribution to professionalism within school libraries.

The Canadian Association for School Libraries is a division of the CLA/ACB. The Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliothèques is Canada’s largest national and broad-based library association, representing the interests of public, academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library workers, and all those concerned about enhancing the quality of life of Canadians through information and literacy.

Canadian Association for School Libraries/Follett International Teacher Librarian of the Year Award

CLA: 2009 May 20

The Canadian Association for School Libraries is pleased to announce
Michele Farquharson
as the 2009 recipient of the
Canadian Association for School Libraries/Follett International Teacher Librarian of the Year Award

This award is presented to a school-based teacher-librarian who has made an outstanding contribution to school librarianship within Canada through planning and implementing school library programs, based on a collaborative model which integrates library and classroom programs. The award is generously sponsored by Follett International.

Throughout her career as a teacher-librarian with the Vancouver School Board, Michele has engaged in many of the exemplary practices of teacher-librarianship of the 21st century. From the earliest days of her career as a teacher/teacher-librarian, nearly 30 years ago to now, she has been steadfast in providing leadership within the profession. She is highly respected by her school community and professional networks for being a tireless, dedicated, visionary, and collaborative individual.

Michele completed her Masters of Education with a Library concentration at UBC in 1985. In the 1990’s, she was the Managing Editor for Emergency Librarian (since renamed Teacher Librarian). She continues to serve as a Canadian member of the Advisory Board for this publication. She has also been the editor of the BCTLA professional journal, The Bookmark. She has written and co-authored a number of documents for the Vancouver School Board (VSB), the Critical Thinking Consortium, and VSB’s Knowledge Framework (ESL).

Michele developed her leadership role early in her career as one of four Area Teacher-librarians in the VSB,modeling the practices of cooperative program planning and teaching (CPPT) and technology integration required to build strong library programs. Presently, on a once-a-month basis, teacher-librarians and teachers in the Vancouver School District convene in a “sandbox session” at Michele’s library where she guides TLs as they explore new Web 2.0 tools and consider ways these can be applied to teaching and learning in school library programs.

Michele is regularly invited to work at UBC with the Information Literacy Project , in which the annual intake of about 300 teacher candidates are shown collaborative planning and teaching and how to teach information literacy though first hand experiences with teacher librarians. Recently, Michele co-developed a video/DVD entitled “Guided reading and literature circles in the intermediate grades” for the Department of Language and Literacy Education, UBC. She has also developed a videocast as part of the initiative to demonstrate how to integrate information literacy into curriculum areas.

In her role as teacher-librarian at Kerrisdale Elementary School, Michele is highly valued for her work in the library resource centre. She goes above and beyond expectations with passion and energy by consistently working with teachers to develop units of study that integrate information literacy and information technology into the various curriculum areas. She continually grows in her own professional development while providing in-service to teachers and teacher-librarians, focusing on the development of students who are independent information consumers as well as information producers for the 21st century.

Michele is an outstanding teacher-librarian in a myriad of ways, a well-deserving winner of the Follett International Teacher Librarian of the Year Award.

The Canadian Association for School Libraries is a division of the CLA/ACB. The Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliothèques is Canada’s largest national and broad-based library association, representing the interests of public, academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library workers, and all those concerned about enhancing the quality of life of Canadians through information and literacy.

School district criticized for reassigning librarians

Bellevue Reporter: 2009 May 19

"The decision by the Bellevue School District to reassign all secondary librarians to classroom positions for the 09/10 school year has been criticized by some in the educational community.

Mike Eisenberg, dean emeritus and professor at the Information School of the University of Washington, said the move goes against the needs of the 21st century."

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

New media, old rules

The Globe and Mail: 2009 May 19

"When news came down last month that the United States had placed Canada on an international watch list of the worst digital pirate havens and copyright offenders in the world, many MPs on Parliament Hill rolled their eyes."

Monday, May 18, 2009

Wolfram/Alpha Looks Beyond Search Toward Computation -- Search Engine -- InformationWeek

InformationWeek: 2009 May 18

"Wolfram Research, makers of the noted computational software Mathematica, on Monday launched Wolfram/Alpha, a service the company characterizes as a 'computational knowledge engine.'

It's not a search engine. Though widely compared to Google, Wolfram/Alpha does not try to match queries against a list of indexed documents. It attempts to compute answers to questions based on established facts. "

Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud - NYTimes.com

NYTimes.com: 2009 May 18

"Sometimes the best way to understand the present is to look at it from the past. Consider audio books. An enormous number of Americans read by listening these days — listening aloud, I call it. The technology for doing so is diverse and widespread, and so are the places people listen to audio books. But from the perspective of a reader in, say, the early 19th century, about the time of Jane Austen, there is something peculiar about it, even lonely."

Friday, May 15, 2009

New website lets you track YVR aircraft and the noise they make

Vancouver Sun: 2009 May 15

"The Vancouver Airport Authority has launched a website that will track the flight paths of commercial aircraft flying over Metro Vancouver.

The website, which can be found at http://yvr.ca/webtrak, allows the public to view flights as they occur with a short delay for security reasons, said South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale MP Russ Hiebert."

ola meeting space -> Forest of Reading® Winners

ola meeting space: 2009 May 15

"Thousands of schools and libraries across Ontario came together at the Harbourfront for the annual Forest of Reading – Festival of Trees on May 13 & May 14, 2009."

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Indigo brings to $7.5 million its funding to Canadian public schools

CNW Group: 2009 May 13

"The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation has announced its continued commitment to children's literacy with another annual injection of $1.5 million to fund literacy programs in high-needs elementary schools across Canada."

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

President Obama Freezes School Library Funding in 2010 - 5/12/2009 - School Library Journal

School Library Journal: 2009 May 12
Debra Lau Whelen

"President Obama may talk about the importance of libraries, but now that his budget is out, librarians are wondering, where’s the love?"

Monday, May 11, 2009

CTV.ca | Irish student hoaxes world's media with fake quote

CTV.ca: 2009 May 11

"DUBLIN -- When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phoney quote on Wikipedia, he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked."

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Teacher-Librarian from British Columbia Promotes Librarianship and Wins Award

CLA: 2009 May 10

Karen Lindsay, a teacher-librarian at Reynolds Secondary School in Victoria, B.C., has been awarded the Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship.

This award honours individuals who contribute significantly to the public recognition and appreciation of librarianship. Recipients receive $1,000 and a plaque recognizing their achievement.

Karen has served as a teacher and librarian for 30 years. Karen’s career achievements include:

• Developing a daily, school-wide silent reading program
• Serving as Vice-President of the Greater Victoria Teacher-Librarians' Association
• Developing a wiki for sharing information and ideas with students, teachers and other professionals
• Working with Ministry of Education officials, the BC Teachers' Federation, and the B.C. Auditor General to promote the role of teacher-librarians, and the importance of strong school library programs and literacy.

Karen was instrumental in establishing the Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) campaign. DEAR is a 15-minute reading challenge that takes place on National School Library Day. In 2007, students at one school participated. By 2008, DEAR had grown to include multiple schools, daycares and public libraries. Karen’s vision is that DEAR becomes a national celebration. The BC Ministry of Education has recognized Karen for her contribution to DEAR.

Karen leverages technology (Facebook, blogs, wikis and websites) to connect with young readers and her peers. Her nominator described her as “an exemplary school-based teacher-librarian, a district leader, a provincial mentor and role model with national connections.”

The Ken Haycock Award is offered by the Canadian Library Association / Association canadienne des bibliothèques. It was established in recognition of CLA/ACB past president Dr. Ken Haycock, distinguished educator, administrator and advocate.

The Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliothèques is Canada’s largest national and broad-based library association, representing the interests of public, academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library workers, and all those concerned about enhancing the quality of life of Canadians through information and literacy.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Magazines turn page to post-Internet era

Vancouver Courier: 2009 May 8

"Do you have your copy of Goats Across Canada yet?

New Vancouver-based magazines are popping up like baby goats in springtime but there's no guarantee they'll survive beyond the thaw."

Friday, May 8, 2009

Teacher librarians need support

Langley Times: 2009 May 8

"Editor: In 2005, Premier Gordon Campbell unveiled the Five Great Goals for a Golden Decade. The most important of those goals was that B.C. was to become the best-educated, most literate place in North America."

Richard Beaudry

Diffen

Compare, contrast and find the difference between any two things!

http://www.diffen.com/

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Librarians worried about more cuts

Nanaimo Daily News: 2009 May 5

"B.C.'s school librarians are pleading with trustees not to cut library funding as they try to balance this year's budget.

The B.C. Coalition for School Libraries is sending letters from students across the province to school boards, pleading with them to avoid more cuts to library budgets."

The new invisible Web: on searching wikis and tweets and blogs and more - NeverEndingSearch - Blog on School Library Journal

NeverEndingSearch - Blog on School Library Journal: 2009 May 4

"Face it. We are faced with a new invisible Web. These days, when we search, we miss so much of the stuff that appears in new Web formats. the Web 2.0 stuff."

Flickr project offers snapshot of past

Vancouver Sun: 2009 May 5

"If the people won’t come to the museums, the museums will go to the people.

Web-savvy archivists from 24 institutions around the world have been uploading thousands of breathtaking pictures from as early as the 1800s to the Internet, posting them to The Commons, a portal on the popular photo-sharing website, Flickr. "

Saturday, May 2, 2009

One Book, One Vancouver hitches its wagon to the Games

Vancouver Sun: 2009 May 2

"The idea of having a city’s residents read and get excited about one particular book each year — the brainwave of Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl in 1998 — might easily have run its course by now.

But the Vancouver Public Library, which launched its own One Book, One Vancouver program in 2002, is reinvigorating the concept by piggybacking on to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Mayor Gregor Robertson recently announced that this year’s program will be called The Host City Reads."

Ross Davidson Receives the 2009 Distinguished Service Award

In Circulation: 2009 May 1

The BC Teacher-Librarians' Association is pleased to announce that Ross Davidson is the recipient of the 2009 Distinguished Service Award.

Ross is currently the principal of Scott Creek Middle School in Coquitlam. Prior to this, he was principal of Moody Middle School. It was at Moody that Ross founded in partnership with a team of principals and vice-principals the Hog Wild About Reading motorcycle ride campaign which for the past nine years has raised funds for school library collections in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, and Anmore. Since its inception, the Hog Wild About Reading campaign has raised over $113,000 for school library collections in these communities. Each year, Ross has coordinated the ride, seeking donations from companies and individuals. For his development and continual efforts towards Hog Wild About Reading, Ross has been previously honoured by the Coquitlam Teacher-Librarians' Association and has been featured in Connected magazine.

Ross also strongly supports his school's library program as principal of Scott Creek Middle School. He has supported literacy in the school by ensuring library program is well serviced. In the past five years, he has maintained a full-time teacher-librarian position, even with decreasing enrolment and increasing pressure. He consistently ensures that the library budget is ample and supports the teacher-librarians' literacy initiatives in the school, such as the Drop Everything and Read campaign, school‐wide silent reading sessions, and an annual Literacy Conference for students. In addition, Ross sponsors poetry and writing contests for students through library.

The BCTLA will be pleased to recognize Ross Davidson, as the 2009 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, in May in Coquitlam, B.C.