Using the Living Dead To Teach Information Literacy

Library Journal: 2011 March 30

The staff at McPherson College's Miller Library in Kansas has come up with a unique information literacy tool: zombie attack.

The library has just released an online 23-page library guide in graphic novel format called Library of the Living Dead that features students taking cover in the library from zombies run amok on campus, and the flight to safety becomes a point of departure for a blood-stained lesson, replete with decapitations, in the Dewey Decimal system and other library tools.

BC Library History

http://bclibraries.org/thelibrarybook/index.html

THE LIBRARY BOOK

BOOK LAUNCH

April 7, 2011

St Andrew's Presbyterian
Victoria, BC

7:00pm

Courier letters

Big Brother bureaucrats target school libraries

Teacher-librarians enjoy autonomy

Diversity Team saves lives

'Diversity Team' dictates morality in schools

http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/editorials/index.html

Vancouver’s teacher-librarians keep books in student hands

Vancouver Courier: 2011 March 23

Ironically, exactly as Mark Hasiuk was working himself up into a lather over the deplorable conditions in Vancouver schools where strict compliance with the forcible removal and banning of classical literature and other worthwhile books is overseen by The Group of 6 Bureaucrats (“Vancouver school bureaucrats target children’s literature,” Feb. 28), Canadians celebrated Freedom to Read Week, Feb. 20-26.

Read more: http://www.vancourier.com/Reader+Soapbox+Vancouver+teacher+librarians+keep+books+student+hands/4492010/story.html#ixzz1HX4FLoIH

Smart people use smart libraries – library ireland week

Smart people use smart libraries – library ireland week

http://tinyurl.com/4qymrgc

 

LA Unified School District to EliminateAll CertifiedLibrarians

SLJ: 2011 March 15

All certified school librarians in the Los Angeles Unified School District will lose their positions next school year if efforts to close the district’s $640 million budget shortfall fail.

HarperCollins sets checkout limits on library e-books

CLA: 2011 March 11

As of March 7, HarperCollins e-book titles licensed to Canadian schools and public libraries come with a new restriction: after 26 checkouts, they self-destruct.

Young hockey players hit the ice, then the books

The Globe and Mail: 2011 March 11

His skills as a defenceman catapulted him to the major juniors, but by age 19 the dream of an NHL career had faded. He enrolled in university. That’s where, while trying to read a biology text for class, he realized his reading skills were too weak for him to keep up. “Here I was and I only knew one thing in life: hockey, and nothing else.”

Teacher-librarians refute notion of book-banning in Vancouver schools

Vancouver Courier: 2011 March 14

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a book-banning effort in Vancouver public schools led by the district’s so-called Diversity Team, a six-member troop of bureaucrats operating out of the school board building on West Broadway.

Read more: http://www.vancourier.com/Teacher+librarians+refute+notion+book+banning+Vancouver+schools/4437907/story.html#ixzz1GdDxga4i

2010–11 BC Education Facts

BCTF: 2011 March 11

http://locals.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Publications/2011EdFacts.pdf

Staffing: Learning Specialist Teachers 

• The number of FTE learning specialist teacher positions fell significantly over the last decade, decreasing from 7,185.67 FTE positions in 2001–02 to 5,970.35 in 2009–10. 
• Learning specialist teaching positions decreased by a further -197.38 FTE positions in 2010-11, based on the most recent budget estimates*. 
• There are now 1,412.70 fewer FTE learning specialist teacher positions in 2010–11 than in 2001–02. 
• Library Services (-28.5%) and English as a Second Language (-28.6%) programs lost the highest proportion of learning specialist teachers over the decade.

BC Book Prizes 2011

BC Book Prizes

The West Coast Book Prize Society is thrilled to announce the finalists for the 2011 BC Book Prizes. Congratulations to the authors and their publishers!

Book banning column 'outrageous and unfounded'

Vancouver Courier: 2011 March 9

Letters To the editor:

Re: "School bureaucrats target classic children's literature," March 2.

Michael Katz, Vancouver

Suzanne Hall, district librarian, School District 42

Joan Betty Stuchner, Vancouver

Read more: http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/editorials/index.html

World Read Aloud Day: March 9, 2011

World Read Aloud Day: March 9, 2011

Celebrate the Power of Words and Stories and Take Action for Global Literacy

Nearly 1 billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name. What would you miss most if you could not read or write? Imagine your world without words.