Teen Tech Week

Register for Teen Tech Week! Why should you register? Teen Tech Week registrants will be entered into a drawing for a free year’s subscription and every registrant will have one-month free access to Rosen Publishing’s new online database, Teen Health & Wellness: Real Life, Real Answers; and two week’s free access to Tutor.com’s Live Homework Help and Ask A Librarian online services. Librarians will have access to these resources during Teen Tech Week so they can incorporate them into their activities and programming.

Teen Tech Week will be celebrated for the first time March 4-10, 2007.

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October 31, 2006 Interim Report Available

The Small Schools Interim Report for October 31, 2006 is available in .pdf format on the documents page.

View the Interim Report .pdf file

posted@11:08

Times Education Supplement on book spending

After analyzing data collected on more than 6000 primary schools across the UK, three university researchers have concluded that "spending £100 [$187] per pupil on books has a greater impact on average test scores across English, maths and science than the same amount spent on ICT [Information and Communication Technology] or staffing."
Read the article at The Times Education Supplement.

posted@00:00

Google Librarian Center

If you are subscribed to the Google Librarian Newsletter (I highlighted it on this page in January) you just received an announcement of the Google Librarian Center and the Tips of the Trade page, where Google hope to compile some of the "innovative and novel ways you've used Google tools on the job to help your students and patrons find information."

If you've got a great Google tip you could be featured in a movie that Google will air at the ALA annual conference in New Orleans this June, so send your tip in before May 23rd.

posted@13:58

MARC records for PBS programming

LISNews.org points out the PBS MARC record archive, which offers downloadable MARC record for PBS programming. According to PBS:

You may copy or download these records to move the bibliographic data into your own catalog to make it easier for your patrons to find the PBS programs you have taped off-air.

posted@20:29

Podcast spotlight

KCRW, Santa Monica's NPR affiliate, provides podcast feeds of a number of their radio programs, including Bookworm, a weekly literary treat. Host Michael Silverblatt's interviews with writers and poets are wonderful and insightful. Recent guests include novelist Kurt Vonnegut and poet Jorie Graham. Listen to last week's interview with Elliot Perlman and hear a master interviewer at his best. You can listen to the program online, or subscribe to the podcast.

The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, is also podcasting. The daily radio show can be heard on KUOW at 2:28pm, or by subscribing to the podcast. The Writer's Almanac is a daily program of poetry and history, and is about five minutes long. I subscribe to more than a dozen podcasts, but this is the only daily show that makes my list.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts, any mp3 player, including software like iTunes and WinAmp can play podcasts right at your computer.

posted@21:55

InfoLit and the Credibility Commons

Ars Technica, a news and commentary site catering to PC hardware enthusiasts is featuring a review of Dr. Eisenberg's newest project, the Credibility Commons which aims to help web users evaluate the credibility of websites by tapping into the expert judgment of reference librarians.

Ars contributor Nate Anderson writes "Though still in its infancy, projects like the Credibility Commons will become increasingly important as the Internet infiltrates more areas of our lives and the need for accurate information becomes even more pressing."

To learn more, visit the Credibility Commons, the article, or Ars reader's discussion.

posted@13:50

Are late fees scaring away your students?

Queensboro Public Library, in Queens, New York, has a new program allowing young readers to earn "library bucks" that can be used to pay off their late fees. Readers earn one library buck for each half hour that they do their reading at the library. Read more about it at LISNews.

posted@12:46

Small schools in neatoday

Small schools are the cover story in the February, 2006 issue of neatoday. The article, "Is smaller better?" written by Alain Jehlen and Cynthia Kopkowski, begins with a brief history of the small schools movement, and goes on to profile schools in Kansas and California. There is also an interview with Deborah Meier, small schools pioneer.

posted@15:12

A Librarian's Guide to Finding Web Sites You Can Trust

Google offers a newsletter for librarians (subscribe here) the newest issue features Beyond Algorithms: A Librarian's Guide to Finding Web Sites You Can Trust, in which Karen Schneider (Director of the Librarians' Internet Index) discusses the challenge of choosing the most reliable results from the thousands that search engines return.

posted@14:16

Oakland Tribune on libraries in small schools

The Oakland Tribune is running an article profiling Castlemont High School, in Oakland, CA, which closed its library when it was broken up into three small schools in 2003.

. . . Castlemont is the only major high school in the city without a school library - the closest public library is about 14 blocks away at the Eastmont Town Center.
It has been that way for going on two years, since the large high school on MacArthur Boulevard was split into three smaller, specialized schools in an attempt to raise attendance and improve student-teacher relationships.

The article focuses on the community's growing frustration with the situation, and the school's recent efforts to bring what is left of their library back into usefulness.

posted@11:26

LISTA database set free

From the EBSCO press release

EBSCO Publishing is proud to provide the Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) database as a free resource to anyone interested in libraries and information management. This world-class bibliographic database provides coverage on subjects such as librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Delivered via the EBSCOhost platform, LISTA indexes more than 600 periodicals plus books, research reports, and proceedings. With coverage dating back to the mid-1960s, it is the oldest continuously produced database covering the field of information science.

Try out the LISTA database.

Sample search for school reform.

posted@14:30

Spencer Shaw Lecture

Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Kane Hall 210

Taking the road less traveled by...
In 1941, Spencer Shaw entered the library field where very few men, and even fewer African-American men worked with children. Since storytelling is a big component of this work, he became a story teller... weaving a rich tapestry of diversity with threads of cultural stories and poetry.

Talk begins at 7:00 PM. Refreshments available in the same room immediately after the talk.

This event is free, if you'd like to attend please register in advance.

posted@18:58

Bellingham Schools to develop small learning communities

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced more than $16.8 million in new investments in Washingotn schools and school districts, including $2.1 million to Bellingham School District in northern Whatcom County.

Among other efforts, the grant will fund development of small learning communities in the district's three high schools.

posted@15:13

International School Library Day

The fourth Monday in October each year is International School Library Day. This Monday, October 24th is the seventh annual celebration of this exciting occasion. This year's theme is Discover the Adventure. For information and ideas to help you celebrate school libraries in your library this year, visit the International Association of School Librarianship.

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