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Recently, there have been a number of intriguing conversations in the KidLib blogosphere around summer reading and why we do it.  My interest piqued when I read Transliteracy in Your Summer Reading Program by Gretchen Caserotti at the Libraries and Transliteracy blog.  I learned about another thought-provoking blog post about SRC over at Hi Miss Julie: Summer Reading, Pain in My… it includes some tasty comments that led to even more posts about summer reading here and here.  If you have a minute or two, those posts are rather inspiring.

As many of you know by now, I get pretty excited around technology.  I get especially excited about technology in SRCs.  I’m definitely in the ‘let’s rework that sacred cow of summer reading club’ camp.  I really believe SRCs need to change.  And pretty drastically. Families are different.  Society is different.  And not to mention literacy is now literacies. We have a real opportunity responsibility to move SRCs into the 21st century.   And counting graphic novels doesn’t go far enough.

Technology, in its fancy red cape, to the rescue!

Now, don’t start wringing your hands, technology need not be the heart of summer activities at the library, but it can be the hub.  Technology can allow some deep changes in our SRCs to be pretty easy on staff and pretty fun for the kids.

Ann Arbor is a great example of how to make that happen.  They have reinvented SRC in the form of  The Summer Game and notice reading is not in the title.  Their website allows participants, on the Leaderboard, to see the kids who are really rockin’ and exactly what they’ve done.  How better to inspire kids then through the activities of other kids!  As well, NYPublic, Brooklyn and Queens have all linked arms and created something similar at summerreading.org.  By enticing kids with a pretty cool and customizable online site where participants can create an avatar and a profile, they’ve created a fun way for kids to connect with other kids.  Both Ann Arbor and the NY-trifecta offer electronic badges (think Girl Scouts) for completing tasks – whether they read a book, write a review, tag a book on the library catalog, or (gasp!) watch a movie. According to the Ann Arbor KidLibs,  the kids really get into the competition for badges.

In our county, I’m interested in creating a county-wide game where our libraries partner with all kinds of arts/sports/cultural organizations to allow kids the chance to engage in local activities and various literacies.  I found this recently, a Summer Tooning Story Contest with an iPad app called Toontastic.  The more elements like these that we can add to our SRCs, the more literacies kids are going to d

Anyone who knows me, knows I heart technology.  My IT husband hearts it even more, so in our house we’re always working to find some balance between ‘life’ and technology.  I know they often intersect, but sometimes we struggle to avoid evenings and weekends in front of a screen – as tempting as it sometimes is!

I imagine many parents and kids with whom you work probably struggle with this too.  On the one hand, we have that whole transliteracy thing going on (which is the ability to read and write across a range of platforms) where we want kids to be able to thrive in all of these cool technological ways but on the other hand, we have Enough Already with the technology!  So how do you help your families (and yourself perhaps!) get to a place of balance?  I offer a few tips (some of which I got from this great Mashable article):

• Create tech-free zones (in the library and at home!) Though I’m not a parent, if I were, I’d probably make the bedroom a tech-free zone – much like mine and my husband’s. Or better, the breakfast/dinner table!  Which would be a little hard for me – I MUST check email!  As far as library space goes, I know many libraries have cell-phone-free areas, like the storytime room that allow parents to be fully present with you and their little ones (though I wouldn’t recommend making your whole library cell-phone-free – that’s just ridiculous!)
• Encourage parents to take part in some of their kids’ online activities.  And I don’t just mean in the ‘monitoring’ sense. The more parents share in what their kids are doing, the more discussion and interaction that can happen later!
• In the same vein as the tech-free zones, suggest parents establish un-interuptable times.  My husband and I try to have one computer-free day a week.  It’s actually really challenging, but rewarding.  We find ourselves enjoying the yard, taking a walk, or (gasp!) reading a book! One father from that Mashable article won’t answer emails or texts from 7-9 every night.  I love it!
• Consider offering workshops for parents on parental permissions across various platforms.  Parents in your community might not understand the kinds of limits they can set for Xbox Live, for example.  Do they want their 9 year old chatting with everyone?  Cell phones also have restrictions like not allowing multi-media texts.  With multiple computer users in a household, accounts can be created for each member of the family.   Each account comes with its own unique sets of permissions – no downloading anything for the 6-year old!  I don’t even have admin rights on our TV computer!  I imagine parents would love an evening workshop to learn about some of those options and tactics.

Many times, school librarians are on their own.  Few schools have multiple librarians working together in a physical space where they can bounce ideas off one another.   Between classes, shelving, processing, reference work and the many unforeseen situations that come with working with children, there is little time for changing up our curriculum.

But change is necessary.  Each school is different, each school year is different and most of us want to change up our classes.  This is why the creation of a virtual community is so important to the school librarian.  We often look to ALSC and beyond to inform our curriculum.

April means poetry in many schools, including the one where I work, and in the past few years, other librarians and bloggers have truly informed my curriculum.  Travis Jonker of 100 Scope Notes has written on this blog before about the Spine Poetry Project , and spine poetry quickly became part of my fourth grade curriculum that is here to stay.  The students love it, and every year someone who didn’t think of themselves as a poet, quickly changes his/her view!  Another online resource that informed my National Poetry Month is online magnetic poetry .  In the past, I created hard copy “magnetic” poetry kits for my students by simply building packets with the different parts of speech, packaging them up in a ziploc and letting the students go.  However, using the online version allowed my students to practice their touch-typing as well as skills they are learning in their technology classes.  A final resource that my teachers appreciate is the 30 Poets/30 Days feature each April at Gregory K’s Gotta Book blog.   Greg has a group of amazing poets present a previously unpublished poem on his blog each day in April.  This has led to students being inspired to write poetry daily either individually or as a class.

I am grateful for such a great online community of librarians, educators, and bloggers. They certainly help me keep my curriculum rich, varied and interesting.

Congratulations to the Richmond Public Library in Richmond, California, winners of the 2011 Light the Way Grant!

The grant will help Richmond fund their Literacy Bags for Bilingual Families project. With the help of the bookmobile librarian, the library plans to partner with a local elementary school to ensure that families receive literacy materials.

The Light the Way: Library Outreach to the Underserved Grant is generously sponsored by Candlewick Press.

For more information on the Richmond Public Library’s project, please see the official ALA press release.

During the 2009 Annual Conference, the American Library Association’s Council adopted the Minors and Internet Interactivity statement as part of ALA’s Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights. As stated in the introduction to the Interpretations,

Although the Articles of the Library Bill of Rights are unambiguous statements of basic principles that should govern the service of all libraries, questions do arise concerning application of these principles to specific library practices. […] These documents are policies of the American Library Association, having been adopted by the ALA Council.

Please read Minors and Internet Interactivity, which is available on the ALA Web Page (Mission & History–> Key Action Areas–> Intellectual Freedom –> Policies, Statements, Guidelines.) To provide for ease in commenting, it is also included here in its entirety:

Minors and Internet Interactivity: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights

The digital environment offers opportunities for accessing, creating, and sharing information. The rights of minors to retrieve, interact with, and create information posted on the Internet in schools and libraries are extensions of their First Amendment rights. (See also other interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights, including “Access to Digital Information, Services, and Networks,” “Free Access to Libraries for Minors,” and “Access for Children and Young Adults to Nonprint Materials.”)

Academic pursuits of minors can be strengthened with the use of interactive Web tools, allowing young people to create documents and share them online; upload pictures, videos, and graphic material; revise public documents; and add tags to online content to classify and organize information. Instances of inappropriate use of such academic tools should be addressed as individual behavior issues, not as justification for restricting or banning access to interactive technology. Schools and libraries should ensure that institutional environments offer opportunities for students to use interactive Web tools constructively in their academic pursuits, as the benefits of shared learning are well documented.

Personal interactions of minors can be enhanced by social tools available through the Internet. Social networking Web sites allow the creation of online communities that feature an open exchange of information in various forms, such as images, videos, blog posts, and discussions about common interests. Interactive Web tools help children and young adults learn about and organize social, civic, and extra-curricular activities. Many interactive sites invite users to establish online identities, share personal information, create Web content, and join social networks. Parents and guardians play a critical role in preparing their children for participation in online activity by communicating their personal family values and by monitoring their children’s use of the Internet. Parents and guardians are responsible for what their children—and only their children—access on the Internet in libraries.

The use of interactive Web tools poses two competing intellectual freedom issues—the protection of minors’ privacy and the right of free speech. Some have expressed concerns regarding what they perceive is an increased vulnerability of young people in the online environment when they use interactive sites to post personally identifiable information. In an effort to protect minors’ privacy, adults sometimes restrict access to interactive Web environments. Filters, for example, are sometimes used to restrict access by youth to interactive social networking tools, but at the same time deny minors’ rights to free expression on the Internet. Prohibiting children and young adults from using social networking sites does not teach safe behavior and leaves youth without the necessary knowledge and skills to protect their privacy or engage in responsible speech. Instead of restricting or denying access to the Internet, librarians and teachers should educate minors to participate responsibly, ethically, and safely.

The First Amendment applies to speech created by minors on interactive sites. Usage of these social networking sites in a school or library allows minors to access and create resources that fulfill their interests and needs for information, for social connection with peers, and for participation in a community of learners. Restricting expression and access to interactive Web sites because the sites provide tools for sharing information with others violates the tenets of the Library Bill of Rights. It is the responsibility of librarians and educators to monitor threats to the intellectual freedom of minors and to advocate for extending access to interactive applications on the Internet.

As defenders of intellectual freedom and the First Amendment, libraries and librarians have a responsibility to offer unrestricted access to Internet interactivity in accordance with local, state, and federal laws and to advocate for greater access where it is abridged. School and library professionals should work closely with young people to help them learn skills and attitudes that will prepare them to be responsible, effective, and productive communicators in a free society.

Adopted July 15, 2009, by the ALA Council.

Summer reading lists have been distributed. The shelves have been read. The inventory is almost done. “You’re so lucky!” I hear from colleagues who like the sound of having July and August “off”.

So what happens to a school librarian in the summer time?

Summer is the time to plan, research and tweak the library program. Being part of an independent school is at times liberating, and at other times librarians can feel like the only one on an island. My curriculum is mine alone, and I am responsible for updating, integrating and keeping it alive.

This summer I will be revamping the entire thing: adding new and exciting titles to read aloud, finding ways to integrate research lessons into the social studies curriculum, designing Dewey Decimal playground games, writing thematic booklists for distribution to parents, designing a blogging program for our 4th graders.

How are you changing your curriculum this summer?

Yes, summer is almost here, a perfect time to plan how to promote your library’s research databases this fall.

As I begin my plan, I’m thinking:

• Use them myself. Keep a notebook. Share what I learn with colleagues and patrons.
• Offer classes and pathfinders for each database.
• Provide individual appointments for students, parents and teachers to demonstrate the use of the databases available, focusing on their particular topic(s) of interest.
• Partner with school media specialists and teachers in which we focus on PROCESS of research over the product, to celebrate what we learn along the way.

What research databases are available at your library? Do you currently promote their use? If so, how?

In this podcast Matthew Moffett talks with school librarian Stephanie Rosalia about her work. Stephanie was recently profiled in The New York Times.
Listen
The conversation covers:

• How The New York Times interview came to be.
• Stephanie’s information and media literacy teaching techniques.
• Library and classroom collaboration in Stephanie’s school.
• What constitutes reading.
• The importance of informing people about what the modern library is all about.
• The SKILLS Act

I’m tooling around California, having a blissfully good time, but just saw that Project Information Literacy out of U Washington had just announced it had issued a  mid-project report, based on its 2008 fall student discussion groups held on seven U.S. campuses with 86 college students.

This report is really required reading not just for librarians but for anyone designing systems and tools for librarians.

The only criticism I have of the report is that it is a little too modest in stating “you may find some things that you already know.” Librarianship is larded with anecdotal evidence, but slim on actual good data about student behavior — such as the “presearch” behavior I mentioned a couple months back — and the little data that there is is badly in need of corroboration, particularly in a profession with such a mulish resistance to evidence.

But wait, there’s more! “This spring, our research will continue with a large-scale student survey administered on three U.S. campuses.”

Big warm hug to Proquest for sponsoring this research!

Bookmark to:

The Super3 by Michael B. Eisenberg and Laura Eisenberg Robinson is a thin book with many worksheets throughout. The Super 3 are Plan, Do, Review. After reading the book, I have been thinking a great deal of the importance of empowering youngsters throughout their learning.

As the authors mention on page 15:

Another technique is to give less rather than more direction on assignments. Teachers often lead students through every step in an assignment–verbally or in writing. Sometimes it is necessary for teachers to be very direct and specific, but too often this is done without even thinking of the message being communicated. When teachers give a great deal of detail or step-by-step directions, they are doing most of the task definition or ‘planning’ work.

I have heard many complaints of teaching to the tests. The authors share how their open-ended tasks of Planning, Doing and Reviewing (the Super 3) do address learning standards and objectives.

One of our goals as librarians is to offer tools for life-long learning. It is very easy for me to focus on the Do with young learners, but the language of Plan and Review is important to share too. I hadn’t really thought of it in this way before reading this book. I like to have open-ended activities in the library programs that I plan, but these activities would mean more to children if I offer ways of sharing their planning and their own reviews of what they have created, their own evaluations of what they have done and what they have learned.

A new report from the Federal Trade Commission entitled Marketing Food To Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation: A Federal Trade Commission Report To Congress has been made public. The press release and full report (PDF) are available online. Some highlights from mandatory reporting from 44 companies in the year 2006:

• spending was $1,618,600,000.
• 63% of this total was used to market fast food, carbonated beverages, or breakfast cereals.
• television is still the predominate advertising medium intended for children (46%).
• new media (Internet, text, email, viral web) accounted for only 5% of youth marketing expenses - keep in mind it is cheaper to produce this type of media.
• spending on packaging (e.g. cereal boxes) and in-store displays equaled 12%.
• cross promotion was used for as many as 80 movies intended for youth. This advertising technique, which includes fast food tie-ins, toys, and Internet games is growing in its sophistication.
• The report includes information about industry self-regulation to improve advertising for healthy foods and recommends the reduction of advertising for “junk food.”

Lots more to read about in this report. The evolving media environment is creating incredible opportunities for librarians - we’re not alone though. Kids are receiving information (including advertising) from all directions. Helping them develop a literacy of all these mediums and how they work (and who controls and uses them) continues to be a crucial part of our teaching mission.

Teresa Y. Neely’s Information Literacy Assessment: Standards-Based Tools and Assignments is geared toward academic librarians and ways to integrate the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)’s Information Literacy Compentency Standards for Higher Education into assignments and ways to assess. As I started reading, I revisited The American Association of School Libraries (AASL)’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. Both sets of standards are important to consider as we help young people develop into lifelong learners.

Neely writes on page 39:

It is important for students to have a realistic plan for acquiring sources and completing their research. This is challenging for students at any educational level. Success in the research process requires a commitment of time and energy on the part of the student.

I sure do feel for those young folk who come in the night before something major is due and try to cobble together a little research. I was one of those students who found sources plenty early. (I always wanted to be a librarian, too.) I burnt plenty of midnight oil writing the actual papers, but I loved the search for information, scanning through microfilm, finding connections, narrowing or broadening the scope as needed by the project and my interest. Grades were important to me, but not as important as what I discovered.

I am encouraged by the publication of several research as process books. Two that come to mind are Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley by Sally M Walker, the 2006 Sibert Medal Winner (see a review by Abby (the) Librarian), and Ain’t Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson. (Abby (the) Librarian reviewed that one too.) Both books demonstrate how history is discovered and interpreted and alive.

Think about your local resources, your local researchers, folks in all sorts of fields who need to find information specific to their areas of expertise. Why not have a series of programs in which these people share what they do to find what they need to know? The time required, the sources used, the languages they needed to learn to make their jobs easier, the math computations, the tools they use, oh, I don’t know, I’m just brainstorming here. Granted, you couldn’t just shove a person in front of a group of young people, you would want to work with them to make it a satisfying experience for everyone. It just seems to me that for young people developing a research project WITH an expert in a field of interest might open up the world of research as the exciting place it can be. Could it work? Has it worked?

For July’s Professional Reading post, I will write a response to Dynamic Youth Services Through Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation by Eliza T. Dresang.

David Weinberger’s Everthing is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder was suggested here by an ALSC Blog reader. Thanks, afewsocks!

These Professional Reading posts aren’t book reviews, but rather my response to something that I read from the book. The following is an excerpt from pages 142-143:

The trust we place in the Britannica enables us to be passive knowers: You merely have to look a topic up to find out about it. But Wikipedia provides the metadata surrounding an article–edits, discussions, warnings, links to other edits by the contributors–because it expects the reader to be actively involved, alert to the signs. This burden comes straight from the nature of the miscellaneous itself. Give us a Britannica article, written by experts who filter and weigh the evidence for us, and we can absorb it passively. But set us loose in a pile of leaves so large that we can’t see its boundaries and we’ll need more and more metadata to play in to find our way. Deciding what to believe is now our burden. It always was, but in the paper-order world where publishing was so expensive that we needed people to be filterers, it was easier to think our passivity was an inevitable part of learning; we thought knowledge just worked that way.

First of all, this excerpt has made me rethink my contributions to the ALSC Wiki. Most of my contributions to the Wiki are fairly passive, pointing out links and stating a few things that are happening within my committee’s work. Weinberger mentions arXiv which allows for articles to be shared before being peer-reviewed. I’m still rethinking, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Secondly, this excerpt makes me think of ALSC Blogger Roxanne Hsu Feldman’s post about her 4th graders and their wiki. What a powerful example of students actively learning.

Thirdly, I was reminded of ALSC Guest Blogger, Bradley Debrick’s post about tagging. Children developing meaningful tags for themselves would allow them to play within that metadata “pile of leaves.”

Finally, the book inspired me to revisit the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab web site where I learned of their work with Tangible Flags which “are designed to support and encourage children to concurrently explore, collaborate and construct digital artifacts while they are immersed within mobile, hands-on environments, such as field trips.”

If you would like to share any thoughts or comments about the book or about what I have written, please do. The book I will respond to for the May post will be A Place at the Table: Participating in Community Building by Kathleen de la Peña McCook. Please join in!

The 4th grade Library Snapple Real Facts Buster wiki project was concluded a couple of weeks ago.  The finished site features 2.5 sessions of group research work (45 minutes per session) attempting to verify or bust some of the Snapple Real Facts.  Some of the students were really into it and had the tenacity to see the project through: from figuring out where to look for best information to meticulously record their findings.  Many of them were excited at the beginning but had to be prompted to continue with more verification because they were easily satisfied with their first matching facts and were reluctant to continue, either to find more sources, or to record their findings.  They thought that a URL should be sufficient!  (I did explain to them how URL can change and the page can disappear so a title and a creator’s name will help future researchers to locate the information.)

There is also a general reflection page that does sum up the whole experience fairly well.

Ahhhh, Paris. Your lure is strong: art, food, nightlife, architecture. One could get caught up in your graces forever! Travel with us this month to the city of lights as we read The Ambassadors by Henry James. Since we are announcing the book a bit late, we will hold the discussion on Thursday, October 4th. So get yourself a copy and start reading!

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The history of Monopoly.

Congratulations to Charles Simic, the new Poet Laureate.

A great look at The Book Depository.

Ozomatli as Cultural Ambassadors?  

Books, Inq, celebrates the anniversary of Wallace Steven’s death.

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