Technically a Librarian

If you are teaching Information Literacy, there is a great grade-friendly curriculum available at Common Sense Media . It is easy to follow and very student friendly. At the Corning Painted-Post Middle Schools, we have been teaching a class this year to the 6th grades called Library and Information Skills. This site has had some great resources we have used. Another site we have used for resources is: ReadWorks . Their stories are mostly non-fiction and align to the Common Core.

This article has just been published in American Libraries : Personal Branding for Librarians By Karen G. Schneider Distinguishing yourself from the professional herd It brings up an interesting idea on how librarians should brand themselves to better sell themselves to the profession but also warns about pigeon-holing yourself into a job you may not be qualified for or desire to work in. I am currently an Middle School Librarian. I was involuntarily transferred from the high school this year-they moved 6 out of 8 of the district's librarians. I wonder how branding would work with school librarians. This article is a very interesting read. I found it through LinkedIn, the professional site which may give it more weight.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/11/04/10communication_ep.h29.html?tkn=MSQFrvxJ9Qigz6ZCzzewv5s7jskhyBW98d%2BY If this passes-what a huge impact on education! Louisiana is trying to pass a law monitoring student/teacher communication. I don't know about you but I have my students email me papers that need to be converted, book reviews, etc. If they are doing research, I forward them article that might help. What a mess this will make! Hopefully legislators will think twice about this one.

Teach Yourself How to Be Happier Edutopia great article!

Our community is doing The Big Read-which is a partnership between the school district and the public library. The last Big Read we did was To Kill a Mockingbird. The school district librarians got together and chose elementary appropriate books that our high school students came over to read. We handed out bookmarks and discussed the book with anyone who wanted to listen. Books with a similiar theme were ordered for all the school This year our book is Love Medicine. The school librarians have been excluded from any of the events. There will be no books ordered. I asked what time the author would be visiting to receive a - What business is it of mine? (Well...I was thinking....books, authors, this certainly sounds like something the library supports.) How have we come to a pass when a community reading event is taking place and the school librarians are excluded?

There have been some great summer reading lists for teachers posted on LM_NET recently. Here is one that I thought was especially well done. I do wish they had included some YA literature as well though. Informational How Doctors Think-Jerome Groopman Best American Food Writing of 2007 The Art of Aging- Sherwin Nuland The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court- Jeffrey Toobin Eat, Pray, Love-Elizabeth Gilbert Girls of Tender Age- Mary Ann Tirone Smith Three Cups of Tea-Greg Mortenson Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil-Rodriquez and Ohlson The Glass Castle- JeannetteWalls The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan Ghosts Among Us by James Van Praagh The Zookeeper’s Wife-Diane Ackerman Mystery New England White- Stephen L. Carter Shoot Him if He Runs- Stuart Woods T is for Trespass- Sue Grafton Sweet Revenge- Diane Mott Davidson The Miracle at Speedy Motors-(Series- #1 Ladies Detective Agency-Alexander McCall Smith) ...

"Students at McLean High School in Fairfax County, Va., and the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona filed a lawsuit in October 2006 arguing that Turnitin.com committed copyright infringement when it stored digital copies of students' essays in its database." This case has finally been settled. The federal courts have decided that it is not against copyright to use these papers for comparison. The whole story is here . Very interesting! Especially if you are a school who uses turnitin.com!

The District Dispatch recently posted an add to purchase a Copyright slider . Here is there blurb: "Copyright laws are complex and can be very confusing! Is a work in the public domain? Do you need permission to use it? When does copyright expire? Find these answers and more at your fingertips with this handy, compact Copyright Slider created by the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). This single, sturdy product provides instant access to copyright laws and guidelines. Simply align the arrows by date of publication and determine a work’s copyright status and term. And the “Permission Needed?” box provides a quick answer to this very important question." The cost? OITP Copyright Slider Prices 1 slider - $5 20+ sliders - 10% discount 100+ sliders - 15% discount 200+ sliders - 20% discount Estimated shipping costs: 1 slider - 41¢ 10 sliders - $2.67 25 sliders - $7.50 50 sliders - $13.45 I emailed our BOCES SLS director and asked her to purchase us all one!

I have been spending my day catching up on my blog reading through Google Reader. Wanderings has posted a blog about the librarian stereotype called I Have a Dream!!! that struck a resonate note with me. On my Geocities page I have this for my description: Librarian. It conjures up images of spectacle wearing women stamping books for all they are worth or hushing people-Harry Potter’s Ms. Pince is a good example or Marion from the Music Man. In this new age of computers this image of librarians is false. Being a librarian means collaborating with teachers to help meet both information literacy & technology goals. It involves training your teachers and students to embrace new technologies as well as new literature. It is a multifaceted job where every day is different. No matter how many different titles we are saddled with-School Library Media Specialists, Teacher-Librarians, Information Resources Specialist, the simple truth is that we are librarians. Our individual goals are var...

LibraryThing Local Become a LibraryThing member to do more with LibraryThing Local: Add your favorite bookstores and libraries Keep track of interesting events Connecting with friends, and more.

The download version of Suze Ormond's book *Women and Money* http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200802/tows_past_20080213.jhtml Download your free copy of Suze Orman's book in English before 8/7c theevening of February 14.It's about 300 pages.This offer was made on Oprah's show on 2/12/08

If you need a great laugh today, read this post by the Annoyed Librarian. The comments are great as well! Some of these course will even make the "hard-core" librarians chuckle! LIS 501: Library Politics LIS 502: Appearance and Deception LIS 503: Doing the Work LIS 504: Library Organization From the comments: LIS ABC123: Stirring the Pot LIS 2112 Advanced Self-Promotion: Marketing "You", the Brand. "Library Meetings," LIS 623: Abnormal psychology LIS 1000 How Not To Deal with Perverts@ Your Library LIS 583b Bandwagoning L-ChiLib 101, how to be the Children's Librarian LIS 5050: The Gentle Art of Negotiating LIS599 Special Topics: Suburban Librarianship for Urban Librarians LIS 509 Library Obsolescence LIS 6666 - Defense against the Dark Arts - Cataloging and Technical Services LIS 560: Library Productivity & Patrons LIS 001 "Introduction to Actual Librarianship: Practice and Theory" LIS 5233 Porn and You LIS 4552 Managerial Support LIS 4...

If you are having trouble viewing this go here. This is a visual image of SAT scores - based on a Facebook analysis (by Virgil Griffith via Tyler Cowen )

As a New Year's resolution for professional development I am going to try to keep up a little better with my blog. There are many fantastic new "things" out there as well as great "old" things to brush up on. Videos to watch such as this: curiosity Video:a short film by film-maker Nic Askew on the nature of curiosity. Starring the ever-curious Seth Godin. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid980097284/bctid1385253108 I can't wait to see where the gaming in education programs will lead. There are already libraries having game night. {I have a teacher with a PS2 hidden in his room...} I worked today on my presentation for SLMS 2008 entitled Books for Boys. I am creating a wiki to go with it. It is easier than printing off all the handouts though I will print out the booklist that I am creating. There are a lot of good booklists that I am just linking in. This will be my third wiki. I created one for last year's presentation too. I love pbwiki.

http://www.laughinglibrarian.com/bd_stopblogga.htm

David Warlick published a post on the Quiet Revolution where he discusses a colleague who was speaking to a room of 19-20 year olds and when blogging was mentioned, no one raised their hand. Is blogging becoming an obsolete term? If the same person has asked if those students wrote on Facebook or MySpace the response would've been different. They don't consider that blogging. Many of these same students probably keep a journal at Open Diary of LiveJournal, do they consider that blogging? As vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds, I would suggest subscribing to a reader {like Bloglines or Google Reader } and adding some RSS feeds to see what the most current influences in technology and your occupation will come from next.

A great link from Doug Johnson ! This website judges your blog's readability http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx Thanks for the mention Rob ! {Even though you called me Julie instead of June.}