jump to navigation

“I would whore myself for a totebag” January 22, 2007

Posted by Laura Pearle in : ALA MW2007 , 1 comment so far

Yes, someone actually said that at Midwinter.

One of the nicer perks of coming to these conferences: the exhibits. Of course, there are the OPAC/ILS guys and other techie people trying to sell you their new product. And many of us flock to those booths to learn what’s new with those programs (remember when everyone suddenly had a GUI interface? or web browsers became the norm?), or to see and evaluate the newest databases. There are always the arts people selling t-shirts and other “library gear”. Almost every booth has a give-away pen or post-it note pad or other tschoke with their logo on it.

And (for some, this is the best part) there are many publishers “pushing” their upcoming catalog by giving away free copies (aka “Advance Reader Copies) for us to get all excited about.

This brings up the excitement one has over the tote bag issue. At registration, you usually get a tote bag. Many booths have them, in a variety of flavors: there are ones that are durable, with pockets and areas in which to keep things; there are ones that are simply large and therefor perfect for the ARCs you’re collecting; there are ones that are collectibles in and of themselves (these you learn about when people say “did you go to [vendor] and see their bag?” or “you have to get a bag from [vendor]”).

I know whereof my colleague speaks. A good tote bag is really one that I’ll take home, that I’ll bring with me to other conferences (local, for example) and that I’ll pack for the next conference because I’m not sure I’ll see another one that serves the same needs as well as this one does. And, of course, one I don’t really mind carrying around as an advertisement for the company/product. All others get tossed or given to my staff and students.

Tag:

ALA MW 2007 Council January 21, 2007

Posted by idrasek in : ALA MW2007 , add a comment

At the first information session that started at 9:00 am this morning. Although it seems that ALA Council is not something that affects our daily lives as School Librarians. My experience with the debate and vote about the 65% solution last year in San Antonio and my own advocacy for school librarians, I am becoming more and more convinced of the importance of the voice of Teacher/ Librarians on a national level. Therefore it was astonishing to hear that the nominated slate for the next election to council included a mere 5 candidates from this area of librarianship which is 9% of the slate. Academic librarians were 40% or 24 candidates and public librarians were 35%. Even though school librarians are almost equal to the other two in membership numbers. When the nominating committee was questioned from the floor they stated that they asked school librarians but were turned down. The number one reason was that the majority of school librarian members are front line librarians and could not get out of school to attend. This is understandable. For the first time in ten years my principal has agreed to free up funds to provide for a substitute for the 5 days I will be out of the building.
Remember that if you are planning to attend ALA, members can self nominate by providing a petition of 25 signatures. If that is not possible it all the more important to vote for the AASL candidates on the ballot to ensure that our interests are represented in “Big ALA”
More to come. Lisa Von Drasek, Councilor-at-Large

Tag:

School library futures January 16, 2007

Posted by ayucht in : Hot Topics , 1 comment so far

Roy Tennant’s article on Academic Library Futures (LJ, 12/15/06) is equally relevant to K-12 School libraries:

“Libraries are… no longer the sole gateway to information and knowledge they once were. As more information becomes freely available on the Internet, our gatekeeping role is lessened for a significant portion of our users….
We need an agile, imaginative, and engaged staff. We need people who are not afraid of jettisoning traditional activities in favor of new ones. We must have people who can learn constantly, foster change, and create new kinds of collections and services. Some of these people are already in our buildings, others will need to be hired. We must train, support, and encourage them…
libraries might just have a window of opportunity to leap into a future where we add value to our institutions in ways we’ve never imagined before or are only beginning to envision. But that window may already be in the process of slamming shut.”

AASL is drafting new 21st century Library Learning Standards, but we need more than just another document to file:
What can/should individual school librarians be doing NOW to ensure our relevance to both current and future educational models?

Best Free Reference Websites 2006, plus one January 12, 2007

Posted by ayucht in : Check this out! , add a comment

from the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of ALA —
their annual list of the best free reference sites on the Web.
And here’s a bonus: Bill Drew has created a handy-dandy tool that will search all of web sites included in the 1999-2006 annual lists at one time!