Draft to review on Principles for Digitized Content March 16, 2007
Posted by cphillip in : Community , add a commentIn January of 2007, the Task Force on Digitization Policy of ALA’s
Office for Information Technology Policy introduced the draft Principles for Digitized Content. The goal of the Principles is to succinctly voice the primary policy areas that can guide libraries as they make decisions regarding digitization. The Task Force is now soliciting comments from a broad spectrum of the ALA membership, its divisions, round tables and committees through a blog. To make the solicitation easy, each Principle can be commented on separately at
http://blogs.ala.org/digitizationprinciples.php.
The blog will be accepting comments until May 1, 2007. Following the
comment period, the Task Force will review all the comments, make any need revisions and then send forward any revisions to Council. If you have any questions please email Liz Bishoff (Liz.Bishoff@Colorado.edu) or Karen Coyle(kcoyle@kcoyle.net) and we will share them with the Task Force.
Printable copies of the principles document, a list of Task Force
members,and other background documents are available at:
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/contactwo/oitp/digtask.htm
Thank you!
The OITP Task Force on Digitization Policy
Posted by Cyndi Phillip, AASL President
What’s in a word? March 15, 2007
Posted by Laura Pearle in : KQ , add a commentWe’ve all been reading about the use of the word scrotum in The Higher Power of Lucky. (see previous post) What about other words that have power/meaning?
The following arrived in the KQ mailbag:
To the Editor of Knowledge Quest:
I am writing to point out the subtle (but all too common) sexism of Royce’s language in his article “Walking Two Moons: Crossing Borders with International Literature” (Knowledge Quest, Nov/Dec. 2006).
Royce refers to Shabanu as a “young girl.” Shabanu is 11 years old - a girl, but hardly a “young girl.” As a point of comparison, would a boy of eleven be called a “young boy”? A person of eleven years of age is a simply a girl or a boy.
In an article written to promote understanding of differences, it is yet more imperative that the language be fair to all. Girls are often called “young girls” because so often the word “girl” in our society incorrectly refers to an adult woman. I propose that the phrase “young girl” was brought into usage to clarify to the reader that the author is actually referring to a female child and not a female adult.
The terms should mean what they were originally meant to mean: you might disagree with the actual ranges I’ve put down here, but to give a general idea: “young girl” and “young boy” meaning a child five years old and younger; “girl” and “boy” meaning a child between 5 and 13; “young man” and “young woman” referring to a person perhaps between 14 and early 20’s.
There should not be a double standard for the terms used to describe the ages of children, and authors should pay careful attention to how their language gives away both society’s, and their own, biases.
Sincerely,
Olive Woodward
What do you think? Is this one of those charged words? Should the description be changed, or does it fit?
(posted by Laura Pearle)
Schools and students ready…parents not so much March 13, 2007
Posted by charris in : Community , add a commentThe NY Times is covering the complaints from some parents in a Long Island school district that are worried about the school using real-world resources instead of just textbooks.
“‘They can teach them how to evaluate what’s good and reliable information,’ Ms. Augusta [, Director of the Inter-County Teacher Center] said. ‘Students can learn to problem-solve and form opinions for themselves, and sometimes you don’t get that from a textbook’” [NY Times]
Very exciting vision…one problem. With all of the discussion about utilizing a rich variety of physical and electronic resources to support learning, libraries seem to be quite absent from the article. When schools realize the power of moving beyond textbooks, libraries are in an excellent position to help teachers (and parents!) access resources to support learning.
Seeking Input March 3, 2007
Posted by cphillip in : Community , add a commentIn preparation for a presentation that I will be giving this spring, I am seeking input from AASL members. What do you see as the top 10 national trends in the school library media field?
Did you know … Shift Happens March 2, 2007
Posted by ayucht in : Hot Topics , add a commentShare this intriguing video with your administrators!
The original presentation was created by Karl Fisch, Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Colorado: http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/08/did-you-know.html,
then re-mixed by Scott McLeod, a professor in Minnesota: http://scottmcleod.typepad.com/dangerouslyirrelevant/2007/01/gone_fischin.html
And definitely read the comments at both posts for more background info!