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Book awards– but not us? June 28, 2007

Posted by ayucht in : Hot Topics , 5 comments

According to the AASL Mission statement, school librarians “prepare students for life-long learning, informed decision-making, a love of reading, and the use of information technologies.” That “love of reading” factor was a major topic of discussion at both the AASL Executive Board and Affiliate Assembly meetings just held.

Consider: the Newbery, Caldecott, Siebert, Printz, and now the new Odyssey Award for AudioBook Excellence, are each sponsored by either ALSC and/or YALSA.
Is not AASL also a ‘youth services’ division of ALA?

So why — if fostering reading for both learning and personal pleasure is such an important part of our professional responsibilities — do AASL members have to join (and pay dues to) yet another division in order to serve on any book awards committees?

The Good, Bad, and Ugly June 26, 2007

Posted by Debbie Stafford in : NECC2007 , 1 comment so far

After thinking all morning and into the afternoon about the big picture, for my last session today I chose a more down to earth, how to type session; The Good, Bad and Ugly: Taking Digital Pictures Effectively presented by Leslie Fisher. WOW!

I learned so much crammed into one hour session. I had my camera out trying out some of the things Leslie pointed out and I was not the only one. Leslie gave a list of common mistakes and how to work around each one, these ranged from lighting problems, to focus problems to composition problems and finally to some common editing tricks. I would LOVE to have Leslie at my school for a session. Her website is lesliefisher.com

Now I am headed back to the hotel room with my bag of collectibles from the Vendor floor and will go in search of sustinence.

Posted by Debbie Stafford

The Vendor Floor

Posted by Debbie Stafford in : NECC2007 , 1 comment so far

Ok, I did really truly mean to go to two different workshops after the forum. But I didn’t. Instead I did the vendor floor. But I also got to talk to a friend who I don’t usually get to see and talk to face to face. So I walked the vendor floor and had lunch and the two of us discussed the vendor floor among other topics.

Observations about the vendor area (my observations not necessarily those of my friend);

The vendor book listed 13 vendors in the category Library Automation. Interesting but only TWO were truly library automation (probably because the rest were all at ALA). But it was interesting to see what other companies were considered by “someone” to be library automation. Several network monitoring companies, several video by demand type companies, some equipment (not scanners) companies and several overall student management systems.

EVERYONE has a product that is “aligned with state standards”. What does that really truly mean? How hard is it to align a software product with state standards? I am feeling that this term means nothing.

The more flashy, colorful, animated the product the more it was a product focused on drill or electronic worksheets.

There were actual books out on the floor and I discovered a new vendor line that I want to pursue. Wiley Technology Publishing has a line Jossey Bass and I saw several items that I know my teachers would like to have in our professional collection. A catalog has been promised to me via mail.

Anyone else comment on observations of the vendor floor either from ALA or from NECC?

Posted by Debbie Stafford

SIGMS Forum

Posted by Debbie Stafford in : NECC2007 , add a comment

SIGMS had three high visibility activities at NECC. Peggy Milam Creighton really deserves kudos for pushing this events at NECC.

The first was a the first ever NECC Library Crawl where participants visited the Georgia Archives, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and the newly renovated library at Georgia Tech University. This even was a preconference event.

The Second was the 21st Cebntury Media Center that Lisa mentioned in her post in which abotu 500 attendees visited and that a number of vendors were very willing to support.

The Third was today, the SIGMS forum “The Changing Landscape of the 21st Century School Information Center. Both this session and the Library Crawl were sellouts and this one was a full BIG room. Panelists for the forum were; David Warlick, Doug Johnson, Joyce Valenza, Lisa Perez, Larry Johnson and Alice Yucht. Moderator was Brian Kenney, editor of School Library Journal.

Focus was on the 21st Century School Information Center and the panelists talked on these areas; The role of the librarian - including the new tools and technologies we shoud embrace, and the skills our 21st century students will need.

I don’t feel that I have room or can do justice to each persons presentation but the one that really did stick with me the most was Alice Yucht who said that students will need a “new” set of 3Rs; Reasoning (what if, how now), Reconnoitering (finding my way), and Responsibility (who me?). BTW, Alice did have to spell Reconnoitering for the room.

The second idea that stuck with me concerned a question from the audience “How do I do all that or what do I need to focus on?” In thinking about it the rest of the day my answer is to continute to focus on the what that students are doing, working on collaboration regardless of whether we are using the latest tool and focusing on one to two technologies that I see as a good starting point. With that in mind I will continue to focus on the use of Wikis and pocasting at my school.

Please, if you were also at this session, add your comments as to what stuck with you from the session.

Posted by Debbie Stafford

SIG MS business meeting

Posted by Debbie Stafford in : NECC2007 , add a comment

My last “session” of the day was the SIG MS business meeting. One major part of the discussion concerned the SIG MS listserv. Many there were intersted to find that the listserv is still functioning. Many participants have not been receiving listserv messages.

As the new communication chair I will work on making the listserv a vehicle for communication. With that I went onto the iste site to see why I am one of the people not receiving messages. Peggy mentioned that some people had dropped off when ISTE made some changes.

I found that by going to ISTE, then logging in and going to my profile, then to email lists the box by SIGMS Discussion was not marked.

If you are an ISTE member and also are not receiving listserv messages, you might want to check this out.

Posted by Debbie Stafford