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ALA and Books July 9, 2007

Posted by Laura Pearle in : ALA2007 , add a comment

As Alice points out, part of our mission is to “prepare students for life-long learning, informed decision-making, a love of reading, and the use of information technologies.”

Most of us go to ALA (or AASL) for the book stuff, but we rarely talk about what we’ve seen/done. How many stood in line for an author signing? Grabbed posters and ARCs? I was one of them. YALSA had a great session, “Teens Read”, with Laurie Halse Anderson, Alyson Noel, Cecily Von Ziegesar and Sherman Alexie. The common thread from them was the while technology has changed (from sitting by the phone and passing notes in class to cell phones and texting, for example), being a teen hasn’t. It’s still, as Ms. Noel said, about the Firsts: first love, first, kiss, first date, first steps into adulthood. In their own way, these authors all address that.

Ms. Anderson pointed out that our task, as librarians, is to bring books to students; she mentioned that many students haven’t read a book for “fun” since fourth grade (how many of us have had the experience of the student complaining about the assigned book because it’s dark/serious/work/boring/meant to teach a lesson?) so she sees it as her job to remedy that. One area that needs exploring is the internet - where so many of our students feel anonymous and safe (they aren’t really, as we well know). Ms. Noel’s books show the darker side, the “culture of mean” that can pervade MySpace.

Ms. Von Ziegesar’s books are about the students she grew up with - the Upper East Side private school world she came from. Yet, somehow, many girls, from all over, read them and identify with the characters and dilemmas.

If you can get Mr. Alexie to speak, do so. His tales of being an Indian immigrant to our white country and finding that he belongs to many different tribes, and what this experience means are both hysterical and poignant. Students will love hearing from him and may feel part of a group in a way they never thought they would.

Another important note: audiobooks (or playaways) are books. Students today are more aural, and “reading” by hearing is still getting the text. It’s also good for those students that are not the visual learner, the dyslexic, etc..

(posted by Laura Pearle)

Affiliate Assembly at Annual July 5, 2007

Posted by charvey in : ALA2007 , 2 comments

The Affiliate Assembly met twice during Annual in DC. The meetings focused on an opportunity for state organizations to share concerns and commendations with the AASL Board. Friday night the group worked on editing the concerns, and they were voted on Sunday morning. Concerns topics ranged from Web 2.0 to Reading. The AASL Board will consider these concerns and report back to the Affiliate Assembly at Midwinter. The Affiliate Assembly provides a communicate route between state level organizations and the national level.

The Affiliate Assembly also had a spotlight presentation by Julie Walker and some of the states involved in the 21st Century Skills endeavor.

Congratulations to Irene Kwidzinski who was elected Chair-Elect. Leslie Foreman was elected Recording Secretary. Jay Bansbach will be the Chair.

Last, but certainly not least, this was the 30th Anniversary of the Affiliate Assembly. Thanks to AASL for providing us cake on Friday night to celebrate!

Posted by Carl Harvey

Sizing Up America’s School Libraries: The First Annual Report on the AASL Longitudinal Survey of School Library Media Centers June 24, 2007

Posted by Floyd Pentlin in : ALA2007 , 1 comment so far

School Libraries Count! A national survey of school library

Keith Curry Lance gave an impressive overview of the preliminary findings of the first AASL longitudinal survey, School Libraries Count! In a well-attended session, Lance described the preliminary findings with the modifying reminder that the complete results will be presented at Reno this October at the national conference.

There were many questions from the audience about possible questions that weren’t asked or suggestions about how to get additional responses for the next survey. The information on the state of America’s school libraries will be collected each year and with each additional year the depth and validity of the information will be more solid. The point is that the only national information about school libraries is collected by the National Center for Educational Statistics and the problem is that their information is only collected every five years and it takes about five years to publish the data. AASL will be able to do better than that.

Results from the survey are reported at the 50 percentile, 75 percentile and 95 percentile levels. This information will tell the reader what half the schools, twenty-five percent of the schools, and five percent are doing in these categories.

Over 5,000 school library media specialists responded to the first-round survey that was an impressive number. Unfortunately, the percentage of schools that were selected specifically to ensure that there was an accurate representative sample came in significantly under the number needed to give a statistically accurate picture of the library situation, but the report is off to a great start. Also interesting was the number of school librarians who responded to the survey who were not AASL members – meaning perhaps that even thought SLMSs were not members of the national organization they perceived the work of this survey to be significant. A corollary would be that they perceive the support by AASL for the survey to be equally significant. Perhaps the ongoing nature of the survey and the publication of its results will filter down to the building-level person and help him/her understand the need for the financial and emotional involvement that comes with being part of an organization that is trying to globally address the issues of school library media centers.

Rather than go into the specifics of the survey results, rest assured that the survey will be posted within a week to the site http://aaslsurvey.org for anyone to download In addition there will an interactive component which will let users to use the data for their own presentations.

Posted by Floyd Pentlin

I’m Spartacus June 22, 2007

Posted by Laura Pearle in : ALA2007 , add a comment

You’re having a Spartacus Moment when someone else advocates for you and your program. The question/challenge is: how do we get that to happen? What steps can we take to ensure that advocacy from outside takes root?

The first step is strategic planning. In the Independent Schools Section’s pre-conference, Maureen Sullivan gave us the basic tools to start our strategic planning process. “The process is as important as the plan” was her basic thread.

So, what is strategic planning? It’s making choices, careful choices, that lead to a better allocation of resources (including personnel). Essentially, the old (and current) work needs to go hand-in-hand with your new vision, and strategic planning can help you get there.

Things to remember when embarking on a strategic plan:

The stages of strategic planning include: creating a mission; identifying the stakeholders (could include parents, administrators, faculty, students, local politicians); doing an environmental scan (what’s going around our library in the Big World, and how does that affect us - OCLC’s Future of the Library report is very useful); creating a vision; looking at the strategic directions; performing an internal assessment; identifying areas for change; defining the strategic goals and objectives and creating an action plan; determining how to assess progress and implementing the plan.

Quick definitions: Mission = what we do (eg, We Try Harder); Vision = how we want to carry out the mission; Goals = broad thinking statements to enable Vision; Objectives = goal outcomes; Action Plan = concrete steps to reach Objectives, Goals, Vision

Ms. Sullivan recommended SWOT analysis to help with the internal assessment, and reminded us that “change is frightening: go to where the people already are, and lead them to where you want them to be.”

So, how does Spartacus come in? Using all this strategic planning, you can gather data about the community in which your library resides. What do “they” want? How can you help them get it?

When they know how you can help - be it raising AYP for the NCLB testing, creating a community of learners/readers, whatever - they’ll advocate for you. If we’re all on the same page, if we use language they understand, if we have a seat at the problem-solving table, and there are measurable results, they’ll stand up and be Spartacus.

For more on the advocacy piece, go to Monday’s session on “Everything You Wanted to Know about the 65% Solution…” led by Ann Dutton Ewbank and Deb Logan. Check out the AASL Advocacy Toolkit. Search the web for “Strategic Planning” “School Libraries”.

(posted by Laura Pearle)

AASL/YALSA Mentoring Program at ALA2007 June 18, 2007

Posted by Laura Pearle in : ALA2007 , add a comment

AASL/YALSA Mentoring Program Proposal to be presented at Emerging Leaders Poster Session at Annual

Emerging Leaders 2007 ( info and wiki) is gathering at ALA Annual in D.C. to share project proposals that cover a number of initiatives throughout ALA. In a poster session on Friday, June 22, from 3:00-5:00pm (details at end of post), over 20 groups will present proposals for programs, surveys, wikis, Websites and other resources that were suggested by ALA and its divisions.

Project K of the Emerging Leaders will be submitting a project plan that was proposed by AASL and YALSA. Entitled Gurus and Greenhorns: Mentoring the Next Generation of School and Youth Services Librarians, the plan details the creation of a mentoring program that would bring together experienced librarians with upcoming and recent MLS graduates that are new to the field. After analyzing the research on mentoring and the past attempts at programs by the organization, the proposal tackles the logistics, administration, outcomes, promotion, and evaluation involved in implementing a mentoring program.

In hopes that the proposal will be adopted by AASL and YALSA, we would like to invite you to visit Project K at the poster session. They are looking forward to discussing the possibilities of the two divisions collaborating on a nationwide initiative. With the program’s creation, we would seek to ensure the retention and advancement of new MLS graduates while simultaneously reinvigorating the knowledge and legacy of our experienced information specialists.

Please contact Jeff DiScala, Emerging Leader and AASL member, with any questions or comments at jeffdiscala [at] gmail [dot] com.

Event details:
Emerging Leaders Poster Session

Friday, June 22, 2007
3:00-5:00pm
Washington Convention Center
Room 144 A-C