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Virtual Library Legislation Day June 23, 2008

Posted by droth in : Check this out!, Conferences, SKILLS Act , add a comment

Serve your students. Promote and protect school libraries. Make your voice heard.

Virtual Library Legislation Day is Tuesday, July 1, 2008 — Participate!!!

Prepare now (so you know what you want to say and do when the time comes).

Take action on July 1st.

Here’s how:

PREPARE
Read the ALA Washington Office (WO) webpage about the SKILLs Act: http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=10223941

Write a short piece telling your Senators and Representative the importance of passing the SKILLs Act. Use information from the WO webpage together with with your own thoughts and experiences to demonstrate the vital need to enact SKILLs.

If any of your Senators and Representatives already co-sponsor SKILLs, include your thanks and appreciation.

If they do not already co-sponsor SKILLs, ask them to take this step now.

TAKE ACTION
2 parts to this — for those at ALA Annual in Anaheim on July 1; and for those anywhere else

At ALA ANNUAL in ANAHEIM:
Bring your prepared statement to the Virtual Library Day Pavilion in Exhibit Hall sometime between 8:00 a.m. and 12 noon on July 1.

You will get a t-shirt.

You will participate in the excitement and enthusiasm of people representing the entire library community coming together to empower their political voice.

You will contribute to the voice of school libraries within the entire library community.

You will see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a strong library supporter, who will be adding his voice to the call for political support of libraries.

For more information see the WO Virtual Library Day webpage at http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=498

Not at ALA ANNUAL in ANAHEIM
Sometime on July 1st, deliver your message to your Senators and Representative.

How to do this:

Go to the WO Take Action Webpage at http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=10223941

Enter your zip code in the field provided and the message page comes up addressed to your Senators and Representative.

Put in your message and with a click of the mouse send it your Congressional delegation.

Mark your calendar. On Tuesday, July 1 take a few minutes to participate in our democratic system. Serve your students. Protect school libraries. Let your representatives in Congress know that school libraries are vital for the education of our students and therefore for the good of our communities and our country.

Doc

Libraries: essential to basic education June 13, 2008

Posted by jfreeman in : Spokane Moms , add a comment

Washington State’s Joint Task Force on Basic Education Finance is examining public education funding, an issue not addressed satisfactorily in over 30 years. The essential but difficult question: “What should be included in the state funding of basic education?”

The latest advocacy effort of the Spokane Moms, Fund Our Future Washington, and our teacher-librarians is to inform the Task Force about the need for adequate and sustained funding in the funding formula for school libraries and certified teacher-librarians.

A draft proposal presented this past week at a public meeting of the Task Force by Terry Bergeson, Superintendent of Public Instruction, includes these elements:

Support from the Superintendent is very important, but there are other groups hoping to get funding and this process is far from over. They are still collecting information to make a decision by early 2009. We are encouraged that libraries are part of the discussion, thanks to the tireless advocacy of the Spokane Moms.

If you are coming to ALA in Anaheim, consider attending the Advocacy Institute on Friday, June 27th, featuring the Spokane Moms:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issues/advocacyinstitute.cfm

Deadline near for comments on AASL Standards in Action May 26, 2008

Posted by Kathy Lowe in : Check this out!, Standards , add a comment

Dear Colleagues,
June 6th is the deadline for submitting your comments on the first draft of the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action. This document provides support for school library media specialists and other educators in teaching the essential learning skills defined in Standards for the 21st Century Learner. It presents Action Examples for putting Standard 1: Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge, into practice in Benchmark Grades 2, 5, 8, 10 and 12+.

Visit http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/standardsinaction/standardsinaction.cfm to view the draft.

We have had very few comments submitted so far, but hope that many of you will take the time in the next two weeks to scrutinize this draft and offer your input before our task force resumes its work on the remaining Standards. Please don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to what will become the new “handbook” for our profession and make it the best it can be.

We look forward to receiving your commnets soon at StandardsInAction@ala.org

AASL Learning Standards Indicators & Assessment Task Force:
Katherine Lowe, Chair, Massachusetts School Library Association
Cassandra G. Barnett, Fayetteville High School Library, AR
Melissa P. Johnston, Silver City Elementary, Cumming, GA
Barbara K. Stripling, New York City Department of Education
Dr. Violet H. Harada, University of Hawaii
Frances Glick, Baltimore County Public Schools, MD

Trademark and Fair Use May 25, 2008

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

LM_NET often has reoccurring topics on issues of Copyright. These posts are focused either on our role as school library media in teaching and informing students and teachers or questions about fair use, as we try to be role models.

Concerning copyright we all know the 4 rules of fair use and attempt to educate students and teachers about fair use, even when they are reluctant to hear that what they want to do is a copyright violation.

A recent LM_NET thread concerned use of trademarks specifically the use of the ALA READ logo in making posters to encourage reading. Many expressed amazement that a word could be trademarked. After following the debate I decided to do a little research. A disclaimer, my research is certainly not exhaustive and I have no legal training.

First, in considering what a trademark is and what can be trademarked I found the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site to be very helpful. There I found a definition - ‘A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.” There were also pages about what trademarks do and why someone would need a trademark. This site also proved useful - Registering a Trademark.com

Basically, I believe that ALA registered the READ celebrity poster in order to protect that service both for ALA and for the celebrities who volunteer to pose.

In further searching I found reference to “fair use” of trademarks since we all use the word read daily, but I did not find a set of neat rules. Wikipedia lists these two rules From my admittedly limited research it would be my understanding that if I wanted to put something in the school’s parent newsletter encouraging students to READ over the summer that would be fair use. But putting a graphic in the newsletter mimicking an ALA READ poster without “license” from ALA would not.

Fortunately ALA does give librarians a way to use the READ trademark. You can buy the READ CD set and use any of the images, or you can go to the ALA store and order individual READ logo images. Then you can create your own READ celebrity posters and bookmarks.

21st Century standards and Blooms May 12, 2008

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

I was reading this article from techlearning Bloom’s Taxonomy Blooms Digitally. The article covers the original Bloom’s Taxonomy and Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy then goes on to discuss a Bloom’s digital taxonomy map looking at many web2.0 applications and where they would fit.

Then I was reading through the Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action also mentioned elsewhere on the blog.

It then occurred to me to see if the two documents would match up. In a fast review it seems to me that creating, the top of the taxonomy isn’t there while remembering and Understanding are well represented.

Any other thoughts?