SCASL

Tweets from Feb 12th-17th

Susan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:05:40 +0000

buffyjhamilton - Dear students: it is Friday. Please do not ruin it with unnecessary eye-rolling. Love, the librarian

YALSA -Enter your library in the @TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge by 2/29 bit.ly/ygf6XN

Library Girl – RT @mbteach Create QR codes that talk! When code is.scanned, it reads your message out loud! qrvoice.net #tlchat #edchat #edtech

Library Girl – Are Teacher Preparation Programs Dangerously Irrelevant? [guest post] zite.to/yQ5t7D #tlchat #edchat #edtech

SCASL -njasl.org New Jersey Association of School Librarians released findings of 3 yr study showing school (cont) tl.gd/fupjp9

SCASL - FranBullington Congrats to Ellen Bunch, Vickie Napoli, and Pat Jennings who are featured on Spart Dist 2 homepage – spartanburg2.k12.sc.us

American Libraries – Building Displays That Move “the Merchandise” dlvr.it/1CKWVL

SchoolLibraryJournal -Libraries Still an Important Discovery Source for Kids’ Books, Says Study ow.ly/95tJB #toccon

Library Girl -Clear: Why This Simple To Do List App Has Everyone Talking zite.to/wpodt9

SCASL – Congrats to our own Betsy Long for being named to NY Times Top 10 List! tinyurl.com/82mrzwf #librarians #SC @nytimes

Library Girl -5 Tips For Using Pinterest In Your Classroom zite.to/x6xDBE #tlchat #edchat #edtech

Buffy Hamilton -Taking Embedded Librarianship to the Next Level (ALA TechSource Workshop) – bit.ly/w4XAgM

Cathy Jo Nelson -@SCASLnet ow.ly/93kh9 to submit voting data in this year’s SC Book Award Program-All votes due by midnight, March 1 #SCASL12…

Jane Singh -86 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed–Treasure Chest February 12, 2012 zite.to/yPltLn via @zite

Frank W. Baker – A New Tool in Protecting Online Privacy: nyti.ms/zzIBhJ

It’s Book Award Voting Time!!

Cathy Jo Nelson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:08:07 +0000

The Book Award Committees are finalizing the materials to use in book award voting. The ballots you may download will be available sometime tomorrow. But the four links links to the Survey Monkey tool used to tally votes are ready for use! If you have created your own system or ballot for your school-level voting, and are ready to submit your votes, you may use the links below.

General reminders:

Vote collection data ENDS midnight, March 1, 2012
Schools conduct their own election, tally their results, and submit via the links below their vote totals.
Schools may participate in any level that is applicable to their grade distribution (i.e. it is possible for a school that has grades k-8 in one building to participate in all four levels.)
The general rule of thumb is as follows, and you may have overlapping in some cases:

Picture Book Category – Primary Grades
Children’s Book Category – Elementary Grades
Junior Book Category – Middle or Junior High Grades
Young Adult – High School Grades

For a student’s vote to count, they must have read minimum three of the nominees.

The Survey Monkey Links are as follows:

SC Picture Book Award

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2011-12PBAvoting

SC Children’s Book Award

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2011-12CBAvoting

SC Junior Book Award

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2011-2012JBAvoting

SC Young Adult Book Award

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2011-2012YABAvoting

PLN – A Guest Post written by “CybrarianLiz”

Cathy Jo Nelson — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:39:19 +0000

written by SCASL Information Technology Member Member Liz Martin, AKA “Cybrarian Liz”
This post originally appeared on her own self-titled blog, “CybrarianLiz”

When I attended USC I had a phenomenal professor (Dan Barron) who challenged us as educators. His mantra was “grow or die”. How many of us in the educational arena are growing and how many are dying? I use my PLN as a means of continued growth. In a global technology knowledge driven society (welcome to the 21st C), not only is it incredibly facile to have an international PLN, but also it is vital.

A Personal Learning Network (PLN) has always been an integral part of the educational community. The traditional “teachers lounge” served as a collaborative, albeit informal, meeting place for the exchange of ideas and information. The proliferation of virtual meeting spaces allows the collaborative brainstorming to transcend the physical geographic boundaries of the bricks and mortar buildings in which the face-to-face interactions occur. Even within the same physical space, schedule differences often precludes the ability to brainstorm with other educators. Add to that the demands of after hours responsibilities and collaborative exchange becomes more difficult.

Welcome to the 21C. No doubt the most effective means of collaboration and professional growth does necessitate the P2P, F2F interactions. Nothing energizes me quite like brainstorming with kindred spirits within my bricks and mortar building. What does occur before the P2P, F2F interactions are the integral piece to my growth as an educator. The plethora of virtual PD opportunities available 24/7 enables me to continuously be exposed to new ideas and information from across the globe. In a global knowledge based economy, the ability to interact with educators from other geographic areas whether across the state or across the globe enables me to have a broader perspective of the educational institution.

Steps to en effective PLN:

1. Find kindred spirits within your building

These are those colleagues who energize you, the ones that put that lift in your step and that excitement about your profession.

2. Subscribe to a listserv

Yes, these have been around for decades, but I do not view them as archaic and outdated. Some of my best ideas and resources come across my listservs (thanks SCASL!!).

3. Search for and subscribe to blogs from educators within your fields of interest. In my opinion, EVERY educator should be avidly developing a repertoire of information in the field of educational technology. These are those “experts” who profoundly impact your educational philosophy and change the way you think and teach. Some of mine:

Alan Levine	Marc Prensky	Joyce Valenza
Daniel Pink	Alan November	John Gatto
Cathy Nelson	Tony Vincent	Kathy Schrock
Will Richardson	Bryan Hughes	Don Tapscott
Ewan McIntosh	Dean Shareski	David Warlick

4. Develop “professional” social networking resources

I have “dedicated” PROFESSIONAL social networking sources which include:

• Twitter

• YouTube

• Google+

• Facebook

• Ning

• EdModo

My SNR allow an exchange of ideas as opposed to absorption of ideas and many of these interactions direct me to other sources of PD and growth.

5. Participate in webinars and online conferences.

Honestly probably the BEST way to expose yourself to new ideas and information as well as a means of affirming what you are already doing. The beauty of webinars is the flexibility. As a single mom, I love being able to be at home with my teenagers and participate in PD simultaneously. Plus, webinars are archived for future access and reference.

Some of the best conferences I have ever attended are Educon. The first I attended (F2F) was in2008. While circumstances have precluded my physical presence in the subsequent years of 2009, 2010, 2011 and the upcoming 2012, I have been able to attend virtually. Incredible conversations and interactions amongst both virtual and physical participants every year!

Professional development and growth is no longer cost prohibitive. While I am not maligning the importance of the p2p and f2f interactions, it is not necessary to physically attend conferences and seminars in order to develop as a professional.

At the end of the day, (in my AAR), when I evaluate my effectiveness, I am always struck by how necessary my PLN is to me throughout all of my activities. Educators have always developed professionally by first learning from mentors and peers. Digital technologies allow our PLN to transcend traditional geographic and time constraints so that interactions may occur both synchronously and asynchronously. The immediacy in which information, advice and support is available affords educators opportunities to participate in a multitude of personal learning networks heretofore unavailable.

So I pose the question to myself and others…are we learning and growing? We need to move ahead and lead or move aside to let others lead….

SCASL Webinar Slides from January 25, 2012

Cathy Jo Nelson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:43:40 +0000

ADVOCACY: A Cautionary Tale

Cathy Jo Nelson — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:39:36 +0000

The school board in Marble, MN has yet to finalize a plan that will eliminate school libraries completely, but it looks like that is where they are heading. This is a story that ALL school librarians need to read – consider it a cautionary tale.

http://marblelibrary.blogspot.com/2012/02/if-you-dont-like-it-change-it.html

Who are your school board members? Have you asked to make a presentation to them this year? Why not use the advocacy presentation, created by Gloria Coleman, SCASL Pre-Service Committee Chair, and her committee? You can request a DVD from Gloria (GCOLEMAN@richlandone.org ) or access the Prezi version here:

http://prezi.com/new20iqphp8q/school-libraries/?auth_key=8e467cda99f9e1c63a7114fc60299d55d1753993

Please share your successes with this presentation (or one you create) to encourage other SC school librarians to speak to their school boards.

Fran Bullington, SCASL Advocacy Committee Chair
Boiling Springs High School
Boiling Springs, SC
(864) 578-8465
fran.bullington@spartanburg2.k12.sc.us

Favorite Tweets of the Week – February 3rd

Susan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:48:39 +0000

SC State Library – Celebrating The Legacy Of Langston Hughes : NPR ow.ly/8QZCV #blackhistorymonth #nikkyfinney #langstonhughes

YALSA – From The Hub: The Hub: Tweets of the Week – February 3, 2012 goo.gl/fb/jl7lu #uncategorized

AASL – Posts from AASL Advocacy Tip of the Day for 01/31/2012 – eepurl.com/iSB6D

Library Girl – Google Launches Redesigned Education Site zite.to/wKkP60 #tlchat #edchat #edtechlAASL

AASL – It’s time to finish up that application! The deadline to apply for an AASL award or grant is February 1st! ow.ly/8JbR2

Library Girl – Point/Counterpoint: Should Students Use Their Own Devices in the Classroom? zite.to/ArSC1G #tlchat #edchat #edtech

Library Girl – Stepping Up Our Game: School Libraries and Self Assessment zite.to/x4hnid #tlchat #edchat #edtech

Mark Brumley – 5 Web 2.0 Image Editors. Share this post! bit.ly/qBFt2y #k12 #schools

And the 2012-2013 SCBA Nominees are….

Cathy Jo Nelson — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:09:55 +0000

The 2012-2013 SC Book Awards nominees are here tonight!. A special thanks to both David Wendt from Follett and Robin Cole from Mackin have the lists and will be making commemorative posters if not at conference then soon, and the Book Awards Committee is moving forward on posting activities. These will be posted sometime this spring, as the committees now need to focus on the book award sessions at conference and the voting procedures and links. These should be ready next week.

2012-2013 SCPBA Nominees
Title	Author
Blue House Dog, The	Blumenthal, Deborah
Polar Opposites	Brooks, Erik
Tweak, tweak	Bunting, Eve
Grandma’s Gloves	Castellucci, Cecil
1 Zany Zoo	Degman, Lori
Ten Big Toes and a Prince’s Nose	Gow, Nancy
In the Garden with Dr. Carver	Grigsby, Susan
Fair Cow	Helakoski, Leslie
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave	Hill, Laban Carrick
How Rocket Learned to Read	Hills, Tad
Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse	Janni, Rebecca
Stand Straight, Ella Kate: The True Story of a Real Giant	Klise, Kate
Pierre the Penguin: A True Story	Marzollo, Jean
Wonder horse	McCully, Emily Arnold
Hibernation Station	Meadows, Michelle
Firehouse Light, The	Nolan, Janet
Seed, Soil, Sun: Earth’s Recipe for Food	Peterson, Cris
Art & Max	Wiesner, David
City Dog, Country Frog	Willems, Mo
Watcher: Jane Goodall’s life with the chimps, The	Winter, Jeanette


2012-2013 SCCBA Nominees
Title	Author
Strange Case of Origami Yoda, The	Angleberger, Tom
I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History’s Strangest Cures	Beccia, Carlyn
Because of Mr. Terupt	Buyea, Rob
Cheesie Mack is not a genius or anything	Colter, Stephen
How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a Life (and a Dog): A Novel	Corriveau, Art
Belly Up	Gibbs, Stuart
Ghost of Crutchfield Hall, The	Hahn, Mary Downing
True (sort of)	Hannigan, Katherine
What’s for Dinner? Quirky, Squirmy Poems from the Animal World	Hauth, Katherine
Turtle in Paradise	Holm, Jennifer L.
Touch Blue	Lord, Cynthia
Secret of the Sealed Room, The	MacDonald, Bailey
After All, You’re Callie Boone	Mack, Winne
Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester, The	O’Connor, Barbara
Dog’s Way Home, A	Pyron, Bobby
Romeo and Juliet Code, The	Stone, Phobe
Henry Aaron’s Dream	Tavares, Matt
Inside out & back again	Thanhla, Lai
Little Joe	Wallace, Sandra Neil
Doodlebug: A Novel in Doodles	Young, Karen Romano


2012-2013 SCJBA Nominees
Title	Author
Roots and Blues : A Celebration	Adoff, Arnold
Strange Case of Origami Yoda, The	Angleberger, Tom
Bat Scientists	Carson, Mary Kay
Crunch	Connor, Leslie
Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet, The	Dionne, Erin
Mockingbird	Erskine, Kathryn
Dark Life	Falls, Kat
Warriors in the Crossfire	Flood. Bo
Hero	Lupica, Mike
Camo Girl	Magoon, Kekla
Sources of Light	McMullan, Margaret
Ninth Ward	Parker Rhodes, Jewell
Long Walk to Water, A: A Novel Based on a True Story	Parks, Linda Sue
Woods Runner	Paulsen, Gary
Mamba Point	Scaletta, Kurtis
Is it Night or Day?	Schumer Chapman, Fern
Shooting Kabul	Senzai, N.H.
Boys without Names	Sheth, Kashmira
Grimm Legacy, The	Shulman, Polly
Saving Sky	Stanley, Diane


2012-2013 SCYABA Nominees
Title	Author
Star Crossed	Bunce, Elizabeth C.
Pathfinder	Card, Orson Scott
Heist Society	Carter, Ally
Matched	Condie, Ally
Blindsided	Cummings, Priscilla
Something Like Hope	Goodman, Shawn
Eli The Good	House, Silas
Five Flavors of Dumb	John, Antony
Claire de Lune	Johnson, Christine
Firelight	Jordan, Sophie
Ghost and the Goth, The	Kade, Stacey
Hunger	Kessler, Jackie Morse
Please Ignore Vera Dietz	King, A.S.
Blue Plate Special	Kwasney, Michelle
Prisoners in the Palace: How Victoria Became Queen with the Help of Her Maid, a Reporter, and a Scoundrel: A Novel of Intrigue and Romance	MacColl, Michaela
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer	McBride, Lish
Lockdown	Myers, Walter Dean
Sky Is Everywhere, The	Nelson, Jandy
Sorta Like a Rock Star: A Novel	Quick, Matthew
Virals	Reichs, Kathy

Ideas for Using AASL Best Websites: Tagxedo

Cathy Jo Nelson — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:01:13 +0000

Cross posted from the AASL Blog

In this blog entry Cathy and I are going to talk about using Tagxedo in your school. This site won in the most recent 2011 list and has been a presentation favorite since it was announced. If you have never used Tagxedo, this site is a word cloud generator. But the website takes word clouds to a whole new level. Tagxedo lets users create shapes out of their word clouds. Use the shapes that Tagxedo has available or load your own art or pictures and create the clouds from those. The site is completely free and very addictive once you start trying it.

Tagxedo can be used to create designs of all types. It can be used for conference logos, to create t-shirt designs, or posters. Students can create a tag of themselves. Import a close cropped headshot of a student and they can create a Tagxedo of words that describe their personality, or their favorite books, likes, dislikes, and more. Tagxedo can be incorporated into school art contests as well. This site can be used for a vocabulary introduction activity and it can help students gain familiarity with unknown words.

This website is perfect for differentiation of instruction. Students who are visual learners can express their work through word images. Tagxedo can be the unwritten research paper, a detailed representation of library investigation and work. Those students who have difficulty writing out long passages can use this site to explain their work graphically. The images from Tagxedo can be embedded into Power Points and other media. Instead of bullet points on a slide, a word cloud can do the job instead.

Assigning a Tagxedo as a way to demonstrate concept mastery does not eliminate the need to for background research or reading about a topic to develop a word cloud. On the contrary, students have to dig deeper in their thinking when they are visualizing how to represent their research or findings in a graphic format through a word cloud.

Tagxedo is a site that the AASL Best Websites Committee for Teaching and Learning highly recommends. It is a site that many of the committee members use personally and recommend to their students and faculty. The Tagxedo website offers 101 ways to use their word clouds. Copying and pasting images is very easy. It is a very user-friendly, intuitive site that we feel your students and you will enjoy.

Heather Moorefield-Lang (Committee Chair) and Cathy Jo Nelson (Committee Member)

Read In Registration

Cathy Jo Nelson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:27:30 +0000

Read-In 2012 Registration Form

Day 2 @ ALA Midwinter

Cathy Jo Nelson — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:50:32 +0000

We are back in the room getting ready to head out and hopefully attend the Freedom to Read event at the Dallas Public Library featuring author John Green.

Today was another full day. AASL Affiliate Assembly began at 7:30 and lasted until noon. Not only were Kathy and I there, but Kathy Carroll, Standards & Guidelines Chair and more recently AASL Affiliate Assembly Director Elect of Region 4!

Some of my notes:

AASL Blog will have what was discussed yesterday.

If you haven’t already, please take a few minutes to sign the petition: http://wh.gov/Wgd

AASL Past President’s (Nancy Everhart) Report on the concerns we sent to AASL Board: (BTW, these are the ones from the 14 that were submitted to Affiliate Assembly that were actually sent to the board.)

#1 dealt with Race to the Top and School Librarian Effectiveness. The request was for a task force to measure our effectiveness to student achievement. Result as an essential link added on this issue and a paper/brochure/something will be presented at ALA Annual.

#4 Filtering and Access – Result: Fall Forum session has been added. The next School Librarian’s Count Survey will gather data on the filtering/access in schools/districts/states. Also this information is supposed to be available on COSN’s website.

#5 AASL White Paper on CIPA and eBooks (this one was sent up from our region!) Our request was for a task force developed with a toolkit on legal parameters, purchasing models,a nd circulation models. Result: this is being done at the ALA level. The ALA Digital Content Committee has been formed with Chris Harris as the AASL representative on the committee. Six subcommittees will be formed for areas such as accessibility; privacy/ethics; communication for library community; and communication beyond the library community. We need to try to get an AASL representative on each of these sub groups. If you are interested contact AASL President – Carl Harvey.

#7 Task force on capstone senior projects (necessary for graduation). Result: a task force will be established. Volunteers are needed to be on this and it will be called “Senior Project/Capstone Task Force”

#11 Position Statement on School Libraries & federally mandated programs. Result: Currently working on. ”Role of School Library Programs Position Statement” is being written now.

#14 Guidelines for School Library Staffing – want some kind of quantitative standards developed by AASL. Result: Due to this huge (and controversial issue) a task force will be created to study all implications of coming up with quantitative staffing guidelines & concerns this would raise. The region who sent this wants AASL to say there should be x number of certified librarians for x number of students.

Fall Forum Update: Will be in Greenville this fall. Cap of 500 attendees! Hotel is the Embassy Suites some distance from the convention center. $125/night for single and $145/night for quad. Free shuttle from hotel to convention center. They took applications for remote viewing sites to offer it across the country. Results from those applications will be forthcoming.

Organizations that AASL affiliates with:
www.stemchallenge.org
www.wholechildeducation.org
www.digitallearningday.org
www.ncte.org/ncle
www.p21.org

The California School Library Association representative provided a presentation on their CA Campaign for Strong School Libraries – an advocacy effort. Message they want everyone to know/remember: ”Strong School Libraries Build strong Students.” Some links that may be of interest:

ecitizenship.csla.net
librarycampaign.csla.net
www.circulatethis.posterous.com
http://cafepress.com/csla - proceeds from the sales go to a foundation for grants for advocacy efforts on the local level.

After Affiliate Assembly, I wanted to attend the “Romance Day” at the Pop Top Stage in the Exhibit Hall. There was a panel given by four (supposed to be 5) YA romance authors. The panel included: Heather Burch, Trinity Feagen, Rachel Hawthorne, and Sophie Jordan. While all four of these authors were great, three were AWESOME and Kathy and I collected their contact information (along with the free signed books!) to contact as possible authors for 2013!

That’s all for now!

Heather

Heather Loy, Library Media Specialist
Wagener-Salley High School
2012 SCASL Conference Program Chair
2011-12 SCASL President-Elect
hloy@mac.com

My 1st Day at ALA (Midwinter)

Cathy Jo Nelson — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:47:32 +0000

Since we’ve made it back to the room at a reasonable hour and aren’t ready to rush out to get dinner, I thought I’d share what Kathy and I have done today!

Our day started off much less adventurous than yesterday. For background, Kathy and I were SUPPOSED to have a 9:50 am flight to Atlanta, followed by our flight to Dallas – arriving around 1pm (Dallas time). Unfortunately, our plane had mechanical problems and was delayed, then finally canceled. After spending an hour in line to change our flight plans, we were DRIVEN from Columbia to Augusta (an hour plus drive in a PACKED van – I was practically sitting on Kathy!) We arrive at 1pm to learn that since our flight didn’t leave until 5pm, there would be no one at the ticket gate until after 2pm. Which wouldn’t have been so bad, but we hadn’t eaten since breakfast some 6 hours previous and were starving and had no boarding pass to get back to the restaurant at the gates. Our only choice was a “cafe” that had pre-packaged type sandwiches (think Barnes & Noble cafe) and they wouldn’t honor our vouchers from Delta! We arrived in Dallas at 7pm (8pm SC time) and didn’t get our bags and to the hotel until after 9pm. By then we were STARVING again – ate in one of the hotel bar type – which was really very good – and then crashed to sleep.

But back to today. Due to the adventure from yesterday, we were a little slow to start – which was fine since our first order of business was the AASL Affiliate Assembly meeting that didn’t start until 10:30 am (and lasted until 12:30.) So we took a leisurely time getting ready, breakfast, and trekked to the convention center to register.

The Affiliate Assembly meeting was pretty interesting. Those who were there were split up into groups of 8 and we were tasked to discuss one of 4 scenarios that were issues raised by different regions.

One dealt with a district getting rid of all of their librarians and replacing them with volunteers. To top it off, the local media jumped on board to say how fantastic that was – saving money in these tight times and so on. Our job was to discuss how to keep that from happening to surrounding districts and assist the one that lost the librarians.

Second situation was about declining membership in state level organizations (ie: groups like SCASL) – not just professional members, but business partners and exhibitors for conferences. How do you stop the trend and increase membership/participation?

Third situation dealt with a state changing the role of librarians to “support staff” instead of teachers. Along with that they are not given the same benefits as teacher (such as they no longer are allowed personal days). I can’t remember what all else was discussed. The request was for how can they fix this situation?

Fourth was the state has adopted Common Core, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and other such standards and are holding teacher librarians to a new method of evaluation based on their providing services and instruction that align to the above. While at the same time, no funds are provided to purchase the needs these increased standards call for (ie: technology, resources, etc.) What are these librarians to do?

Now, I don’t have the answers and let me tell you the discussions were heated and passionate.

After the Affiliate Assembly, we had lunch and headed to the Exhibits hall. We talked with vendors, turned in slips for drawings, and picked up numerous arcs and freebies. We were also there to attend the John Wiley booth author signing – Donalyn Miller! I figured it would be a good idea to go and at least introduce myself since we’ve only “met” via email and we can at least put faces to names since she is coming to our conference in March! I was very impressed and can’t wait to hear her talks at conference!

While waiting in line we struck up a conversation with the guy behind us – who turned out to be a middle-grades author – Michael Scotto!

We also met at another booth author Amy Carol Reeves, a YA author from COLUMBIA, SC! Who knew?! - She teaches at USC and her book Ripper sounds really good!

To finish off the day we attended an event given by TOR – they presented “booktalks” about recently and forthcoming books. That was very informative and I’ve got some more titles to add to my “wish list!”

So, that was our day! Up tomorrow, a FOUR hour Affiliate Assembly meeting (8am-noon). And I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’re able to attend the Freedom to Read Banned Author fundraising event at the Dallas Public Library featuring John Green tomorrow evening! We’ll have to miss the session he is giving in the morning in order to attend the Affiliate Assembly!

I plan to do a write up about our adventures tomorrow, but if we are able to attend the John Green event, I doubt I will do a write up tomorrow! We WILL send out information/updates from the Youth Media Event – where all the book winners are announced) on Monday. Don’t forget that you can watch/follow along on the web:

http://tinyurl.com/ymawebcast

or for those whose district block URL shorteners:

http://www.webcastinc.com/client/ala-webcast/

So that was my day! Hope yours was a good one, too!

Heather

Heather Loy, Library Media Specialist

Wagener-Salley High School

2012 SCASL Conference Program Chair

2011-12 SCASL President-Elect

hloy@mac.com

Gearing up for Conference!

Cathy Jo Nelson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:30:27 +0000

SCASL Webinar
8PM Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Coming next week at 8PM, Wednesday, January 25, 2012, SCASL is offering a webinar. We are using a platform called MeetingBurner and it will be facilitated by SCASL Instructional Technology Member Chris Craft, and led by SCASL Pres-Elect Heather Loy and SCASL Instructional Technology Committee Chair Cathy Nelson.

The webinar will focus on getting us all ready for the 37th Annual SCASL Conference “Advocacy Starts with You @the Library.”

Plan to join us for some promotion, information, and even how you as a South Carolina Librarian can plug in at conference.

If you’d like to register early follow this link http://ChrisCraft.enterthemeeting.com/m/1IFNRDW8
and provide the required information. Those who register early will receive a system reminder via email that will contain the link to join. If you are still not sure yet, that’s okay. We will use all of our communication avenues to remind folks to join in next Wednesday at 8PM, January 25. I hope to see many attending. Special thanks to Dr. Chris Craft for allowing us use of his webinar room/space for this event!

SOPA & PIPA: Another form of censorship?

Cathy Jo Nelson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:19:37 +0000

Clay Shirky explains it best!

Great News! Additional Pre-Conference Session

Heather Loy — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:34:12 +0000

Hi, guys!

I have some more good news. Frank Baker, author of the recently released book Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom, has agreed to repeat his Wednesday morning pre-conference session on Wednesday afternoon! This will be open to all conference attendees – no ticket required! His session is called “Media Literacy: Part of the 21st Century Skills All Students Need.”

Description: Join Frank Baker for this extended, hands-on and interactive session. You’ll learn how to incorporate media literacy into instruction as well as some of the valuable resources available to you, your teachers and your students.

Conference T-Shirts

Heather Loy — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:22:47 +0000

Hi, guys!

Just a quick advertisement to entice ya’ll to order t-shirts this year. Attached is a picture of what our shirts will look like (except they are PURPLE, not the blue-ish color in the jpeg!)

If you love it as much as I and want to order them, but you’ve already turned in your registration, DON’T PANIC!

You can still order them. Just send in a separate registration form for the shirt(s) – cause you can order as many as you’d like! – along with your payment. Forms can be found online at:

http://scasl.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2012-Conference-Registration-Form.pdf

Deadline to MAIL your t-shirt order with a check is January 21st!

Deadline to order t-shirts with a credit card is February 15th – fax to 803-492-3025 or email to Ervinscasl@gmail.com.

Of course, if you have any questions, please send them my way at hloy@mac.com

Heather

PS: t-shirts are printed to order. There will NOT be any extra shirts for sale at conference, so order yours today!

Guest Post Chris Harris: Ebooks and School Libraries

Cathy Jo Nelson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:14:06 +0000

Schools face unique challenges in their efforts to offer digital texts

Copied with permission from American Libraries; original post here.

In their efforts to implement ebooks, school libraries face a set of challenges that differ from those confronting their public and academic counterparts. In addition to the struggle they share with other types of libraries to offer current bestselling fiction ebooks, school libraries are also working to secure backlist fiction, curriculum-focused nonfiction, and multiple copies of books for group use. At the same time, however, they are fortunate to have a strong working relationship with many different publishers and vendors that work within the K–12 market.

To better explore these challenges and advantages, it helps to consider a few different school library ebook-use scenarios. A common desire in K–12 buildings is to adopt ebook readers as a replacement for costly and heavy printed texts. An English department that considered making this change was stymied by the lack of availability of some of the texts on their reading list. Although Ray Bradbury recently relented and allowed the publication of an ebook version ofFahrenheit 451, other English-class standards like To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, and The Good Earth remain unavailable in digital formats. Whether due to author reluctance or publisher apathy, this lack of e-texts can put a serious damper on ebook adoption in school libraries.

This is not the case, however, when it comes to reference and research materials. A great deal of nonfiction at the K–12 level is already available in a variety of formats and under various licensing terms. Facilitating their use as part of a class project, many of the books can be secured with unlimited, simultaneous-access rights. Publishers are also working to enrich their ebooks to better meet the new Common Core State Standards. For example, enhanced social studies ebooks from Rosen Publishing include maps, timelines, and primary-source documents. Larger publishers of reference works are also working with school libraries to meet their specialized needs for district access to a common set of resources. Many publishers and vendors in the school library sector are working with districts and library systems to provide consortia-access pricing.

Group pricing, whether for consortia access or simultaneous users, remains an issue. Some schools have tried working with e-reader hardware such as the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook. Yet the consumer-focused model that these bookstore-based devices follow has proven less than ideal for schools. It is difficult—or, in the case of Apple’s iPad and iBookstore, impossible—to purchase multiple copies of a book for use by multiple students in a reading group. Although Barnes & Noble has launched a new educational-purchase program that offers bulk discounts on e-readers, the way the company handles assigning books and specific hardware to groups still leaves much to be desired for school libraries.

One of the areas of greatest potential for ebooks in school libraries is in accommodating students with special needs. The US Department of Education–funded BookShare.org program supplies free DAISY-formatted ebooks, offering text-to-speech enhancements with read-along highlighting to students with a qualifying print or visual disability. Other publishers, including Capstone and Orca, provide ebooks in the high-interest/low reading level (hi-lo) field. Using ebook readers that mask the book title, students can have successful reading experiences without suffering social stigma. E-readers that use E Ink screens, such as the Kindle and Nook, have also proven highly successful for struggling readers thanks to the single-page display that lets students focus on the present without worrying about the pages to come.

In the end, school libraries around the country are continuing to look forward to a future rich with ebooks. The school library sector has a symbiotic relationship with small, independent publishers and vendors, akin to that between academic libraries and university presses. Individual libraries are trying different programs to see what works, and the publishers and vendors in the K–12 market are working with school libraries in a strong partnership. Their efforts have been most successful in nonfiction and reference resources, but school libraries are hoping to work with public libraries to meet bestseller fiction needs. In addition, ebook adoption seems to be most successful and efficient at the district or regional level, though individual libraries are having great success with small trial programs as well.

CHRISTOPHER HARRIS is director of the School Library System for the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership in New York State and blogs at American Libraries’ E-Content.

Oh how I love thee, let me count the ways…

Cathy Jo Nelson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:44:26 +0000

Neil Gaiman on libraries and librarians–enjoy!!

Neil Gaiman, author and Honorary Chair of National Library Week, speaks about the value of libraries, librarians and librarianship before his lecture at the annual McFadden Memorial Lecture Series hosted by Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library on April 16, 2010.

SCASL.net – Hiccups!

Cathy Jo Nelson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:55:39 +0000

As your SCASL Information Technology Chair, I want to make you aware of other news regarding the site. We’re sort of experiencing hiccups.

Image: 'http://www' By ntr23

Just after the new year, our site was migrated to a newer, faster hosting service with our current web host Pair. This was a need because of the higher demands of the newly redesigned site. Not sure if many noticed but the site was sluggish and often slow to load. Also, the behind the scenes workings of the site required updates that the old server could not handle, which is why we asked that it be moved to the newer faster one at Pair, our current hosting company. This was done with minimal expense and little interruption to service. The site absolutely loads with amazing speed now. See for yourself!

The much needed updates were the next task at hand, and we’ve run into a bit of trouble with the last few, namely the members only forums. For this reason, if you try to visit the forums, you will see a strange error message. To work out these problems, the log in has been temporarily removed (we want to move the login box to the home page anyway) and the forums are not accessible. We have our expert web developer Mike Heath of Somacore under contract again to make the necessary updates behind the scenes and get our forums back in use. Mike is the very talented designer of our newly revamped page.

Please be patient as we work to get our site 100% back online and in service. An announcement will be forthcoming via the website, the listserv, and the forums when all is back in working order.

Regards,

Cathy Jo Nelson

SCASL Information Technology Chair

MLIS, NBCT – Dorman High School

cathyjonelson at gmail.com

Walter Dean Myers – 2012 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

Cathy Jo Nelson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:55:31 +0000

Full Video of Walter Dean Myers’ Inauguration as the Third National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature (announced January 10, 2012.) The ceremony took place on January 10 at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
More Details

Walter Dean Myers’ National Ambassador Inaugural Ceremony from The Children’s Book Council on Vimeo.

Speaking of Book Awards…

Cathy Jo Nelson — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:55:33 +0000

Can’t wait to see if these predictions are anywhere near correct. We will know shortly—the winners are announced at ALA Midwinter which is coming up in just a few short weeks.

Don’t forget the ALA Youth Media Awards live Webcast is Jan. 23, 7:45 a.m. CT. (That’s 8:45AM for us!!) There are 10,000 virtual seats… fb.me/1ed67dor0

Follow on Twitter or Facebook too.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ALAyma
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alayma?sk=wall

Another reason this is GReAT is because as soon as the announcements are done, the SCASL Book Award Committee will release the 2012-2013 SC Book Award Nominees SCORE!!

2012 Youth Media Award announcements include:

Alex Awards

Andrew Carnegie Medal

Coretta Scott King Book Awards

Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement

John Newbery Medal

Margaret A. Edwards Award

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture

Michael L. Printz Award

Mildred L. Batchelder Award

Odyssey Award

Pura Belpré Awards