“School Libraries: What Next?” Ebook Project

Please take a moment to visit The Unquiet Librarian blog to learn more about how you can participate in the “School Libraries: What Next?” Ebook Project.

http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/school-libraries-what-next-ebook-project/

Chris Crutcher censored in SC district

If you have not heard about it yet, Angry Management author Chris Crutcher has been censored in Kershaw County School district. The title was one of forty titles listed as recommended reading for the 2011 summer by the school district.  But recent objections from a single parent caused the district to pull the title from the list.  One report says the book has been pulled from all libraries and classrooms as well.  This title is on the 2011-2012 South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominee list. Read the response from author Chris Crutcher here: http://www.chriscrutcher.com

Renew Your SCASL Membership!

Don’t forget that June 30th is the end of the 2010-11 school AND SCASL membership year. Please consider renewing your membership now for the 2011- 12 school year! You can use this link or the following PDF and mail or fax your renewal:

http://scasl.net/documents/SCASLMembershipForm20102011.pdf

You can also use the “Join Us” link above to see the Pay Pal options. Just choose the option that applies to you!

And of course if you have any problems contact the SCASL Executive Secretary.

Your Input Needed on the DISCUS Survey

In order to keep the DISCUS databases relevant and useful for SC users, the SC State Library has set up 3 focus groups to determine what databases are needed by each community of users:  K-12, public and academic.  Part of the work of the K-12 Focus Group is to conduct a survey to discover your needs  The results of this survey are going to help identify trials for new databases.

It is very important that all libraries speak with one voice when asking for DISCUS funding. Because the K-12 community is the biggest user of DISCUS, we want to be to be sure that the K-12 Focus Group recommendations reflect YOUR needs.

PLEASE take a few minutes to complete this survey. Thank you in advance!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZPXCS9D

Sincerely,

DISCUS K-12 Focus Group – Chair:  Janet Boltjes Jboltjes@lexington1.net

Thanks for sharing your data – SCASL Snapshot Day 2011

On behalf of the SCASL Advocacy Committee, I would like to personally and publicly thank Fran Bullington, our committee chair, and all of the South Carolina School Librarians who contributed data and photos to our Snapshot Day Project during April. We are still working to compile the data (and even pictures), and are very excited at the numbers we are seeing. As a committee we will be working to put together some resources to use in the name of “home grown” advocacy that reflects the data collected. I am floored by the wonderful participation (though admittedly not every district is represented.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scasl/sets/72157626447915374/ We had 350 photos sent to be used for Snapshot Day materials, and these are available for viewing. I am happy to report that they have already been viewed over 1200 times! If you have photos in the set and want a more specific title to go on them (some have titles that were sent along with the photos, others just generic numbers, etc.) don’t hesitate to contact me with the url of the photo and I will hasten to fix the titles. Each photo also includes a description of who submitted it and where they are located by school and district. I’ve also tagged them so you can click on a tag to see what photos go with that tag. If pictures are missing, feel free to email off the list to ask why. As the committee reviewed photos, at times some were omitted for a variety of reasons, and we’ll be glad to go into specifics off the list. Our committee hopes to be able to provide some data in useful advocacy formats in the coming weeks. Check back to the list and the SCASL Forum often for updates on this admirable and useful project.

–

Cathy Nelson School Librarian – National Board Certified Teacher

Paul M. Dorman High School

Blog: http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/

Contact me at cathyjonelson -at- gmail.com

Skype Me – cathyjonelson