LISNews: Librarian News

In these days of educational cutbacks and 'No Child Left Behind', it seems that studying art is practically a luxury. But the Guggenheim Museum has found otherwise; a study to be released today by the museum, and reported in the New York Times suggests that studying art helps students improve skills in other areas. They specifically cited improvements in a range of literacy and critical thinking skills among students who took part in a program Learning Through Art in which the Guggenheim sends artists into schools.

Martha Brockenbrough Says Reading makes you smarter, and the more reading you do, the better. Why this is so and how the magic happens, though, is quite interesting.

In a paper called What Reading Does for the Mind, Anne E. Cunningham, associate professor of cognition and development at the University of California, Berkeley, makes the case that reading:
* increases vocabulary more than talking or direct teaching;

* substantially boosts general knowledge while decreasing the likelihood that misinformation will be absorbed; and

* helps keep our memory and reasoning abilities intact as we age.

Beverly in Illinois writes "Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionWriter Jennifer Moses writes a wonderful story on the value of flexing your reading muscle to make sound decisions in a sound bite world. She Says today's students — like their elders — are in the grip of what she calls post-literacy...."

A favorite site of mine is wordsmith, and the e-mail advisory 'a word a day' by Anu Garg.

This week's words are all book-related, as next week is TV turn-off week. Here's what webmaster Anu says in today's e-mail:

So many channels, so little worth watching! Do you sometimes find yourself muttering those words? Next week is TV Turnoff Week
so give that TV a well-deserved rest, and instead say: So many books worth
reading, so little time!

People in the US watch TV for more than four hours a day. That's equivalent to sitting in front of a TV for two full months nonstop every year. It's not for nothing that TV has been called the plug-in drug, the boob tube, and the idiot box. For more, see : factsheets and research.

It's time to redefine television, from Greek tele- (far) + Latin vision- (view), as something that deserved to be seen far, far away. Instead, get
closer to books. Cut your screen time and increase your page time. This week we'll explore a few words from the world of books.

Today's word is

belles-lettres (bel-LET-ruh). noun;

Literary works valued for their aesthetic qualities rather than
information or instruction.

Subscribe for yourself or your entire library at wordsmith.