Here’s a nice Arizona Central story of how urban kids and Native American kids are connecting through books. Each year, high schoolers from the Red Mountain School in Mesa visit the adobe schoolhouse on the Gila River Indian Reservation, just a short bus-ride from their school. The mission library has grown from 600 books to 10,000 books in just a few years.
Check out the great photo of the Mesa teacher dancing while playing the accordion! (registration required).
Librarians have long believed they provide more to their youngest patrons than a good time and an engaging story. Now they have more data to prove it.
A study of two dozen library literacy efforts released yesterday at the Public Library Association’s conference in Seattle concluded that such programs motivate parents to spend more time reading to babies and preschoolers and helping them learn about letters, words and books.
Admit it, hard-core book fans: You wouldn’t mind buying a special library-grade “book return bin” for your own home or driveway.
They are on display at the packed exhibit hall of the Public Library Association conference at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, along with other library-centric books and equipment. Read more about this here .
In the preface of this How-To-Do-It Manual, Patrick Jones indicates that one of the biggest mistakes librarians can make is taking for granted that everyone wants to have a library card. Statistics tell us otherwise. Adult usage is on the decline and many of us are in the position of having large numbers of our service population who are not card-carrying library users.
That’s the situation this book is designed to address. It focuses on how to “sell the sizzle” when it comes to your library card, i.e., how to market the services accessed via the card in the most compelling way possible. To do this, it looks in-depth at the methods and results of a number of library card campaigns conducted by large, urban libraries (Houston, Philadelphia, etc.) and summarizes those of mid-sized and smaller libraries. Read a more indepth review of the book.
David H. Rothman writes “Oh, I like this! North Carolina now wants Michael Eisner fired as boss of Disney–and has told state pension fund managers to vote against him. It joins funds in half a dozen other states, including California and New York, already committed to this noble cause.
Now, imagine the same tool used against the Sonny Bono Copyight Term Extension Act, which will send billions to the copyright elite over the years at the expense of schools, libraries and consumers in the Tar Heel state and elsewhere.
Time for state pension managers to pressure Disney and other big corporations into calling for a repeal or at least mitigation of Bono–for example, via the Public Domain Enhancement Act? Our schools and libraries don’t need to pay Hollywood an eternal tax! Reasonable fees for reasonable copyright terms? Sure. But not 20 years extra, forever!
Remember, lobbying by Eisner’s henchmen was among the major reasons why we got the Bono act in the first place.”
keltd813 writes “Chestnut Ridge Middle School in Washington Township, Gloucester County, NJ recently had two books challenged, “The Devil’s Storybook” and “The Devil: Great Mysteries, Opposing Viewpoints.”
There was an initial article in the Gloucester County Times (Woodbury, NJ) paper after a group of parents held a rally to draw attention to the situation. A student’s parents led a group of approximately 20 other concerned parents to ban the books — and any thatwere considered books of the occult– from school shelves. They contend that occult books and Internet material led their son to commit self-mutilation and engage in what they said was dangerous behavior. The parents have established a non-profit group called National Concerned Citizens for Youth, which they said plans to campaign throughout the nation to restrict the access to minors of material that is “satanic” in nature in public libraries and book stores.
A few days ago a very well written letter by the librarian at the school was published in the newspaper, explaining the reason why the books are an important part of the library’s collection, and that they both present well rounded information about Satanism from both sides of the issue.
Later it was announced that after an internal review into the two books they have been found to be appropriate for educational purposes and will not be banned or removed from the shelf of the middle school library. The superintendent said a committee was brought together, as per the district’s policy, consisting of a principal, librarian, a teacher and “two interested community members”, who found the books to be “age appropriate” and “acceptable” for use by middle school students.”
Ohio Library Council posted the latest about the CIPA type bill making it’s way through the Ohio Legislature. “With a vote of 29-4, the Senate approved legislation that states that public libraries cannot use LLGSF funds to purchase public access computer terminals or Internet access unless the library installs and operates filtering devices or software that protects against material that is obscene or harmful to juveniles.”
Ohio Library Council posted the latest about the CIPA type bill making it’s way through the Ohio Legislature. “With a vote of 29-4, the Senate approved legislation that states that public libraries cannot use LLGSF funds to purchase public access computer terminals or Internet access unless the library installs and operates filtering devices or software that protects against material that is obscene or harmful to juveniles.””The bill also prohibits juveniles from borrowing any video material without parental consent. The bill will now go to the Ohio House of Representatives for consideration.”
Fang-Face writes “The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education site has a report that they have scored a resounding free speech victory at Shippenburg University. FIRE has been on a campaign for the last few months to get universities to do away with any and all speech free zone policies. They launched their campaign by challenging Shippenburg’s policy, which the school administration staunchly defended. The school finally agreed to repeal its speech code in a settlement. The FIRE front page has numerous links to associated material.“
The Library of Congress has put together a nice collection of thesauri I was unaware of.
Thesaurus for the Global Legal Information Network
Legislative Indexing Vocabulary
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms
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