1. Lately, there seem to be 2 consistent and related questions:
A) Do we need school libraries and school librarians?
B) What does a good school library and school librarian do?
So do we need a rubric – a checklist so Principals and schools can grade/test their school library? (testing being very popular in school spheres at present)
In January Joyce Valenza said,
“In case you were sleeping, over the past two years, stuff happened. Big stuff. Stuff we should have led. I’ve been watching as other professionals in education grabbed turf we should have grabbed or tried together…
The game has changed dramatically. The changes we talk about are not bandwagons. They represent profound changes in the way we do business, the way we do libraries, the way we must educate.
Teacher librarians, as information and communication specialists must lead change in their buildings and districts or face irrelevancy.”
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/600051860.html?nid=3714
Here are some of my other favorite posts about what school libraries in the 21st century should be about:
http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2010/03/tracking-my-activities.html
http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2010/01/evaluating-for-authorisation.html
http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2009/06/importance-of-creating-annual-report.html
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/assets/pdf/21cexsum.pdf
reports http://theunquietlibrary.libguides.com/august2009 Media 21 project
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/category/media-21/
http://theunquietlibrarian.wikispaces.com/media21capstone-buffy
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/yes-virginia-teachers-and-librarians-can-be-successful-collaborative-partners/
http://slav.globalteacher.org.au/2010/01/17/the-future-of-the-library-yet-again/
http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/?p=1002
http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/03/25/library-2.0-enter-the-teacher-librarian-enthusiast.aspx
Other resources
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/assets/pdf/Schoollibraries1C.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/y8w3zm3
http://bccsl.ca/does_n.htm
2. Is any publicity good publicity? Find every librarian stereotype at Channel 7 – 7pm project as they discuss teacher librarians becoming extinct http://7pmproject.com.au/video.htm?channel=7PM+Catch+Up&clipid=2689_7pm-seg1-090410&bitrate=300&format=flash
3. Very funny shadow presentation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blOrY-nEGaE&feature=player_embedded How to make the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixSCjigDeM8&annotation_id=annotation_315044&feature=iv
4. Clean up your Facebook profile http://mashable.com/2010/04/08/clean-up-facebook/
5. Podcast book trailers http://podcast2.mid-del.net/users/sloch/
6. 50 best book people to follow on twitter http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/09/50-best-book-people-to-fo_n_529295.html?ref=twitter
7. TL tools – AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION DIGEST School Libraries Special http://www.acsso.org.au/AED100408.htm
Reading Ebsco Teacher- librarian tools including scavenger hunt http://www.ebscohost.com/customerSuccess/default.php?id=714
Teacher librarian resources http://www.accessola.com/osla/toolkit/Resources.html
8.Online reading – is it different to reading printed text?
Print article in Time Magazine, Nov. 23, 2009, by Barbara Kiviat – “The Paperless Chase.” It mentioned eye pattern research about reading on line and quoted Jakob Nielsen’s work on people’s interactions with technology. On Time’s website there is similar less detailed article. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1938743,00.html
Is Google Making Us Stupid? Atlantic Monthly 2008
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
R U really Reading?” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html
also https://readingpower.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/%E2%80%9Cferal-chicken-of-the-internet%E2%80%9D/
9. The Future of Reading http://wanderings.edublogs.org/internet-literacy/
10. Miscellaneous- Presenting better at seminars http://alalearning.org/2010/02/02/10steps/
Space Ed – Learning that sticks http://www.spaceded.com/info/howitworks
READINGPOWER 
Jacquie Henry
April 11, 2010 at 7:31 am
Thanks for posting this. I will have a great time studying these links in greater detail.
Kate Brown
April 11, 2010 at 10:37 am
Couldn’t agree more — we do need a standard measure for libraries, librarians, etc., something that says to everyone who only knows “library” as a word understands where their library stands in relation to national and state standards and to other libraries in their geographic area. (There’s nothing like competition in the good ‘ole USA to get people moving.)
Joyce Valenza is right, too — we are watching the best of the education river from the riverbanks, and meanwhile, the smart people are jumping in and grabbing for the good stuff. What’s wrong with us? Even if you can’t swim, put on your floaties and grab what rightfully belongs to you!
Would you take positive action to get your building/district to look face2face at where they are v. the national standards? Do you think they would care? Do you think having a comparison of some sort, even local, would gain community support for your library?
I’m not just talking “the average number of books” type comparisons, although that would be helpful as well, but more along the lines of “your child can do xyz because of library experience,” where xyz might be something like find, locate, access, use, present information about abc? (And probably more sophisticated inquiry-based tasks beyond just that?) Well, students at xx% of the schools in (name your area/state/US) can — why can’t yours?
I wonder if we don’t need to put some pressure on ourselves to rise from our complacency. Yes, complacency. For how many years have we been doing circulation, recommending materials, babysitting study halls, and the like, without complaint? If we truly are teachers, then let’s act like teachers.
How often have we heard, “Oh, we don’t do that” and “you’ll have to get a sub to cover my classes for that meeting” and “I can’t have that many kids in my classroom at one time.” (What don’t we do when asked, without comment usually; who hasn’t had meetings in their office or at their desk WHILE they have a class going on; when was the last time you had less than 50 kids in an open library, more when there were classes there too.)
Standards. School Board, you are under the national recommended resources/student by 63 percent, under the number of professionally-certified staff by 2.5 FTE; under the recommended $/student by $163.00 … who doesn’t think the number people in admin wouldn’t look at that, not to mention the members of the board who know how media eats up figures like those?
Time to take the gloves off, folks. We’ve been the gentle, quiet folks for too long. Time to be pleasant but powerful.