As you probably know, John Green is the author of Looking for Alaska (Dutton, 2005), An Abundance of Katherines (Dutton, 2006), Paper Towns (Dutton, 2008), and this year’s Odyssey award winner, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, 2012), four titles sure to appeal to even your most reluctant readers. Dedicate 18 minutes of your life to watching his TED Talk entitled The Paper Town Academy. In this talk, he delivers the best response I’ve ever heard to the question, “Will this be on the test?” It’s worth printing out and putting on the walls of classrooms everywhere:

“Yeah, about the test… The test will measure whether you are an informed, engaged, and productive citizen of the world, and it will take place in schools and bars and hospitals and dorm rooms and in places of worship.You will be tested on first dates, in job interviews, while watching football, and while scrolling through your Twitter feed.The test will judge your ability to think about things other than celebrity marriages, whether you’ll be easily persuaded by empty political rhetoric, and whether you’ll be able to place your life and your community in a broader context.The test will last your entire life, and it will be comprised of the millions of decisions that, when taken together, will make your life yours.And everything, everything, will be on it…. I know, right?”

Hank Green co-founded DFTBA Records, a distribution network to help talented musicians find audiences. His own musical talents are evident in the song “This is Not Harry Potter.” The lyrics, all by themselves, are positively brilliant:

“And in the darkest hours, of my darkest nights

I found myself curled up with twilight

And I couldn’t help but wonder as I ravenously read

Can you avada kedavra the undead

’cause Edward Cullen totally has it comin’

and if he saw Voldemort he’d better start runnin’

Cause there’s not much that the dark lord and I

could agree on but I think that we would both hate that guy.”

I am eternally grateful to Hank for producing The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, a modern twist on Jane Austen’s story. My husband has tried reading Pride and Prejudice, really he has, and has valiantly stayed awake for portions of various movie adaptations of the book, but it wasn’t until Hank’s vlog version that the characters and plot became interesting to him.

Individually, the brothers are talented and creatively prolific. Taken together, they are forces for good on our planet. For the last year, Hank and John have been teaching classes via YouTube. Hank Green earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Eckerd College and a master’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Montana. John Green graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and religious studies. They both have the educational credentials for their YouTube tutorials in which Hank teaches biology and ecology, and John teaches world history and literature. The buzz phrase in education right now is “student engagement,” and you’ll certainly feel that when you view these incredible videos (CrashCourse and SciShow), which are gateways to engagement: funny, entertaining, and informative.

The brothers Green clearly love learning, reading, and exploring the world we all share.They proudly embrace the word “nerd” and they make learning cool, and all of our students will be stronger, wiser, and kinder having made their acquaintance.

For more on the Green brothers, see SLJ’s coverage of An Evening of Awesome, featuring Hank and John at Carnegie Hall.

Plush gorilla Ivan visits his book at the Indianapolis Public Library. Photo credit: John Schumacher.

“You know what’s interesting? I’m sort of a Luddite about technology, but I embraced Twitter this year,” Applegate tells SLJ, noting that immediately after the YMA announcements, she viewed “a scary amount of tweets” discussing her win.

It’s this interactive community of online librarian fans, both independent bloggers and Tweeters, that helped boost Ivan’s visibility, she says. “It’s helped tremendously.”

Leading the charge for The One and Only Ivan has been the Nerdy Book Club as well as popular book blogger and K–5 librarian John Schumacher, who has “a huge online presence,” Applegate says.

Once Applegate’s Newbery win was announced, “My students clapped and clapped and clapped. Incredible,” Schumacher tells SLJ. “Ivan will never be forgotten.”

Applegate says she was honored when she learned that Schumacher chose Ivan as the inspiration for his book-character-on-vacation trip in 2012, an annual event that he blogs about for the kids back home. “Every year he takes a plush character from a kid’s book around on adventures, and this year he selected Ivan!” Applegate says. “He took him to meet the actual Ivan at Zoo Atlanta. John was able to go in with a couple of friends and have Ivan sign his book with a green thumbprint. Isn’t that cool?”

(“You have no idea how hard it is to find a T-shirt for a stuffed gorilla,” Applegate adds.)

Looking ahead, Applegate says she hopes her Newbery recognition means even more children will now learn the story about the real silverback gorilla named Ivan. “It’s a chance to really connect with kids and that’s really wonderful. I’m really gratified,” she tells SLJ. “I wish I had been in Seattle. But it makes me very happy that this story could make it into the world in some way.”

Meanwhile, relative newcomer to kid lit Jon Klassen says he was surprised to learn, just in the past few years since the publication of his picture book I Want My Hat Back (Candlewick, 2011), how determined librarians are in their efforts to get a book out to readers. “It’s a big deal,” he tells SLJ.

So far, the illustrator, who began his career in animation, has been relying on children’s book collaborator Mac Barnett—who was also named, along with Klassen, winner of a Caldecott Honor this week for Extra Yarn (HarperCollins)—to help guide him through this “crazy” new world, he says.

“Librarians are very important!” Klassen adds. “It’s not a marketplace angle; librarians are looking for what’s best for kids, so they have different criteria. The opinions that they give out are really thought through. They’re very passionate.” Author events have been eye-opening in this regard, he tells SLJ. “(Librarians) are very organized and they’re quick and super sharp—and smarter than you.”

And as it turns out, the experience of being an author is much more expansive—and involves much more community-building in these areas—than he originally expected.

“I like making the books, but if you get lucky with one, you end up talking about it more than you thought you would,” he tells SLJ. “There’s a cycle that I’m slowly learning about.” However, Klassen says, “Being busy following these books around? That’s the best problem to have in the world.”

Illustration by Jean Tuttle

After 20 wonderful years as a teacher librarian, I’ve gone over to the dark side. I’ve become a suit—an administrator—and the very worst kind, a district IT administrator! (Cue Darth Vader’s theme song.) Before you turn away in horror and disbelief, here’s a quick tell-all from the Evil Empire. I’m going to share some shocking (and instructive) secrets from the Death Star of Administration, explaining why principals should be your best friends and colleagues. I’m also going to stop using Star Wars metaphors.

My fade to gray didn’t occur overnight. I have worked as an instructional technology facilitator in Vancouver’s (WA) public schools since 2008. During the first three years, I was also Skyview High School’s full-time teacher librarian. Then, in 2011, my role changed: I spent half of my time in the library and the remaining half in the IT department. Depending on the day of the week, I was either “The Man” or I was working for him. And despite enjoying the opportunity to blame myself for whatever was wrong either with management or with teachers, in 2012, I was finally asked to make a choice between those two options. I think you’ve heard about receiving an offer you can’t refuse….

While I still see myself as a teacher librarian, last July, I became a real-live administrator with a spiffy title—manager of instructional technology and library services. During the last few years, I’ve been able to reflect on many of my own beliefs and assumptions about working with administrators. As a former teacher librarian, I’m also well aware of other perceptions that teachers have regarding management. Speaking now as a teacher—and not as a manager—I’ve come to realize that the reality is far more complex than a simple equation of us vs. them. Teacher librarians have far more in common with principals than we realize. I’d like to share some ways to find common ground with our friends in the corner office.

When I was in grad school, Joyce Petrie, my wise and now long-departed professor at Portland State University, explained in detail how library administration and building administration are a lot alike. She was right. Now, speaking from experience, I teach my University of Washington graduate students that school librarians often have more in common with principals than with their fellow teachers. Why is that? Like principals, we manage budgets, purchase materials, evaluate employees, and make executive decisions, ranging from selecting materials to determining instructional outcomes. Unlike many teachers, we know virtually everyone in the school by name and maintain positive working relationships with all of them. We also excel at putting a wide variety of district policies and programs into practice. Most importantly, like principals, we’re often the only ones in our schools who do the jobs that we do. I often hear teacher librarians say that they feel misunderstood, isolated, and even lonely in their positions. Empathy check: Do you think principals just might feel the same way?

If it hadn’t been for my many wonderful teaching colleagues, I wouldn’t have been the 2012 Washington State Teacher of the Year. But it all began with my Skyview High principal, Kym Tyelyn-Carlson. Over the course of five years, our professional friendship evolved beyond library advocacy and became a two-way exchange between educators who both cared deeply about the success of our school. We discussed everything from staff socials to strategic planning. When she called me into her office in May 2011 and told me she was nominating me for teacher of the year, it was less about my librarianship than it was about her perception of me as an educator. Well beyond my library role, I had become a trusted confidante, consigliere, and colleague. Kym isn’t an exception. I’ve enjoyed good and frequently great relationships with the six principals I’ve worked with during the last two decades. I’ve always seen them as allies rather than adversaries.

Before addressing the opportunities for media specialists to connect with principals, I’d like to dispel some common misconceptions. First, there’s a widespread belief that building and district administrators always think the same way. More often than not, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Get a principal to talk off-the-record, and you’ll find out for yourself. Despite the mysterious district meetings and the inscrutable binders on their shelves, principals struggle with translating district policy into practice as much as we do. In more than one meeting, I’ve heard them express frustration, uncertainty, fear, and powerlessness in the face of the same issues that teachers confront. Like other educators, building administrators are concerned about daily challenges such as poverty, student readiness, literacy, fear of violence, and assessments. In addition, many district policies and programs are often created with insufficient input from or consultation with building administrators. Like many teacher librarians, principals are the ones who must explain and train faculty in the policies and practices created by managers like me.

And what of the conspiracy theory that administrators are “all in it together”? Ask any superintendent: they’d retire and die happy if they could only get their administrative leadership teams to plan, work, and lead based on an authentically shared set of values and priorities. Even the highest-functioning educational administrations grapple with issues of nurturing and maintaining social capital—communication, relationships, leadership, and sustainability. Just like individual schools, district programs and departments work with specific challenges, leadership models, and cultures.

Are there bad principals? Yes. And bad teachers? Of course. Are there tyrannical administrators and administrations? Yes, probably. Do administrators circle the wagons when challenged? Yes, in the same way that teachers and librarians do when they’re threatened. Do administrators meet in secret to devise evil plans? Unlikely. I have found that most district conspiracy theories are often conflated with honest mistakes, incomplete planning, imperfect implementations, and/or poor communication. Speaking for my district, our leadership team cares deeply about students and it respects and values teachers and staff. We work very hard to get it right. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we could have done better.

This is where teacher librarians come in. By cultivating strong relationships with principals and even district administrators, we can strengthen library programs, not to mention improve schools and districts. I am wearing a suit because of relationships with both teachers and administrators, built on shared work, planning, and success. Here is a quick list of ways to create those relationships, even when you’d think it might be impossible.

Seek out win-win opportunities. Identify what keeps principals up at night and then offer to help. Right now, three big trains are barreling down the tracks—Common Core, new teacher and principal evaluation systems, and 21st-century student skills. In addition to running a school, principals are accountable for these vaguely defined and game-changing reforms. Choose one, learn as much as you can about it, and then offer to help your boss. Join them on district or regional teams. Offer to provide leadership in your building. You’re likely to be surprised at just how enthusiastically they say yes.

Give before you receive. Teacher librarians often conceive their relationships with principals as quid pro quo, beginning with the question “What will you do for me?” rather than, “What can I do for you?” Pay it forward with the goal of building trust, rapport, and a valuable relationship. Many years ago, I took up an offer by our former chief information officer to lead our district’s library automation project. I had a vested interest in the job being done right, and she wanted the implementation to go smoothly. Thanks to our partnership, the project was a success. A few years later, she asked me to join her team as an instructional technology facilitator.

Bridge the gap. Because of our hybrid roles, teacher librarians can effectively bridge the artificial divide between teachers and administration, and promote communication, collaboration, and advocacy between and across various roles and functions. In the same way that my recent leadership role blurs the definition of “The Man,” teacher librarians can provide unique building and even district leadership. Teachers often grapple with crossing a line by appearing too supportive of administration. As a teacher librarian, I never saw a line because my job was different. I necessarily had to see things from a systems perspective that included not only building administration and teachers, but also district interests. That’s why some of our teacher librarians currently lead a district task force to develop a digital citizenship program. They are working with administrators to develop a systemic digital content strategy, and they’re participating in state and district groups connected to the Common Core. Like principals, the best teacher librarians see the big picture and can build partnerships that ensure success.

Identify successes. Most teachers hesitate to call attention to their work or to be praised for it. But principals always want to be able to share good work with parents, peers, and their bosses. When teacher librarians see innovation, creativity, and greatness in the classroom, they should share those stories with the principal. Principals appreciate the ability to see and value success in others. More importantly, they value hearing about good things beyond the library program. In addition to building rapport with your principal, everyone wins. Teachers get the recognition they deserve. The principal better understands the great work that’s going on. And the school may well get some praise at the district’s next meeting. As a proponent of creativity in the classroom, I made it a point to highlight innovative teachers who dared to emulate Apple and its slogan “think different.” More often than not, Kym would nod in agreement. In those moments, we were of one mind, not about libraries, but about great teaching.

My friends and colleagues keep checking up on me and asking how I like my new job. I tell them it tastes like chicken. To me, the only significant difference between what I’m doing now and what I’ve done for years as a teacher librarian and an instructional technology facilitator is that there’s a different title below my name. Sad as it might seem, that changes a lot in my relationships with others, both among teachers and administrators. To many teachers, I’ve gone over to the dark side. To some administrators, I’m now part of the club. But here’s the reality—there’s no dark side; and there’s no key to the executive washroom. Thankfully, my teacher librarian colleagues still see me (and themselves) for what we are—occasionally lonely, frequently misunderstood, and loving the jobs that we do. Just like principals.

Mark Ray (Mark.Ray@vansd.org) is the manager of instructional technology and library services at the Vancouver (WA) Public Schools.

I have (much more successfully) done this at every other juncture in my life, including the (final) family move to Maryland, three colleges, and a dozen jobs. I took what I liked about myself and refined the details. As for the not-so-likable elements, I trashed them. I knew there was a better me just waiting to be born. With our new library opening in less than two months and my transfer to the new building coming next week, once again I’m in a time of transition and I’m redefining who I am as a teen librarian, a peer, a supervisor, an advocate, and a friend.

Many of the responsibilities I have at my current library are following me to the Gum Spring Library. My biggest responsibility is that of page supervisor. I took over that role in December 2011, when the person who’d been supervising the four pages had to take an emergency leave. My own supervisor helped me ajust to my new role, though many of the job’s nuances I learned as time progressed. To help out my successor, I’ve created a document that describes the duties (official and unofficial) of a page supervisor. I also used this opportunity to reflect upon what I’ve learned. In effect, I gave myself a performance assessment. I’ve already begun working on a new document on the training and supervision of the pages who will arrive in February.

Much of what I’ve learned while supervising pages transfers neatly into my role as a teen volunteer coordinator. My goal is to teach our young volunteers about the library, encourage them to work and play there, and give them a solid opportunity that builds both their character and their resume. I know I let some of our teen volunteers fall through the cracks in my old branch’s very busy volunteer program. Instead of giving each of them the personalized attention they deserved, I let a few simply sign in, do their tasks, and then leave. Even if that was the kind of experience they’d expected, it wasn’t what they deserved. Teen volunteers should be nurtured to view the library as a “third place”: a place to keep organized, fun, and safe, and mostly importantly, to be proud of. As I train my replacement and the new Gum Spring teen volunteers, I’ll be sure to keep the number of volunteers at a manageable level. That way, my peers and I in the Teen Center can create meaningful relationships with them, and instill a sense of responsibility and of place in them.

As I sit at my desk, contemplating which documents, folders, and ARCs to get rid of and which to take to my new library, I’m doing the same thing with my role as a teen librarian. We are rarely given an opportunity to reinvent ourselves, but when we are, we owe it to ourselves and to those we work with to take a moment to reflect on ways that we can improve.

Gum Spring opening day collection

Fresh Paint charts the development of teen services at a new public library in an underserved community. Gum Spring Library will be Loudoun County’s (VA) eighth branch and will serve more than 100,000 residents. It’s one of the county’s largest public-private partnerships.

For our part, we saw a disconnect when SLJ’s public library spending survey revealed that a mere nine percent of public librarians actively collaborate with their peers in K–12. After we published the results in “It Takes Two” (May 2012, pp. 26–29), we learned about many partnerships, and we also heard from many from both school and public librarians who seemed burned out by failed outreach attempts.

Yoder and Lowry may be a rare breed, but, as is abundantly clear in our cover story, “Partners in Success” (pp. 22–28), they’re not alone. Many like-minded librarians are reaching across institutional walls and redefining their turf—and their institutions are changing, too. Considering the yawning gap between what kids need from libraries and the resources currently available to them, innovation in this area is urgent.

At first, I was inspired by the spark between two professionals that ignites a new partnership. I still am. This kind of grassroots initiative is grounded in knowing the kids, and, when it works, helps build the case for more. Now, however, I’m even more convinced that our institutions need to act with the same responsiveness and creativity.

We need more of what’s happening in Nashville. Talking with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools’ Kathryn Bennett brought this home. I met Bennett, a library lead teacher, at Library Journal’s December 14 Design Institute at the wonderful Warrensville Heights Branch of the Cuyahoga County (OH) Public Library. It was great to see her at this public library event—after all, there’s plenty of insight into learning spaces in any good library.

Naturally, we fell into talking about Nashville’s Limitless Libraries initiative. Bennett is a big fan of the project, which, she says, wouldn’t be nearly what it is without the “Memorandum of Understanding” between the school and Nashville Public Library (NPL).

As NPL’s Tricia Racke Bengel details in her overview of how Limitless Libraries came to be, the memorandum enables the library to use information about students, with parental permission, so their student IDs serve as library cards, streamlining access to the collections. Racke Bengel, who was named a 2012 LJ Mover & Shaker for this work, describes a process that was certainly disruptive. The project keeps expanding as it enriches the lives of Nashville’s kids.

After reading cover story writer Marta Murvosh’s exploration of the state of public and/school library collaborations, I’m even more convinced of the need for us be actively reimagine how we serve our kids. And we must break down the silos that stymie that work.

Toward that end, SLJ will be giving more attention to collaboration in 2013 in an effort to forge a model to help us join together to approach challenges as a greater community. We’ll focus on these partnerships as part of the first SLJ Public Library Leadership Think Tank, currently in planning for April 5 in New York City. The daylong event aims to provide a public library companion to SLJ’s dynamic Leadership Summit, aimed at tackling school library issues. My hope is that the two events will, in a sense, ping pong off of one another to foster deeper dialog on the commonalities shared by all librarians serving kids. Collaboration will also be a theme in the upcoming Be the Change webcast series, which we bet will be the start of a robust leadership initiative.

Let’s change the world together. Happy New Year!

Rebecca T. Miller
Editor-in-Chief
rmiller@mediasourceinc.com

Marcus Lowry, teen librarian, Ramsey County (MN) Library and
Leslie Yoder, digital literacy and learning specialist, St. Paul Public Schools.
Photograph by Thomas Strand.

Last spring, when school librarian Leslie Yoder heard that young adult author Francisco X. Stork was available to visit Boys Totem Town, a residential program for incarcerated teens in St. Paul, MN, she pounced on the opportunity. Although Yoder lacked the necessary funds, she instantly knew who to turn to—her partners at Ramsey County Library.

For the last two years, Yoder, a digital literacy and learning specialist with St. Paul’s public schools, has teamed up with Ramsey’s teen librarians—and the outcome has been a win-win for both the librarians and the kids whom they serve.

Thanks to Ramsey teen librarian Marcus Lowry, who found the funds for Stork’s visit, the acclaimed writer spoke at a local high school and to dozens of Yoder’s enthusiastic students about his novel Behind the Eyes (Dutton, 2006), which deals with a reform school. “Our students don’t get to meet the people who write the books,” says Yoder.

When Lowry and fellow young adult librarian Amy Boese visit Boys Totem Town, they are weighed down with bags of books and eager to do what they do best—booktalking and spearheading a weeklong technology workshop. “It’s really energizing for us to go there,” says Boese, who also works with three other school districts. “They are always superpolite and have good questions.”

Although the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Public Library Data Service Statistical Report don’t keep track of the number of joint-library projects, Yoder, Lowry, and Boese are among a small group of school and public librarians nationwide who regularly work together. Like many rewarding collaborative projects, theirs usually begin with a modest idea, in this case, offering booktalks to kids in a correctional facility. But behind every successful school and public library partnership, explains Lowry, there’s also a strong personal connection and a shared vision. “It almost always has to start with one personal connection,” he says. “It’s the one person that sees that mutual value—that we serve the same kids.”

Teaming up in Minnesota: Aaron Blechert, a media specialist at Irondale
High School, and Amy Boese, a teen librarian at Ramsey County Library,
with students in the school library.
Photograph by Thomas Strand.

It’s also sound fiscal sense for school and public libraries to pool their limited resources, says Jeffrey Roth, the New York Public Library’s vice president of strategy and finance. “We’re in an era that institutions need to look and see who they can partner with and strategically use each other’s assets,” he says.

That’s a strategy that the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and Nashville Public Library (NPL) have worked to perfection. Although sharing public library collections with public schools is fairly unusual, that didn’t stop these two creative partners from thinking outside the box. During the 2011–2012 academic year, when Nashville’s budget-strapped schools were hurting for resources, the public library reached out a helping hand and loaned the city’s 54 middle schools and high schools 97,000 items—everything from books and DVDs to CDs and Playaways to entice reluctant readers and struggling English-language learners.

As a result of the impressive partnership, which is called Limitless Libraries, Stephanie Ham, NPL’s project coordinator, says the public library’s circulation stats have soared by an unprecedented 60 percent. And on the school side, MNPS’s lead librarian, Kathleen Bennett, couldn’t be more pleased. “This model is just fantastic and the benefits are great,” says Bennett. “What the kids get is wonderful open access to lots of resources.” (For more on Nashville’s Limitless Libraries, click on this link.)

The relationship between schools and public librarians is a critical one. Even before the recent recession, few school libraries could match the buying power of a large branch or a mid-size public library system. And during these troubled economic times, school librarians and their budgets are often among the first items scratched from public school budgets. That’s a compelling reason why Wisconsin’s School District of La Crosse and the La Crosse Public Library are exploring the possibility of sharing school and public library databases. “From a fiscal perspective, we’re starting to balance our resources so we are not duplicating online services,” says Vicki Lyons, the district’s director of technology and library services.

Still, successful school and public library partnerships can be a tough act to pull off, say many librarians and educators. Some of the typical roadblocks include a lack of time, vision, or resources; difficult personalities to deal with; and a scarcity of support from higher-ups. That may explain why less than one-third of school and public libraries coordinate book and other material purchases, according to School Library Journal’s first public library spending survey (see “It Takes Two,” May 2012, ow.ly/gekWY). When it comes to homework assignments, only nine percent of public libraries work directly with schools.

The emphasis on standardized testing can also be a barrier to working together, especially when kids are pulled out of the classroom to visit a public library. If the benefits of a joint effort aren’t obvious, says Rachelle Nocito, a content specialist for the School District of Philadelphia, many teachers and principals begin to worry that these activities will negatively impact test scores. “School districts are judged on our students’ achievement,” explains Nocito, whose district is piloting a program with the Free Library of Philadelphia. “It’s really important that when we step out of our building to do anything, its purpose definitely aligns with the reading program and social studies curriculum or science curriculum.”

But that doesn’t mean that school and public libraries should hesitate to work together. Susan Ballard, president of the American Association of School Librarians, a division of ALA, encourages school and public librarians to reach out to one another and other community groups. “No one can do anything on their own anymore; it’s simply not possible,” Ballard says.

At the moment, ALA’s Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation is working on ways to bring media centers and public libraries together on issues such as preventing “summer slide”—when kids lose many of the reading gains made during the school year—and implementing the Common Core standards. “If you’re not collaborating, why aren’t you collaborating?” Ballard asks. “The end result improves services for kids and makes them better researchers and lifelong learners.”

Students, of course, aren’t the only ones who benefit from a collaborative program. “Great partnerships let you reach out dynamically and work with a wide variety of partners within the school and public library,” says Marge Loch-Wouters, coordinator of youth services at La Crosse Public Library. She should know. Loch-Wouters has been building partnerships with local Wisconsin schools for more than two decades. “Great partnerships don’t put you in a box,” she says.

Buffy Hamilton doesn’t need to be convinced that joint-library ventures make a world of difference. Hamilton is so bullish on them that she recently left her post at Creekview High School, in Canton, GA, where she ran an award-winning library program, and joined the Cleveland Public Library’s (CPL) staff. School and public libraries “have much more in common with their visions and goals than we might initially think,” says Hamilton, who will be CPL’s liaison with Cleveland’s public schools. “We’re working on these parallel paths, and we can find a way to interact and pool our collective resources and talents to accomplish those goals.”

The following collaborative projects are a sampling of what’s happening around the country. Each of these dynamic programs has its own distinct approach, but they all have one thing in common: they’re making a genuine difference in kids’ lives and in the communities that they serve.

Denver, CO

In 2006, when residents of the Mile High City voted to raise the sales tax to support full-day kindergarten and early childhood education, the Denver Public Library (DPL) and the Denver Public Schools (DPS) knew it was the perfect time to extend their partnership, which, at the time, primarily placed library volunteers in the classroom to read to kids. With the help of a two-year, $476,000 Library Services and Technology Act grant, the two organizations banded together, in 2007, to teach children’s librarians, media specialists, and teachers about the latest advances in early childhood education. Children’s librarians who specialized in infant and toddler brain development shared their knowledge with teachers, and educators, in turn, brought public librarians up-to-date on the workings of the adolescent brain. “It was a new way to collaborate,” says David Sanger, DPS’s director of library services. “We formed professional learning communities, and those have still continued.”

Although the grant ended in 2009, the partnership is still going strong. These days DPL, DPS, and local nonprofit groups and agencies, such as Head Start, are working together on a number of projects for children from poor families. School and public librarians are also sharing their respective approaches to improving literacy and serving the city’s many English-language learners, who make up 34 percent of Denver’s K–12 students. Both groups are also discussing how best to share their resources, including, says Sanger, how to get their catalog databases to “talk to each other.”

Their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Denver’s 5 By 5 Project, which was created to support early childhood development, was inspired by these school and library partnerships, says Carol Edwards, DPL’s comanager of children’s and family services. The nonprofit organization, whose goal is to make sure that young kids have at least five cultural experiences by the time they start kindergarten, provides free admission to the city’s top cultural venues, such as the Denver Botanical Gardens and the Colorado Ballet, to nearly 3,000 Head Start and Early Head Start families. Plus, the library also offers free after-school camps for children of families in need. “It’s something that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t been talking to each other,” says Edwards.

This month, DPL joined communities, such as Louisville and Boston, where one card serves as a student’s ID and library card. My Denver Card will also give kids free access to city parks and recreation services, and there are plans to expand its benefits to include the city’s transit system, says Jennifer Hoffman, manager of DPL’s books and borrowing. Hoffman says she anticipates issuing 30,000 cards. “We’re just trying to make it easy for a student to access us,” she says.

Portland, OR

To reach out to parents and students in east Portland, Multnomah County Library’s (MCL) Midland branch staff worked with educators at the Fir Ridge Campus (FRC), the David Douglas School District’s alternative high school. Their mission? To find teens who were eager to become library tour guides.

But these tours aren’t your average orientation sessions—especially when they’re conducted in Russian, Vietnamese, and Mandarin, the languages spoken in many of the young volunteers’ homes and neighborhoods. The aim of this innovative school-library project, says FRC’s librarian Deb Wheelbarger, is to attract parents who live in east Portland’s diverse and poor neighborhoods to bring their kids to the library and introduce them to its resources.

Student-guided tours are just one way that MCL has teamed up with its five area school districts. Another outreach program, Multnomah’s School Corps (staffed by Jackie Partch, Kate Houston, Peter Ford, and Gesse Stark, all of whom have MLIS degrees), offers local teachers curriculum support, which includes issuing them special library cards (so they can check out more books for longer periods of time), school visits to talk about research skills and library services, and “Buckets of Books,” which, as its name suggests, come brimming with books on commonly taught subjects, such as Oregon history, Pacific Northwest Native Americans, and insects and spiders, says Suzanne Myers Harold, MCL’s adult literacy coordinator. The library also brings visiting authors to local schools and works hard to bring students from the county’s high-poverty areas to theater productions and special events, including an awe-inspiring visit with the Portland Trailblazers, the city’s National Basketball Association team. “Through this collaboration with Multnomah County Library, we’re able to speak for them, and they for us,” says Wheelbarger. “I love the Multnomah County Library. It’s one of the most accessible libraries in the country.”

New York, NY

When the New York City Department of Education (NYDOE) realized there was a great way to work together with the New York Public Library (NYPL), Queens Library, and Brooklyn Public Library to get more learning resources into teachers’ and students’ hands, it couldn’t wait to get started—and MyLibraryNYC was soon launched.

Funded by a $5 million grant from Citigroup, the four-year pilot program, which gives students and teachers access to literally millions of additional materials, lets kids search their school and public libraries’ catalogs simultaneously from any computer that has Internet access. From the very start, the program, which began in 2011 with 84 schools and 50 NYPL branches, opted to take a potentially risky tact: to encourage kids to take advantage of their libraries, students would not be fined if they failed to return materials on time.

A recipe for disaster? Not at all, says NYPL’s Roth. In fact, almost 100 percent of the borrowed items have found their way back onto the library’s shelves. Best of all, students are scooping up more books. “The kids in the pilot were three times more likely to have a book checked out from their local library, and school library circulation essentially doubled,” says Roth. “The New York Public Library and the Department of Education already had a great relationship, but this has taken it to another level.”

Now in its second year, MyLibraryNYC reaches 250,000 students in 400 public schools, offering them access to 17 million books, videos, and recordings. And by 2015, the program hopes to include all 1.1 million of the city’s public school students, says Richard Hasenyager, NYDOE’s director of library services.

As part of the pilot program, NYPL will deliver books and other materials that meet the Common Core State Standards to participating schools. Groundwork is also being laid in all three public library systems to work more closely with school librarians and curriculum specialists so that their collections will support the state’s Common Core Standards.

NYPL estimates that MyLibraryNYC will cost $6 per student annually in direct and indirect costs, which include shipping the materials to schools and library branches. The public library systems pay for shipping and staff training, and the every school pays the roughly $800 annual fee charged by library resource vendor Follett for its Destiny catalog and BiblioCommons, which developed the catalog’s software and online interface. (Follett is giving those school libraries a $150 discount on Destiny.) School libraries that haven’t joined the pilot will pay $650, says Leanne Ellis, NYDOE’s coordinator of library services.

This year, the pilot added the Queens and Brooklyn public libraries and expanded to 207 school libraries that now serve 296 schools, says NYDOE. Although schools have to foot part of the bill, when you stop to consider what kids are getting in return—access to “the greatest books ever written by man,” says NYPL’s Roth—it’s a real deal.

Queens Library sees MyLibraryNYC as a launching pad to expand its librarians’ ongoing work with schools in the borough. “What can be done to help the kids, to support the teachers, to ensure kids have a strong start in reading and literacy and a place to go and their parents, too?” asks Bridget Quinn-Carey, the library’s chief operating officer. “Those are the wonderful things that libraries can do.”

Monterey High’s freshmen take advantage of computers in the Monterey Public Library teen zone as part of a joint venture between the school and library.
Photo courtesy of Monterey Public Library and Monterey High School.

Monterey, CA

To help its incoming freshman beef up their critical thinking skills and boost their tech know-how, the Monterey High School (MHS) turned to a familiar partner, the Monterey Public Library. The two teamed up to create a class called 21st Century Learning Skills. Aaron Sanders, the MHS history teacher who helped kick-start it, and Ben Gomberg, a librarian formerly with the Monterey Public Library, worked together to create the course’s project-oriented assignments, which have included creating websites that explore the coastal town’s history and comparing employment information that kids found on Craigslist with data provided by the U.S. Department of Labor. Supported by a $5,300 IMLS grant, their aim was to give 130 to 150 freshmen (out of a class of 1,100) the skills they needed to succeed in school and in life, says Sanders.

As part of the class, students made four separate visits to the public library (located just a block away), and Gomberg, in turn, made the same number of classroom visits, offering presentations on topics such as copyright and privacy, evaluating websites, and using library resources to prepare for college and careers.

How’s the new course working out? According to MHS’s principal, Marcie Plummer, students who took the class had fewer D’s and F’s, absences, and discipline issues than their nonparticipating peers. Roughly half of the kids in the class reported using the public library in their free time and about a third of them also used it to do schoolwork from other classes, says Gomberg.

Students in the pilot program have also learned how to be advocates for their own learning and how to evaluate their approaches to school so that they can improve their academic performance. “Personally as a teacher, I saw them having huge gains in that area,” Sanders says. “They were not afraid of having conversations with their teachers.”

Philadelphia, PA

How do you improve 146,090 kids’ information literacy and critical thinking skills? If you’re the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) and the Free Library of Philadelphia, you join hands to create a dynamic pilot program that pairs third-grade teachers with children’s librarians from nearby branches.

How does the program work? Six times during the last two months of the school year, instead of taking part in their school’s daily requirement of 90 minutes of reading, about 200 third graders take a short walk to their local public library, usually no more than a couple of blocks away. The purpose of the visits? To research the history of Philadelphia and their neighborhoods.

Upon returning to their classrooms, groups of three or four students dive headlong into the resources they discovered at the library and begin to create their own projects, says district content specialist Nocito. Although it’s impossible to predict what these inspired students are likely to cook up, one thing’s for sure—it’s always interesting.

Sarah Stippich, a children’s librarian at the Blanche A. Nixon/Cobbs Creek Library, remembers the day when the Free Library’s 25-foot-long, state-of-the art Techmobile visited Anderson Elementary School and its third graders were introduced to iPads. “They were digitally mapping our neighborhood,” says Stippich. “They were really into that, not only the technology part of that, but being able to look at their neighborhood and say, ‘Oh, that’s where I live.’”

Some classes combine their walks to the library with physical education, and their students strap on pedometers to count their footsteps, says Betsy Orsburn, the Free Library’s chief of the Office of Public Service Support.

Although it will take at least three years to gather enough data to evaluate the pilot, says Nocito, the initial assessments indicate that students are making connections between their schoolwork and library resources. Their teachers also reported developing moderately strong to strong informative partnerships with public librarians.

Nocito would like to improve on the instructional aspects of the pilot program. Ideally, she’d like to see a 10-week local history project that touches on different curriculum areas, such as science and language arts, and then follow up with an assessment to see if students’ gains continue on in fourth grade. “We’re under scrutiny,” she says. “Our students are going to be held accountable for their visits to the Free Library.”

The pilot program originally began in 2011, when the Free Library offered to help city schools that didn’t have a librarian or a school library, says Joe Benford, the Free Library’s chief of the Extensions Division. “It really is a way to try to cement library instruction and information literacy in the school district curriculum,” says Benford. Although more than 100 of Philadelphia’s 249 public schools have school libraries, only 46 schools have certified librarians. “The school librarians are almost nonexistent,” says Benford. “What we’re trying to do is prove this works and works as a model for the future. We just wanted to see if we could collaborate with the school district, and we have.”

Even though the pilot program appears to be working, there are limits to what it can accomplish. Stippich, who works with three third-grade teachers at Anderson Elementary School and with seven other schools and 12 child-care centers, says it’s impossible for her to offer everyone the level of service that she gives to those in the pilot program. “I can’t be the librarian for everyone,” she says. “This has just convinced me even more that they need more school librarians.”

Freelance writer Marta Murvosh is an aspiring librarian who often writes about libraries and education. You can find her at www.facebook.com/MartaMurvosh.

Julie Hatsell Wales, Sue Kowalski, and Rae Anne Locke.

Three school librarians who create a spirit of community in their libraries were among 10 recipients of the 2012 I Love My Librarian awards.

Susan Kowalski of the East Syracuse (NY) Minoa School District, Rae Anne Locke of Westport (CT) Public Schools, and Julie Hatsell Wales of Brevard County (FL) Schools joined their public and academic colleagues and 200 supporters in an award ceremony on Tuesday evening, December 18, at the New York Times Center in Manhattan.

The award, an initiative of the American Library Association sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the New York Times, drew 1,500 nominations from around the country. A committee of librarians selected the winners.

Kowalski’s nominations cited her “cunning ideas,” including an “iStaff Mobile Innovation Studio,” a mobile station at her library with an iPad, projector, and computers. Students versed in this technology assist their peers using the equipment for school projects at the Pine Grove Middle School in East Syracuse, where Kowalsky is school librarian.

“When you believe in something you inevitably put your heart and soul into it,” Kowalski told SLJ. “I’m a passionate believer in the power of libraries and continue to do just that.”

Locke’s innovations included creating digital book trailers with her students and creating a monthly digital school newsletter in collaboration with a technology teacher at Westport’s Saugatuck Elementary School, where she’s a library media specialist, according to her nomination.

Locke’s “Secret Garden Library,” which she created in 2002, nurtures each student individually, read the nomination. She was recognized more broadly for her collaborations with teachers and students that collectively create a culture honoring literacy and the dignity of each learner.

Davia Phillips, a second grade teacher at Saugatuck, called Locke “a collaborator who goes the extra mile.” Melissa Augeri, a parent and volunteer at the school, praised Locke for her ability to get kids reading, saying, “she knows what they like.”

Wales was called “the glue that holds this school together” by a social studies teacher at the McNair Magnet School in Rockledge, FL, who supported her nomination. School librarian Wales was singled out for helping students and fellow educators keep their information literacy skills up to date and directing them to reliable databases. Wales also wrote grants ranging from $500 to $1.9 million that “brought vital resources to the school,” the nomination said.

While accepting her award, Wales lamented the reduction of the number of school librarians across the nation. “It is like ripping the heart from the school body,” she said.

Among the other winners was 40-year veteran public librarian Mary Ellen Pellington, director of the Octavia Fellin Public Library in Gallup, NM.  She told the audience, “You can count potholes but you cannot measure the impact of one story hour on the lives of children.”

Rachel Hyland, whose wit and energy brought changes to the Tunxis Community College Library in Farmington, CT, attributed her “librarian genetic makeup” to her grandmother, who worked for 50 years in a high school library in Hartford, CT.

“We make a difference. Some of it is big and some of it is small,” said Greta E. Marlatt, librarian at the Knox Library at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, where she works with first responders. Audience members who were first responders received a standing ovation.

Creating a sense of community among the homebound population was one of the achievements of Madlyn S. Schneider of the Queens Library in Queens Village, NY. Schneider maintains contact with isolated patrons through Skype and conference calls.

Also honored were Beatriz Adriana Guevara of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC, along with academic librarians Dorothy J. Davison of the Horrmann Library at Wagner College (NYC) and Roberto Carlos Delgadillo of the Peter J. Shields Library at the University of California, Davis.

Robert Massie, author of Catherine the Great, Portrait of a Woman (Random House, 2011) and winner of the 2012 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, praised the work of librarians in a speech. Massie, former president of The Authors Guild, also asked that librarians fight to maintain copyright, saying, “without copyright, there won’t be authors.”

Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, said, “Sandys come and go, but libraries always stand.”

Each honoree received a $5,000 cash award, a plaque, and a $500 travel stipend to attend the awards reception in New York City. Nominees must be librarians with a master’s degree from an ALA-accredited MLIS program or a master’s specializing in school library media from an educational unit accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.

The report—the first in a Pew/Berkman series that’ll explore youth privacy issues—features information from interviews with focus groups that were conducted by Berkman’s Youth and Media team and a national phone survey of parents and their teens that examines the use of social networking sites.

The findings are based on a phone survey of 802 parents and their 802 teens ages 12 to 17, conducted between July 26 and September 30, 2012. Interviews were done in English and Spanish and on landline and cell phones. The research team also conducted 16 focus group interviews with roughly 120 students. The report is fully downloadable, and may also be searched online.

Take a look at the video and get inspired to do the same in your high school library.

Samwel Melami in the classroom

On a family trip to Tanzania, high school librarian Paula Busey became acquainted with Samwel Melami Langidare Mollel, a Maasai warrior who spoke five languages. The high school educator arranged for Melami to guest teach at her Colorado school in an educational exchange that drew the attention of National Geographic, which honored Busey and Melami as 2012 Travelers of the Year.

In 2009, Busey and her family were “lucky enough” to go on a safari in Tanzania. Their guide, Melami (above), taught Busey’s family about wildlife, the Maasai tribe, and the challenges they face, along with aspects of ethnobotany learned from his father, a healer.

Paula Busey

“Over the course of the week I realized he was an amazing educator,” says Busey, and she thought it would be wonderful for him to come speak with her students. Her principal at ThunderRidge High School in Highlands Ranch, CO, supported the plan.

Busey and the students in the community service group had previously raised funds, by selling jewelry, to support micro-businesses in Malawi. They then tackled the $2,000 fundraising goal to bring Melami over.

In April 2010, Melami “spent a solid week teaching hundreds of kids in our school,” says Busey. He geared his lectures toward the existing school curriculum and opening students’ eyes to the culture and problems of the tribal people in Tanzania.

“Our science teachers were looking at water issues” in class, said Busey, who was among 15 named to National Geographic’s roster of 2012 Travelers of the Year, “boundary breakers, who explore the world with passion and purpose, inspiring others to expand their horizons, ask big questions and seek new answers,” according to the site. “Of course, Samwel had a lot to say about this in terms of wildlife and the sustainability of the Maasai’s pastoral lifestyle.”

He also spoke to the students about Maasai customs, the prevalence of malaria and other fly-borne illnesses, since most Maasai do not like to use sleeping nets, according to Busey, and the challenges to women, in particular, around establishing sustainable incomes.

The school yearbook staff sponsored a second Colorado visit for Melami in 2011. This time, he visited more schools, from alternative facilities serving at-risk students to those in affluent suburban areas. He connected with everyone equally, says Busey.

During that visit, “we talked to Samwel about doing a school-wide project” to raise money for the Maasai, Busey says.  He told her about a new school near Arusha, Tanzania, that had good classrooms but an unsanitary kitchen.

Through a Maasai festival at the school, Busey and students raised $13,000 to build a better kitchen for the school, working in partnership with an NGO.

The students would like to have Melami back again, but it’s a long trip, and he’s very busy these days, Busey says.

Melami is building a safari business owned and operated by Maasai–one that he hopes will be economically sustainable, with all profits going to the tribe.

’Tis the season for prizes, including the 2012 Edublog Awards. Announced yesterday, the winners and runners-up include “Best Individual Blog,” “Best Twitter Hashtag,” and “Best Individual Tweeter.”

Sponsored by blogging service Edublogs, the awards are determined by a nomination process open to the general public, and winners and runners-up are chosen by vote. The awards were started in 2004 as a response to schools, districts, and educational institutions blocking the use of social media with the intention of promoting the importance and relevancy of these sites.

SLJ’s “Cool Tools” columnist Richard Byrne garnered both “Best Ed Tech/Resource Sharing Blog” and a runner-up award for “Best Individual Blog” for his site Free Technology for Teachers, where he provides practical tips for incorporating technology into the classroom. From apps that help students keep track of homework assignments and platforms for peer tutoring, to infographics on the solar eclipse and programs providing an in-depth look at human anatomy, Byrne’s site has something for everyone.

Bibliophiles looking for a site melding tech and kid lit will appreciate John Schumacher’s (aka Mr. Schu) Watch. Connect. Read (pictured), which was runner-up in the “Best/library/librarian blog” category. Exploring the world of book trailers, Schu’s blog also features interviews with authors and illustrators, revisits Newbery and Caldecott-winning books, and recently included the highlights of a Twitter chat about the “Babymouse” and “Lunch Lady” graphic novels. “Best Library/librarian blog” winner, Educational Blog, Iliana Ilieva-Dabova shares tips and suggestions for Bulgarian teachers creating lesson plans.

For educators eager for apps but overwhelmed by the vast selection, there’s the Edublog category “Best Mobile App.”: The winner, Flying Books, is based upon William Joyce’s short film and picture book The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (Atheneum, 2012), the story of a man who follows a flying book into a library where he spends years working. Runners-up included apps for Dropbox, which lets  users  share videos and images, Evernote, for storing ideas and notes, and the Night Zookeeper Drawing Torch, a game that features animals and monsters and that lets players tap into their drawing abilities.

“Best Student Blog” and “Most Influential Blog Post” went to Jaden, a student in California who blogs on subjects ranging from the past presidential election to the “Hunger Games” series at Jaden’s Awesome Blog. In “Ten things I’ve learned from blogging,” the fifth-grader shared wise words about lessons learned while creating a social media presence. Tips:  “When people are nice enough to comment on your blog, comment back so they will return to your blog,” “Don’t post pictures of yourself,” and “Add gadgets to make your blog the best it can be.”

The winner of the “Best Twitter Hashtag,” #UnfollowBullying was started by  the Elk Grove Unified School District as a way to take a stance against cyber-bullying. Best Hashtag runners-up included #comments4kids, providing ways for students and teachers to find blogs they’d like to comment on, and #slpeeps, for speech and language professionals.

@SpeechyKeenSLP won the “Best Individual Tweeter” award, while @ictmagic and @RossMannell were among the runners-up.

Making the most of Twitter was a common thread in this year’s awards. The runner-up for “Most Influential Blog Post,” “Nomenclature and basic functions of Twitter” by Lexical Linguist, for example, gives novices a “101” introduction to the social media platform, sharing pointers about hashtags, privacy issues, and how to interact with other users.

Other winners included Jamie Forshey, instructional technology coach and teacher at the Bellwood-Antis School District in Central PA, who took “Best New Blog,” for Edutech for Teachers and Tim Rylands, an experienced teacher from the UK known for his integration computer games and technology into the classroom, who won Edublog’s “Lifetime Achievement” award.

A copy of a letter J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in runes to a fan requesting an autographed copy of The Hobbit. Photo credit: Margie Hanssens.

Throwing Middle-Earth parties, translating runes, creating a Hobbit infographic project, and contemplating the heroic qualities of Bilbo Baggins: All of this and more is happening at libraries and schools this week, as Hobbit fever runs high leading up to release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this Friday.

Organizations from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh to the Santa Clarita Public Library in Valencia, CA, to the Cedar Rapids Public Library, to name just a few, are organizing book readings, painting murals, and hosting events to celebrate The Hobbit. At the Greenwood (IN) Public Library, making furry Hobbit feet, participating in a “One Ring Toss,” and sharing the book with the community are on the agenda for patrons of all ages, says Emily Ellis, head of reference and teen services, and a Library Journal 2012 Mover & Shaker.

At schools, Tolkien’s 1937 novel about a genial homebody from Bag End who reluctantly embarks on a quest to extract treasure from a dragon offers teachers and students an opportunity to muse on the nature of heroism and delve into mythology and philology, exploring Tolkien’s rich world of languages. Tolkien, a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, based his symbolic language of dwarvish runes, scattered through The Hobbit, on ancient English runes.

More generally, “the sense of adventure” in The Hobbit is what appeals to Darby Parker, a 10th grader at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Ridgeland, MS. Parker recently started a fantasy club at her school just to celebrate all things Hobbit.

Parker likes “how Bilbo, this little creature of habit, inches out of the blue and gets thrown into an awesome adventure,” she says. “He’s a cool archetype. He didn’t want to become a hero, but he became one.”

Seventh grader Chyna M. reads an edition of The Hobbit, illustrated by Michael Hague (1984, Houghton Mifflin), this week at the Murray Hill Middle School library in Laurel, MD. Photo credit: Gwyneth A. Jones.

Kids relate to Bilbo “because he doesn’t like to do things, but he does them anyway,” says Karen Copley, an English teacher at the McCracken Middle School in Spartanburg, SC.

Parker’s 30-member club is celebrating The Hobbit all week—and will for years, since this movie is the first of three that director Peter Jackson is carving out of Tolkien’s novel. For now, the club has plans for archery day, riddle competition day, dress-up day, and Hobbit food day.

While The Hobbit is already a curriculum staple in many schools, the film allows educators to engage more deeply with students like Parker, who says that the fantasy club “likes the fact that Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were buddies in college, and that they wrote their books in competition.” (Her club will also plan Narnia-related activities, she said.)

Hobbit feet made from brown packing paper, double-sided tape, and eyelash yarn. Photo credit: Becky Arenivar.

The Spartanburg (SC) County Public Library (SPL) is throwing a Middle-earth party on Friday, and Copley, whose school is nearby, is offering her eighth graders who are reading the book for extra credit if they go. Not that they need pushing: Copley’s imaginative curriculum already includes composing Hobbit-inspired riddles, creating Hobbit and elf character bookmarks, and delving into Tolkien’s symbolic language.

This month, she’s also charging her students with writing 12 riddles, one for each day of Christmas, inspired by the riddles Bilbo asks of Gollum in the book. Runes are featured on the Middle-earth map at the beginning of the book, and some editions also feature publishing data conveyed in runes. “They love the runes,” said Copley. “They’ve been writing their names in runes on everything.”

“Even kids who say ‘I hate fantasy’” are drawn to the book because “The characters seem so real,” Copley adds.

Making thematic bookmarks is part of the curriculum for an 8th-grade class reading The Hobbit. Photo credit: Karen Copley.

Middle-earth name translation sites like The Barrow-Downs and a Hobbit name generator helped Prescott (WI) Public Library programming specialist Becky Arenivar organize her Middle-earth “faire” this week. In addition, Online resources like a downloadable Teacher Pack form HarperCollins, featuring a word search and age-appropriate lesson plans, along with teaching materials from the Tolkien Society offer ideas for teachers.

“The idea of creating a language has a lot of power to it,” says Arenivar, adding that Tolkien’s language appeals to kids who like solving puzzles. While activities like creating hairy Hobbit feet are also part of her library event, Arenivar says that the story is ideal for readers who aren’t drawn to the complex plot intricacies of the “Lord of the Rings.” The Hobbit “reminds me of an oral story,” she says. “‘The Lord of the Rings’ is very complicated. This is a much easier world to enter into.”

SPL teen services assistant Jennifer Annis is planning archery, (blow-up) sword fighting, Hobbit trivia, and costume contests on Friday. She will also post a translation key to Tolkien’s runes in the library. Annis says that kids “love to be able to write something that no one else can read.” One teenager she knows, already versed in Star Trek language, was eager to learn more about Hobbit dialect.

Margie Hanssens, a language structures teacher at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York, delves deep into Tolkien’s love of language and mythology while teaching The Hobbit. She has her students translate the runes on Tolkien’s map and, in a related assignment, charges them with inventing their own language of symbols and writing a story in which they reveal clues about how to decode that language. Another student  reads the story and writes a letter to the author in the invented language, Hanssens says.

“The assignment is a way for the children to experience the pleasure of communicating through their own language of symbols,” said Hanssens. “Inevitably, the way in which they construct their symbols has meaning for them. They are rarely purely arbitrary.”

A translation of Tolkien’s letter. Photo credit: Margie Hanssens.

In addition, Hanssens has her students translate a letter that Tolkien wrote in runes to one of his fans who had requests an autographed copy of The Hobbit. In the letter, Tolkien refers to his “next book” which he explains will “co[n]tain more detailed information about runes and other alfabets in respo[n]se to many encwiries (sic).”

“There is clearly a linguist at the heart of this book,” said Hanssens. The Oxford scholar “was influenced by the mythologies of many cultures—Norse, Celtic, Greek, etc,” she added. “His love of these stories played an important role in his creation of Middle-earth.”

(l. to r.) Leonard S. Marcus, Rocco Staino, Robin Adelson, Lena Roy, Charlotte Jones Voiklis (Madeleine L’Engle’s granddaughter), Simon Boughton, and Hope Larsen

From her desk in the cathedral library, L’Engle greeted visitors, worked on her books, and participated in church activities.

On November 29, L’Engle’s birthday, the author’s spirit filled the cathedral once more during a ceremony in which the building was named a “Literary Landmark” in her honor.

More than 100 friends, family and fans gather at the main altar of the cathedral, the world’s largest Anglican church, while those supporting the dedication, and the new literary landmark plaque mounted on the cathedral wall, spoke about its significance.

“St. John the Divine is one of New York’s architectural wonders and spiritual crossroads,” said Leonard S. Marcus, author of the newly published Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices (FSG, 2012). “Now, everyone who visits there will know what a special role it played in the writing life of one of America’s greatest authors for children and adults.”

The church played a vital role in the author’s life, according to L’Engle’s granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis. “The cathedral nurtured her by giving her a writing home,” she said.  At the same time, “the cathedral also expanded her horizons by bringing her into a larger conversation about spirituality.”

The very reverend Dr. James A. Kowalski, dean of the cathedral, recalled that L’Engle once said, “if she could not write she would die.” He added, “We need that voice today—a voice of truth that had an abiding reverence for life’s mysteries.”

Simon Boughton, senior vice president and publishing director of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, recalled how, as a naive young editor at Simon & Schuster, he approached L’Engle about writing a book. That led to a relationship that included the author picking up a lunch check when Boughton’s credit card was declined, and Boughton using her choice seats at the opera.

Visitors felt L’Engle’s presence during the evensong, when a recording of her reading a passage from the Ephesians was played.

Robin Adelson, executive director of the Children’s Book Council, an event sponsor, noted that the  program “connects the real world with the book world.”

Beth Nawalinski, director of marketing and communications at United for Libraries, the division of the American Library Association that administers the Literary Landmark program, explained the process that recognizes locations throughout the country for their connection to significant literary events.

The Empire State Center for the Book, which inducted L’Engle into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame in 2011,  put forward the nomination for the literary landmark.

The cathedral joins 122 literary landmarks across the country, including the Algonquin Roundtable, the Plaza Hotel, and the Little Red Lighthouse in New York City.

On November 27, the Madeleine L’Engle website launched a Facebook page called Tesser Well where, it states, fans can “learn, share and connect.”

First Book staff and volunteers unload boxes of new books at a warehouse in lower Manhattan. Photo by First Book

(This story was last updated at 9:32 a.m. on November 26.)

Those wishing to help school libraries and children’s collections that were damaged by Hurricane Sandy now have an array of giving options, thanks to several disaster relief programs, children’s book publishers, and charities.

Scholastic Book Grants Program announced plans to donate one million books to those in need. The initiative is a partnership with the organization Kids in Distressed Situations (K. I. D. S.) to assist educators, families, and students in the New York tri-state area who have lost reading materials due to the storm. Schools and libraries may apply for Sandy-related book grants through December 31, 2012.

Simon & Schuster’s education and library marketing department is offering aid in the form of donations of 500 “best of” titles to public and school libraries needing to rebuild their collections, according to a press release. S & S has partnered with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Literacy Lifeboats Initiative, individual schools, and state and regional associations, including the New Jersey Library Association (NJLA), in these efforts.

The nonfiction publisher Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights Inc., donated 500 children’s books to Operation BuddyPack, an initiative by the Heart of America Foundation, to assist schools and students affected by the hurricane.

Mackin Educational Resources, a Minnesota-based company that provides schools and libraries with books, ebooks, and other resources, is encouraging those affected by the hurricane to take part in their online fundraising program, Funds4Books Disaster Relief. For each dollar donated to East Coast schools and libraries, Mackin will provide a 10 percent match.

New York City teachers can turn to the online school charity Donors Choose with specific storm-related requests. A Hurricane Relief Fund donation page had logged more than $77,000 in contributions as of November 12. The New York City Department of Education also offers ways to help afflicted city schools. Donations can be made here.

In addition, the New York City School Librarians’ Association (NYCSLA) is creating a donation program organized by city librarians who attended the New York City School Library System’s 23rd Annual Library Fall Conference on November 6.

The Hudson Valley Library Association (HVLA), made up of private school librarians in New York City, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, and Connecticut, is also doing its part with a Google Document on its listserv offering HVLA members the option to ask for specific materials or financial assistance. HVLA will then match those requests with donors.

Urban Librarians Unite (ULU), an organization dedicated to promoting librarianship in cities, is also gathering book donations. ULU is specifically seeking children’s books because these materials usually sit on low shelves where flooding damage is worst. However, they are also accepting YA books, as well as monetary gifts.

Other established national disaster relief programs are renewing promotion of their services in relation to Hurricane Sandy. First Book, an organization that provides new books to needy children, announced a partnership last week with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the Albert Shanker Institute that pledged to match every donation of $2.50 made to First Book, up to $35,000 for new books. Donations can be made here.

According to First Book’s director of communications, Brian Minter, the organization distributed five million books after Hurricane Katrina, and has already raised enough money to provide 20,000 books in the wake of Sandy. In addition to that, First Book is in the process of delivering a truckload of 30,000 books to be distributed in New York at the request of AFT and its New York City affiliate, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), on November 12.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Beyond Words Grant program, funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and established in partnership with the National Education Association (NEA), offers help replacing school library books, media, and other equipment, as well as financial aid associated with absorbing students from other afflicted schools in states served by Dollar General stores.

While Beyond Words was incepted in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina, AASL issued a new press release about the program on November 9, 2012, stating that Dollar General had distributed over $1.6 million to more than 130 schools during the past six years. Last June, AASL also announced two annual catastrophic grants in the amount of $50,000 for schools in need. Ongoing grants will be awarded to eligible applicants in amounts ranging from $10,000-$20,000.

“We wanted schools to know that assistance is available,” AASL President Susan Ballard told SLJ. “We are hopeful that members along the East Coast in the greater New York-New Jersey area will have a chance to apply for those grants.”

Ballard anticipates that “we will have a greater feel for what the needs are and how we can marshal a plan going forward” after the New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) conference from November 29 to December 1.

In the meantime, a new page on the New Jersey Department of Education site provides schools in the state with tips for navigating the federal assistance process and directs those wishing to help to the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.

Also geared toward aid in New Jersey, “YA for NJ” is an initiative in which over 170 YA and middle-grade authors offered items for an online auction, including autographed books, school visits, online meetings. All proceeds will go to the Community Foodbank of New Jersey.

Students whose SAT preparation was affected by Hurricane Sandy also received free assistance from Revolution Prep, an educational software and services provider that offered a free online SAT review session on November 15 to help students prepare for the tests, rescheduled for  November 17 and December 15 because of the storm.

Most New Jersey schools were open on November 13.  Katie Llera, a librarian at Sayreville Middle School, was one of many educators looking forward to returning to school after more than a week without power. Llera took part in volunteer efforts while schools were closed, and she also emphasized the importance of social networking to keep educators and students connected during that time.

Last week, Llera relied upon Edmodo, a social media website for educators, to keep in touch. The site is ordinarily used for her school’s book club, but Llera created other posts to distract students from the stress of the hurricane, offering news about the Garden State Teen Book Awards and information about a Skype chat with fantasy author Gail Carson-Levine. “I was just trying to get them to look forward to school, to keep their mind a little bit off of what’s happening,” she said.

Jennifer Jamison, a school media specialist in the Atlantic City, New Jersey, School District, has been working with Atlantic City Teachers United (ACTU), a group set up last week to help Atlantic City students and their families with basic needs after the hurricane. Though ACTU isn’t officially sanctioned by the Atlantic City Board of Education, it has reached out on the ground and through Facebook to gather donations, dropped off at school libraries, for those who are most in need.

The library at Atlantic City’s Brighton Avenue School was destroyed by the storm, Jamison said. While books are certainly on her radar, at the moment, “Kids don’t have underwear or mattresses.”  At ACTU, “We are collecting necessities,” she explained. “This is not a two-week thing. This will be a year-long initiative.”

As Jamison and others take the steps toward recovery over the coming weeks and months, they will have many ways to seek help.

The Chatham Public Library in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. Both school and public libraries are mobilizing to meet patron needs in the hurricane’s aftermath. Photo by Hannah Kerwin.

New York City’s school library community came together Tuesday and brainstormed ways to help school libraries that were impacted—in many cases severely—by Hurricane Sandy.

At the New York City School Library System’s (NYCSLS) 23rd Annual Library Fall Conference, librarians held an impromptu meeting to discuss how best to support affected school libraries, some of which suffered significant structural damage in the storm and continue to face hurdles such as temporary relocation, power outages and a shortage of supplies. Consequently, many of these libraries are unable to provide essential student services such as college application support.

Conference attendees discussed a relief plan that documents school librarians’ specific needs and then matches them with donors. The plan is expected to be implemented by the weekend. “The quicker we get it up, the happier we will be,” said Teresa Tartaglione, president of the New York City School Librarians’ Association (NYCSLA) and one of the plan’s designers. “But the reality is that the need will be there for a long time.”

Co-designer Jessica Hochman, coordinator of the library media specialist program at Pratt Institute, stressed the importance of identifying affected librarians’ precise needs in order to avoid what Tartaglione referred to as “cleaning out your attic” donations.

The plan, in the form of a Google Doc, will be sent out over the NYCSLA listserv with the names of the schools that need help. Librarians will post their requests, such as a call for books, supplies, or manpower. Efforts are also being made to keep some school libraries open late so that students from disrupted schools could be accommodated, but Tartaglione said that permits to extend building hours would be required before this could happen.

“We’re still not sure how many schools are displaced,” Tartaglione said on Thursday. But she hopes that as specific issues crop up over the coming days and weeks, volunteers will step up with their time and resources.

Hochman also plans to mobilize library science graduate students in the relief effort. Some students could use their expertise to create individual school library book lists, said Tartaglione, while others could work with high school students to ensure that they meet their college application deadlines.

New York City law requires individuals who work with children in a public school setting to have their fingerprints on file with the Department of Education. Since many LMS students at Pratt are fingerprinted, said Tartaglione, they would be able to work with students. They would be ideal for the task, said Hochman, because of their training in research and reference and their technology skills. Volunteer students who aren’t fingerprinted could assist with logistics and transportation. Hochman added that she has reached out to coordinators of LMS programs at Queens College and the Palmer School of Library and Information Science, in an effort to encourage similar initiatives at other city institutions.

A face-to-face summit will take place January 23 and 24, 2013, just prior to the American Library Association 2013 Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, WA. Following that, the Forum will hold three virtual town halls, facilitated by Linda W. Braun, YALSA Immediate Past President, on March 19, April 16, and May 21, 2013. To stay connected via Twitter, use the hashtag #yalsaforum.

Librarian Allie Bruce reads Where the Wild Things Are to children at the Bank Street School for Children

As the disruption of schools in the wake of Hurricane Sandy continues to evolve—with 44 buildings in New York City sustaining severe damage—school librarians have stepped up to do their part. From educators reaching out to offer donations to those affected by the crisis, to librarians compiling resources to give emotional support to their students, the library sector is serving the community in this time of need.

Because libraries have a social function as well as an educational one within the school, many librarians will face unique challenges in the coming weeks, according to Meghann Walk, a librarian at Bard High School Early College Manhattan. She’s concerned about how the hurricane will affect her students. As BHSEC Manhattan is located in Zone A (a mandatory evacuation area), the school will temporarily relocate to its sister school, BHSEC Queens in Long Island City, about six miles away.

Two boys read together at the Bank Street School for Children.

Walk is keenly aware that students will be spending more time gathering in the library to share their experiences, but she also must ensure that they adhere to their schoolwork after a week of missed classes. “It’s going to be even more difficult than usual to figure out how to balance the ‘shushing’ librarian that helps students focus on their studies, and the ‘free range’ librarian that lets students engage in whatever (respectful) conversation they see fit,” says Walk.

Listservs were a godsend, enabling many librarians to communicate with each other during Sandy, including Andrea Swenson. A middle and high school librarian at East Side Community School, located on East 12th Street. Swenson has had experience with evacuations, as her school relocated to P.S. 1 and Norman Thomas High School in September as a result of structural damage. Swenson reached out over NYCSLIST, a listserv for New York City school librarians, in order to offer advice to those confronting the daunting task of moving to other buildings. Because librarians are members of the faculty who know most students, she says that they can support the emotional needs of students going to a school in a new building or neighborhood. Simply being visible and engaging with students one-on-one can be a comfort during an upsetting time. Swenson says that librarians “are in a unique position to support the community…[and] to provide…stability and…a friendly face.”

Other librarians support a sense of community even outside of their school environments. Margaux DelGuidice found that the Freeport Memorial Library in New York’s Nassau County, where she works part-time as a children’s services librarian, was a place of refuge for those affected by the hurricane. DelGuidice, who also serves as the librarian at Garden City High School, braved dangerous road conditions to make it to the public library on the evening of October 31. That night, the library was packed, with hoards of people crowding in to watch news updates on television or to take advantage of the available WiFi.

DelGuidice also described the vital social role of the Freeport Library, where many local residents come for English lessons. These patrons, in particular, she says, greatly appreciated having access to information from a trustworthy, authoritative source during such a frantic, frightening time.

DelGuidice also related a story of two boys in costumes who arrived with their father after trick-or-treating. Instead of asking for candy, the children gave staff members some of their own treats, and their father told the librarians, “Thank you for being here.”

Like Walk and Swenson, DelGuidice anticipates her school’s library filling an important need as students return to classes. The library is generally a hub of activity for her students, with hundreds visiting each day, and DelGuidice welcomes the opportunity to share useful information with her students and their parents, such as where to go for food or water distribution.

Children at the Bank Street School for Children read together.

At the Bank Street School for Children, a private preK to eighth grade school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the library offered childcare on Friday, November 2, to local parents who needed to go to work. Librarian Allie Bruce organized read alouds of several books by Maurice Sendak. Older children participated in informal discussions about censorship of Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen (Harper & Row, 1970), and helped read to the younger kids.

Cheryl Wolf, a school librarian, has received an outpouring of support after Sandy. Her library serves both the Neighborhood School and P.S. 63, two elementary schools in the same building located on East3rd Street. Though she still hasn’t been able to assess damage to her library, Wolf has already received offers of book donations from a group of teachers from across the country she had met at a recent National Endowment of the Humanities seminar.

Librarians have also used NYCSLIST to brainstorm ideas for relevant materials. Wolf already has several books that she’s planning to use with her elementary school-aged students, such as Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery’s Two Bobbies (Walker, 2008), Isabella Hatkoff’s Owen and Mzee (Scholastic, 2008), (picture books about animals who have survived disasters) and Myron Uhlberg’s A Storm Called Katrina (Peachtree, 2011). She also plans to create a bookmaking station in her library to give students the opportunity to write about hurricane experiences.

Overall, these librarians have worked to establish a support network in a time of crisis, both for each other and for their patrons. “I think people were just glad to have that human connection,” says DelGuidice, “someone to give them accurate information about the recovery efforts and assistance with deciphering all that happens next.”