There’s nothing quite like the run-up to the announcement of the Youth Media Awards at the American Library Association’s (ALA) Midwinter Meeting.
The Art of the Caldecott: At 75, the powerful award keeps proving the value of librarians’ expertise | Editorial
By on February 5, 2013 Leave a Comment
That Collaborative Spirit: Changing times demand more complex partnerships | Editorial
By on January 8, 2013 Leave a Comment
Who wouldn’t want to work with the two librarians on our cover? To me, their joyous, open faces welcome engagement. I want in on the action—in this case, the series of projects they pull off to bring more to the kids they each serve.
Behind the Best: Or what it takes for 65 books to become SLJ’s top titles of the year | Editorial
By on November 29, 2012 Leave a Comment
First, consider the numbers. Some 37,000 children’s and YA books have been published in 2012, according to Bowker. SLJ reviewed more than 6,500 of them—thanks to our corp of 300 active reviewers in the field. Of these titles, 289 earned stars. And here, in the final presentation, are the 65 that were selected as SLJ’s Best Books of 2012.
How they get identified is not a math problem, of course. Passions run high. There’s a talented team behind this list, packed [...]
Superheroes Among Us: Librarians are the unsung tech leaders in our nation’s schools | Editorial
By on November 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
Photograph by Mark Tuchman
Action figures don’t usually weigh in on SLJ’s design, but Flash, the iconic DC Comics superhero, zipped into the story this month. He snuck his way into my purse and then onto my desk just as editors Kathy Ishizuka and Rick Margolis and I talked about our cover strategy with art director Mark Tuchman. Flash didn’t say much, but his force was unstoppable.
Our conversation about the findings of SLJ’s 2012 school library tech [...]
A Note from LJ/SLJ to Those Affected by Hurricane Sandy
By on November 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
A message from the entire team at Library Journal and School Library Journal and an update on our situation in New York City.
The Tension of Innovation: The bridges to the future must be built for the kids of today | Editorial
By on October 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
As SLJ’s editors roll up our sleeves in final preparation for our annual Leadership Summit, in Philadelphia, October 26-27 (www.sljsummit2012.com), and our “Digital Shift: Libraries, Ebooks and Beyond” online event on October 17 (www.thedigitalshift.com/beyondebooks), I’m inspired by both the big ideas in education and the ground-level work I’ve seen in school libraries across the country.
I’m also aware of the vast challenges we face as we strive to give our kids the best educational experience possible. A recent [...]
What Creativity Looks Like: Put a Bunch of Librarians in a Room, and Great Ideas Fly | Editorial
By on September 4, 2012 Leave a Comment
What happens when you comingle 80 or so librarians for some eight hours and give them just enough structure to focus on key issues? Answer: KidLibCamp. I expected this unconference at Darien (CT) Library, on August 16, to be good, but it was so much better than that. It was professional learning at its best—the kind of inspiring event that ought to be replicated in every system and district in the country.
Every Word Counts: Impoverished Kids Need Libraries More Than Ever | Editorial
By on August 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
I got a chill listening to Walter Dean Myers describe the decline in literacy he has witnessed in his decades of working with incarcerated males. It used to be, he said in his keynote address at SLJ’s Day of Dialog in June, that he could tell what grade kids were in by the quality of the writing in their letters to him, but not anymore. He would also see kids in detention who were functionally illiterate, but now [...]
First, Last, in the Middle? The Perils of one-dimensional rankings | Editorial
By on July 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
On June 6, Forbes published a list that ranked the master’s in library and information science (MLIS) against 34 other master’s degrees in terms of salary and employment outlook (see “The Best and Worst Master’s Degrees for Jobs”).
‘I Can Help You With That’: Providing solutions puts librarians at the center of Common Core | Editorial
By on June 1, 2012 1 Comment
If you want to have a stake in the Common Core, take a page from Tina Edwards Felder, who responds to her teachers’ concerns about meeting the ambitious new standards with a willing, “I can help you with that.”
