The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens
A recent national report from the Pew Research Center that stated that most parents consider libraries important for their children has attracted some criticism from the library community, which is concerned that the findings are based on a skewed sample and put too much emphasis on reading.
SLJ’s 2013 job satisfaction survey reveals widespread happiness among librarians, but challenges persist.
SLJ wants you… to complete our technology survey. And who knows? You might make our cover.
Read News Bites for some great ways to connect with your students—learn more about the immigrant experience with the Smithsonian’s education conferences and offer students Shmoop’s video analysis of dozens of literature favorites.
An important new study of Pennsylvania’s schools shows that students in schools with full-time librarians score substantially higher on reading and writing tests than their counterparts in schools that lack librarians.
The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies has introduced a program to encourage research, discovery and creative collaboration with project-based learning. Smithsonian Quests awards online digital badges to students (and teachers!) upon completion of their activities. The projects are aimed at students of various grade levels, and can be done as part of classroom lessons or independently.
Cool Tools columnist Richard Byrne presents some free options for research that don’t require a login, along with a few quick tips to aid student searches.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project, in collaboration with the Berkman Center at Harvard University, has recently released “Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy”. The report—the first in a Pew/Berkman Pew logoseries with a focus on youth privacy issues—combines a number of quotes taken from focus group interviews conducted by Berkman’s Youth and Media team with Pew data from a nationally representative phone survey of parents and their teens, with a focus on the use of social networking sites. The report is fully downloadable, and may be searched online as well.
Meet the latest tech superheroes: school librarians. According to School Library Journal’s 2012 School Technology Survey, media specialists are leading the charge to bring new media, mobile devices, social apps, and web-based technologies into our nation’s classrooms.
Hot off the presses: School Library Journal’s cover. This month we’re featuring the findings from our recent technology survey.
Access to a full-time school librarian increases test scores, closes the achievement gap, and improves writing skills, according to a new study of Pennsylvania public schools announced at the start of SLJ’s Leadership Summit.
Although kids today say they enjoy reading just as much as their peers did in 2005, they’re actually reading far less each day because they’re busy doing other things, says a new study by the National Literacy Trust, a UK-based literacy charity.
Imagine that while interviewing for a library job you’re asked, “What would storytime specifically for African-American families look like to you?” That’s what happened to Kirby McCurtis. “I thought it was an especially interesting and challenging question,” says Kirby, who aced the interview and is now Multnomah County Library’s (MCL) newest African-American librarian. “It stayed with me even after the second interview. Now that I am working here, I have the opportunity to answer it every Saturday. It’s very exciting!”
Wondering if your perceptions of teen online behavior are correct? Have boys really started texting more? Does it seem like most 13 year olds are already engaged in online social networking? Get the answers to these questions and more from this terrific Slideshare summary of “Truth, Trends, and Myths About Teen Online Behavior,” the latest teen-focused study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, sponsored by the Pew Research Center.
Libraries should consider beefing up their gaming collections as a way to keep kids and teens coming, says a new study examining patron use and preferences.
Over the past couple of weeks, two companies released informative information literacy infographics.
1. EasyBib shared You are What You Write which revealed:
Students don’t always outline, they like citation management tools, and they tend to procrastinate when writing research projects.
Plagiarism is on the rise, according to an iParadigms/Turnitin study.
Of the ten most popular websites for student [...]
Every year, the National Science Teachers Association compiles a list of outstanding science books for kids in grades K to 12. Featuring fiction and nonfiction selections, this year’s topics range from the natural world to mathematics to engineering. And the latest selections, which support the Common Core guidelines, also include stories about oil, the hydrogen bomb, plant hunters, and an autistic scientist. Teen readers will be enlightened as they uncover the ever-broadening field of science and the opportunities that it offers them.
In a recent Pew Internet study called How Teens Do Research the Digital World, AP and National Writing Project teachers said that one of educators’ top priorities should be to teach students how to “judge the quality of online information.” The study reports that 95 percent of our students do online research, but their research skills are only good or fair. Also, for many students, doing research means Googling. Many students see research as a fast-paced process in which they [...]
