Recovery grants:

You Have to Be in It…

Free audiobooks: To promote its new distribution partnerships, Findaway World, the maker of Playaway, Playaway View, and Catalist Digital, is giving away three $1,000 Playaway starter collections to schools. Media specialists and teachers can visit the website, complete a short survey, and enter for the chance to win one of these great audiobook collections. One school will be selected to receive a starter collection each month, from March through May.

Playaway audio content comes preloaded in circulation-ready media players. Playaway’s new distributors include Mackin Educational Resources, Perma-Bound, Children’s Plus, Baker & Taylor, Classroom Library Company, Delaney Education, Bound To Stay Bound, Central Programs, and AV Café. Each distributor will offer various titles from Playaway’s collection of 17,000 titles. Findaway World will continue its longstanding distribution relationship with Follett Library Resources and Follett Educational Services.

Programming

Arts and humanities awards: Libraries are encouraged to apply for the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program (NAHYP) Award, an initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The deadline is February 4. Be sure to check out eligibility requirements before completing the application. Twelve winners will be selected to receive a $10,000 grant. In addition, 38 finalists will receive a Finalist Certificate of Excellence. The award will be presented by First Lady Michelle Obama at a ceremony at the White House.

Programs should be in place for at least five years and “offer sustained and consistent out-of-school or afterschool opportunities for young people to engage hands-on with the arts or humanities.” After-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs sponsored by museums, libraries, performing arts organizations; educational institutions (e.g., preschools; elementary, middle, and high schools; universities; and colleges), arts centers, community service organizations, businesses, and eligible government entities can submit an application.

Industry News

Professional development: After recently acquiring the assets of Maupin House, a publisher of more than 200 professional resources on literacy topics for K–12 educators and administrators, Capstone has launched Capstone Professional. This new professional development service will include onsite and online training webinars, books, and ebooks. Among Maupin House’s bestsellers are “Caught’ya! Grammar with a Giggle” series by Jane Ball Kiester; Razzle Dazzle Writing  2001) by Melissa Forney; and the CraftPlus K–8 Writing Program, a curriculum aligned to the Common Core Standards. Capstone is a leading publisher of children’s books, digital products, and literacy programs.

Hurricane Sandy benefit:

Literacy Campaign

Books for kids in need: Scholastic, The UPS Store, and Marine Toys for Tots are launching a holiday literacy drive that’s part of Scholastic’s literacy campaign, Read Every Day, Lead a Better Life. The aim of the campaign is to “help all children experience the love of reading and owning a book,” including those who lost books due to Hurricane Sandy that devastated the East Coast. There are a number of ways that families can help.

When you download Storia, Scholastic’s teacher-recommended children’s ereading app, you will receive five free ebooks. For every additional ebook you purchase on Storia through December 31, Scholastic will donate a children’s book to a child in need through Toys for Tots Literacy Program (they’ve committed to donating a minimum of 50,000 books).

You can also donate to the Toys for Tots Literacy Program by purchasing a donation card or donating online at The UPS Store Facebook page. Furthermore, the UPS Store that raises the most money during the holidays will get 500 books for families in their community.

Awards

Life changer: The chances are that you know a K–12 school district educator or employee who exemplifies excellence, positive influence, and leadership. Well, it’s time to nominate them for the Life Changer of the Year Award sponsored by National Life Group (National Life Insurance Co.). School employees and administrators can nominate full-time educators, teachers, principals, or any member of the school’s staff.

Winners will be selected on the basis of their ability to make a difference in the lives of students and their ability to positively add to the development of the school’s atmospheres. They must also be a leader in their activities at the school and/or district level, have a proven record of excellence at the professional level, and be committed to producing a nurturing atmosphere. Be sure to check out the official rules and complete the nomination form. Nominations can be made through January 25.

The grand prize winner will receive $5,000 with a matching award going to their school. The first runner-up will receive $3,500 with an equal amount awarded to their school. The second runner-up and their school will each get $2,500. There will also be seven LifeChanger awards—the employee and the school will each receive $1,500.

And the Winner Is…

Service to the community: Five libraries and five museums were presented with the 2012 National Medal for Museum and Library Service by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) at a ceremony at the White House on November 14. The Medal winners are selected from nominations of institutions nationwide that “demonstrate innovative approaches to public service, exceeding the expected levels of community outreach” and make a difference for individuals, families, and the communities. Anyone can nominate a library or museum for the National Medal, including the institutions employees, board members, community members, and elected officials.

This year’s honorees include Bootheel Youth Museum, Malden, MO; Contra Costa County Library, Pleasant Hill, CA; Cumberland County Public Library, Fayetteville, NC; Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, IL; Long Island Children’s Museum, Garden City, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, N. Miami, FL; Naturita Community Library, CO; Pacific Science Center, Seattle, WA; Park View High School Library Media Center, Sterling, VA; and Shaler North Hills Library, Glenshaw, PA. Make sure to check out just how these institutions have reached out to the communities they serve. “By pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and embracing new ideas and approaches, these award winners have challenged the conventional notions of what a library or museum can and should be,” said First Lady Michelle Obama.

Industry News

Infobase Learning has acquired Learn 360, an interactive media-on-demand service from AIM Education. The Learn360 platform is a subscription service used by more than 25,00 schools that offers digital video titles, video clips, speeches, images, songs, research articles, and more from over 60 educational producers. Infobase provides digital reference content to schools and libraries under brands such as Facts On File, The World Almanac, Chelsea House, and Films Media Group. “This acquisition greatly expands our existing reach within the elementary, middle, and high school markets,” noted Mark McDonnell, president and CEO of Infobase Learning. “Learn360’s extensive multimedia assets and virtual classroom platform complement Infobase’s award-winning digital reference products.”

On the move: Maria Modugno joined Random House as editorial director, picture books for the Random House and Golden Books for Young Readers Group on November 26. Modugo’s career includes numerous positions at Little, Brown Children’s Books where she published such classics as I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (2000 by Rose Lewis and Jane Dyers and oversaw Marc Brown’s “Arthur” series. She also was editorial director of children’s books at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. She is leaving her position as vice president/editorial director at HarperCollins Children’s Books where she acquired and edited books such as Victoria Kann’s Pinkalicious (2006) and Rob Scotton’s Splat the Cat (2008).

Downed tree on the way to New Canaan Library, CT.

The day after Hurricane Sandy, my wife and I walked around our town. We’d been fortunate. Even though a fallen tree blocked our street, with every sort of power line beneath it, we had power and water and even TV and Internet. Our house was filled with neighbors charging their cell phones and craving hot coffee.

As we picked our way past trees and police tape and fallen wires, we saw home after home darkened, trees upended across yards, porches, and roofs. We finally reached my 92-year-old mother, who was trapped in her cold, powerless home, and my mother-in-law, who was even more imprisoned in an apartment with neither power nor running water. I’m sure you’ve all had similar experiences or have seen images such as these, and far worse.

The storm brought change. We all also saw President Obama and New Jersey Governor Christie work together—an image of what our nation could be and should be. And that brings me to the main point of this column. I believe that students in every school in America should address the following question: Are human actions changing our climate? And if they are, how? What can we do about it?

We’re living amidst wild nature. Is that due to climate change? What could be a more perfect Common Core question? What could be more central to our lives, and our students’ futures? To address these questions, kids need to use science, history, economics, ecology, biology, math, and social action—they can read dystopian novels such as Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker (Little, Brown, 2010) or M. T. Anderson’s Feed (Candlewick, 2002). These are questions on which experts disagree. That’s perfect. We’re not preaching to our students, we are engaging them in answering a question that’s as central to their generation as civil rights was to mine. Why should schools focus on anything else? Students will learn every required skill, but not as textbook abstractions, rather as the central issues facing us, all of us, right now and in the future.

I urge you, readers, make the case to your school. Or, if the teachers and administration are too pressed by tests to add a new unit, start a display in your library: Is human-induced climate change leading to catastrophic weather? Include books, print-outs from websites and magazines, and ads. (The New York Times has a fine set of learning resources about Sandy.) Then invite kids to add their notes, comments, and questions. Build it and they will come—and you’ll be the agent asking the key questions that must be asked… and answered.

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.

Books for devastated libraries:

Founded in 1992, First Book provides new books to children in need. To date, the organization has distributed more than 90 million free and low cost books in thousands of communities.

Messages requesting donations posted on the doors of John Jay High School in Brooklyn, currently an evacuation shelter for Hurricane Sandy victims.

School officials in New York and New Jersey grappled with how to get students and staff back to classrooms on Monday after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. The storm left 57 New York City schools too structurally damaged to receive students, and eight are still in use as evacuation centers. In New Jersey, some schools were open, but a full picture of the extent of the damage was still hard to come by due to power outages, said Amy Rominiecki, president of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL).

The widespread damage in New Jersey prompted organizers of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) to cancel its annual meeting, slated for November 8-9 in Atlantic City, for the first time in 158 years. “Some reports are saying that schools won’t be able to move back into their buildings this year,” said Steve Baker, NJEA associate director for public relations. “Certainly the hardest-hit communities face a long and daunting process.” Baker added that though the conference will not be rescheduled, NJEA hopes to offer significant opportunities for professional development online.

Rominiecki sent an email last Thursday requesting damage reports from school librarians in the state. So far, she said, no one has responded, though schools are reopening. In the meantime, others have been reaching out to her, wanting to make contributions and help. “It’s wonderful that everyone wants to help out,” Rominiecki says, but she does not yet know who needs it.

Scenes from across New York City

New York City school librarians and staff returning to work faced a fluctuating situation in which officials scrambled to find alternate space for students whose schools are shuttered. Last week, fish from the Atlantic Ocean were swimming in the flooded cafeteria at the Lafayette Educational Campus, a large building housing five schools in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Librarian Frank Minaudo was told that the faculty and students would relocate to another facility. But when it emerged that nearby school buildings, including those in hard-hit Breezy Point, Queens, were in worse shape, plans changed. Now, Lafayette will host other displaced students.

“We’re keeping this school open with temporary heating units, even though it’s freezing,” Minaudo said on Monday, as the school principal and officials huddled nearby, figuring out how to partition the library into temporary classrooms for the extra students expected Wednesday (public schools are closed Tuesday due to the general election). Meanwhile, Minaudo, who had to turn students away from the library on Monday because of the principal’s meeting, mapped out his own triage teaching plan. “I’ll roll in with my laptop anywhere I can,” he said. “I’ll bring it to classrooms and do whatever I have to do.”

Manhattan’s PS 347, the American Sign Language and English Lower School in Manhattan, was also operating without heat or phone service, said Sara Paulson, coordinator of library services. A banner on the school’s web site yesterday morning advised children to dress warmly.

The storm also wreaked havoc on the early admissions college process, said Adam Stevens, a teacher and scholarship advisor at the Brooklyn Technical High School, currently being used as a shelter for nursing home patients and people with physical and psychological disabilities. Facing a November 1 deadline to file early application materials, many teachers could not file their student recommendations in time. Stevens said that the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) was working with colleges to grant extensions to students in the hurricane zone.

Students were to return to Brooklyn Tech on Monday, with evacuees still occupying other floors of the building. But those plans were cancelled and students were told to stay home. “The principal had a meeting with us in the library this morning and informed us that the school will try to reopen on Wednesday,” a school employee said on Monday. “These are special circumstances. The evacuees are from hospitals, and we can’t displace them.”

Farther south, PS 90 in Coney Island, Brooklyn, a coastal area pounded by storm, remains closed. Eileen Makoff, the school’s library media specialist, feared both for the students and for her small school library, which she labored to re-open last year. The school had gone for many years without a library facility.

Elsewhere in the city, schools prepared to absorb extra students. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Campus building, which houses several schools in one structure, prepared for its role as a relocation site on Wednesday, said Campus Librarian Teresa Tartaglione. On Monday morning, it was still “business as usual” in the library, according to Tartaglione, who is also president of the New York City School Librarians’ Association (NYCSLA). But many students were still absent, in part because they received erroneous calls from the Department of Education telling them to stay home, she said.  On Wednesday, she planned to “have the library open, comfortable, and warm. I don’t know how many extra kids we’ll have.”

Voters who usually cast their ballots at John Jay were redirected to nearby P.S. 282 on Election Day.

With schools closed on Tuesday, Tartaglione planned to join other city librarians at the New York Department of Education Library Services Annual Fall Conference. Tartaglione expects a drop in attendance, and she said that some librarians have cancelled their presentations. “Aside from that, I think we are just trying to do the best we can and carry on,” she said.

The Queens facility of Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) was also getting ready to receive students, from a second BHSEC school located in lower Manhattan.“We are in preparedness mode,” said Queens BHSEC teacher Kim Nitchman. Several rooms in the library will be turned over to Manhattan faculty, and the Manhattan librarian will also relocate to Queens. Librarians from both campuses had been emailing over the weekend about technology usage, printing privileges, and, if needed, population limits in the library.

While schools were closed last week, teachers were busy, either reaching out to students at home or volunteering at evacuation centers. At Brooklyn Tech, athletic coaches and teachers called students who lived in evacuated zones to make sure they were all right, said Stevens, who supervises the debate team. Tartaglione said that staff at one school in the MLK campus building called every student on Friday.

At the John Jay High School building in Brooklyn, an evacuation center, Stuyvesant High School teacher Peter Brooks was volunteering, wearing a fluorescent vest and fielding whatever was thrown his way. Brooks said that there had been video rooms, concerts, and a magician for the younger children. A group of teachers from nearby PS 321, including music teacher Frank McGarry, showed up with musical instruments and performed twice. Therapy dogs were brought in as well, said Brooks.

First grade teacher Florence Delgado was hurrying to work at PS 226 in Bensonhurst on Friday morning. The school, like many others in the city that escaped damage, was open for teacher meetings. Staff had a lot of work to do to master the Core Curriculum, Delgado said.

At PS 321 on Friday morning, staff traded hurricane stories while snacking on bagels that had been sent over by the principal of another school.  As Principal Liz Phillips prepared to receive students on Monday, she noted the school’s history of raising funds for environmental or other causes, through student walkathons and other drives. This year, she expects many proceeds will go to Sandy victims.

On Staten Island, the Jerome Parker Campus was open on Monday, and librarian Patricia Sarles said the school was collecting donations for its own afflicted students. “Then we will do a drive for the rest of the island,” she said. “It’s helpful for students to feel like they can do something in the face of helplessness.”

Back in Bensonhurst, Minaudo and other teachers will carry on this week, even as their colleagues deal with tragedy. One staff member lost her home in Breezy Point. Another staff member’s neighbor was swept away by the tides on Staten Island.

“I think most people here are operating on adrenaline,” said Minaudo. “We won’t feel the full emotional impact until things return to normal. But as it was with 9/11, for many, it probably won’t ever be ‘normal’ again.”

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.”

Stepping up quickly to serve victims of Hurricane Sandy, award-winning children’s author Kate Messner has launched KitLit Cares: Superstorm Sandy Relief Effort, an online auction featuring donations from the children’s literature community to benefit the Red Cross.

Since Messner first reached out online to authors, agents, editors, and illustrators, “The outpouring has been nothing short of amazing,” she says.

“Situations like this let us see social media at its best and most kindhearted,” adds Messner, who solicited auction donations through Twitter (@KateMessner, #KidLitCares) and Facebook. “For three days I’ve been doing nothing but answering email and adding auction items” to the auction site.

Messner, the author of The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. (Walker, 2009), knows how effective such fundraising efforts can be. After Hurricane Irene destroyed the children’s section of her local library in upstate New York, she organized a similar drive. As a result of her efforts, that library’s youth services collection is now stronger than it was before Irene.

Kate Messner

As for KidLit Cares, Messner says, “To be honest, it seemed like something that somebody should do. I don’t have a book deadline this week.”

According to Messner’s instructions, the top bidders must make a payment in the amount of their winning bids directly to the Red Cross at the auction’s close. Ending times for auctions of the first 42 items are staggered, with bidding ending November 13 at 10 pm.

The next 40 items will begin posting online November 12, says Messner, adding that she enlisted the help of friend and fellow children’s author Joanne Levy to administer the second round.

“The children’s literature community comes together for these things,” Levy says. “I’ve been up to my eyeballs in donations.”

The 42 items currently up for bid include:

A Skype session with children’s author and illustrator Mo Willems

A manuscript critique session with YA author Laure Halse Anderson

A portfolio critique with Penguin art director Guiseppe Castellano

A full-day school author visit with Newbery Honor winner Cynthia Lord

A Skype session and signed books from YA writer and poet Ellen Hopkins

A three-day retreat at the Writing Barn in Austin, TX

A Skype session with YA bestselling author Veronica Roth

A Skype session with Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park

Dear friends,

The entire team at Library Journal and School Library Journal extends our deepest sympathy to those affected by Hurricane Sandy. We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well.

Due to power outages and a compromised transportation system across the New York area, our offices in downtown Manhattan remain closed. Our network is currently offline, so our email is down as well.

But we’ve managed to reestablish contact with each other through social media and personal email, and we’re pleased to report that all our people are safe, although many remain without electricity, water, and other basic services.

We’d like to take this moment to honor the commitment and resilience of our staff and those in the greater library and school community. As we look ahead to restoring normalcy to our lives and work, let us do so with gratitude for our efforts and each other.

If you need to reach us, email LJ.mediasource@gmail.com and schoollibraryjournal@gmail.com.

We’re also available via Twitter (@LibraryJournal; @sljournal), on Facebook  (Library Journal, School Library Journal), and Tumblr (Library Journal, School Library Journal), and, of course, our websites (Library Journal and School Library Journal).

As we proceed, we’d like to report  your stories regarding the storm and its aftermath. As you have the time and capacity, please share any news about your schools and libraries with us — leave a comment below or reach us at one of the email addresses above.

Sincerely,

The Staff of Library Journal and School Library Journal