I’ve had these in my files for a couple of years doing nobody no good. So, I thought it was time to crowd-source, update and improve a series of checklists I’ve planning to work on and share. The checklists are meant to be a handy list of things to plan, do, and celebrate month-by-month in the life [...]
TL Cafe Hosts “Back to School Special”
By on September 8, 2013
September is a great time get your network on. On Monday September 9 at 8 pm ET, it’s the very special third annual Back to School Special, featuring an idea share led by Tiffany Whitehead (Mighty Little Librarian), Jennifer LaGarde (Library Girl), and the daring Gwyneth Jones. Visit the TLCafé homepage for instructions on how to join the event using Blackboard Collaborate.
A new Follett Challenge & a couple of inspiring stories
By on September 6, 2013
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are probably a thousand different ways to do library great. Sure there are handbooks on how to put together a traditional library program–how to create a budget, weed a collection, host an author event, collaborate with teachers. But no textbook shows you what it looks like when the [...]
Orientation inspiration
By on August 14, 2013
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Joyce Valenza shares some creative ways to do a library orientation. (Zombies included.)
School Library Research Summarized (and newly updated)
By on August 11, 2013
(Note: I just realized that I created a draft of this post a few weeks back, but forgot to publish. Forgive me!) Deb Kachel, my colleague at the Mansfield SL&IT, just shared her latest revision of School Library Research Summarized. The revised booklet updates the work of Deb’s grad students in her Spring 2011 Advocacy [...]
What did your edtech year look like? (The results)
By on June 25, 2013
A couple of weeks back I shared a survey that asked the following: As this school year comes to a close, I’d like to call on you to share your discoveries and your wisdom and to help me reflect. Which edtech goodies, tools, apps, platforms, and strategies worked so well for you in 2012/2013 that [...]
Our first PSLA/MU Unconference
By on May 6, 2013
I am a big fan of the unconference/edcamp movements and of open space planning. And though I’ve personally been lucky to attend a number of local, regional, and national edcamps and unconfs, I’ve wanted to share my excitement about these participant-driven events with my TL colleagues in Pennsylvania. Our traditional PSLA state conference is pretty darn [...]
Web2MARC/DL2SL: Making our OPACs more gracious hosts
By on April 26, 2013
It’s time to bust open the OPAC. In fact, it’s long past time. My notion of collection development and of cataloging were a little different back in the day. I now consider digital resources–OER, images, videos, audio files, slideshows, documents, ebooks, maps, art, student work, data sets, interactivities, simulations, and especially the elements of the [...]
on Creativity and testing and poetry
By on March 13, 2013
Yesterday, I was touched when I read a letter by a retiring principal in Diane Ravitch’s blog. In his letter to parents, Don Sternberg (Wantagh Elementary, Long Island, NY), shared that he felt he was abandoning my students at a time that they might need my voice the most. Sternberg writes of his concern that [...]
School library infographics: research and advocacy
By on March 6, 2013
However compelling the research is, it can be hard to make the case with a 30-page study, or even a executive summary. Sometimes you need the visually attractive, embeddable, tweetable version of the elevator speech. Over the past couple of months we’ve seen a research translated and chunked in the form of infographics. We’ve also [...]
New Zealand: The future of library services to NZ students
By on March 3, 2013
A couple of summers ago I was invited to visit New Zealand and speak at the SLANZA Conference. I will never forget the warm welcome, the energy, and the passion of the librarians I met in Auckland. While I was there I toured the National Library of New Zealand and had the pleasure of meeting [...]
#tlchat was even more live last night
By on January 15, 2013
I’ve said it before, but last night was further proof of the power of our growing TL network. The live Monday night twitter chat (#tlchat) we began back in September, ran on both Twitter and Google+ Hangouts last night. And our intrepid team managed and archived both platforms. The topic was: Get Those Books Moving: [...]
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.
Kentucky’s Teacher of the Year Advocates for the Need for School Librarians
By on July 27, 2012
There is a 2012 Teacher of the Year in Kentucky who “gets it.” And, she expresses well what students need to do to be successful meeting the Common Core standards, tying them closely to what it is that school librarians do. She does so in an article that can be sent to every superintendent, shared [...]
“Big ALA” and the new School Library Resolution
By on July 13, 2012
“Big ALA” will be focused on school librarians even more after the 2012 Annual Conference recently held in Anaheim. We need it. So many school librarians want to join AASL or other divisions without paying dues that include the parent organization, “Big ALA.” I personally joined ALA and AASL as a new school librarian because [...]
MARC Records as an Advocacy Strategy: My AASL “Advocacy Tip of the Day”
By on May 30, 2012
Teachers drift in and out of my office all day for the $.25 freshly ground coffee, “real” and decaffeinated. I sometimes sit at my desk with a pile of new materials, entering them into my automated catalog. Suddenly it hits me. We talk about school and life, give each other advice, plan collaborative projects (the [...]
NLLD or VLLD: Time to “Take Action”
By on April 22, 2012
I am on my first train to get from Albany, NY to Washington, DC on a grey, chilly Sunday morning as part of the New York Library Association (NYLA)’s delegation. We will participate in the American Library Association’s National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) on Tuesday, April 24th. I am fairly sure I will be the [...]
It Takes a Group of People to Rescue a Sinking Ship: Colorado’s “Survive and Thrive” Campaign
By on April 16, 2012
Can we have business as usual on a Titanic? That’s a question that bothered Becky Russell, the School Library/21st Century Skills Content Specialist at the Colorado Department of Education’s Library Development Office, about the diminishing number of school library positions in her state. After reading Doug Johnson’s blog post about the new Colorado Association of [...]
