Industry News

Calling all performance-inclined library media specialists. Think you can pull off a song about what librarians do—as a rap? Flocabulary, creator of multimedia K–12 lessons to a hip-hop beat, wants you.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez, who last month warned that 22 of the county’s 49 public libraries could be shut down this fall due to deep budget cuts, announced that his administration now expects to shutter only four, according to the Miami Herald.

Nearly 50 children’s and teen librarians met last week at Darien Library (CT) for the fifth annual KidLibCamp, a free “unconference” in which the discussion topics, panels, and workshops are voted on by the participants. Attendees explored best practices in 12 interactive breakout sessions with several common takeaways: that innovative programming can be achieved at little start-up cost; librarians need to better market existing programs to their patrons; and partnering with schools and communities is critical to the future of our libraries.

Featuring beloved Mo Willems characters, this impressive production offers several entertaining game options as well as cameo appearances by the author.

NASA offers a Hubble Space Telescope program for the classroom, online applications are being accepted for the 2014 Penguin Young Readers Group Awards, Artemis Fowl will make its big screen debut, and a new toolkit is available for Kwame Alexander’s He Said/She Said to coincide with a big student contest.

(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 [...]

Youth services librarians from the NYC metropolitan area gathered for the fifth annual KidLib Unconference at Darien Public Library on August 7.

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has just launched an updated version of its free Teen Book Finder app—which debuted in June, 2012—to include all of the books the association honored in 2013. The first of its kind, Teen Book Finder gives teens, librarians, parents, and young adult literature aficionados access to YALSA’s recommended reading and award-winning titles from the past three years.

Follett announced today a partnership with U.S. publisher Hachette Book Group (HBG) to provide preK-12 school libraries and students expanded access to popular children's titles. Award-winning books such as Jewell Parker Rhodes's Ninth Ward and Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian will be available in an ebook lending format for the 2013-2014 school year. The company recently announced a similar agreement with Random House Children's.