News & Features

On June 22, The Alameda Shore Center will be hosting The Alameda Youth Ethical Fashion Show. As a way to advocate recycling and sustainability, the fashion show challenges area teen designers to create high-fashion wearables using only clothing purchased at second-market outlets, such as used clothing stores and thrift shops.

Teacher librarian Matthew C. Winner, media specialist at Longfellow Elementary School in Columbia, MD, is having the year of his life. Thanks to his boundless enthusiasm for student learning and engagement, Maryland’s 2012 Outstanding User of Technology Educator can also claim a few more distinctions: Mover & Shaker, White House “Champion of Change,” and published author. Ahead of ISTE’s annual conference, Winner shared his thoughts on school libraries and his exciting plans for the future.

National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) is June 27th . First established in 2005 by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, NHTD seeks to bring attention to the importance of HIV testing, and through its website, make resources readily available to those who are looking for testing locations, disease facts, and more.

The American Library Association on Monday revealed its much anticipated strategic plan for school library advocacy, based on findings from its School Library Task Force’s midwinter 2013 report.

Attendees of SLJ’s annual Day of Dialog received an information boost from the pre-BEA event’s first panel of authors and illustrators. Moderated by Kathleen T. Isaacs, author of Picturing the World: Informational Picture Books for Children, the lively discussion offered Jim Arnosky, Jennifer Berne, Elisha Cooper, Thomas Gonzalez, and Jonah Winter the chance to share with librarians more about their creative processes, who they write for, and why they choose to create nonfiction for young readers.

Only a few nonprofit organizations will get up to $7,500 in funding from Better World Books, and the public can decide which one will get the prize. In 2012, approximately 3.5 million dollars worth of grant requests and more than 50 applications were reviewed by the Better World Books Literacy and Library Council, and three very worthy projects were selected. Now the clock is ticking for 2013—voting closes in just a few days!

From Follett: Follett Corporation today announced the establishment of the Follett Knowledge Fund, a capital funding source for new technologies that have the potential to improve and even disrupt the way educational content is delivered and consumed. Follett has committed $50 million to the fund, which complements and extends the company's extensive portfolio of digital solutions and tools.

More than 30 years after it was published, Judy Blume's YA novel Tiger Eyes has been adapted for the big screen. Directed by Lawrence Blume, the author's son, the quiet film stars Willa Holland as Davey and Amy Jo Johnson as her mother, both reeling from the results of a tragic shooting. The gorgeous landscape of northern New Mexico serves as a perfect backdrop to the long-awaited adaptation, also available via video on demand. Kent Turner reviews it for SLJ.

Gamificiation, augmented reality, and transmedia were just some of the hot topics at the 21st Century Children’s Nonfiction Conference, held June 14–16 at the State University of New York in New Paltz.