In this approximately four-minute podcast, Becky White, a librarian with the Children’s Services department of the Allen County (IN) Public Library, joins me for a conversation about ways to use podcasting in library service to children.
While actual equipment is not discussed in the podcast, I will mention here that I use an Edirol R-09 WAVE/MP3 Recorder to record remotely, Garage Band with an attached Blue Snowball USB microphone to record at home, and Garage Band to edit. This should not be considered an endorsement of the products but rather to give those interested in podcasting an idea of what I have used for these podcasts. Speaking of home, during this podcast, the background noise you hear is my three-year-old son.
Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is asking the Federal Trade Commission to issue a “consumer alert” on such Web sites as Second Life. Read the article below to learn more about this conflict, and notice that The American Library Association is referenced near the end of the article as being “staunchly opposed to the proposal.”
Organize a Virtual Library Legislative Day at your library!
Can’t make it to DC on May 14 for National Library Legislative Day? No problem.
Post this flier and recruit everyone you know to take part in a VIRTUAL LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY!
Through Virtual Library Legislative Day, thousands of people all across the country will call, fax and email their Members of Congress to tell them about the importance of libraries in this country.
Get as many library advocates as you can to participate in this incredible event with the Virtual Library Legislative Day flier!
If you are going to San Francisco for some reason, or need an excuse to take a trip to the Bay Area, try to be there on June 6 for the 12th Annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture at the San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove) in the Civic Center. The speaker will be Patricia McKissack and her subject is “Storytelling, the Heart of Literacy.” The program begins at 4:30 p.m. with a reception and book signing preceding the program at 3:30 p.m. in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room. The program will be held in the Koret Auditorium, Main Library, Lower Level. The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call (415) 557-4277.
A related exhibition of facsimilies of original manuscripts from McKissack’s work is currently on display through June 8th at the Children’s Center, Second Floor, Main Library.
Megan Schliesman, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison
2011 Wilder Committee
Angela Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, Canada
Andrew Medlar, Chicago (Ill.) Public Library
Both of the following proposed bylaws changes were adopted:
Changes to Nominating Committee
New wording:
No later than the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association, the ALSC Vice President/President-Elect appoints a Nominating Committee of four members plus the chair to select candidates for election the following year. No member of the Board of Directors shall be appointed to this committee. Members may serve more than once on the Nominating Committee, but not more than three times, and not more than once in five years, except for chairs, who may serve a chair term within five years of a term as a member of this committee.
Changes to Newbery, Caldecott, Sibert and Wilder Committees
New wording:
The Newbery Award Committee shall consist of the following fifteen (15) members: Eight (8) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than sixteen (16), a chairperson appointed by the president, and six (6) members appointed by the president.
The Caldecott Award Committee shall consist of the following fifteen (15) members: Eight (8) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than sixteen (16), a chairperson appointed by the president, and six (6) members appointed by the president.
The Sibert Award Committee shall consist of the following nine (9) members: Five (5) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than ten (10), a chairperson appointed by the president, and three (3) members appointed by the president.
The Wilder Award Committee shall consist of the following five (5) members: Three (3) members to be elected every other year from a slate of no fewer than six (6), a chairperson appointed by the president, and one (1) member appointed by the president.
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For the entire ALA 2008 election results, please visit the ALA Election Info page of the ALA Governance Office.
Hello!Welcome to the fifth installment of Meet the ALSC Staff!
Who is this Person!?
I’m Aimee Strittmatter and in my role as deputy director I handle the media/awards programs; continuing education including preconference, Charlemae Rollins President’s Program, annual conference programs, Midwinter workshops, the biennial National Institute, and debuting next fall- online education courses; staff liaison for the Every Child Ready to Read® @ your Library® initiative; and general office administration.
Background Check
I’ve lived in the Midwest my entire life!I grew up in Algonac, Michigan on the St. Clair River and went to both MichiganStateUniversity and the University of Michigan.While I enjoyed my graduate work at the School of Information in Ann Arbor (not to mention study sessions at the Brown Jug, Count twist breadsticks at Good Time Charley’s, and sangria on the patio at Dominiks!), my heart will always bleed green for the mighty MSU Spartans!
Making the move to Chicago was not hard at all.I enjoy a view of the gorgeous Lake Michigan shoreline as I ride the bus or bike to work each morning.One of my favorite things to do is go for a walk along the lake path and stop off at the doggy beach and watch the pooches play in the sand.I also try to keep pretty active with guitar and tennis lessons, beach volleyball, and this year I decided to kick it “old skool” and join a kickball league.That might not have been the wisest decision I’ve ever made because the teams we’ve been playing are extremely serious (“BAГГCZARS” sport numbered shirts with their names on the back and the team “Snakes on a Kickball” actually pitched wicked, serpentine curve balls that caused me some serious knee pain last week).Now that the weather is cooperating, you’ll find me somewhere in the city leisurely dining al fresco for brunch on Sundays.
Life at Work
I’m just starting my fourth year here at ALSC which is unbelievable!It feels just like yesterday that I joined the great team we have here in the office.I try, as a manager, to maintain a jovial working environment.I’ve planned some themed birthday parties and most recently entered the ALSC staff in the ALA Battle of the Rock Bands as part of the spring staff event.There was some resistance at first, but in the end everyone came around and we really enjoyed ourselves!Our band name was the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and we took 3rd place with our rendition of the Saturday Night Live skit that spoofs the song “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”I’ve posted a couple of photos below so you can get a sense of how serious we were about our gig. (Diane sure can pull off a mean Christopher Walken aka Bruce Dickinson impersonation!).
Also, if you were to ever stop by ALA HQ and visit my office, you would observe beyond the piles of papers, that it is truly a menagerie of storybook puppets and plushees accented with bits of flair such as a magic 8 ball (to answer those hairy questions), yo-yos, and toys.I’ve put together a little video with my Pigeon puppet and the ALSC staff for your viewing enjoyment.
You Dared to Ask
Favorite Children’s book (as a child):
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls and I was fascinatingly intrigued with Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. I read them both many a time. Also, Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. I still have my tattered old copy (sans book jacket) from the 70’s when I was a kid.
Favorite Children’s book (today):
This is by far the hardest question. I have enjoyed reading so many books at all age levels.
I will admit I am a sucker for a good story time book. When a new review copy comes in that catches my eye, I sometimes subject the staff to mandatory story time (must keep up my practical skills). Jenny’s so new she hasn’t sat through one yet, maybe I need to go take a look at our books…
What junk food is your downfall?
Swedish fish, chocolate and pizza, but not together. Oh, and wasabi peas and ying-yang nuts from Trader Joes. Now that I think about it, pretty much food in general.
Favorite vacation spot?
I suppose it depends on what kind of vacation I’m in the mood for.I love Europe and Asia for exploring historical places.I like beach vacations but I also like hiking in the Colorado Rockies and in the Upper Peninsula as well as white water rafting in West Virginia. I will say I do love to travel and one of my goals is to visit all of the continents in my lifetime. Italy, Morocco, and Egypt are on the short list for places to visit within the next five years.
If a cowboy gets “buffaloed”, what has happened to him?
a) He was trampled
b) He was bowled over
c) He was confused
And the answer is…
C. A man who gets buffaloed is most often confused over something that has happened. For instance, a cowboy playing cards might claim, “When that fellar laid down his flush beating my straight I was about as buffaloed as a blind bear in a briar patch!”
Learn more about Cowboys and YOUTH SERVICES this September 18-20 when you Head West with ALSC to Salt Lake City, Utah for our National Institute. Registration is now open with a special Early Bird discounted rate to members through June 30. Don’t delay, view more information and register now at www.ala.org/alscinstitute.
David Weinberger’s Everthing is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder was suggested here by an ALSC Blog reader. Thanks, afewsocks!
These Professional Reading posts aren’t book reviews, but rather my response to something that I read from the book. The following is an excerpt from pages 142-143:
The trust we place in the Britannica enables us to be passive knowers: You merely have to look a topic up to find out about it. But Wikipedia provides the metadata surrounding an article–edits, discussions, warnings, links to other edits by the contributors–because it expects the reader to be actively involved, alert to the signs. This burden comes straight from the nature of the miscellaneous itself. Give us a Britannica article, written by experts who filter and weigh the evidence for us, and we can absorb it passively. But set us loose in a pile of leaves so large that we can’t see its boundaries and we’ll need more and more metadata to play in to find our way. Deciding what to believe is now our burden. It always was, but in the paper-order world where publishing was so expensive that we needed people to be filterers, it was easier to think our passivity was an inevitable part of learning; we thought knowledge just worked that way.
First of all, this excerpt has made me rethink my contributions to the ALSC Wiki. Most of my contributions to the Wiki are fairly passive, pointing out links and stating a few things that are happening within my committee’s work. Weinberger mentions arXiv which allows for articles to be shared before being peer-reviewed. I’m still rethinking, so I’ll leave it at that for now.
Secondly, this excerpt makes me think of ALSC Blogger Roxanne Hsu Feldman’s post about her 4th graders and their wiki. What a powerful example of students actively learning.
Thirdly, I was reminded of ALSC Guest Blogger, Bradley Debrick’s post about tagging. Children developing meaningful tags for themselves would allow them to play within that metadata “pile of leaves.”
Finally, the book inspired me to revisit the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab web site where I learned of their work with Tangible Flags which “are designed to support and encourage children to concurrently explore, collaborate and construct digital artifacts while they are immersed within mobile, hands-on environments, such as field trips.”
If you would like to share any thoughts or comments about the book or about what I have written, please do. The book I will respond to for the May post will be A Place at the Table: Participating in Community Building by Kathleen de la Peña McCook. Please join in!
AASL (American Association of School Librarians) is beginning a Blog Book Club. Sounds like fun. It also sounds so much more friendlier than what I call “Professional Reading” posts. Perhaps we can tie in with some of the same books.
I have a sun and moon storytime, and I’m all right.
The moon inspires dreamy, quiet, and reflective books; books that are lovely for a quiet parent-child bedtime story, but not always a good fit for a morning storytime. That’s why I was pleased to find Carolyn Curtis’s I Took the Moon for a Walk. While it’s definitely fanciful, there’s enough action to keep the attention of young children. Combined with illustrations (by Alison Jay) that are strong and uncluttered expressions of imagination and discovery, I Took the Moon for a Walk is one that will saunter its way into your sun/moon storytime repertoire.
Jonathan London’s Like Butter on Pancakes follows a young boy through a carefree country day. ”First light melts like butter on pancakes, spreads warm and yellow across your pillow.” Sizzling bacon and the whistling of a tea kettle signify a bustling kitchen awaiting hungry risers; after a satisfying breakfast, the young boy romps in hay, canters with the farm animals, and rides his horse until the supper bell rings. It’s the moon’s turn to spread its light across the house, inhabited by sleepy folks tuckered out by a full-day’s work (and play). The bright and expansive illustrations by G. Brian Karas will hold the gaze of your audience, while the bouncy text will appeal to their eyes. This would also be a great selection for a farm storytime.
Peter McCarty’s Moon Plane is another great moon-related read aloud that’s not overly fanciful. A plane catches the eye of a young boy, who imagines all the wonderful places he would fly that plane, including to the moon. He would have a blast moonwalking, but would eventually have to return home to his mother. Although the text is minimal (1-3 sentences per page), the appeal of airplanes, adventure, and the return to security and the familiar will resonate with young audiences. If you’re doing a transportation/airplane storytime, consider this title for that storytime.
Other titles to consider:
Asch, Frank. Happy Birthday, Moon!
Gerstein, Mordicai. The Sun’s Day.
Wildsmith, Brian. What the Moon Saw.
Do you have any additional titles to suggest?
Books Mentioned:
Curtis, Carolyn. I Took the Moon for a Walk. Cambridge, MA: Barefoot Books, 2004.
London, Jonathan. Like Butter on Pancakes. New York: Viking, 1985.
McCarty, Peter. Moon Plane. New York: Henry Holt, 2006.
