Category Archives: General

General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

31st Annual Children’s Workshop: A CMLE Scholarship

The following report was submitted by a recipient of our new CMLE scholarship program.

Submitted by: Mary Berning

The 31st Annual Children’s Literature Workshop was help on Monday, June 21st and Tuesday, June 22, 2010 in St. Cloud, MN.  It was sponsored by the Center for Information Media at St. Cloud State University. 

 On Monday morning Will Hobbs, author of 17 adventure novels for upper elementary, middle school and YA readers, shared where he gets the ideas for his books.  Much research goes into each of his books.  By visiting his website (willhobbsauthor.com) and clicking on the book covers, you can see photos and also learn about where Will gets his ideas.  In the afternoon, Susan Carr Brown, a librarian at the Minneapolis Public Library shared what she feels are the best of children’s books for 2009 – 2010.  Her list included Will Hobbs’s Go Big or Go Home and Derek Anderson’s Hot Rod Hamster. 

 On Tuesday morning, participants attended three out of four of the small group sessions.  Small group sessions included Secrets and Skullduggery:  Mysteries and More for Tween Readers, Motivating Readers through Technology, Hands-on Bookmaking and Award-Winning Children’s Books of 2009-10.  Kelly Killorn, a 6th grade reading teacher for Bloomington Schools presented Motivating Readers through Technology. She shared ideas for using 21st century technologies like wikis, blogs, graphic posters, social networks, voicethread, and videos to motivate readers.  To learn more about how she uses these technologies visit her wikispace (kidlittechnology.wikispaces.com).  In the afternoon, Derek Anderson, illustrator of eight books including the Little Quack series and author/illustrator of six of his own titles, shared photos and drawings from his childhood and young adult years that showed how he became the illustrator he is today.  Curtis Hed, a magician, ended the workshop with his Magic of Reading show; his show shared how reading and using the library has played an important part in his life,and how it can do the same for others.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Librarians have … FUN?

Check out this great viral YouTube video from the forward thinking faculty and students of the University of Washington’s Information School. This is a silly (and quirky) way of showing off some of the great things library professionals do — while still having fun on the job!

Have you ever created a promotional video like this one? If so, please comment and share your link!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Salem Press’ List of Best Library Blogs

Salem Press released its list of best library blogs this week. Salem Press stated that they are “are attempting to promote good blogs generally and draw attention to interesting and provocative news and opinion as it appears” and that they will:

1. Reward and celebrate blogs about libraries and library issues

2. Maintain a (reasonably) accurate listing of blogs so librarians can discover the amazing variety here

3.  Develop a site that points out ongoing excellence as it appears.

Listed below are the top 16 blogs according to topical categories. You may access additional recommended blogs with this link http://salempress.com/Store/blogs/blog_home.htm – and be sure to click on the topical categories (at the left: General, Quirky, Academic, Public School, Blog Thoughts) to open a detailed list.
General Library Blogs
First place: Libraries and Transliteracy
Second place: Centered Librarian
Third place: Librarian.net

Quirky Library Blogs
First place: Awful Library Books
Second place: Library History Buff
Third place: Going Green At Your Library
Another Third place: Judge a Book by its Cover

Academic Library Blogs
First place: No Shelf Required
Second place: Resource Shelf
Third place: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Public Library Blogs
First place: Agnostic, Maybe
Second place: Blogging for a Good Book
Third place: Library Garden

School Library Blogs
First Place: Bib 2.0
Second Place: Not So Distant Future
Third Place: 100 Scope Notes

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

SALIS: Conference and Resources

The following was submitted by Barbara Weiner. Barbara is the manager of Hazelden Library, and had the opportunity to attend the SALIS (Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists) conference at the end of April.

SALIS Conference Recap:

Each year SALIS hosts a conference.  Just completed, this year’s conference, held in New York City, was built around the theme of:  “ATOD Policy and Information Technology in an Era of Change”.  The 40 attendees represented six countries, and all benefited from three days of presentations, networking, and learning.  Professionals from both the addictions and information fields provided stimulating presentations.  Here are just a few:

  • Susan E. Foster, MSW, Director of Policy Research, Columbia University. “Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population”
  • Michael Ahmadi, MPH, Public Health Analyst, SAMHSA. “Using Knowledge Management Technology to Help Meet Information Needs in the Field of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs”
  • Robert Pandina, PhD, Director, Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University. “Scientific Publishers: Gatekeepers of Human Knowledge”
  • Rick J. Block, Head of Special Collections Metadata and Cataloging, Columbia University. “Promise for the Future, or Legacy of the Past? Cataloging in a Changing World”
  • Dan Lawrence, MLIS, Director, Prevention Information Center, Colorado. “Social Media in the Office: “To-do” or “Taboo?”
  • Christine Goodair, Coordinator, International Centre for Drug Policy, London. “The Perils of Progress – Quality Unassured”

Conference attendees bring back an armful of new resources, new information to put to use and/or share, new colleagues and friends to network with, and renewed energy, motivation, and knowledge for the mission of our daily work.

SALIS Organization and Membership Information:

Are you—or someone you work with—responsible for addiction and substance use/misuse information in your organization?

Do you sometimes seek assistance in responding to questions about substance abuse?

What are the resources and networks which coordinate information in the ATOD (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs) field?

 You may want to consider membership in the SALIS organization!  SALIS (Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists) is a professional, international association of individuals with special interest in the access, exchange, and dissemination of ATOD information.  It represents the major ATOD collections from around the globe.  SALIS members not only provide and receive assistance from each other, but also advocate for improvement and change in matters of common interest.