Category Archives: Writing

Communication, Writing

Students in grades 4-12 can participate in Letters About Literature!

 

Do you work with students who love reading? Help them enter the Letters About Literature Contest! Readers can write a letter to an author of any genre, living or dead, describing how their book changed their views of themselves or the world.

“Minnesota students in grades 4 through 12 are eligible to enter the annual essay contest. Sponsored nationally by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the contest asks readers to write a letter to an author describing how his or her work touched their life in a personal way.”

There are three different levels of the competition, divided by grade level, as well as a cash prize for national winners! You can get more information on this PDF flyer, or find out rules and enter the contest by visiting the contest’s website.

Communication, Tech, Writing

Monika Sengul-Jones is a Wikipedian-in-Residence, making libraries and the online encyclopedia ‘better together’

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(From GeekWire, by

“Monika Sengul-Jones is, more or less, she says, “a professional thinker.”

With a background in social theory and a focus on gender and technology, Sengul-Jones said she is concerned with “questions of access and representation” and “how that gets tangled up in objects — mostly digital, but not always.”

This year she joined the Seattle office of the Online Computer Library Center as the Wikipedian-in-Residence, part of the nonprofit’s Wikipedia + Libraries: Better Together project, aimed at strengthening the ties between U.S. public libraries and the free online encyclopedia.

Sengul-Jones is also GeekWire’s newest Geek of the Week.

“I care about the daily lives of people and how they make sense of their worlds,” Sengul-Jones said. “This informs my approach to gender and technology. More generally, I like to read, think, and to make things — be they projects or metaphorical bridges or new arrangements.”

In addition to her work with OCLC, Sengul-Jones is finishing her doctorate in Communication at UC San Diego.

Learn more about this week’s Geek of the Week, Monika Sengul-Jones: Continue reading Monika Sengul-Jones is a Wikipedian-in-Residence, making libraries and the online encyclopedia ‘better together’ →

Tech, Writing

Call for Chapter Proposals: Social Media: An Academic Library Perspective

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“Call for Chapter Proposals

Social Media: An Academic Library Perspective (working title)

Editor – Nina Verishagen; Publisher – Elsevier

Proposal submission deadline: June 1, 2017

Please submit proposals by filling out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/k7y1TqEz94uZHDji2

Are you a library professional immersed in social media management? Have you experienced great successes and/or failures with a social media campaign? If you have, please consider submitting a chapter proposal!

Social Media: An Academic Library Perspective will be a practical, concise anthology dedicated to guiding academic libraries in their use of social media. Various authors from different academic institutions will provide their perspectives, experiences and tips on using social media platforms. The book will highlight successes and failures and will provide recommendations and tips that anyone in the academic environment can interpret and adapt. Each chapter will focus on a specific social media platform.

Editor is particularly interested in chapters covering:

–          Twitter
–          Instagram
–          Snapchat
–          YouTube

Editor is looking for chapters that cover the use of a specific social media platform by an Academic Library. Each chapter should include:

A description of the social media platform and academic library being presented;
Suggested tools (working groups, online software, spreadsheets, etc.) to use the platform effective
A case study covering the library’s use of the platform – for example a promotion campaign, or ongoing programming on the platform;
A list of successes and failures;
Recommendations for other academic libraries.
Full chapters:

Are tentatively due November 1, 2017;
Will be written from a practical perspective, in first person-narrative;
Will adhere to APA format;
Will be approximately 4,000-4,500 words in length
Authors interested in submitting chapters should fill out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/k7y1TqEz94uZHDji2

Please send questions to: nina.verishagen@outlook.com“

Writing

Share your ideas: Challenging the “Jacks of All Trades but Masters of None” Librarian Syndrome

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We are passing on this call for your contributions! Remember: if you want to write something up, but are not sure where to start, we can help you from CMLE Headquarters!

Call for proposals–EXTENDED

Advances in Library Administration and Organization
Challenging the “Jacks of All Trades but Masters of None” Librarian Syndrome
Publication due 2018

Series Editor: Samantha Hines, Peninsula College

Volume Editor: George J. Fowler, Old Dominion University

Librarianship may be said to be facing an identity crisis. It may also be said that librarianship has been facing an identity crisis since it was proposed as a profession. With the advent of technology that lowers barriers to the access of information, the mission of a library has become indistinct.  This volume will explore the current purpose of librarianship and libraries, how we become “Masters of our Domains”, develop expertise in various elements of the profession, and how we extend outward into our communities.

Continue reading Share your ideas: Challenging the “Jacks of All Trades but Masters of None” Librarian Syndrome →

Children's services, Writing, Young Adults

Tech Resources for Poetry

April is National Poetry Month! Poetry can sometimes be intimidating to students, but there are fun ways to get them involved in appreciating and creating poetry.

This article from School Library Journal is packed with a ton of unique ideas for helping students uncover the delights of poetry. Some of these ideas include:

Plus, the article describes initiatives different libraries are taking to incorporate poetry into student activities. It’s always encouraging to see the cool things that happen in libraries across the country.

Happy Poetry Month!