Have a Wonderful Spring Break ...

Here are a few things for your consideration. Have a great and restful, relaxing break.

Literacy 2.0

The theme of the current issue of ASCD's Educational Leadership journal (March 2009; 66:6) is Literacy 2.0; it is available online FREE (as well as by article in EBSCO) and is worth your reading time. This valuable journal link providing FREE access to feature articles in this and older issues of EL came as a surprise to me but I am marking it as a personal favourite. If you feel the need to get up to speed (or to refresh your thinking on the "new" or "multi" literacies), this set of readings will both inform and inspire you. I particularly liked the article by Howard and Davies on plagiarism.

Recently, The Bookmark, our BCTLA publication, began to make its editions available FREE online. Access to the articles used to be a right or benefit of membership and one paid up one's dues expectantly and waited patiently for the fat little volume to arrive. But increasingly, in the Web 2.0 world, as the information is made available, the benefits of sharing knowledge are experienced in other ways. For example, we have found that the growing readership and newly focussed content has drawn new interest amongst those writing in the field, hence, different contributors, a wider range of contributors broadening the new and current threads of discourse, shared and sharing interests, a community growing, and more.

Shifting grounds ... nothing can be counted on to be the same! Lifelong learning for all! Lots to read, but you can rest after you have a little time to read and to ponder everything, including what is next:

Library in the Clouds

When you are thinking about Web 2.0 and trying to imagine how it quite probably is going to have an impact on school library programs, it's good to have some indicators of direction and some sense that others are looking there.

From North Vancouver comes the blog of TL "Bookminder" or Lesley Edwards (aka The WebFooted Booklady); I have now added this link to Related Bloggers in the lefthand sidebar of my weekly TL Special blog. Valenza's post for today (March 14, 2009) is entitled Library in the Clouds and is prompted by a Twitter from US Library Media Specialist Joyce Valenza, notably a regular contributor to School Library Journal and chatelaine of the Springfield Township Virtual School Library.

Valenza, in her Twitter, directs readers to a new school library blog entitled The Unquiet Library. You can check out the noisy space at this site ... but what makes it particularly "unquiet" is that it has been catapaulted into the ether using a technique called "cloud computing." What is "cloudy" is the presence of The Unquiet as a wiki, on del.icio.us, on a blog, on Pageflakes, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

Click here for The Unquiet's shot of fortitude inspired by Dr David Lankes of Syracuse U, hopefully a shot that will inspire you despite dark times! Unquiet puts forth the rallying cry in her blog that, despite the effects of the economy, of No Child Left Behind, of teachers and others who don't get what we do, of the worrying that educational change is simply too slow to keep pace with our students, here in Canada as much as in the US, it is important not to give up but to carry on in your school library program. Says blogger/TL Buffy Hamilton, "While I may personally feel discouraged at times, I never lose my inspiration or passion for what I do. If I suffer a setback, I dig in that much harder and continue my efforts as an agent of change in my school and community." Don't miss out on the youtube clip either: 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes.

Lesley also pinpoints an article, written as a response to those in direction-seeking mode, by Jeffrey Hastings from School Library Journal (March 1, 2009) that has LOTS to say to us here in Vancouver. Don’t Worry, Be Scrappy: Good, Cheap Tech for Schools, Cloud Computing and More: It’s the perfect time to try cheap new technologies


UNESCO Posters on Indigenous Knowledge

Download all seven Posters on Indigenous Knowledge in pdf format. These posters introduce important concepts and issues about knowledge in indigenous societies today. They are illustrated with case studies and images from around the world. The posters serve as a learning resource that strengthens awareness of opportunities and challenges facing indigenous knowledge holders. They may be used in a variety of educational settings within schools or the community. They are available in English and French, as well as other languages.

Book Review: Why The Book of Negroes Matters
By Donna Bailey Nurse, from Endpapers, The Globe and Mail (F16, 14/03/2009)

Nurse's analysis of Hill's tale of Aminata Diallo suggests he draws upon the traditional slave- narrative genre, of which tales such as Toni Morrison's Beloved are examples, and upon the 19th century or Victorian-era novel genre best exemplifed by writers like Dickens whose twists of plot and character take complex social issues and create the rollicking world of the "urchins" to seduce and keep readers spell-bound. Concludes black critic Nurse, frequent contributor to the GlobeBooks Review,

Today, the geography of Aminata's life remains eerily familiar, a restless route that keeps many black people travelling in circles in search of home. The best black Canadian writing articulates a diasporic experience arising from the cultural collisions of the Atlantic slave trade. And nobody does this better than Lawrence Hill.

You are Invited:

The LOMCIRA Annual General Meeting

“Rethinking Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Learning in an Online World”

This invitation comes from Meredyth Kezar, who writes: Dr Donald Leu (board member, IRA; co-director, New Literacies Research Lab, U of Connecticut) spoke recently at the BCLCIRA meeting in Vancouver in February. [See this blog, February 12, 2009.] If you missed this event and/or would like to learn more then you might like to attend the upcoming LOMCIRA AGM. To be held in the library of the new “green” Charles Dickens Elementary School, 1010 E 17th Avenue, Vancouver, near Fraser and Kingsway, on Thursday, April 23, 2009, the event runs from 4 to 6 pm, includes a tour of the school, and may be followed by a dining-out experience.

If you are not a member of LOMCIRA, visit the LOMCIRA website for more info. The cost of this event for non-members is $5, payable at the door. Register with Meredyth until April 17.

Again, have a great break. We will need you back refreshed and recharged.