Reading the Times ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shopping in Abano Terme: Not sure they need a special day to say Grazie! Note
the Parma hams and other epicurean delights, and no turkeys here in September!

With Special Thanks to ...

• all of you for a clean start and your energy and enthusiasm for the work.
• Kim Turner for the clarity with which she helps make sense of "the books" in the Accounting for TLs 101 workshop this week.
• Kam for the Kidsbooks excursion where, all reports have it, much buying and chatting and sharing took place.
• Nanci Farrell whose place I was able to take this week to hear the remarkable educator Andy Hargreaves talk in Coquitlam about The Fourth Way, a direction in education that draws on the directions education has taken since the '60s and that offers inspiration and hope for educational change that respects the knowledge of teachers; Andy was also the keynote speaker at this year's BCTF Summer Conference. I am into the book now.
• our team in MLST and the wayward, ever-moving Maryann who might be entering a new decade in her thinking about life and work later this month.
• those who enabled five Vancouver TLs to journey to Europe this summer to affirm and enrich and provide momentum for the work of teacher-librarians.

Nope. Not Scaredy Squirrel! Book shopping in Ferrara en route to the IASL Conference,

lest you think we weren't the hardest-working TLs ever!

Readings ...

Getting into the spirit of professional development and October (school/library month), I pass along these readings:

• Things That Keep Us Up at Night: Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson have an eye to the future. Read their SLJ article for October 2009. Seems we may be expendable if we don't attend to the shifting landscapes of learning. Hmmm! I think I said just such a thing on Monday night at the Secondary TLs' Department Heads' meeting. I think James Henri hinted at this point a year ago August when he came for our VSB Summer Institute, The Changing Landscape for School Libraries.
  
  What do Joyce and Doug suggest for teacher-librarians? In the face of rapid educational and technological change, with severe economic conditions forcing re-thinking about all aspects of schooling, we could, with just 14 changes in the way we conceptualize and undertake our work, sleeping soundly knowing that we have viable and meaningful "libraries" that meet the needs of the whole educational community.
  
  Thanks, Annabelle, for this timely reminder. There's sleep coming ... but maybe from exhaustion of just trying to keep the pace! The biggest nightmare, Valenza and Johnson remind us, will be not attending to the urgency for change.

• Tough Choices, Tough Times: This next reading is related, substantial, and predictive of important changes for the American education system which inevitably seems to impact our system in Canada.
  
  While acknowledging that it refers to the American labour force, our Italian connection and IASL Conference Organizer Luisa Marquardt of the Faculty of Education at the University of Roma Tre the Executive Summary from the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, suggesting it provides opportunity "for reflecting on the relationships about the poor/high quality in education/training and the quality of less/more skilled workforce. World class education for a world class economy is based on the combination of several skills and competencies (p.6) which contribute to building imagination, creativity, vision."
  
  I like the parts about re-thinking teacher compensation, meaningful assessments that are grounded in important learning, "second chance" learning, early childhood education, and resourcing schools for success. While I wonder about "contract schools," it is note-worthy that the NCSAW based its findings on research in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand.

• "Beyond the Stacks: The School Librarian in the Digital Age" by Cindy Long (NEA): An interview with a high school TL places things in perspective -- kids need to learn to think critically to find reliable information sources, they need to be digitally literate, and educators needs to be working with TLs!

DEAR: The BCTLA Executive won the Angela Thacker Memorial Award last year for its DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) campaign. Sylvia and I are very proud of this award and of our district's participation and support. Again, our Trustees and District Management have endorsed the initiative which is a wonderful thing.

Largely through the efforts of Victoria TL and BCTLA VP Advocacy Karen Lindsay last year and again this year, the momentum is picking up. Can Vancouver boast 100% participation on October 26, with every child and every member of the school/educational community dropping what he or she is doing to read for 20 minutes to celebrate school libraries and the joy of reading? Did every school get the lovely poster with photo by Kelowna TL Al Smith, our BCTLA publications guy? And we are awaiting word of Legislative participation this year so things are looking very exciting for this project.

Here's one TL's idea of a deeply engaging "authentic" DEAR project:

Parkland's librarian presents human books
By Jeff Bell of The Times-Colonist, October 8, 2008
Shared via AddThis

TL Studio 2 at Gladstone: Wednesday, October 14. Pat, Alan, Frances and I will be there with great anticipation of the many technology-related interests you will bring!


The Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable’s
Fall Breakfast with Gregory Maguire

Saturday, October 17, 2009UNIVERSITY GOLF CLUB
5185 University Boulevard
8:30 am. Registration & Book Sales
9:00 am. Breakfast

Dress code: Something Wicked!

Gregory Maguire is the author of more than a dozen novels for children and, to date, five novels for adults, including WICKED, the basis of the Broadway musical of the same name.

Word from Linda Dunbar is that there are still a few more seats. Call Linda at 604-822-8783 to reserve a seat and you can pay by cheque at the door, after reserving.

FOSL

I am sending out the most recent Friends of the School Library forms by email attachment. Note that there is a new location for submissions. There are also translations in progress. Watch for these. Our first event for our Friends will be held on Tuesday, October 27, and will celebrate National School Library Day and the critical role school libraries play in relation to student learning and enrichment.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Mine starts now.

Award and Gala Season for School Libraries

Canadian Library Association/CASL Awards Announced

BCTLA Winners Score "Triple Crown for BC School Libraries"

Whoo-hoo! It's official! For a third time in recent years, a Vancouver TL has won the Follett International Teacher-Librarian of the Year Award. Joining this list of prestigious winners that includes General Gordon TL Mary Locke and now-retired Prince of Wales TL Karen Cordiner is our long-time accomplished TL colleague Michele Farquharson who, you may remember, last year, won BCTLA recognition for her work. She will receive this award at the Canadian Library Association Conference in Montreal next week. When asked to write a letter of reference, Ken Haycock said, "I have only one question: What has taken so long?" We are pretty proud of you, Michele.

Whoo-hoo! It's official! We have another provincial winner not unfamiliar to local TLs in Karen Lindsay of our BCTLA Executive and Victoria School District note. Read about this year's winner of the Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship. This award was established in recognition of CLA/ACB past president Dr. Ken Haycock, distinguished educator, administrator and advocate, not unknown to us here in the Vancouver school district!

Whoo-hoo! It's official! The BCTLA Executive has won The Angela Thacker Memorial Award that honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or information literacy. Well, this was a "win" for school districts and schools that undertook the DEAR initiative in the Fall. The Award also acknowledges the cross-sector collaborative work with public, academic, and special libraries and the Ministry of Education's Public Library Services Branch in a range of provincial initiatives, including digitization, literacy, and database licensing.

Your BCTLA Executive members who jointly received this award do include some local TLs (VP Sylvia Zubke, Liaison Chair Ekdahl -- that's ME -- and Web Steward Val Hamilton) all under the truly excellent direction of our amazing leader and Coquitlam's Chief TL, Heather Daly, with help from nationally recognized VP Karen Lindsay.

Note that, while we had awaited this announcement for some weeks, it was disappointing not to see the names of our winning BCTLA Executive members who have all worked as a team with such keen energies and passions, and most of them are returning! Next year we will welcome
Chris Evans as Treasurer and Michele Farquharson as co-chair for Continuing Education, with Lynn Turner. It has been a joy to work with such committed and visionary TLs.

Click here for a review of past BCTLA members who have won such significant awards.

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Chocolate Lily Book Awards 2009 Gala!

Kidsbooks 3083 West Broadway, Vancouver
Date: Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Time: 6:45 pm doors open; 7:15-9 pm

Because of the popularity of this event, tickets are $5.00 per person but can be redeemed for full value toward any of the nominated Chocolate Lily books available, during the event.

Meet BC children's authors, have a book signed, and see which authors’ books were voted the best by BC elementary school readers.

For more information, call 604-738-5335 or email general@kidsbooks.ca

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From Patricia Carmichael, GiggleIT Team Coordinator, IASL:

GiggleIT with GiggleCritter!

Motivate, engage, encourage and support - but most of all have fun! Registration is FREE!

Cute, loveable Gigglepet prizes! Meet new friends from around the world! The GiggleIT Project is a global collaborative publishing project hosted by the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), working in partnership with the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL). Designed to help children around the world improve their English language literacy skills, the GiggleIT Project encourages students ages 10-14 to contribute their writings to an online book (eBook) celebrating stories and humour from their culture. Humour, just like tragedy, is a vehicle that can be used to promote cross-cultural understandings and collaboration for children and young adults around the world. Children’s work will be published internationally and will identify their culture through literature.

Written by children for children, the eBook will contain children’s stories, jokes and poetry. The project will inspire children to be creative and make cross-cultural connections with other children from around the world as they learn about humour from other countries, while improving their literacy skills.

A range of competitions, as well as teaching and learning packages, will motivate and stimulate reading and writing skills whilst supporting teaching and learning with examples and worksheets which can be downloaded into handouts for the class. Yes, all teaching resources can be downloaded!

Register now to be part of this incredible international project here at the IASL WEBSITE. Check out the global regions page for IASL as well.

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As ever I have some out new and interesting school-library-related "stuff" of professional interest to 21st century TLs, from book news and launches to technology tools and insights; this week, have a look at:

• Twitter/Austen/bloggy mash-up? Yep! Check out the Mad-hatted mom-blogger friend of Maryann! Well, you had to guess that last part. Just consider the educational uses of Twitter.
  
• The new Related Blogger link, Free Technology for Teachers. What took me so long to find Richard Byrne and his blogful of reviews and suggested applications for technology integration! Winner, Edublogs Award, 2008. AMAZING AMAZING stuff here.
  
• Also the newly-added Related Blogger link, Dangerously Irrelevant. Amerian academic blogger Dr Scott McLeod reflects on insights of Canadian social historian and comementator Gwynne Dyer as he blogs to address some of the K-12 incongruities in technology, leadership, and the future of schools. Read Dyer quote: Why this title? This blog has archives worth checking and sharing with administrators.
  
• Gary Hartzell's guest posting to Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog, on being able to provide a ready defense when, "in today’s electronic environment and damaged economy, the value of libraries per se is ... questioned right along with questions about whether you can defend continuing to spend money on print as opposed to electronic resources."
  
• Film Showing: June 1, Rm 400, Ed Centre, 4 pm: FREE showing of Mr H and his Unruly Puppets, featuring Mr Heidbreder himself and film director/producer, as well as Vancouver educator, Annie O'D from Dickens.
  
• Book Launch: Some of you met Tiffany Friesen (Poirier) for the first time at Winter Tonic. This young Vancouver "gifted" educator (third in a line of well-known local educators) will have her first-ever book launch event for Q is for Question: An ABC of Philosophy on Wednesday, May 27, at 7:00 pm at Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. There will be prizes, snacks, special presentations, speeches, and fun mingling with local teachers, librarians, parents, children, and more. Please pass this invitation on to anyone you know who may be interested. Tiffany is very excited.
  
• Reading Rules, a student reading blog which is an excellent model for consideration with classroom reviewing and reading activities.
  
• The original logos captured in this 2006 Flickr graphic of Web 2.0 companies compared with British social photographer Meg Pickard's 2009-adapted Flickr graphic of those Web 2.0 companies still around.
  
• The new-look sidebar of this blog that includes new links, like the new-look BCTLA webpage under Wikis and Links.
  
• The latest from the various Related Bloggers: Joyce Valenza (SLJ), Phil Bradley, and Kathy Schrock have all made recent blog-posts about WolframAlpha, interesting as extensions of the comments posted here just last week! Blogs like these are where you find out what the "big names" in TL'ship are talking about ... well, unless you take up Twitter-ing.
  
• Twitter: You can mass-monitor tweets with the help of a beta desktop downloadable feature like Tweetdeck set to capture particular twitterings! While I have actually downloaded this, I tend to belong to and attract a group that is following each other but going nowhere! I think we must all be waiting for someone else to tweet (or re-tweet)! Twittering immigrants? No, largely tentative and rendered tweetless.
  
• Learn more about Creative Commons licensing for copyright:
  
  
  

Have a great weekend.

Weeding 1 Was Wonderful by Any Analysis

If you were one of the 15 or so TLs (and one keen teacher named Yvette) who came to Dickens learn how to weed and discuss the challenges of weeding, you would have had fun!

It was a great event ... and by the end, Cheriee was weeding with enthusiasm. Amazing what a little light refreshment does at the end of the day. More help could be used next week.

Are you considering a serious weed of one or more sections, likely preparing for inventory or making room for new resources? While Cheriee is preparing to move her collection to the new school and knows on a rational level it is better not to move one more book than is absolutely necessary, we saw a TL working with what we all recognize as the emotional attachment to a collection she has helped build. We agreed it is much easier to weed a collection that belongs or has belonged to someone else. But let's review the Dickens weeding process, to date ...

Analysis by IGE: Thyrza and Irina from MLST and I went to Dickens on Wednesday morning. We brought an IGE (a Horizon report where a particular group of items has been defined by parameters and identified in a printout) -- all books with copyright older than 2000 that had never (since automation) been signed out. Cheriee had already run an IGE for all books not circulated since 2000, a different list. Guess how many books were on these lists.

Irina had also run a count of "New Items" and of Items Missing, Missing Inventory, and Lost. If Cheriee were to check in all New Items, they would be added into the collection numbers and exactly offset the removal of the list of missing and lost items! Put another way, removing the lost items didn't accomplish any reduction in the collection size and it's really important to remember to check in all items that are added to your collection, both when you copy-catalogue and when you send them in to MLST. Remember that New Items do not exist for inventory purposes until they have been upgraded to Checked In.

While we were pre-assessing the collection, we checked collection size reports -- for Dickens and for other single-track schools of a similar size (500 students). Dickens had the largest collection but not by much -- and there would be reason to expect this, given that this school doesn't use textbooks. The range in collection size amongst these similar-size schools indicated that at least one collection was only two-thirds the size of Dickens', suggesting some considerable leeway for de-selecting!

Analysis by Professional Development and Collaboration: When we had resolved the refreshment shortages and pondered the reports, we began the weeding discussions. I provided an article "Weed!" by Doug Johnson (Head for the Edge, Library Media Collection, Sept/Oct 2003). The handout also included pages III, 35-37, from the district Handbook (2007; see portal) and pp. 92-3 from the Ministry document Evaluating, Selecting, and Managing Learning Resources: A Guide (2002).

Other "weeding resources" included in the package were:

• Resources for School Librarians - Collection Development
• Toronto School Board's Weeding Pamphlet
• Sun Link Weed of the Month (Archived, Sept 1997 to Dec 2005).
  

Analysis by Doing: Cheriee had taken pages from the IGE prepared at MLST and grouped them. TLs paired up -- experienced with inexperienced -- to undertake an analysis by doing the work: find the volumes identified as being older than 2000 and as never being circulated and verify they were ready for discarding. While on that shelf, identify other volumes to consider for discard. It soon became clear that it would be a time-consuming process -- that it would be just as easy to pull the books for Cheriee to check before discarding. Piles began to appear all over the school library.

Next Week: finish weeding; learn how to create the Discard IGE, as well as box and label the materials.

Analysis for Long-term Planning: We have had a look at the inventory records for the district. We are compiling the information on collection size for each school and will correlate it with information about school size (annex, small, medium, large; single-track, dual-track, etc.) and inventory. But why? you ask, given that the limited amount of staffing at some schools makes it impossible to do the "annual" inventory. The union catalogue is a primary concern: how accurate the records for your school are depends upon the adjustments following inventory. The records of books lost and missing, as well as the value of these items, are a useful measure of the importance of staffing, security systems, supervision, shared knowledge and professional qualifications, as well as consistent practice.

Workshop for April: Embracing Inventory!