CASL Kickoff to TIE!

Colorado Association of School Libraries is

Partnering with TIE!*

*T.I.E. is the annual regional Technology in Education Conference, June 24-27.

Full-day preconference focused on school librarians’ leadership role in the integration of technology and 21st Century skills.

Copper Mountain Resort, June 23, 2008

Library Journal Mover & Shaker Christopher Harris as a keynote and workshop presenter

Library 2.0: The Digital Reshift

The world is changing, and school libraries certainly aren’t immune. Though change can be difficult, it can also bring new possibilities. In the case of school libraries, this change means navigating through a digital reshift - an adoption of new tools and techniques that reinvigorate our traditional library practices. Christopher Harris, recently named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for being a 2.0 Guru, has focused on the potential of technology in a flat world to bring powerful changes to the libraries he serves. From an online library portal that provides student-centered access to a library experience 24/7 to a game library that pushes the boundaries of learning resources, Christopher will share a wealth of tools and practices that define the Digital Reshift.

AASL Standards for the 21^st Century Learner will be presented by Stevan Kalmon, Director for the Council on 21^st Century Learning, Colorado State Library’s Nance Nassar, and Colorado’s AASL Representative, Sherry Crow

Workshops & planning time will reinforce learning by addressing:

• Useful Web 2.0 tools for the librarian by Christopher Harris

• Blogs & Nings by University of Colorado’s Dr. Laura Summers

• Roaring Fork SD & CASL Board Member Jenna Cook’s successful student collaboration program

Registration for the full-day CASL preconference is $60 for TIE attendees ($100 for the preconference only, for those not staying for TIE­) regardless of CAL membership status and includes coffee & lunch. .5 UCD graduate credit hour available for an additional fee. Registration will close when the workshop reaches capacity. Please note that purchase orders will not be accepted.

Find the preconference agenda or download a registration flier at http://www.calwebs.org/associations2.html#1.

Colorado Librarians Invited: Long Bill Signing Ceremony!

Good News! The Colorado “Long Bill” will include additional funding for Colorado Libraries!  Look for great new discounts in statewide database pricing  - details to be made available soon.  Meanwhile, here is a message from the CAL lobbists, Jerry Braden & Ruben Valdez:

“Governor Ritter has invited all of you to attend the Long Bill Signing Ceremony on Monday April 28th at 1:30 on the west steps of the capitol. The Governor’s office has requested that as many Librarians as have time to please attend.”

Colorado School Librarians: Call to Action for Arizona!

Dr. Ann Ewbank, Education Liaison Librarian, Fletcher Library at Arizona State University, posted the following message on the AASL list serv:

On Tuesday, April 22, the Mesa (AZ) Public Schools Governing Board will vote on a proposal that would eliminate every teacher-librarian over a three year period, and staff the libraries with a classified aide.

Mesa Public Schools is the largest school district in Arizona, with 87 schools, including 58 elementary schools, 13 junior high schools, seven high schools and nine focus schools. In 2007-2008, 73,808 were enrolled in the district.

Each school is currently staffed with a full-time certified teacher-librarian and a full-time aide.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2008/04/17/20080417cuts0417.html

School librarians from around the country are being asked to email or fax the Mesa Public school board members to try to prevent this tragedy! You can make a difference! You do make a difference with students every day – so lend your voice to this issue.

We have a very short time frame to convince these Board members that this decision is a detrimental one for almost 74,000 students and their academic achievement.

The email addresses of the Governing Board members can be found here:

http://www.mpsaz.org/main2/govboard/contacts.html

You can also fax a letter on letterhead. The fax is available on the web page.

Make sure to indicate your credentials in the email or letter (AASL President, professor, teacher-librarian, AASL committee member, etc).

Let’s make an impact on these Board members!

Professional Development for School Librarians

It’s in the air…that feeling of springtime, refreshing and renewing.

What opportunities are you seeking for professional renewal?

Have you attended the TIE conference recently?  Did you know that CASL is partnering with TIE this year to bring you a full day preconference (in lieu of a ‘CASL Spring Workshop’) on June 23?  Find details and registration info at http://www.cal-webs.org/associations2.html#1

And, it’s time to submit programs for the November 7-9 CAL conference.  What innovative ideas are out there?  Let’s get those people to propose programs that appeal to school librarians at www.cal-webs.org

A New Genre in Japan - will America join in?

I love to read on my cell phone while riding in the car (husband driving, of course) or waiting for an appointment. But I’ve read The Wizard of Oz series through public domain that I can bookmark on my blackberry or The Secret Adversary, an old classic as well as Beowulf and The Message through email where you get sections of the book to read over a period of time. My blackberry has a light, I can change the font size and can scroll with very little effort using the pearl track ball.

I saw something about people in Japan writing novels on their cell phones but didn’t really get the whole scoop until I read the following linked articles about it:
The Mirth of Comeuppance and Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular

As a integrated library technology educator, I just loved reading about the “thumbs race”! What a hoot! Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels in Japan, five were originally cellphone novels. The top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists! Fans praised the novels as a new literary genre created and consumed by a generation whose reading habits had previously consisted mostly of manga, or comic books.

“Critics said the dominance of cellphone novels, with their poor literary quality, would hasten the decline of Japanese literature. But, whatever their literary talents, cellphone novelists are racking up the kind of sales that most more experienced, traditional novelists can only dream of.”

“One such star, a 21-year-old woman named Rin, wrote If You over a six-month stretch during her senior year in high school. While commuting to her part-time job or whenever she found a free moment, she tapped out passages on her cellphone and uploaded them on a popular Web site for would-be authors.”

“After cellphone readers voted her novel No. 1 in one ranking, her story of the tragic love between two childhood friends was turned into a 142-page hardcover book last year. It sold 400,000 copies and became the No. 5 best-selling novel of 2007, according to a closely watched list by Tohan, a major book distributor.”

“The cellphone novel was born in 2000 after a home-page-making Web site, Maho no i-rando, realized that many users were writing novels on their blogs; it tinkered with its software to allow users to upload works in progress and readers to comment, creating the serialized cellphone novel. But the number of users uploading novels began booming only two to three years ago, and the number of novels listed on the site reached one million last month, according to Maho no i-rando.”

“The boom appeared to have been fueled by a development having nothing to do with culture or novels but by cellphone companies’ decision to offer unlimited transmission of packet data, like text-messaging, as part of flat monthly rates.”

“The affordability of cellphones coincided with the coming of age of a generation of Japanese for whom cellphones, more than personal computers, had been an integral part of their lives since junior high school. So they read the novels on their cellphones, even though the same Web sites were also accessible by computer.”

“In the course of exchanging e-mail, this tool called the cellphone instilled in them a desire to write. Many cellphone novelists had never written fiction before, and many of their readers had never read novels before, according to publishers.”

“The writers are not paid for their work online, no many how many millions of times it is viewed. The payoff, if any, comes when the novels are reproduced and sold as traditional books. Readers have free access to the Web sites that carry the novels, or pay at most $1 to $2 a month, but the sites make most of their money from advertising.”

“Love Sky, a debut novel by a young woman named Mika, was read by 20 million people on cellphones or on computers, according to Maho no i-rando, where it was first uploaded. A tear-jerker featuring adolescent sex, rape, pregnancy and a fatal disease — the genre’s sine qua non — the novel nevertheless captured the young generation’s attitude, its verbal tics and the cellphone’s omnipresence. Republished in book form, it became the No. 1 selling novel last year and was made into a movie.”

Don’t you just love when something old and comfy like a hard bound book is made new again with a vibrant just-in-time approach that happens as a natural result! And then that just-in-time cell phone novel goes full circle and becomes a comfy hard bound book!

I love the integration of technology and information!