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Posted by Diane Chen on February 9, 2010
Blanche Woolls wrote to members of the Geek Squad recently. Her post had such a powerful impact on me that I wanted to share it with you with her full permission. Here we are, a list of leaders, and what are we doing versus what should we be doing? In the early 1960s (before most of you were born) Cora Paul Bomar in the N.C. State Department of Education and Mary Helen Mahar in Washington, D.C. gathered a group of activists and they gather statistics on the lack of elementary school libraries and the lack of quality high school libraries in the U.S. Somewhere along the way they got Remington Rand to publish a brochure about school libraries that was well done as an advertisement and it got wide distribution. The Knapp Foundation...Read More
Posted by Diane Chen on February 9, 2010
I found this information on several school librarian listserv's but don't know who the original source was. I checked with the ALA-WO to be sure it wasn't private info and Emily Sheketoff responded: "This administration says it wants government to be transparent, so blog away"
Posted by Diane Chen on February 9, 2010
Time slipped through my typing fingers and I forgot to remind you to visit The Brown Bookshelf during their 28 Days Later initiative to "celebrate some of the best under-the-radar and vanguard black children's books authors and illustrators." The 28 Days Later campaign kicked off with a spotlight on Marguerite Abouet. According to the Brown Bookshelf's About Us: ...Read More
Posted by Diane Chen on February 7, 2010
Posted by Diane Chen on February 1, 2010
On January 12, 2010, the Association of Jewish Libraries (www.jewishlibraries.org/blog) announced the winner in the Younger Readers Category: New Year at the Pier written by April Halprin Wayland and illustrated by Stéphane Jorisch. Published by Dial Books for Young Readers, 2009. Today we kick off the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour in Practically Paradise.
Posted by Diane Chen on January 30, 2010
This January while many bloggers were focusing on the ALA Youth Media awards, there arose another issue in the biblioblogosphere: covers with characters that don't accurately portray the author's description inside, particularly of POC (persons of color). For those of you who thought we'd dealt with the issue after the cover of
Posted by Diane Chen on January 29, 2010
Capstone Publishing has a new website www.capstonePub.com They've sent some press releases but since you are probably as busy as I am, let me share some interesting links. Rather than just focusing on their titles, Capstone seems to be looking at two markets: Librarians and Teachers. Varied services are offered depending upon your role, but I like the Educator Resources including bookmarks, reader's theatre scripts, videos, an online Google calendar of events that you can copy to your own school library calendar, Reading Olympics tools, lesson plans, standards correlations, and more. The bookmarks suggest both Keyword search terms and Dewey Decimal Numbers like these search terms for Really Scary Stuff: ghost, alien, monster, unidentified flying object, haunted house. Readers are encourage...Read More
Posted by Diane Chen on January 28, 2010
 January 2nd I announced The Search for the Top 100 Teen Titles. The February 14th deadline is swiftly approaching so I wanted to remind you of the rules and to prompt you to enter your titles. Don't let your voice be unheard.Here are the rules:
Posted by Diane Chen on January 24, 2010
Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy exhibit halls at ALA midwinter and Annual? I had two full hours on Friday night and managed to come away with over 80 books. Many were advanced reading copies, some I  purchased, others were gratefully accepted donations. I admit I pleaded heavily with  Lerner for their only copy of the new biography of Michael Jackson. I returned eight times to remind them how much I wanted this title and finally on Monday at two minutes to ten, they caved to my pressure. What was the first question boys...Read More
Posted by Diane Chen on January 23, 2010
First they came for the school librarians, but that was a teacher issue at a local level and they have public libraries, right? Then they came for the military library budgets, but we thought the troops were too busy and someone else would donate and deliver books, right? Then they came for the special scientific libraries, but the government said they could google everything they needed, right? Then they came for the depository libraries of free government information, but the government said they had digitized everything fairly and given us complete access online, right? Then they came for the medical libraries, but we knew all the research to protect us was available somewhere for free on the internet, right? Then they came for the college library budgets, b...Read More
Posted by Diane Chen on January 15, 2010
Took time Thursday to tour the JFK Presidential Library. My school IS the John F Kennedy Middle School, afterall. I wish each of you and our students could visit this as it was an amazing experience. The tour is self-guided and you walk through a series of rooms that have been created to put you in the moment. For example, there is a room like a tv briefing room. There is a replica of the Oval office, there is a hallway replica of the White House. As I toured each room and viewed the video clips, captions, and artifacts, I was so impressed and so proud to be associated with JFK school. At the end of the tour, I visited the store and discovered wonderful resources that would aid us in instructing our students and instilling pride of being part of a school named after JFK. I plan to return to school and order mor...Read More
Posted by Diane Chen on January 14, 2010
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I have been calling February 14th Book Lovers Day this year. Rather than wait for anyone to send me flowers or chocolate, I'll be surrounded by my friends THE BOOKS at the library and at the local bookstore in my community. 
Justine Larbalestier's Liar
Whoever tried to tell me that people from the Northeastern US were distant, cold, or unfriendly LIED. The people of Boston are wonderful, friendly, and helpful. Let me give you an illustration: