How often have you heard that....or said it yourself? Well, a press release just crossed my desk that just might help solve the problem. Marshall Cavendish has announced a new line of books, Marshall Cavendish Classics, that will "bring a select number of out-of-print titles from all publishers back into print. We are intetested in titles that have received awards, have enjoyed starred reviews, or have with stood the test of time in story hour."

So there you have. The ball's in your court. Get your suggestions over to Marilyn Mark, Associate Editor of  Children's Books at mmark@marshallcavendish.com

It will be interesing to see what they end up publishing. We here at SLJ are trying to keep up with new editions and reissues ourselves and have launched a new column, "Fresh Approaches, " in...Read More

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Finally we are hearing from Rutgers' Marie Radford & OCLC's Lynn Connaway who are discussing their research on virtual reference. Among other things they analyze transcripts of chat reference (they've looked at 850 chat interactions!) Today they are talking about clarification in reference online reference transactions.

Wow! Marie is showing a nine minute transaction that is pretty scary. Lots of misunderstandings and lack of clarification on the part of the reference librarian. But the good news is that 75 percent do clarify the question. Fifty percent did ask: "Did this completely ask your question." Also, forty-five percent sought topic clarification, 31 percent wanted background (when is your paper due?), and more.

Users also clarify, like through background (I'm in seventh graade and have 30 minutes.) Twenty percent clarify depth (I nee...Read More

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Next up is Drexel's Laurie Bonnici & FSU's Lynne Watson who looked at other places where college students engage in research--the third place, like coffee houses. This study was exploratory, based on qualitative data, and asked how student behavior was different in a library versus a coffee house. It was based on observation and a web-based survey.

Guess what? At the coffee house, consumption was the major activity, where at the library the computer was the major activity. At both, study was the second leading behavior. In both places the students were all wired up: iPod, phones, notebooks.

The students "looked the same" in both venues. As for generational considerations, the largest percentage were Millenials, or "digital natives."  The question is, can the coffee house replace the library for this generation? Is the idea of the libr...Read More

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I'm at ALA in Washington, where is it is a beautiful 80 degrees. I never thought of DC as "vacation-land" but it is just stunning here. Since I'm a bit of a research geek, I'm trying to follow some of the programs on user research from the Library Research Round Table. It's 10:30 on Saturday, and I'm at Research, A User Experience.

First up is a report on college student research beahavior from ProQuest's Joanna Markel, John Law & Serena Rosenhan. Their research consisted of "field work," observing students in their "native habitats." The research was anonymous, the students were doing real research for classes, and it was conducted onsite (libraries, coffee shops, student apartments) and remotely--by observing the students' computers. The remote was better they said because the students were acting more natural and they ...Read More

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Does anyone remember when we had just one blogger at SLJ: poor, lonely Amy? And bad enough that she was the only one, we stuck her off on some page where even I couldn't find her half the time. Well thankfully Amy stuck in there. 

So when we had a chance to redesign our site--and it prominently featured bloggers--I was delighted. I made it my mission to convince some of the writers in our field who I most respected (and always read) to take a risk and come join slj.com. I hoped to create a family of bloggers that would represent everything that SLJ is about: books, learning, technology, education (not that these are mutually exclusive.) And with the addition this month of Betsy, Joyce, and Marc we're finally there.

What's next? It wo...Read More

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While I love to hear from our readers, I'm not all that keen when they're just cursing me out. Which is what's been happening all this week, due to the "bouncing" pop-up ad from Little, Brown.  I too, like Roger Sutton, have delicate nerves and find it as annoying as an advertisement can be (and that includes the glued inserts that destroy the accompanying page when you try and remove them.) But unlike the Horn, we accept advertising, which means we need to figure out how to work with online advertisers. So let's get a few things straight.

One, it's not Little, Brown's fault, as some people have been posting. It's our web site, and  it's our responsibility to review new types of web advertisin...Read More

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I've really been hitting the road this month, travelling more than I normally like. But there have been some good opportunities and I hate to pass them up. 

Lat week I was in Charleston, WV (first trip to WV, wow, is it beautiful) to sit in on a meeting of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. I've always been fascinated with the Partnership, but never really understood what they were all about. The members are mainly big technology companies (Adobe, Dell, and from our world Thomson Gale). AASL is one of the few non-profit members and its executive director, Julie Walker, is an active participant.

The partnership's focus is on cores subjects (as defined by NCLB), 21st century content (like global awareness, finan...Read More

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Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. It's the mantra in the school library community. The idea is that when school librarians and classroom teachers work together, it is a "good thing." But who, exactly, is it good for? And in what ways?

The "Multiple Faces of Collaboration" was the topic of a research symposium recently held at Kent State University and jointly sponsored by Rutgers' CISSL and Kent State's ILILE that dove into this question from a variety of perspectives.

The highlight of the event was a presentation by Rutgers' Ross Todd on the qualtitive study on the experience of instructional collaboration. The study excamined 170 lib...Read More

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No, not your Uncle Ira. I'm talking about the International Reading Association's Annual Convention in Toronto. I guess this year, with the theme "Literacy Without Boundaries," IRA was really trying to put the "I" in IRA by heading to Canada. This cut attendance to less than half of the 20,000 that typically show up; lots of U.S. teachers just can't get funding to go out of the country. Which is too bad, since Toronto, which feels so uniquely international, was the perfect venue. Amazingly, you can attend IRA and spend the whole time in programs held only in Spanish or French.

Canadians were glad to have the convention on home turf, and not completely dominated by the concerns of U.S. educators and their relationship with No Child Left Behind legisla...Read More

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Not to spoil the plot, but of course print still matters. But electronic content is certainly changing our expectations about reading and the way we think about, and use, print.

This was the topic of a talk I gave the other week at Dominican University as part of the Lazerow lecture series. I always hate listening to speakers predict the future, especially in bibliolibraryland (electronic paper? ebook readers with appeal? wake me up when the shipment arrives.) But this talk was focused on today, or at the most the next six months.

I covered three areas: the growth of user-generated content, how media companies are responding to this shift (and slj.com is a good example), and the "missing guest" at the online feast: books. While this has all been covered...Read More

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OK, I've been a bad blogger. But I was travelling, then when I got back we had to close the May issue....then I felt too guilty for not blogging to blog. But enough about me.
I had the great pleasure of being in San Antonio for the Texas Library Association's Annual Conference. Everyone should find an excuse to go to TLA at least once in their lives. The sheer volume of excellent youth-related programming is extraordinary. Sometimes I think if I could go to only one conference a year--and really wanted to keep up with what was going on in the library world--I'd go to Texas. Final registration, I think, was nearly 8,000.
And of course I get to meet some many SLJ readers at TLA. Number one issue? Don't raise the subscription cost.
We also had lunch with a group of school libr...Read More

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Today is the eleventh anniversary of the National Day of Silence, an annual event held to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying, harassment, and discrimination in schools. One of the largest student-led actions in the country, the Day of Silence targets unacceptable behavior, like name-calling and violence.

Is your library, or school, participating in the Day of Silence? Let us know. While the Day of Silence web site has plenty of information, it's lacking one thing: books. And while there is a healthy roster of endorsements, there are none from any library organizations.

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