TECH TRENDS

• Librarians as, um, Crap Detectors
  Frances Jacobson Harris, Joyce Valenza, and Harold Rheingold believe librarians are on the front lines in teaching students how to evaluate which sources are relevant and which are not. “Crap detection,” as the three panelists called it during their webcast conversation “Librarians and Truth Detection”  last week, is the starting point for any decent research.
  
  “The crap detection is the easy part,” says Harris, the librarian at University Laboratory High School at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “It’s what you do with it.” more » » » 

Blogs

• Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  Nina Lindsay, ,
  Please read the Peck
  I'm sure we're not done with A Season of Gifts, but I'm sure exhausted and fried by this discussion, and need to take a break. Meanwhile: I've seen in comments here and also at Debbie Reese's...
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• ShelfTalker: A Children's Bookseller's Blog
  Josie Leavitt, Co-owner, Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, Vt.
  A Co-op Idea
  Okay, so Elizabeth and I, newly inspired from the annual Trade Show, were talking about future educational seminars, and the idea of co-op came up, as always. I thought we could have a session where w...
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• NeverEndingSearch
  Joyce Valenza Ph.D, High School Librarian,
  BOGO deal on Flip Ultra Camcorders
  I don't travel or go to school without my own Flip camera. Over the past couple of years our PTA generously purchased five cameras for our library. (See here and here). Digital ...
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• A Fuse #8 Production
  Elizabeth Bird, Children's Librarian, Children's Center at 42nd Street
  Fusenews: Dear Mr. LaRue
  I'm sort of running like a chicken with my head cut off this week. Good thing I strive to emulate those brave members of the poultry family that, beheaded or not, keep going the distance, noggin or...
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NEWS

• SLJ Summit: Librarians as Leaders of 21st Century Learning
  With so much focus on 21st century skills, shouldn’t school librarians be recognized as leaders in this new era of learning? More than 200 media specialists and influential education and government officials descended on Washington, DC, this weekend to help answer that question as part of School Library Journal’s fifth annual Leadership Summit.
  
  “Librarians as Leaders of 21st Century Learning” explored the powerful relationship between media specialists and 21st century skills, including information and communications skills; critical thinking; interpersonal and collaborative skills; global awareness; and financial, business, and civic literacy. more » » » 
• Lottie the Otter Joins Pooh and Pals in Sequel
  After an 80-year absence, Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore  welcome Christopher Robin again in Return to the Hundred Acre Wood (Dutton, 2009), the first authorized sequel to A. A. Milne’s beloved "Winnie the Pooh" series.
  
  Released yesterday with a worldwide print run of 300,000, this collection of 10 new stories, written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Marc Burgess, introduces a new character, Lottie the Otter, a stickler for etiquette who’s always dressed in pearls and has strong ideas about how things should be done. more » » » 

WATCH AND READ

• Rocketing Back to Fame: Astro Boy
  Originally created as a comic-book character by groundbreaking Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) in the 1950s and later featured in an anime television series, this endearing, doe-eyed robot soars back to the forefront of pop culture with a new computer-animated film. Astro Boy (PG), produced by Imagi Studios and directed by David Bowers, premieres in theaters on October 23, 2009.
  
  The story is set in futuristic Metro City, a thriving metropolis that hovers above the surface of a wasted and desolate planet. In this utopia, life has been made easy with the assistance of robots that perform the tasks humans no longer want to do. When Dr. Tenma (voiced by Nicolas Cage), the scientist responsible for the development of many advanced robots, loses his 13-year-old son, Toby, in an accident, his grief drives him to create his most remarkable invention of all: a robot designed to look and act like his son. more » » » 

JOB OF THE WEEK