TECH TRENDS

• K12 Online Conference Goes Global
  Teachers, media specialists, and students around the world are gearing up for the 4th Annual K12 Online Conference—a chance for tech-savvy educators to virtually mingle and share, while those less familiar with Web 2.0 tools can learn about their use from the experts themselves.
  
  “We’re trying to empower people,” says Wesley Fryer, the executive director for Story Chasers Inc., and one of the co-conveners for this year’s conference scheduled to start the week of December 7. “Sometimes innovators feel isolated in their district, and we want to remind them they’re not alone.” more » » » 

Blogs

• ShelfTalker: A Children's Bookseller's Blog
  Josie Leavitt, Co-owner, Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, Vt.
  Make Money with Book Fairs!
  We had a book fair that made money and I didn't have to do anything! I was stunned. The key to this book fair was we did it in the store. A book fair involves my staff, usually me, ordering, re...
  more » » » 
  
• Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  Jonathan Hunt, Librarian and teacher, Modesto City Schools
  Hook
  In her excellent article, "Alive and Vigorous: Questioning the Newbery," Martha Parravano asks this pentrating question: Looking back at the books of 1963, for instance, what would...
  more » » » 
  
• A Fuse #8 Production
  Elizabeth Bird, Children's Librarian, Children's Center at 42nd Street
  Fusenews: In which I am so full of wonder I know not what to think
  Back up, kids! I've got a lot to say and not a whole lotta time to say it. First off, I think we can declare the third Kidlitosphere Conference held in Washington D.C. a rousin...
  more » » » 
  
• Practically Paradise
  Diane Chen, Librarian, Hickman Elementary School, Nashville, Tennessee
  "get out of my profession"
  I admit it. I said it. Very passionately, too. Where? At the SLJ Library Leadership Summit. Why? Because I was reading lips of people in the audience who were saying things like, "I'm not going t...
  more » » » 
  

NEWS

• Author Linda Sue Park Wins Empire State Author Award
  Newbery Medal-winning author Linda Sue Park is this year’s winner of the Empire State Author Award, given to a New York State children’s or YA author for a body of work.
  
  “I like being recognized for my body,” joked Park when presented with the honor at the New York Library Association Conference in Niagara Falls on October 16th. She joins previous distinguished winners such as Maurice Sendak and Paula Fox. more » » » 
• NYC Charter School Bumps School Library
  Students at a middle school in Brooklyn, NY, recently had their library chopped and hours reduced when two new charter schools launched this fall in the same building.
  
  John Ericsson Middle School 126 already shared its building with Williamsburg Charter High School—part of the Believe High Schools Network (BHSN)—and approximately 800 of its ninth through 12th graders. more » » » 

WATCH AND READ

• “Bah, Humbug!” A Holiday Classic Re-envisioned
  On November 6, 2009, Walt Disney Pictures and ImageMovers Digital will release an adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic 1843 novella. Written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, A Christmas Carol (PG) will be presented in Disney Digital 3-D and IMAX 3-D. The movie was produced using performance capture, a process of recording and digitizing the actions of human actors, which the director previously employed in The Polar Express (2004) and Beowulf (2007). The result is an ensemble of animated digital characters whose appearances, movements, and expressions look amazingly lifelike. more » » » 

JOB OF THE WEEK