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Just for Texans! If you are a librarian serving children in a public or school library, then consider applying for the Edwards stipend. The Edwards stipend is awarded to first-time attendees of the Texas Library Association's (TLA) annual conference to help offset conference costs and TLA dues if necessary. The stipend is given to as many as four librarians. Full details and applications are available at the TAL Web site. Applications must be emailed or postmarked no later than December 19. See you in Dallas!
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| Interview |
| SLJ Catches Up with Po Bronson on the Importance of Kids and Sleep |
 Po Bronson is a Bay Area-based magazine journalist and the author of five books, but these days he's researching what he calls "counter-intuitive findings from the science of parenting." In a New York Magazine story last February, Bronson reported on research that says praising children for their intelligence actually harms academic accomplishment. In October Bronson followed that up with disturbing revelations about sleep, kids, and learning.
You cite various studies that say kids aren't getting enough sleep. But you make a deeper point...
Kids get at least an hour's less sleep than they did three decades ago. The modern lifestyle trends rob them of sleep and turn that hour over to something else, possibly productive, possibly entertainment time. So what is a [parental] obsession in the [baby] years becomes huge neglect once they hit elementary school. It isn't whether teens are getting sleep, it's about our responsibility as parents and what we value and what we invest their time in doing. We're the ones who govern their sleep. Sleep matters to your kid and to you.
read more... |
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| TechTrends |
CC at Five
ADVERTISEMENT |
Nonprofit org Creative Commons (CC) is celebrating five years of turning the traditional notion of copyright on its head. CC, which offers a flexible range of rights licenses that help foster the legal sharing and remixing of creative work, is marking its anniversary with several new initiatives.
First, you can be a friend—on Facebook, MySpace, or Friendster. The organization hopes that social networks will help broaden the organization's reach, according to CC development coordinator Melissa Reader. Posting to the CC blog, Reader announced the "50,000 friends challenge," which hopes to raise support—and money—for the cause of participatory culture. The stated Facebook mission: "to build a layer of reasonable, flexible copyright in the face of increasingly restrictive default rules."
read more... |
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 BOOKS
When Randolph Turned Rotten by Charise Mericle Harper
From SLJ December 2007
PreS-Gr 2–Best friends Randolph (a beaver) and Ivy (a Canada goose) do everything together until Ivy receives an invitation to an all-girls sleepover at her cousin's beach house.... |
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 VIDEO/DVD
Bone Diggers: Australia's Lost Marsupials
Gr 7 Up–More than a million years ago, during the last Ice Age, Australia was home to "eight-foot tall kangaroos, wombats the size of hippos, snakes that were three feet in diameter, and a horned tortoise as big as a Volkswagen."... |
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 AUDIO
Lily's Big Day
PreS-Gr 2–When Lilly's teacher, Mr. Slinger, announces his plans to marry the school nurse to the class, the young mouse is sure that she will be chosen to be the flower girl in this book by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow, 2006).... |
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| News and Views |
| More Teens Sending Instant Messages via Cell Phones |
A growing number of teens are sending instant messages from their cell phones, according to a new AOL-Associated Press (AP) poll.
The shift has occurred because more cell phones with full keyboards are available, and major companies that provide IM—like AOL and Yahoo!—let users forward instant messages to their phones when they're mobile. read more... |
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| Shoah Foundation Revamps Web Site for Educators |
For librarians who want to teach about the Holocaust, the Shoah Foundation Institute has streamlined its Web site, adding easily accessible lesson plans and video clips of survivors and witnesses.
The free site, based at the University of Southern California (USC) at Los Angeles, draws its video clips from 52,000 first-person video testimonies in 32 languages and from 56 countries. Until now, the Web site's features were limited, and the often-lengthy testimonies were held in an archive accessible only at specific broadband-enhanced university, public library, and museum sites. read more... |
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| New Video Game Helps Kids Fight Obesity |
Who says gaming encourages a sedentary lifestyle? "The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective" is a new video game that teaches kids to fight childhood obesity by staying active.
"The Amazing Food Detective" is the only free, online video game in English and Spanish that encourages kids to eat healthier foods, get more active, and limit their time in front of the computer and TV. read more... |
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| Remarkable Reads |
| I'm Deaf, Not Dumb |
For a child, hearing and speech are essential tools of learning, playing, and developing social skills. Hearing loss, in varying degrees, affects two in every 100 children under the age of 18. In the titles below, readers learn about the effects of deafness through the experiences of the hearing and nonhearing, siblings, friends, and even animals. Set up a Deaf Awareness display with these books next month along with resources on Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founders of America's first college for the deaf, Gallaudet University.
FERRIS, Jean. Of Sound Mind. Farrar. 2001. Tr $16. ISBN 978-0-374-35580-7; pap. $6.95. ISBN 978-0-374-45584-2.
Gr 7-11–What if you were the only one in your family who isn't deaf? read more... |
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| Watch and Read: Spotlight on Media Tie-ins
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| Get Your Bearings on The Golden Compass |
| On December 7, New Line Cinema will release The Golden Compass (not yet rated), a big-screen adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy (Knopf). The movie has already stirred up quite a bit of controversy among religious groups. The story takes place in a parallel universe where each person has a daemon, a part of their soul that is separate from their body and takes the form of an animal.
read more... |
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| Shameless SLJ Promotions |
Gale and School Library Journal Announce the 2008 Giant Step Award
Has your school or public library made a significant improvement or created new programs that have had a huge impact on student learning? Then enter our Giant Step Award.
Sponsored by Gale, part of Cengage Learning, and School Library Journal, Giant Step recognizes libraries that have made a difference over the last three years with up to $10,000 in cash prizes. So, don't waste any time—run to your computer and apply today! Nominations will be accepted through February 11, 2008.
U.S. and Canadian school library media centers and the youth services departments of public libraries are eligible to apply. Applicants must be certified librarians.
Click here for more details.
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| Librarian's Internet |
| UNICEF: Voices of Youth |
| www.unicef.org/voy/ |
UNICEF (United Nations International Emergency Fund) was established at the end of World War II to provide children in war-torn countries with food, clothing, and health care. In 1953 it became a permanent part of the UN and its charge was broadened to include education, a wide variety of childhood health issues, and children's rights. In 1965 UNICEF won the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Voices of Youth" is UNICEF's Web site for middle and high school kids. It's chock full of information about its various projects and includes practical ways that kids (and classes) can get involved. Teachers and homeschooling parents will love all the information in the "Explore" section (most of the topics include games, quizzes, "brain teasers," real life stories, and photo journals). While "Exploring," check out the "State of the World's Children 2007"—it's a real eye-opener. Kids will also want to click on the "Make a Difference" box to learn about the many ways they can benefit other kids around the world.—Gail Junion-Metz
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| Digital Projects Librarian |
Johnson County Community College
Overland Park, Kansas
Build and sustain appropriate digital collections and cultivate cooperative relationships with others. Work with library teams, departments, or vendors to identify digital projects, collections, and/or digital services.
To see all positions available through the SLJ Career Center, click here...
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