Alice in InfoLandhttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/realities, illusions, and magic potions for school/library/lifeen-US2010-09-02T20:46:19ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.5 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Cheer for School Librarieshttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/cheer-for-school-libraries.htmlAlice2010-04-13T15:11:51ZL-I-B-R-A-R-Y!     L-I-B-R-A-R-Y!  

Check us out!

Info Skills — that’s our game

Lifetime Learners, that’s our aim!

We show readers how to use

Resources beyond the textbook blues.

 

Facts to go and Fiction to share

We stock ideas from everywhere!

Information — we’ve got it!

Imagination — can’t live without it!

 

Call it the Learning Commons or the IMC —

Whatever the name, it’s the place to be …

at the

L-I-B-R-A-R-Y!     L-I-B-R-A-R-Y!

 

We’re up to date on the latest fare:

Tech-no-logic-ly aware:

Cyber-connected, reaching out,

InterWebbing all about.

 

Subject specific or recreational,

Our resources are sensational.

We teach future decision-makers

to be critical thinkers and knowledge creators

in the

L-I-B-R-A-R-Y!     L-I-B-R-A-R-Y!

Check us out!

]]>L*I*B*R*A*R*I*E*S*http://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/libraries.htmlAlice2010-03-07T22:45:04ZHere is the banner I had hanging outside my ‘room’ wherever I worked:

L inking

I deas

B etween

R eaders

A nd

R esources -

I nforming,

E nriching,

S haring!

Note that it says Ideas, not just Information, because Imagination is just as important as factual content.  
Also note that there is no mention of format, since it’s the content of those ideas that is more important than the container that encapsulates them.
Isn’t that what libraries — and librarians — are all about?

]]>Activate, part 2http://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/activate-part-2.htmlAlice2010-02-23T20:32:54ZMy real concern is that too many school librarians use the ‘but that’s the Association’s job’ as an excuse for inaction on their own part.  Complaining that your professional Associations (state or national) haven’t done anything/enough/now to speak up for school libraries is a Waste. of. Time. and. Energy.  

Kvetching about what shoulda/coulda does not get anything accomplished.
We cannot advocate for ourselves. We can, however, make sure that we make our voices heard as activists - spreading the word to those who WILL speak up for us. 
What can YOU — an INDIVIDUAL — do?  WRITE LETTERS TO LEGISLATORS NOW!
Consider these impassioned suggestions:
Two important caveats as you prepare your messages:
1.  When you write and/or call your legislators, do NOT start by identifying yourself as a school librarian. Introduce yourself as a supporter of school libraries, or a constituent concerned about education. You want your first impact to be that you are advocating for students, not that you are pleading on your own behalf.
2.  Fax or email your letters, but do not send them via Ye Olde Post Office; nowadays all paper-mail sent to legislators has to be checked for suspicious ‘enclosures,’ and may not be delivered for weeks or even months.
]]>Activate comes before Advocatehttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/activate-comes-before-advocate.htmlAlice2010-02-20T20:33:06Z —not just alphabetically, but procedurally:

Activate (v): initiate something; start a function.
Synonyms: arouse, energize, impel, mobilize, motivate, prompt, propel, set in motion, start, stimulate, switch on, trigger.

Advocate (v): support idea or cause publicly.
Synonyms: advise, argue for, bolster, boost, campaign for, champion, defend, go to bat for, justify, promote, recommend, support.
—http://thesaurus.reference.com/

Activists start the process to make something happen.
Advocates support the process and product of that initial action.
BIIIG difference.


Every semester, it’s the unit on Public Relations that is a revelation to most of the students in my School Library Management course. Posters and displays and reading contests: no problem. But administrative reports and collaborative connections and community outreach efforts … you mean we have to do that, too? Yes.
Here are some unfortunate realities:

  • Too many adults (both in and out of schools) still think of the library as a quiet place where the nice lady just reads stories and checks out books to kids.
  • Too many politicians think that ‘you can find everything you need on the InterWebs,’ even though those same politicians prefer shelves of books as the background for their photo-ops when making education-related pronouncements.
  • Too many school librarians seem to subscribe to a “field of dreams” mythology: if you build a library, “they” will somehow know about it, and come and use it and value it.
  • Too many school districts are cutting school library programs because too many school administrators and taxpayers don’t recognize the educational value TO STUDENTS of those library programs.
and
  • Too many school librarians talk about the urgent need for advocacy efforts to support the idea of school libraries, but somehow expect those efforts to come from somewhere/someone else on their behalf.

School librarians can NOT assume that the rest of the world understands how and why library programs are necessary, especially in our changing information landscape.

We need to be ACTive about REACHING OUT to all members of our communities: teachers, administrators, parents, legislators, media, etc., to get our stories out. We can’t expect – or wait for – our professional associations to do it for us. And our stories have to be positive: no whining or begging.

Ask yourself: what can YOU do to SHOW and TELL what’s happening in your local program? What evidence can you use to demonstrate the impact of effective library programs and services on student learning?

And ask yourself this, too: are YOU paying attention to the changes happening around you? Because the world has changed, and our students’ needs have changed, and if you don’t learn how to steer effectively through the hills and valleys of program justification, you may just end up as road-kill.

]]>Seven Things You Don’t (Need to) Know about Me - A Memehttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/seven-things-you-dont-need-to-know-about-me-a-meme.htmlAlice2008-12-31T18:56:19ZLife LessonsI’ve been tagged by Cathy Nelson for this perennial meme. Since I listed five things when Doug Johnson tagged me two years ago, I’ll just add these items to the list:

1. I am incorrigibly curious. My parents were educators, and the daily dinner question was “so what did you DISCOVER today?” (note: not learned; discovered. BIG difference.) That curiosity has occasionally gotten me in trouble … On the way to the hospital to have my first child, I stopped to read an historical marker near the hospital entrance. My husband got to the admitting desk only to discover that I was still a half-block behind him. The next time I was pregnant, he insisted that I read every signpost along all the possible routes to the hospital each time we went for a check-up, just to make sure that there would be no “delays” this time.

2. Although I am probably the most tech-savvy of my immediate friends and family, the truth is that I have NO idea how computers actually work. There could be little green men in pointy hats frantically shuffling index cards inside each of those machines to make the magic happen. I know how to USE the magic as needed, but don’t understand (or even need to know) how those technologies work. I’m just grateful for the opportunities and adventures that cyber-connections provide!

and a bonus:
3. I am a certified klutz.  But most of you knew that about me already.

Now I tag Sara, Carl, Lazygal, Chris, Diane, Sophie, and Brian.

]]>100 things memehttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/100-things-meme.htmlAlice2008-12-25T22:36:15ZDiversions Life LessonsBeen there, done that? I wonder who came up with this list, and how culturally biased it is.

In any case, I’ve bolded those items I have already done, and italicized those I’m still hoping to get to, someday, somehow:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

]]>Misgiving Dayhttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/misgiving-day.htmlAlice2008-11-29T21:20:28ZLife LessonsDid you know about this annual observance? Observed (obviously not an occasion for celebration) on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, *Misgiving Day* “is designed to break the arc of forced bonhomie that extends from Thanksgiving, hits its apogee at Christmas, and climaxes on New Year’s Eve.” Here is our opportunity to “rue our excesses, our sins of commission and omission, and the overall shallowness of our existence not to mention the gluttony of the recent holiday.”
Anyone care to join me in some sour mash?

]]>Banned Books Weekhttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/banned-books-week.htmlAlice2008-09-25T18:18:05ZBannedBooksWeekSeptember 27 - October 4, 2008: celebrate the freedom to read whatever you want, wherever/whenever/however you want.
And if you don’t think you’ve got anything lying around that befits the occasion, try this list of *25 Banned Books That You Should Read Today*, from DegreeDirectory.
Hmmmm… the only title on that list that I haven’t read is American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis. I wonder what that says about me?

]]>Let a smile be your umbrellahttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/let-a-smile-be-your-umbrella.htmlAlice2008-09-20T17:07:01ZDiversionsIn these unsettling times, I depend on daily doses of the following comic-strips:

Brevity: http://www.comics.com/comics/brevity/index.html
Day by Day: http://www.daybydaycartoon.com
Frazz: http://www.comics.com/comics/frazz/
Get Fuzzy: http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/index.html
Indexed: http://indexed.blogspot.com/
9 Chickweed Lane: http://www.comics.com/comics/chickweed/index.html
Non Sequitur: http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/
Savage Chickens: http://www.savagechickens.com/
Shelf Check: http://shelfcheck.blogspot.com/
Unshelved: http://www.unshelved.com/

and thanks to the magic of RSS feeds, I get to read these online, wherever I am!

]]>Been there, done thathttp://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/been-there-done-that.htmlAlice2008-08-22T17:41:42ZDiversionsAbject apologies! I just returned from my daily swim on the beautiful Fijian beach and realised I have not updated this since the long board was invented… You would not believe how much more of a drama I could make that. I prostrate myself in sorrow and beg thy forgiveness..

I am hopped up on caffeine with discovering time doesn’t stand still, choosing my retirement village, just generally being a terrible burden to anyone unfortunate to cross my path. My day drifts aimlessly from when the light through yonder window breaks until I see the last of my darling’s 10000 text messages. Remember that life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get — and I’ve been visiting the chocolate factory right here in town too often.

I won’t promise anything to you but I will make more of an effort to blog more often. No, really! I will write more to certain yous; but it might not be you in particular who I write to.

Created by the *Lazy Bloggers Post Generator* — after noting examples from Doug et al.
Now it’s YOUR turn!

]]>