Just in case you’ve missed this article floating around the Internet, you might be interested in the 33 reasons librarians are irreplaceable.

http://www.degreetutor.com/library/adult-continued-education/librarians-needed

http://redstudio.moma.org is a terrific interactive site with art projects, poems, coll contests, and interviews by teens with important artists. Kids will enjoy using the Remix collage maker, Fauxtogram, and other computer art applications.
Source: Scholastic Administra@tor, January 2007.

Booktalks Quick and Simple now has a podcast! In addition to the website filled with booktalks and the blog with a sneak peek at the new booktalks, now you can hear the booktalks by Nancy herself.

http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/podcast.htm

Also be sure to click on the links at the bottom of Nancy’s webpage to go to some excellent bibliographies.

Grab a piece of paper and test your knowledge of children’s literature.

Question: What are the10 best picture books of the past 25 years and the top 25 chapter books? Now check your answer at http://tinyurl.com/29k4hk

During the Blooging @ Your Library workshop this week, I told Teri Green, librarian from Brownsboro ISD, I would renew my efforts to post entries on ESC7Libs. Thanks Teri for encouraging me to share the tidbits of library news I read on the web.

 One of the gurus of technology integration is Will Richardson. He is the author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, and posts often to his blog, weblogg-ed, at http://weblogg-ed.com. Read what Will has to say. “One of the most challenging pieces of figuring out how to move education forward in a systemic way is “unlearning curve” that we teachers and educators have to go through to even see the possibilities that lay before us…. http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/the-steep-unlearning-curve/

School Library Blogs:

Professional Blogs:

http://www.lisnews.org

Take this Survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=863763333050 

I read this entry on the Chicken Spaghetti blog from October 26, 2006. I think it is a terrific idea. Your students’ selection could be put on a library website, library blog, or library bulletin. Another plus is the cost….zero!

The Nearest Book
By Susan Thomsen
From Mental Multivitamin
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig around for that “cool” or “intellectual” book on your shelves. (I know you were thinking about it.) Just pick up whatever is closest.

Here’s what I found:
Mom shrugs her shoulders at Georgia, who says, “I think I brought her to the right place.”
I walk Georgia to her car, where she turns and holds me by the shoulders. “Baby,” she says, “it’s a tall order for you to have this kid around; she adores you. I wouldn’t do it, but she’s fragile and you’re the only other person to have made good contact with her besides me, though I think your dad may have made a big inroad just now.”
From the young-adult novel Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher.

 For a basic understanding of blogs, click on this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs

http://www.maine.gov/msl/services/calculator.htm The Maine State Library offers this handy tool which helps library patrons understand the monetary value of the library materials, programs,meeting rooms, computers, and reference services they use. Source: Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies. http://marylaine.com/exlibris