CSLA 2008, Post 9

I am sitting in a very empty, very large room waiting for my presentation to begin. It is now 8:27 and it starts at 9:15. It is a panel discussion and there were not enough chairs for the panel. That was an easy fix. There is not, however, a microphone on the table; only one at the podium. Hoping to get that fixed.

This presentation is on building a library career and what it takes to get there. I am fortunate that I got some amazing participants for the presentation. They are:

• Barbara Jeffus, California Department of Education
• Jackie Siminitus, AT&T
• Jo Ellen Misakian, Fresno Pacific University
• Margaret Baker, Selma Unified School District

Given that it is a Sunday morning, I am a little concerned that we will actually have people show up for the presentation. We also got one of these new longer sessions, so we are not only competing with the people who start at the same time, but also with the ones who start half an hour after we begin.

I will let you know how it all turns out.

CSLA 2008, Post 8

Oh my. Apparently, you go to hear Deborah Ford talk just to hear her talk. She's out there in a very good way. I saw her present Scary, Gross, and Enlightening: Books for Boys, 2008. Yes, this is a presentation that she gives each year and many TLs go. Well worth the time, particularly if you have an interest in getting your boys to read books.

One thing that I liked about her handout was that she is very specific about which books are appropriate for whom. She uses this scale for reading interest levels:

K-3 = G rated
3-6 = PG rated (older kids, more sophisticated, etc.)
5-8 = PG13 rated (mild violence and/or language)
YA = R rated (violence, language, sex, etc.)

She then went through an incredibly long list of books, read a couple, and it all worked for me. A couple books that I will be buying for my library:

1. The Seer of Shadows by Avi
2. More Bones by Arielle North Nelson
3. Alfred Kropp: The Thirteenth Skull by Rick Yancey
4. Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
5. Solving Crimes with Trace Evidence by Gary Jeffrey

CSLA 2008, Post 5

On Friday I went to hear Advocacy 101: Using your voice to give a shout out for your school library program. This presentation was by two TLs from Long Beach Unified, Sandy Patton and Pamela Oehlman. Excellent advice!

As some of you may know, the TLs in that district have perfected advocacy to an art form. They now have TLs at the elementary level and are working toward hitting CSLA's standard for personnel in libraries. This is not by accident.

Some of the pieces that worked for them at the site level:

• Newsletter
• Contribute to daily or weekly bulletins
• Attend social events (even when not assigned)
• Be on School Site Council
• Attend parent meetings

Some of the things that worked for them on the district level included:

• Attendance at board meetings.
• Place action items on board agends.
• TL on the teacher's union board.
• TL on key district committees.
• Provide professional development on district level.

And much, much more. They also recommend Sandy Schuckett's advocacy book.

At the very end, Glen Warren from the Orange County Department of Education offered this quote that he heard:

If you're not at the table, you're on the menu!

CSLA Conference in November

Are you looking forward to the California School Library Association Conference in Sacramento? I know that I am. I learned so much last year and I can only imagine that I will learn as much this year.

Also and importantly, I am a presenter this year. I will be moderating a panel discussion on building a successful library career. Note that I said moderating and not actually being an information-provider.

Who is part of the panel? It is an all-star library cast including:

• Jo Ellen Misakian, Fresno Pacific University
• Barbara Jeffus, California Department of Education
• Margaret Baker, Selma Unified School District
• Jackie Siminitus, AT&T

My theory is that library careers do not happen by accident. Yes, you need to do tremendous work in your library, but there are also specific steps to take to move to that next level. This panel will outline those steps.

Clickable Resources from CSLA 2007

I have been meaning to put links to websites from CSLA 2007. It has become quite common to give conference participants additional resources on a website (be it a wiki, blog, or more traditional site).

Street Lit: Resources for Librarians (Miranda Doyle)

Exciting Genres by Tommy Kovac and Heather Gruenthal

ROAR Motivation PowerPoint (Megan Fuller)

Getting "Lucky" WithLM_NET (Peter Milbury)

Free Reference Books Online (Peter Milbury)

Did I miss yours? I am happy to include it in the list. Just leave a comment to this post including the URL and I get it done.

Library Orientation

Today was the last day of five days of non-stop library orientation. My school has about 720 students as of today and I got to all of them.

Apparently, this was the first time in years that anyone had done orientation for students. It went fairly well although today saw some "interesting" behavior from some students (including the theft and eventual return of some electronic devices).

I have been thinking about what I will do next year. I can do all grades, sixth-eighth, again, but I might decide to only do sixth and seventh grades. Just the new students. It takes a lot of time that is hard to find at the beginning of the school year.

One thing I will do next year is make it shorter. No longer than 30 minutes. I want students to come to me and then go back to their classrooms. Being dismissed from the LMC is a little chaotic. Also, if I am running a little late, that would still leave me plenty of time to finish.

In the next year or two, I would like to develop a video to include in orientation. If I were really on the ball, I would have a group of students develop it for me.

I am curious what others do in the way of orientation.