Library Ties

I had the joy recently of spending a few days in Binghamton, NY for the NYLA School Library Section conference.  This was my last official visit to a state conference as AASL President (I still will visit 2 or 3 states next year as Past-President). I shared a session on School Librarians as Leadership which [...]

Where does the time go?  I had this ready to post at the end of March and then the response to the White House petition arrived, it turned to April, and I’m just now getting back to it.  Anyway, the update below covers until the end of April.  One last update will be out at [...]

Last week was truly an exciting experience.  The petition for school libraries that I posted on the White House “We the People” site reached 25,000 signatures.  As of this moment, it is nearing 27,000.   I, along with many others, I could tell from Facebook and Twitter, were clicking the refresh button often as the ticker [...]

During Midwinter we did a major push to encourage folks to sign the petition for school libraries.  Below are some video interviews that ALA President Molly Raphael and I made to help explain the importance of the petition. I want to thank Molly as well as the Division Presidents who made sure to spread the [...]

I’m a little behind on my update for the blog, so I’m catching up today.  I made my last AASL Presidential visit at the end of November to Tuscon, Arizona and the Arizona Library Association conference.  November is always a nice time to escape Indiana and I missed our first little spit of snow while [...]

  WOW!  I could probably sum up my feelings of AASL’s 15th National Conference and Exhibition conference with just one word.  But, as my English teachers in high school reminded me often, short and succinct were not always my strong suit.  I’ll have to say it was such an honor and a thrill to be [...]

Have you joined us on the AASL ning, yet, for the book discussion on The Shallows by Nicholas Carr?  If not, we’re up to Chapter 4 this week.  Lots of great discussion and comments so far, but there is always room for more.  Take some time this week to explore the previous chapters and chime [...]

Are you ready?  As we prepare for the 2011 National Conference in Minneapolis, we’ve started the online book discussion of the Nicholas Carr’s  The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.  This book will be our One Book, One Conference title!  So, no time like the present to start reading and thinking! Starting [...]

I am a little late (should have done this last week!), but I did want to write a little bit about the ALA Annual conference in New Orleans.  It was hot down there…the temperature most days was in the mid-90′s and it just would start raining at almost anytime.  I kept busy with AASL Board [...]

In the March/April 2011 issue of Knowledge Quest, the theme focused on Reversing Readicide.  In the magazine, I had the priviledge to interview Malbert B. Smith III, President of MetaMetrics and co-founder of the Lexile Framework for Reading.  The interview was an opportunity to understand a little more about the Framework and talk about the [...]