The video clips from all the candidates’ speeches are posted online on ALA Connect. If you are a member of AASL, please do take the time to vote beginning March 16, 2010.

When I got home today, there was a box sitting on the front porch.  And, after opening it I knew it was one of those times you want to share the exciting thing I found.  So, since we’re on break from school, it seemed the blog might be a perfect place.   I was so excited because inside the box were copies of my brand new book – The 21^st Century Elementary Library Media Program.   The book is published by Linworth Publishing, which is part of the ABC-CLIO family.  While I’ve spent a year or more working on it and seen its many various drafts, it was so exciting to see the final product in print.  Hopefully you’ll indulge me taking a few minutes to celebrate!!!  Opening that box and seeing my own work come to fruition was exciting.

Sometimes it is interesting to think back about how a project like this starts off in the first place.  I certainly would have never guessed when I started out in this field that I’d be writing a book – let alone this being my third one.  But, I believe strongly in taking advantages of opportunities.  When I was student teaching, my supervising teacher and I worked on a project that she thought would be perfect for an article.  She encouraged me to write it up, and to my surprise School Library Media Activities Monthly (now School Library Monthly) agreed to publish it in the fall of 1998.   I never realized that many journals take submissions from practitioners.   So over the next few years, I continued to turn in articles based on things happening in our library media center.  I sent things to a variety of magazines – sometimes getting published and sometimes not.  I found the writing to be a great way to reflect on what we did in the library media center.  After a while a few fabulous friends of mine (Marge Cox and Susan Page) got together and decided to try our hand at writing a book.  Each of us had a unique perspective and it was our combined efforts and talents that kept us moving forward until the project was complete – The LMS in the Writing Process (Linworth, 2007).   Following that I thought maybe I could tackle the next book on my own.  While it was much harder to keep to deadlines without my co-writers pushing me along, eventually it came together and the book was published — No School Library Left Behind (Linworth, 2008).  Now that I kind of had an understanding about the process, I started on another book and today that process can to an end with the final copies that arrived today – The 21^st Century Elementary Library Media Program (Linworth, 2010).  I keep writing articles and I’m sure at some point may tackle another book.  All along the way there have been amazing editors and publishing folks to help guide me along each and every step.

The thing that I always think about is that this could have happen to anyone.  There are amazing things happening in school libraries all over.  Taking a little time to reflect about them and write them down can lead to a published piece to share with others.  We as a profession tend to be too shy in letting others know the great things going on in school libraries.  We should take advantage of any opportunity to share.  Writing about the things that happen in our libraries is very reflective and can often lead us to think about why we do things the way we do – and make them even better.  Journals often are looking for great ideas that they can print.  Check out their submission guidelines in their journals or online.  Besides a published piece, one might also consider a blog or other online format for sharing.  There are many new avenues one can take advantage of to share.  Every time I take a few minutes to catch up on the journals I always post to our state listserv about the people from our state who are showing up in the journals.  These folks need to be recognized for their efforts, but also I hope it encourage others to follow their lead.  So as you think about what you might do in 2010, think about taking time to write an article or blog posting.  You never know when something little might lead into something bigger down the road – like a package on your own front porch!

Why?

• First and foremost every classroom in the building has to be open and ready for kids on day 1, why would the library be any different?
• We never close the library for any reason the entire year, so it is important from the perception of students and staff that the library is open for business on the first day.
• Our students are always excited about checking out books, so I want to harness that excitement as soon as possible.
• We start, even with Kindergartners, teaching them procedures for selecting a book from the shelf.  My theory is why do I want to spend time pulling them off to a table and teach them one way to pick out books to only change it on them later.

The start of school is always hectic and there is always more to do than there are hours in the day to get them done, but it is critical to me that our library media center is open on Day 1 and that we start checking out books immediately.