From Holly Thompson: free guide to her latest verse novel, The Language Inside

Hello Librarians,

I'm happy to announce the Discussion, Writing, Activity and Service Guide for my YA verse novel The Language Inside (Delacorte/Random House 2013). You can download this extensive Guide HERE.  Created for classrooms, book groups, readers and writers, included in the guide are discussion questions, essay topics, poetry prompts, extension activities and service project ideas.  

Here is my blog announcement about the guide, and here is The Language Inside page of my website. Here is a post about Lowell, Monkey Dance and the Southeast Asian Water Festival, here is a post about Julia Tavalaro and Inspiration for The Language Inside, and here is a recent  PoetryFriday interview of me about The Language Inside.

I hope you enjoy The Language Inside and this new Guide. 

As always, I am available for school visits.

All the best,

Holly Thompson

hatbooks@gmail.com

Red Dot Longlist - give us your comments by end of day Monday

The Red Dot longlist spreadsheet was made public on Sep. 2 (see previous blog post) and several of us have added our comments.  I had hoped to close the document last Monday, but (of course) got waylaid by school things and didn't get this blog post written.  So let's go for this Monday as the deadline.

Here is the link again:  RED DOT LONGLIST SPREADSHEET

Those people who enter comments on books by end of day Monday, September 16, will get a Doodle invite to set a date to get together in person - as many of us as possible - to determine the shortlists, which should be announced by Sep 30th.

So see which ones you've read and want to argue for.  Instructions re how to enter comments are on the first tab of the spreadsheet.

GAFE: Google Apps for Education - @SAS - this Saturday & Sunday

 

I don't know how many of you are going to the Google Apps conference this weekend at SAS (I think there's still space, if you're interested).  I went last year and found it useful, e.g., on how to use scripts to do mass emails using Google Spreadsheets.  It's also good to be reminded of the deeper features of Google Search.  Many of the presenters are Google employees flown in for the event, while other workshops are offered by local people like us.

I'll be doing a session on Sunday morning called "Geeking out with GoodReads" together with a middle school English teacher from Dover -- Angie Erickson.

We'll be publishing a Google Site of our presentation -- bit.ly/goodreadsgeeks -- so you can see what we covered.  It's not public yet (as it's not finished - haha) -- but, after Sunday, have a look.

See our library network's GoodReads profile here.

Follett Workshop @ UWCSEA East - Thu, Nov 21 & Fri, Nov 22

Jenna Emerson, Tim Ramsey, and Larry Gilbert are running a Follett Workshop in November at UWCSEA East.

Click here to register or see more information.

Day 1 - Destiny Training for all levels: 
Destiny usage, tips and tricks and hands on exercises.  What's new in Destiny 11.0, digital reources integration and more  
Discussion Items:

• Destiny training including an overview of what's new in Destiny 11.0
• Individual sessions available to address specific school related issues
• Resource sharing with other libraries, RDA, eBook integration
• Finding library materials outside of traditional Destiny search

*Agenda details and times are subject to change

Day 2 - Follett Resources for the Library: Exploration and Training

Follett eBooks and digital solutions, Titlewave, Collection Development and more 
Discussion Items:

• Throughout the day, Destiny users will have the option of meeting with the Destiny Doctor, Larry Gilbert 
• Digital Content
  • What tools are being used in schools to meet digital demands
  • Challenges facing schools with regard to digital content
  • Marketing digital content
• Connection with the classroom
  • New ways to support classroom instruction and build reading skills
  • Nurturing students reading progresson in a digital world
• Collection Analysis and Collection Development
• Effectively analyze your library collection
• Tools for mapping your collection development and using these results to ensure continual support of the library program

   *Agenda details and times are subject to change

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The workshop is being hosted in our school's Centre for International Education -- which offers a variety of workshops, all of which are open to anyone.  Check out the list here.

New page off this blog: Librarian Journals/Resources

At the top of this blog there's a new page/tab:  Librarian Journals/Resources

If you click it, you'll go to a public Google Spreadsheet which anyone can edit.  Just like our Recommended Suppliers page.

I'd been meaning to make a list of all the library-related journals available via the NLB (no longer freely available to us - sigh), but never got around to it.  Then Anthony Tilke, the new secondary TL at the UWCSEA Dover campus, started making a list of library and book review journals and their priees/availability for our internal purposes -- and I said, oh, let me make it the start of an ISLN shared resource.

So add to it -- fill out the information -- as you will.

Red Dot Longlist... discussions to lead us to our shortlist......

It's that time of year... when we pool our ratings and comments on the Red Dot longlist in order to move towards the magic movement when we settle upon a nicely balanced set of 8 books for each category:  Early Years, Younger, Older, and Mature Readers.

Before we have a meeting, let's pool our thoughts on what books we read over the summer -- on or off the longlist.

Here's a Google spreadsheet which anyone in the world can edit -- I put all the longlist books on it (see this previous blogpost if you need links) -- though you can also add new ones that you think should have been on the longlist.

RED DOT LONGLIST DISCUSSIONS

There is one tab per category.   Instructions are on the home tab.  Basically, as you add your ratings and comments, be sure to rename the column heading to show your name.  We can add more columns as more people add comments.  Remember:  your rating isn't about the book as a whole, but about its appropriateness for our book award.  (You could love a book, but realize it's not right for our audiences.)  The books we choose should be ones worth buying multiple copies of -- and passing on to our literacy/English departments and book circle collections.  Published within the past four years (2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010).

If you're interested in contributing, please try to add something to the Google Doc by Wednesday.  That way we'll know who is potentially interested in finding time to physically meet and hash out the lists. 

Questions?  Contact me: katie.appleton.day@gmail.com

The Charles Sturt Student Librarian Tour of Singapore Libraries

This week Judy O'Connell is in Singapore with 25 Charles Sturt University distance-learning students in librarianship for a week-long study visit.  Most of them have come up from Australia, while a few are living here in Singapore (e.g., our own Suzanne Parfitt at Tanglin, and Nadine Bailey, a UWCSEA parent).  We will hopefully be socializing with them on Wednesday night, after our network meeting.

In case you're interested, here is their busy schedule:

 

Click here to open the schedule up as a Google Doc

And click here for a list of general questions about libraries that the students will be considering as they visit each library.  It's a good reminder of the things we all should be aware of.

(If you go to Judy's blog, you can see the presentation she did last week at IASL in Bali._

I'm looking forward to seeing them Wednesday....