Park Ranger Bear Promotes Reading

Do you know some future Park Rangers? 
New Ranger Bear promotes reading and reminds
us to take care of the environment. 

Several versions of this bear are available on free
downloadable bookmarks. Ranger Bear mugs and
more are at CafePress.com/DesignClass site.

Wild and Crazy Dogs Love Adventure Books

When asked which dog book was her two tiny dogs' favorite, teacher librarian Connie immediately replied, "Call of the Wild" by Jack London.

The dog duo image is now on a tote bag with a "Support Strong School Libraries" message on the backside of the bag. See cafepress.com/csla.897215937

Big Dogs are Big Readers

New police academy rookie Nika and her dog Loki love police detective stories, especially those based in San Francisco.  Here is Loki, looking at you!

Big Dogs are big listeners and faithful friends. Loki is looking fine and is now available online at cafepress.com/DesignClass.

Pirate and Witch Promote Reading

"Yo Ho Ho and a Book to Read" shouts this treasure-hunting pirate. Our Pirate Captain promotes reading on "Talk Like A Pirate Day" (September 19) and throughout the month of October, when Halloween is on the minds of kids of all ages. Yo Ho Ho!

Our popular Halloween witch looks right at you and says "Trick or Read!" Be careful! She may put a spell on you.

How do people use these characters? The first and primary use is for mini bookmarks for my local school students. I make a pdf of each set of bookmarks and make them available to librarians and friends at no cost -- each bookmark includes an advocacy message, "Strong School Libraries, Strong Students."  PDF download

The characters are also loaded onto the California School Library Foundation online store at cafepress.com/csla and cafepress.com/DesignClass. The two stores provide a small revenue stream for library advocacy. Support Strong School Libraries! To learn more about the crisis in school libraries, see librarycampaign.csla.net and make some noise!

Big Eye Reader Poll

How can the Big Eye Reader characters help libraries become more visible? Which characters or messages are best? What are the best ways to promote the characters and messages? Your help is appreciated. Thank you!

Teen Literature Recommendations and Trends by Michael Cart

Summer vacation allows for time to catch up on all sorts of things you've put aside until later.  For example, over the school year many great-sounding webinars are announced and promoted.  Several are added to lists and calendars "not to be missed!" yet the date passes.  Luckily, webcasts are often archived and are ideal for later viewing.  

Infopeople offered a free webcast on April 26, 2012 by young adult literature expert Michael Cart, "Teen Literature Update 2012." My original goal was to listen and make a list of books to buy and read this summer, before sharing. Michael's 1-hour presentation is wonderful for his intended audience, Teacher/Young Adult/Teen librarians. However, the webcast should be of interest to middle and high school literature classes, book clubs, and serious readers. Too bad most school class periods are less than one hour. Teachers and librarians could add this link to their library or book club website and encourage comments on the webcast.


How else would you use Michael's YA book recommendations?  Would you recommend the webcast to parent groups or company employees and suggest adopting a local library or libraries in a school district? That would be a visible way to support students in the face of endless library budget and staffing cuts.

Flowchart: Which Books to Read this Summer?

Teaching students at the University of California School of Education developed this great infographic to help younger students pick books to read over the summer, an important time when young people have the freedom to read what they want to read rather than required coursework.  This chart appeared on the "Teach: Make a Difference" blog on June 5, 2012.  A chart like this would be a fun and challenging project for a team of teams or a book club.

Via Teach.com and USC Rossier Online

Teacher Librarians: A Value Proposition

Here is a value proposition for teacher librarians as key players in building literacy for a strong democracy. Teacher Librarians:

• Provide K-12 student access to books and online resources
• Teach students (and classroom teachers) online research, cyber safety skills, Digital Citizenship
• Are schoolwide literacy and digital literacy specialists
• Reach thousands of students annually
• Have the largest classroom, reaching all students, over multiple years
• Use and offer the most technology in a school (often a computer lab or classroom set of computers, central depository for classroom technology, online library catalog, largest viewing center for presentations)

While Public Libraries play an important role in providing access to information -- especially for preschool, after school, and lifelong -- school libraries play an important role in providing access to information and instruction in how to access information to a "captive" audience of THOUSANDS of students from grades K-12.  This is an extremely important distinction (between public and school libraries or between classroom teachers and teacher librarians.)  Here is why:

• Students visit public libraries on a voluntary, often irregular basis.  However, school libraries have a "captive" audience; classroom teachers take their classes to the library for special research and other assignments, book talks, and to get taught digital literacy skills by the teacher librarian.  
• School students have library classes and free library access time.*  These numbers are potentially a powerful force in increasing literacy and digital literacy.  In California, there is now a set of minimum library curriculum standards for information skills, but no "teeth", funding or incentives for school districts to embrace the standards or rebuild their school libraries. [*except when the library hours are cut or library team reduced or eliminated -- this is an incomprehensible and tragic trend in California and across the country.  In my wealthy community, the middle and high school libraries are now staffed by teacher librarians who are employed 1/2 time and thus the libraries are less accessible to students.]  

Technology companies and other large employers could play an important role in making the argument that school districts should invest in their school library programs and staff.

Learn more about the role and issues related to strong school libraries.  See http://librarycampaign.csla.net  

Wear Your Message: READ

Keep it simple.  "READ" is the message.  Reinforce the message with a followup line.  This one resonates with teens, teachers and others who have enjoyed reading Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Game series:  "May the odd be ever in your favor."  Combine and wear the message!  T- shirt advocacy is a practical and fun way to start a conversation or make others take a moment to think about the message.

The California School Library Association Foundation's Library Store offers a variety of items with this message at cafepress.com/csla, including wall peels (like posters but no tape is needed and no harm is done to the wall), mugs, journals, and all sorts of gift ideas.


If you are looking for FREE bookmarks with this message, download a PDF from the Foundation's webpage.  The 22 mini-bookmarks are popular with teens, and make a fun book club give-away.

TV Series "Middle"

A television series called "The Middle" is about a family.  The youngest of the three children loves books and libraries.  See the "I LOVE LIBRARIES" interview with actor Atticus Schaffer who plays character Brick Heck.

Read Across America - March 2 - Dr. Seuss' Birthday

Each year, the California Teachers Association sends me the CTA/NEA Read Across America press kit.  It arrived today. "Sink Your Teeth into a Good Book" is the 2012 theme.  Read Across America is celebrated on March 2, Dr. Seuss' Birthday.  Materials from the press kit are also online at cta.org


The California School Library Association (CSLA) has contributed a list of recommended reading.


CTA's sponsors for READ ACROSS AMERICA are:

Major League Soccer teams LA Galaxy and Chivas USA (new)

American Federation of Television & Radio Artists	First Financial Credit Union
Barnes & Noble	Los Angeles County Fire Department
California Library Association	Scholastic
California Professional Firefighters	See’s Candy
California School Library Association	Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes Restaurants

Big-Eye Readers - New Characters

The California Campaign for Strong School Libraries has added two new characters to its collection and thanks to high votes from an earlier poll, it has created a coloring page contest for libraries and any establishment that serves children and loves reading. Print the PDF or png by visiting csla.net and search "Big-Eye Readers".  Suggest new characters by taking the poll.


Another high vote from the poll is the interest in using the individual characters in library newsletters or librarian columns in school or local publications.  All that we ask is that if you use the readers, you properly acknowledge the California Campaign for Strong School Libraries at librarycampaign.csla.net  To request individual images in png format for your publications, contact Library Advocate at info@csla.net

The new Big-Eye Reader characters have been added to the Campaign's LIBRARY [ADVOCACY] STORE.

Monkey King Mug Gene Luen Yang - Monkey King LIBRARY STORE

American Born Chinese graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang features a wild and crazy Monkey King. What a way to wake up with a jolt of java and Monkey King demanding you to Read! Know! Grow! He is such a cool king, and Gene generously donated this image in support of literacy and libraries. Thank you!

Gene Luen Yang is the award winning Author-illustrator/teacher of several comic books under the name of Humble Comics. Check out his website at http://geneyang.com/

Big-Eyed Readers Coloring Page

What is the most popular use for the Big-Eyed Readers?  According to those who took the poll, the answer is a kid's coloring page.  What a fun way to get kids and parents thinking about books and reading.  Copies are free and available by writing to the California Campaign for Strong School Libraries at info@csla.net

Other popular uses for the images (according to the poll) is use as headers in library blogs and school newsletters. A PNG image of the four (top) readers is also available from the California Campaign for Strong School Libraries.  The graphic designs are also available on various products at the Campaign's LIBRARY STORE.

Read for the Record

District Library Media Supervisor for Visalia Unified School District, George Pilling, alerted California school library teams to Read for the Record. The book this year is Llama, Llama Red Pajama, and the goal is to read it aloud to 2 million kids on October 6th.

This is a good opportunity to tell the story about the importance of access to books and strong school libraries.

BURN BOOKS

Most Americans have read science fiction author Ray Bradbury's book and movie "Fahrenheit 451" in school.  Bradbury is known for lots of great quotes.  The one about burning books is especially timely today, given the steadily shrinking budgets for our academic, public and school libraries.

This is a great conversation starter and appropriate for classrooms, libraries and board rooms. Remind your friends and families about the importance of reading -- pick up a message mug!

Big-Eyed Readers Ask "What Are You Reading?"

What are you reading? We want to know! What a great conversation starter.
See the new "What Are You Reading?" design series at cafepress.com/designclass and select individual reading characters or several together.  These big-eyed readers peek over their books, taking time to listen to what books you are reading.  Enjoy!

Please tell us which character is your favorite by taking our 4-question POLL.  Thank you!

Teenagers Are Reading: Keeping Book Industry Afloat?

The other day, Dr. Stephen Krashen shared this post with California School Library staff and supporters: Sara Stevenson presents evidence that teens are indeed reading and might even be "keeping the book industry afloat."

California teacher librarians have responded with an immediate and enthusiastic "yes", students are reading and love books and their libraries (school and public).  Now, get the word to parents and policymakers to stop cutting budgets and support strong school libraries!  Learn what a strong school library is by going to the California Campaign for Strong School Libraries site.  Learn the minimum standards for school libraries and demand that your school meets or exceeds the standards.  Promote and advocate for implementation of model school library standards.

Building Futures: Public Library as Destination

YMCA mentoring program "Building Futures" includes public libraries as key destinations for mentors and their young mentees.  Library visits make sense, given the weekly year-long relationship building and mentoring that adults and young people experience.  Mentoring images often show fun activities like the zoo, sports games, or amusement park rides but visiting the local library for the first time, getting a library card, finding a special favorite corner of the library is a comfortable routine that builds future library lovers. Enjoy the video:



Note from Imperial County Free Library Director Connie Barrington on how her library system works with a mentoring program: "I am very proud of our partnership with the Foster Grandparent program in Imperial County, run by Catholic Charities. The Library staff have provided training for working on literacy, we are utilizing a few volunteer grandparents this summer as volunteers and our partnership with the Probation Dept., the Juvenile hall staff and the FGPs assigned to Juvie hall is exemplary. I worked with a small budget provided by Probation and created a special library collection just for Juvenile Hall. The FGPs handle circulation. We have also jointly raised funds for other support for them, such as $ from a local prisoner’s group that bought a “boom box” so the FGPs can utilize ICFL audio books for literacy support. ICFL materials are loaned to the FGPs for use with their “grandchildren” and FGPs refer the children to local libraries."

Lash Mob Freeze frame: Celebration of National Library Week

Here's a fun way to celebrate National Library Week, April 10-16, 2011.
All communities could do this!  Public and school libraries.



From American Libraries Direct: "Becky Plimpton, director of the Joshua Hyde Public Library in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, brought together about 75 people at the Holyoke Mall April 10 for a freeze mob session promoting National Library Week. Just after 4:20 p.m., the group took a spot and froze in place with book in hand (or on the floor) for five minutes."