http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop The blog for American Libraries, the magazine of the American Library Association Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:26:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Authors Charles R. Smith Jr. and Laurie Halse-Anderson generated laughs and cheers from the capacity crowd attending the Author Banquet November 6 during ALA's American Association of School Librarians national conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. Smith talked about his experiences in writing, photography, and sports in his work of creating children's books by mixing ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/11/07/author-banquet-entertains-and-enlightens/ The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) released the Milestones for Improving Learning and Education (MILE) Guide, a hands-on tool designed to help districts and schools evaluate their integration of 21st century skills into current and future practice, November 6 during ALA's American Association of School LIbrarians (AASL) national conference in Charlotte. ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/11/07/milestones-for-improving-learning-and-education-guide-released/ Best-selling author James Patterson addressed a special general session, "Turbocharge Your Day with James Patterson!-Read Kiddo Read! Parents and Librarians Band Together to Make Kids Lifelong Readers," November 6 during ALA's American Association of School Librarians national conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. "It's time for librarians to start making a lot ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/11/06/patterson-librarians-need-to-make-more-noise/ dana boyd, called the "high priestess" of networked social media and an internationally recognized authority on online social networking sites, said school librarians can play a crucial role in "keeping the digital doors open to help young people think about learning beyond the classroom." She delivered the opening session keynote address November 5 during the 14th national conference ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/11/05/charlotte-welcome-school-librarians/ ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels announced this morning at an all-staff meeting at ALA Headquarters in Chicago, that expense reductions during the last six months of FY2009 (which ended August 31) had exceeded target and resulted in a modest surplus that would be used to return about half of ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/10/30/expense-cuts-allow-ala-to-partially-restore-staff-furlough-loss/ How do you maximize the value of membership in the American Library Association during tough financial times? I've had several discussions with ALA staff recently, prompted by communications I've received from non-members who are exasperated by the employment prospects in the field or frustrated about just exactly how they are supposed to pay ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/10/29/unemployed-special-ala-membership-rates-do-exist/ It's autumn—that time of year when a library official's fancy turns to thoughts of the next fiscal year.  At least that's what should happen, unless said library official is beleaguered by the specter of revenue-projection shortfalls that could erode carefully laid plans for the current fiscal year. Truth be told, library officials who aren't ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/10/14/its-not-over-till-the-final-check-clears/ One of the more lively discussions at LITA Forum was during a session whose topic had more to do with next year's Forum topic than this year's: Ken Fujiuchi from Buffalo State College in New York and Kathryn Frederick from Skidmore College  in New York gave the audience a lot ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/10/06/lita-forum-thinking-aloud-about-the-cloud/ In no particular order, here are some of the tweets that I thought hit on the big themes of LITA Forum 2009--and some that were funny enough not to leave out. They're very lightly edited at times. My notes are in italic. eligerman first step is to admit you have a ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/10/05/lita-forum-in-tweets/ If I learned one thing at LITA Forum this year, it's that if you put a bunch of techie librarians together in one hotel for a whole weekend, they're going to spend a lot of time dishing on IT. No single session encompassed the overarching theme of the casual break-time ... http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/10/05/lita-forum-are-we-starting-to-get-it/