Happy Holidays!

I'm not going to post a long entry.

We started Christmas vacation today at 3:00 p.m.  YIPPEE!!!  Hope everyone has a wonderful time with family and friends.

To one and all, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Happy Hannukah!!  Happy Kwanzaa!  Happy Everything!

To Carol F., the best of luck in your retirement.  You're going to be busier than ever!  It was wonderful having you as a colleague for the past several years.  We know you will be keeping in touch, but we will miss you at our meetings and PDs.  Lucky you.  Enjoy!

School LMSs Receive Acclaim

Maybe there's hope, afterall.

I was looking through some of the information from the recent AASL Conference online, when I came upon an article talking about a program from ALA called "Love My Librarian" where people were encouraged to nominate their Librarians for a special award.

Well, two School Library Media Specialists have won the award!  The article can be found here.

Lucy Hansen (South Texas Independent School District) and Carolyn Wheeler (Conant Elementary, Bloomfield Hills, MI) were chosen for their innovation, as well as, their dedication to the field.

Congratulations, Lucy and Carolyn!  Its nice to see some recognition.

New Word of the Year Reflects Current Society

Well, its the time of the year for lists.  Gift lists, grocery lists, card lists--the lists go on!

You can add this one to your list, too--maybe under 'Humor'?

It seems the New Oxford English Dictionary recently announced the 2009 Word of the Year.  What is it?  Its that questionable verb from FaceBook--"Unfriend".

Yep, technology is here to stay, folks.  As if you didn't already know that!

As with anything new, this announcement has stirred up a bit of controversy.  There are people who are not surprised at this and there are those who are upset by it.  Some claim that it is made up, while others argue that this is exactly how a language grows.  Personally, I feel I have to agree with the latter.  Its just like the words 'iPod' or 'podcast' a couple of years ago.  People tried to eliminate them from the language.  The people from Windows even tried to get the public to use a different word than podcast--anyone remember what it was?  Thought not.  It was too late.  The word is now as ubiquitous as any other word in English, and even its common in other languages around the world. 

Is it a word or not?  In an unofficial, unscientific poll, 52% said 'No' while only 32% said yes.  There are a significant number of people who either don't care or think the whole thing is crazy.

Crazy or unimportant, it may be.  However, you have to admit, its fun!

What do you think?

The Holidays are Finally Here!

Hello, Folks.

We just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. 

Don't eat too much and be careful in your travels wherever you may roam.

Hope you score some goodies on Black Friday!  Paul and I are hitting the Navy Exchange and hopefully a couple of other places.  Trouble is, I want to go in 2 different directions!  South to Newport and North to Franklin!  We'll see.  I think all depends on how early a start we can get after Turkey Day in Connecticut!

Oh, well.  Have a fun day and weekend.

The Party is Over!

I found a Borders with a wifi.  I've been trying to send this post via Blackberry, but evidently its much too big to transfer.  So here goes.

Another AASL Conference is over. 

The party at ImaginOn was great.  Good food, good music, dancing, wine and an incredible facility!  Wait til you see the pictures!  Its a combination library/childrens' museum/meeting center/education facility.  They have a website--I hope you have sound.  There are multiple levels with tables and comfy chairs, computer stations for both computer games and regular computer use.

A few thoughts:

• Charlotte is a beautiful city.  The downtown area is very safe and extremely easy to walk.  There are sights and sounds to entrance every sense as you walk around.  Everywhere we turned we found another museum, exhibit, library or someplace to take your family.
• The city is very library and literature-friendly.
• I learned a lot.  I'm actually overwhelmed and will take a while to digest the information.  I'm going to be doing a LOT of downloading and reading over the next few months!
• I'm psyched to get involved using games and gaming in the library. 
• There were so many sessions I never got to because they were held at the same times.  Again, downloads are wonderful!
• The exhibitors were so helpful answering quesitons.  I spoke quite a while with the Follett people about Destiny 9.5 and Quest.  The system keeps getting better and more useful.
• 797 needs to trust us more.
• I didn't get much by way of freebies to bring back.  I tried, and Paul tried, but the vendors just didn't have much to give away. :-(
• This was a technology-rich conference, but we had problems.  The Convention Center wireless network allowed access all over the building, but was frequently slow and spotty (sound familiar?).  There was also a deficit of outlets, and even tables, in the session rooms.
• The hotel was extremely convenient, across the street from the Conference Center but quite pricey.  There wasn't even a fitness center.  You have to get a temporary membership to the Y next door for $12/day or $20/week.

Well, time to get back on the road.  Its taking a LOT longer to drive than AAA says.  We have learned that whatever they estimate--they lie!

The next AASL is October 27-30, 2011 in Minneapolis, MN.  Anyone want to share a room?

See y'all in Providence! (Yes, they really do say that!)

Technical Difficulties--Please Stand By

OK.  I've been posting to this blog, but they are not going through easily.

The wireless system here in the Charlotte Convention Center has been very difficult to work with during the entire conference.  Even the presenters are having MAJOR problems showing information and live links.  My problem, I'm finding, is that when I've added posts via my BlackBerry, the connections seem to be getting blocked.

Right now, I'm sitting at the Bloggers' Cafe following a discussion that started off showing how to set up PageFlakes, Go!Animate and XtraNormal web connections.  The discussion has gone to a debate between physical books and eBooks, censorship, esthetics, etc.  Its an interesting discussion.  I kind of hope this will continue as a blog discussion so we can get more debate going--for all I know, its already somewhere out there.

I've been going to workshops about digital resources and how to use them to improve instruction.   I'm going to try to hit the AASL Bookstore before they close for the day!

Friday Morning--Up and At 'Em Again!

Wow!  My blog from yesterday finally posted!  I was having trouble getting it to go from my phone, but it finally cleared!

We did go to the Storytelling.  It was a lot of fun, but I couldn't stay any longer.  It was standing room only!  There must have been over 200 people watching.  There were 3 different storytellers including a girl from Osaka, Japan.  She did  several stories using origami. This was after the Exhibit Hall Attack and we couldn't find 2 chairs together, so we wound up standing in the back. 

We had spent over 2 hours walking around the Hall and collected a lot of stuff, but I was too tired to really do much.  I hope to get more later today.

The first session Friday was called Turbo Charge Your Resources where the presenter talked about web resources available to get students more excited about the Library.  She was funny and HIGHLY animated--more than her animations on the web!  I can hardly wait to go try them out!  Resources she discussed included Skype, Go!Animate, wikis and lots of gadgets.  I'm afraid to show them to Paul, my own Gadget King!

Well, I"m going to find Paul and hit the Exhibit Hall.  I just heard the presenter say she is going to be part of a panel discussion this afternoon.  I might change my plans and attend that one!

Talk to you later!