February
2008
SAYL MAIL, February 13, 20080
Book Bonanza Winners / Gale/LMC Award / New Alaskana / Certification / Summer Reading / New Job?
BOOK BONANZA WINNERS – AT LAST
In January, I finally announced the winners of the 2007 Book Bonanza. They were:
Klukwan Community – First Prize
Trapper Creek School Second Prize (Tie)
Kaleidoscope School of the Arts Library (Kenai) Second Prize (Tie)
We had 17 entries all together, and this year’s competition was a cliff hanger in more ways than one. We had three rounds of judging with honorable mention going to Willow Community Library and Delta Greely Middle and High School Libraries. Shageluk and Pitka’s Point were also singled out as worthy. AkASL, AkLA and local chapters of AkLA (Anchorage, Northern Chapter, and Juneau) were generous donors along with the Friends of the Ketchikan Public Library. Ron and Lynn Dixon of the late Cook Inlet Book Company, who were founding sponsors of the Book Bonanza, made a contribution of books in the last days of their well-loved store. Individual contributors were Roz Goodman, Joyce McCombs, and Sue Sherif. Barnes and Noble made a valiant rescue of the 2007 Bonanza by making an unexpectedly large, last-minute donation of gift cards for the winners.
The Book Bonanza 2008 guidelines and entry forms will be posted on the AkASL web page soon, and they will be available at the AkLA Conference February 28- March 2 in Fairbanks as well. This year’s deadline will be April 30, 2008, and the winners will be announced after school starts in September, 2008.
Thanks to the AkASL members who served as judges.
GALE /LMC AWARDS – Deadline April 28
Gale and Linworth Publishing are once again sponsoring an award for teachers and media specialists influencing student achievement, the TEAMS award. The competition is open to all public and private schools in the US and Canada, and entries are due April 28, 2008. The winners receive cold, hard cash, loot (subscriptions and Gale and Linworth products), and glory (recognition at the ALA Conference in June at (oh, yes!) Disneyland, Anaheim, California! I know from the several presentations that some of you have made on collaboration and what I have seen when I have visited schools around the state that some of you could be winners. Check the competition guidelines at:http://www.galeschools.com/pdf/TEAMS-form.pdf
NEW ALASKANA TITLE 
Fans of Pam Flowers (ALONE ACROSS THE ARCTIC, BIG-ENOUGH ANNA) and Jon Van Zyle (oh, we all know his work) will be glad to know that they have collaborated to produce a new picturebook, DOUGGIE: THE PLAYFUL PUP WHO BECAME A SLED DO HERO. The true story of another of Pam’s dog team members and lead dog on her 325-mile expedition to the magnetic North Pole, this picture book is a story of determination with a touch of high Arctic adventure. Let’s just say that a polar bear is involved. (Alaska Northwest, 2008 ISBN 978-0-88240-654-1 )
CERTIFICATION
Kari Sagel, Erika Drain, and other school librarians who have been working diligently to clarify the situation involving certification of school librarians in Alaska have recently posted a letter from the Deputy Commissioner of the Education and Early Development on the Alaska Association of School Librarians web site. Visit the site at: http://www.akla.org/akasl/ to read the letter of January 3 from Deputy Commissioner Spackman and to see all other activities led by the hardworking Alaska Association of School Librarians E-Board.
SUMMER READING NEWS FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIANS
The materials for the 2008 Statewide Summer Reading Program are now arriving in public and community libraries if you submitted participation forms in October. If your library doesn’t receive its CATCH THE READING BUG @ YOUR LIBRARY by March 1, please notify Priscilla McAdara at the Alaska State Library office (priscilla.mcadara@alaska.gov ) or call her at 1-800-776-6566 if you are outside of Anchorage. The artwork for the teen program, METAMORPHOSIS @ YOUR LIBRARY is truly striking.
We will be receiving PSA’s in several formats at the Anchorage office soon. Please let us know if you would like to borrow a copy to promote your program.
NEW JOB? If anyone has been contemplating a change of jobs for the next school year or re-entering the workforce if you retired a little too early, please think about applying for the School Library Coordinator position when it is open again on Workplace Alaska. We are expecting to post it in the near future and will be leaving it open until the end of the school year. It is NOT posted yet, because we are still trying to hire a temporary, part-time version of the job for now until the end of the school year. Consider it if you have a masters degree and have experience in K-12 school libraries. The job involves working in an office most of the time, also but traveling a good deal all over Alaska and sometimes Outside. You must be willing to ride in small aircraft and invest in Arctic gear if you don’t already own it. Willingness to put in long hours when you’re on site visits is a plus. Getting to work with librarians all over the state is the frosting on the cake. The position is in Anchorage, and the work is varied and challenging. The Library Development Team of the State Library is truly that, a team of cooperative and committed people. When the job is posted and Workplace Alaska is ready to accept applications, the opening will be announced often and in a variety of places including the AkASL website, AkLA-L, and through this e-newsletter. You have time to think about it now and will plenty of time to apply when it is posted again Hope to see many of you in Fairbanks week after next at the AkLA conference. If you haven’t registered yet, you still can at: http://www.akla.org
