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

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PRINCIPALS CONFERENCE
 

Last week the principals conference brought administrators from all over the state to Anchorage.  As they have for the past several years, the Alaska Association of School Librarians sponsored a booth to promote the value of school library programs and trained personnel.  This year AkASL also sponsored a speaker, Michael Sullivan, author of Connecting Boys with Books, who had appeared earlier this year at our library association conference. 
 

Sullivan not only held the interest of a standing-room only crowd of 40 principals, he actually moved some of them to take notes and ask questions! A number of you urged your principals to attend, and those principals announced loudly as they entered, “My school librarian told me that I had to come to this session.”  If you were not able to hear Sullivan last February or when he appeared for Anchorage audiences last week, you might want to check out his web site at:
http://www.talestoldtall.com/  
 

The Alaska State Literacy Association may try to bring Michael back to the state to their conference next fall.  If another appearance is scheduled, I’ll let you know.
 

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR LIBRARY STUDIES 
 

Do you know someone who has expressed an interest in becoming a librarian, or would be a good addition to our field?  Is that someone you?
 

The AkLA scholarship that provides a small grant to students seeking a graduate degree in library science and the B. Jo Morse Scholarship that provides a similar grant to certified teachers who wish to obtain a graduate certificate of school library media studies are now open for application.
 

If you know someone or are someone who would like to become a professional librarian and obtain a masters degree in library and information science, you must be an Alaska resident who possesses a bachelors degree or higher from an accredited college or university, is eligible for acceptance or currently enrolled in an appropriate program in Library and Information Science accredited by the American Library Association and will be student when the scholarship is received.  You must also agree to work in Alaska for one year. 
 

The B. Jo Morse Scholarship, instituted by the Alaska Association of School Librarians, has similar qualifications but one must pursuing graduate studies leading to a library media specialist/school librarian certificate. The Morse Scholarship applicant must have a State of Alaska Teaching Certificate.  Applicants who wish to become school library media specialists can apply for either scholarship depending on their degree intentions.  The B. Jo Morse Scholarship supports study for a candidate for a graduate certificate, and if one is working on a combined certificate/masters program, one can apply for this award.  If the candidate is seeking a masters degree alone, one may apply for the other scholarship.
 

For detailed information and an application and reference forms, please visit the AkLA Scholarship Web Site at: http://www.akla.org/scholarships/index.html Candidates may be enrolled or accepted in either on-campus or online programs.
 

The deadline for both scholarships is: January 15, 2007.  Both require receipt of reference forms, so now would be a good time to begin working on the application.    If you have questions, please contact: Aja_Razumny at eed.state.ak.us
 

NEW ALASKANA

Wind Wild Dog by Barbara Joosse. Illustrated by Kate Kiesler. Henry Holt, 2006
ISBN-13: 978-0-08050-7053-8 
 

Barbara Joosse, author of the perennial Mama, Do You Love Me?, tells a story of a pup named Ziva and The Man who trains her to be a sled dog.  Despite young Ziva’s encounter with a wolf that might be a tad more pacific than real-life encounters between the species sometimes are, the oil paintings by Colorado artist Kate Kiesler evoke the mid- winter twilight to dark feeling that Alaska picturebook readers will recognize.  Grades Pre – Third.
 

Alaska’s Glaciers: Frozen in Motion by Katherine Hocker. Alaska Natural History Association, 2006 ISBN-13: 978-0-930-38176-5
This overview of the geology and geography of Alaska’s glaciers touches on all sorts of other related information including glacier safety, several ice and glacier activities, and a timeline of glacial activity in Alaska.  A glossary doubles as the index, and a brief bibliography includes some standard and stable related websites.  Although a few of the pictures and the activities imply an elementary audience, most school libraries will want to have this book available to their students.  Expert geologists and educators reviewed the contents, so this should be an authoritative work in school or public library collections.  Be warned that it is spiral bound, so you may want to add more than one copy to you collection. All ages.
 

PROFESSIONAL TITLES
 

Thanks to a grant of Alaska Association of School Librarians, the professional collection of the Anchorage office of the Alaska State Library will be enhanced this fall.   Among the new titles available now from the grant or regular State Library purchases are:
 

Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images (American Library Association, 2006) Valuable to school or community libraries that have valuable cultural objects in their collections.
 

GlobaLinks: Resources for Asian Studies, Grades K-8 by Peggy Beck (Linworth, 2002)
 

Learning Right From Wrong in the Digital Age: An Ethics Guide for Parents, Teachers, Librarians, and Others Who care About Computer-Using Young People by Doug Johnson (Linworth, 2003)
 

Redefining Literacy for the 21^st Century by David Warlick

 (Linworth, 2004) [This work was mentioned by two of the speakers in this summer’s School Librarians Leadership Academy.]
 

Tips and Other Bright Ideas for Elementary School Libraries Volume 3 edited by Sherry York (Linworth, 2006) [The secondary version of this title is on order.]
 

And on a lighter and more seasonal note—
 

Scary Stories You Won’t Be Afraid to Use! Resources and Activities for a K-6 Audience by Pamela Schembri (Linworth, 2001) Make a note of this one for next year!
 

To borrow any of these titles or others from the professional collection here in Anchorage, please contact Priscilla McAdara at:  priscilla_mcadara at eed.state.ak.us

Snow has finally come to the Anchorage Bowl.  Hope all of you are staying warm–
 

SS

GOOGLE FOR EDUCATORS/ LHH DISCOVERY / MAT SU SD INTERNET RULES / ALASKA 67 / ALA GRANT

It was good to meet Interior road system school and community librarians in Fairbanks, Healy, Anderson, Cantwell, Delta, Tok, and Northway last week. It was great to know that Nenana, Tok, and Northway all have new school library aides at a time when many of these positions are under the gun.  It was also wonderful to welcome back Mary Dowling, longtime but “retired” Delta librarian, who is back as the Delta High School librarian.
Special thanks to Peggy Menke and Amanda Austin in Healy, Helen Clark and Diana Kramer in Fairbanks, Joyce McCombs in Delta, Kim Roth in Tok, and Lorraine Titus and Rose Durenburg in Northway for their hospitality and special efforts to make training possible in those communities.
GOOGLE FOR EDUCATORS
Have you seen this?  Here is Google’s pitch to make Google a more classroom-friendly research tool:  http://www.google.com/educators/index.html  Recently launched, the site appears to be making an attempt to  make an interactive site complete with lesson plans so that educators will think twice before advising students, “Now, I don’t want you to Google it,” when assigning research projects.  It would be good to take a look, because they do outline some of the newer Google features and some old, but not so well known, ones.  Do you know how to use Google as a calculator, spreadsheet, or calendar?   Give it a look.
LIVE HOMEWORK HELP DISCOVERY
Lyn Ballam of North Pole Middle School has brought to my attention that LIVE HOMEWORK HELP no longer works with the Windows 98 interface.  Tutor.com, the vendor of this service, made some changes this summer, so right now neither Windows 98 OR Macintoshes are supported. 
The good news is that in a year there is supposed  to be a Mac-friendly interface, but when I asked Tutor.com about the Windows 98 problem, the reply was: “Live Homework Help may or may not work with Windows 98, but we don’t support it.”
If your students ARE able to access this great service via SLED http://sled.alaska.edu at home or after school at your library, you might want some of the new posters that we received for the service.  Please contact us if you’d like us to send you a poster.
MAT SU SD INTERNET RESTRICTIONS
Although Superintendent of the Mat Su School District Bob Doyle has not completely banned internet use by students, he has announced some far-reaching restrictions effective next week.  To learn more about the school district’s plan, which involves restricting student internet use to purchased databases and sites ending in .edu and .gov, see the article in Friday’s Anchorage Daily News: http://www.adn.com/news/education/story/8299283p-8195472c.html
ALASKA 67
Attention high school and public librarians (and also small school libraries that collect Alaska materials for their whole communities)!  A new publication called ALASKA 67 is the Alaska Historical Society’s pick of the top 67 Alaska history books for general audiences.  Not all of the titles will be of interest to the high school crowd, but many of them should be of interest to teachers preparing classes for the new Alaska history requirement.  Only about a third of them are still in print, so you won’t be able to order many of them as new books.
Copies are available at or online from Title Wave and Cook Inlet Books in Anchorage as well as the bookstore in Juneau.  It is a locally-produced book, so does not seem to be available through the national online bookstores yet.  This book would be a good measure of your Alaska history collections at the high school/adult reading levels and will be of interest to any Alaska history buffs in your clientele.
For an interesting article about how the list was formed and to also see all 67 titles, try:
http://www.adn.com/life/story/8281998p-8178469c.html
For the list itself:
http://www.adn.com/life/hometown/story/8281993p-8178468c.html
The book is an attractive softcover publication with complete annotations by the committee members, including State Librarian Kay Shelton, that would make a good reference title for collections that emphasize  Alaskana history titles.
GRANT FOR ALA DC CONFERENCE TRAVEL
Here’s a message from the American Library Association:
“Members of ALA’s New Members Round Table (NMRT) can apply to receive a grant, sponsored by 3M Library Systems, which will cover expenses to attend the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in June 2007.  
Want to read about the ALA experiences of last year’s winners? Take a look at the August 2006 issue of Footnotes (http://www.ala.org/ala/nmrt/footnotes/august2006ab/August2006Footnotes.htm). You will see how professionally rewarding attending an ALA conference can be. The application form and further information about the grant is available on the NMRT website: (http://www.ala.org/ala/nmrt/applyforfunds/3mawardinformation.htm). Remember, you must be a current member of NMRT in order to apply.  To join NMRT, visit the ALA website (http://ala.org) and follow the “Join/Renew ALA” link to add to your ALA membership.  The deadline is December 15, 2006 “