FREE LABELS / STATE LITERACY CONFERENCE / SURVEY / LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE / CLIA AWARDS / READY TO READ, READY TO LEARN / KUDOS TO KARI
 

FREE SHELF LABELS—ACT QUICKLY
 

Giving away: 60 plastic shelf label holders. 3/4″ x 3″. Almond color. Will ship free of charge. Email roz99647@yahoo.com if interested.
 

ALASKA STATE LITERACY CONFERENCE
The Alaska State Literacy Association is holding its annual conference in Juneau, October 19-21.  For more information, check ASLA’s website at: http://www.alaskareading.org The theme for the 2006 conference is: Alaska’s Diverse Community: Literacy and Leadership.
 

The state library conference for this year will also be held in Juneau this school year, February 22-25.
 

SURVEY ON MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS, AND MORE
 

A survey on SLED has been extended to get more feedback from teachers, librarians, parents, and students.  Check it out on the SLED main page (http://sled.alaska.edu).  Please encourage your students to respond in the next couple of weeks and also take a second to participate yourself.  The group who is working on tutorials for the SLED databases is hoping to get a wide cross-section of users and would-be users to participate.
 

LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE
 

The Alaska Center for the Book and  the Library of Congress Center for the Book are once again sponsoring this annual competition.  Last year an Alaska student finished in the top 20 nationwide.  To see how your students can participate: http://www.alaskacenterforthebook.org/  Students in grades 4 -12 are eligible, and this year’s deadline is December 8, 2006.  Winners receive Target certificates, which are redeemable online, and lots of glory!
 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERACY IN ALASKA AWARD
 

Speaking of the Alaska Center for the Book, the CLIA Awards were announced last week in Anchorage.  Corey Hall of the Kenai Community Library and her innovated programs and grant proposals on behalf of Kenai students and preschoolers made her the latest librarian to garner this recognition.  (Last year’s winners included school librarian Valerie Oliver.)  Judy Ferri, a retired educator from Fairbanks and, like Corey, very active in the State Literacy Association was one of the other honorees in this year’s recognition.  Congratulations to both of them for all their hard work on behalf of reading and literacy.
 

READY TO READ, READY TO LEARN TASK FORCE PRESENTS REPORT
 

The Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Task Force presented the results of its 10 months of work to Governor Murkowski at a press conference on September 27, 2006 in Anchorage.  The report, which focuses on what it might take to make all young Alaskans ready to read when they enter kindergarten and to succeed in their later school careers is available on the Alaska Humanities Forum website at: http://www.alaskacenterforthebook.org/  The vision of the task force will carry forward under the leadership of Abbe Hensley, the new director of initiative, and the work of parents, teachers, and librarians throughout Alaska.
 

KUDOS TO KARI
Kari Sagel of Sitka School District met with Alaska State Commissioner of Education and Early Development  Roger Sampson to discuss issues surround the certification of teacher librarians.  Although it is too early to discuss a specific outcome, Kari and a committee of the Alaska Association of School Librarians is ready to take the next step in the negotiations.  Hats off to Kari for her leadership in this matter.  Stay tuned for the rest of the story…..
 

TRAVEL
 

I will be visiting our colleagues in Fairbanks Public Library and School District tomorrow and will be working with others from the State Library in the Denali School District and Tri-Valley Community Library, the Delta Community Library and the Delta Greely School District, Tok Community Library, and Northway Community School Library.  I look forward to seeing all of you in the Interior, but will not be answering emails as regularly or my phone at all for the next week.  I’ll try to keep up with my email, but it is always interesting to see how I am able …or not…to connect as I travel.
 

Enjoy this beautiful fall if you still have leaves in your area, and report snow when you have it!
 

To comment on any of these blog entries, click on the gray number next to title of the entry.

AUDIO SOURCE HELP
Yvonne Heinbaugh of the Glennallen Elementary School Library would like to know if anyone has had luck finding one-stop shopping source for audio versions of this year’s Battle of the Books list.  If you have a suggestion, please contact me at sue_sherif at eed.state.ak.us, and I’ll pass the message on to her. She’s interested in both CD’s and tapes.
 

NEH GRANTS
This announcement came from the state Department of Education and Early Development newsletter.  As you can see even small Alaskan libraries have snagged some of these grants, so for those of you who are very short of money, here’s something to try:
 

“Ten Alaska libraries have received fifteen classic books from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Becoming American initiative.The recipients were six branches of the Anchorage Municipal Libraries, College Gate Elementary School in Anchorage, Lumen Christi School in Anchorage, the Innoko River School in Shageluk, and the Thorne Bay Public Library.
Applications for new sets of books will be accepted from public libraries and K-12 school libraries, as well as from private, parochial and charter schools. For more information, click here. Applications will be accepted online from September 19, 2006, to January 31, 2007.
The list of books changes each year. For 2005-2006, titles included “the Lotus Seed” by Sherry Garland for students in kindergarten through third grade; “Immigrant Kids” by Russell Freedman for students in grades four to six; “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith for students in grades seven to eight; and Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography for high school students.”
 

NEW AASL INNOVATIVE READING GRANT PROGRAM – Deadline Feb. 1, 2007
A new grant program has been established for members of the American Association of School Librarians.  If you are a member, you might want to check out the Innovative Reading Grant Guidelines and application form at:
http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslawards/innovativereadinggrant/2007_Innovative_Reading_Grant.pdf
The purpose of the grant is to “support the planning and implementation of a unique and innovative program for children which motivates and encourages reading, especially with struggling readers.”
 

REMINDER TO YOUTH SERVICES LIBRARIANS
If you haven’t turned in your library’s summer reading program report, it isn’t too late.  Mail them to Priscilla McAdara at the address below OR fax them to 907-269-6580.
 

PRINCIPALS / NEW ALASKA TITLES / LIBRARY SIGN-UP MONTH / UPCOMING 

If you would like to comment on anything in this blogletter, simply move your mouse to the number next to the title above–after Blogletter #2–and you can respond to anything you’d like in this issue.

PRINCIPAL CONNECTION
In its never-ending effort to keep principals aware of what an asset to the instructional program school librarians and libraries are, the Alaska Association of School Librarians is sponsoring a session at the October principals conference here in Anchorage, October 16, in addition to a booth in the exhibit area.  AkASL’s speaker will be Michael Sullivan, who some of you may remember from the 2006 Alaska Library Association Conference and is the author of Connecting Boys with Books.  You can read his School Library Journal article, “Why Johnny Won’t Read” at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA439816.html
It may be too early to talk up this session with your principal (I’ll send a reminder out closer to conference time). However, this time of year is a good one, despite how busy you and your principal are at the first of school, to make a 5-15 minute appointment with your principal to talk about what you plan to do in the library this year.  If you can schedule the appointment in the library, all the better. 
Try to focus on anything new that you’ll be doing.  If your principal is not too familiar with your program, use the time as a brief way to orient your principal to the library. 

If you, like many school library media staff in the state, do not have a formal budget, this is a good time to ask how much money you’ll have for library materials for the year, whether there are any new grant programs for the school that might include the library, and whether the principal would like you to prepare a wish list, so that if there is any money that needs to be spent quickly a library order will be available.
   NEW ALASKA TITLES
Big Alaska: Journey Across America’s Most Amazing State by Debbie S. Miller, illustrated by Jon Van Zyle (Walker, 2006) 0-8027-8069-5
A bald eagle takes young readers on a tour of Alaska’s superlatives starting with the largest concentration of bald eagle nests (Admiralty Island), heaviest vegetables (Mat Su Valley), strongest North American earthquake (Anchorage), most active volcanoes (Katmai), biggest North American river delta (Yukon Kuskoquim), tallest North American mountain (Denali) and ending with the largest gathering of eagles (Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve).  Jon Van Zyle’s double-page paintings are in a looser style than we are accustomed to from him, but younger children will be taking a close look to find the eagle in each spread. There are more facts about the state in end notes, and the endpapers are maps of the state. (K-6 grades)
Up on Denali: Alaska’s Wild Mountain by Shelley Gill illustrated by Shannon Cartwright (Paw IV/Sasquatch, 2006)1-57061-366-4 hbk 1-57061-365-6 pbk
The popular team packs a lot into this picture book.  For younger readers and listeners, there is a rhyming poem about the Great One.  For older readers there are text and graphic sidebars that tell about the natural history of the mountain and its area.  (K-6 grades)
SEPTEMBER IS…
Library Card Sign-Up Month for public libraries http://www.ala.org/ala/pio/otherinit/card/librarycard.htm   School librarians can encourage children who live in communities with libraries to use their community libraries in larger communities simply by bringing in your own library card and asking kids if they have one.  Your community library may have some brochures for those students who don’t have cards.
In smaller communities have someone take a digital picture of the community library (if it isn’t the school library), and ask kids if they know what the building is.
If they are no other libraries at all in your community, you might want to advertise the Books-By-Mail program sponsored by the Alaska State Library.  More information for communities with NO library service whatsoever is available online (IMPORTANT NOTE: The service does not cover homebound people or people at the far edges of large boroughs where there is a library system.) In all areas except Southeast Alaska, check:
 http://www.juneau.org/library/mailserv/fa-contact.php
For Southeast Alaska, try: http://www.juneau.org/library/mailserv/se-contact.php
If you recommend this service to families of your students who qualify, please be sure that you read the guidelines on the web pages first.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
 Banned Books Week, September 23-30, 2006
For more info: http://www.ala.org/ and search for Banned Books Week 2006
Teen Read Week, October 15-21, 2006
For more information, use the URL above and search Teen Read Week 2006.