Join NYCSLA for a holiday celebration at City Tavern on Thursday, December 8th from 6-8. NYCSLA will provide appetizers. We think it will be a wonderful way to relax and get together to celebrate the holidays. You may also join NYCSLA for the year at the gathering!
NYCSLA at Fall Library Conference
November 7, 2011Going to the Office of School Library Services fall conference on Election Day? Stop by the NYCSLA table to renew your membership or join us for the first time and find out about our upcoming meetings and new award opportunities for members.
Lastly, hang out NYCSLA and your fellow librarians to unwind after the fall conference… or maybe keep the excitement and energy going? Relax with your colleagues for an informal happy hour at Moe’s Bar & Lounge, around the corner from Brooklyn Tech at 80 Lafayette Ave. (at S. Portland) in Fort Greene. Join us around 3:30 immediately following the conference.
Save the Date! Fall 2011 Meetings
September 22, 2011I am so thrilled to invite all of you to the New York City School Librarians’ Association first meeting of the 2011-2012 school year! Please join us on October 5th from 4:30-6:30 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Campus Library. There will be time set aside to join NYCSLA, network with colleagues, and to enjoy some refreshments. Around 5pm, we will spend some time discussing library advocacy and the current state of libraries in our schools. The remainder of the evening will be spent in small groups, focusing on grant writing. NYCSLA Board members (past and present!) will share their tips and winning applications for the Library REACH grant, the Laura Bush grant, Reso A grants and more.
With library budgets diminishing, grant funding and fundraising has become more and more necessary in maintaining a functioning library media center. Applying for and receiving grants for your school is also a way to show initiative and make yourself an indispensable part of your school community. Please RSVP to nycsla.librarians@gmail.com so we can provide enough snacks for everyone.
Make sure you also visit us at our table at the Office of Library Services fall conference at Brooklyn Technical High School on Tuesday, November 8, and join us for a post-conference happy hour nearby!
P.S. Join now by visiting http://nycsla.org/membership (you can mail your dues or bring them on Oct. 5th!).
P.P.S. You can get to the MLK Campus by taking the N, R,Q, train to 57th and 7th, the A, C, B, D to 59th-Columbus Circle or the 1 to 66th St.
Cheers,
Teresa Tartaglione
NYCSLA President
Join NYCSLA at our end-of-the-year party!
May 10, 2011
Join us for our end-of the-year party!
The details:
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
5-7 p.m.
Radegast Hall & Beer Garden
113 N 3rd Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Board games! Replay the highlights of your year with fellow librarians! A roving accordion player! We will announce new 2011-2013 board members and vote on changes to our by-laws.
Members will receive one complimentary drink if they r.s.v.p. to nycsla.librarians at gmail.com by Wednesday, May 25.
NYCSLA Fellowship and Administrator Award Applications Due Friday!
March 15, 2011This year, NYCSLA is proud to offer two awards for members and their schools: the NYCSLA Fellowship award for members and the NYCSLA Administrator Award for principals. The application deadline is this Friday, March 18.
NYCSLA Fellowship Award
This $300 Fellowship Award is awarded to a NYCSLA member to attend a national, state or regional conference. NYCSLA fellows are chosen on the basis of three criteria: (1) involvement and leadership in the field of school libraries, including professional accomplishments, (2) quality of your virtual library presence, and (3) willingness to share your conference experience with colleagues. NYCSLA board members are ineligible.
NYCSLA Administrator Award
The Award recognizes an administrator who has been responsible for the improvement of the School Library Media Program in a New York City school during the past two to five years. The winner receives a plaque and online recognition in the form of a press release and blog post acknowledging his/her support of the School Library Media Program. You must be a NYCSLA member to apply. NYCSLA board members are not eligible to apply.
All NYCSLA members are eligible, so apply today!
March 9 Meeting Recap & Resources
March 15, 2011
Jesse Karp got everyone thinking visually at NYCSLA’s March meeting, which focused on using graphic novels in the library. Karp stated that, now that the resistance to graphic novels has somewhat leveled off and they do get shelf space in libraries, it is time to focus on doing some research to measure their ability to teach comprehension and raise students’ reading levels.
Participants had the opportunity to do some hands-on activities featuring literacy skills that graphic novels teach so well: interpretation, context, perspective and collaboration. In his upcoming ALA Editions book, Graphic Novels in your School Library (October 2011), Karp promises even more activities and a list of best titles.
In one of these activities, for example, Karp asked NYCSLA members to draw three interpretations of “sad” told in two panels each. NYCSLA President Sara Paulson said, “Everything I knew about the art form came flying out of my head and in spite of my rather poor drawing skills, I used perspective and the trope, ‘Three hours later..’ to get my ideas across. We all enjoyed it.”
NYCSLA also welcomed three new board members for 2011-13: Teresa Tartaglione as our new President, Kathleen Tarbell, and Jen Abounader. All members are welcome to come to our April 7th board meeting when the executive board will be editing our decades-old by-laws. Email nycsla.librarians@gmail.com for details. Thanks to everyone who came and made it a special evening!
March Book Club: Hereville by Barry Deutsch
March 15, 2011
Better late than never: please join NYCSLA’s book club with our March pick for the 2010-11 school year: Hereville by Barry Deutsch. The NYCSLA book club is dedicated to reading engaging new literature for children and young adults. Hereville is a graphic novel nominated for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy, part of the Nebula Awards. Here’s a little bit of info about the book:
Spunky, strong-willed, eleven-year-old Mirka Hirschberg isn’t interested in knitting lessons from her step-mother, or how-to-find-a-husband advice from her sister, or you-better-not warnings from her brother. There’s only one thing she does want: to fight dragons! Granted, no dragons have been breathing fire around Hereville, the Orthodox Jewish community where Mirka lives, but that doesn’t stop the plucky girl from honing her skills…. A delightful mix of fantasy, adventure, cultural traditions, and preteen commotion, Hereville will captivate children and grown-ups alike with its exciting visuals and entertaining new heroine.
Please add your comments about March’s pick here! Also, we need your recommendations for future book club selections. Please fill out this simple form to let us know the best new books you’ve read this year, especially titles you have a hunch will show up on Newbery, Printz, or other major award shortlists… it’s early, but never too early to start guessing!
NYCSLA supports NYLA Advocacy Day: Virtual Meeting on Feb. 28th
February 16, 2011If you can’t go to Albany on March 1st, let’s help pave the way with lots of calls and messages to our legislators!
NYCSLA is asking you to write/call/email your legislator’s office on (or before) Feb. 28th: the day before NYLA’s ADVOCACY DAY. When you do, add a comment to this post, even paste your letter if you want to so others can use it, and let’s see how many members we can get to support NYLA Advocacy Day on March 1st. See you here on the 28th! And thank you.
Use NYLA’s advocacy tools to help craft your message:
What can I do now to support NYLA’s Advocacy Day?
- Call your legislator’s office, either at his or her district office, or in Albany.
- Tell him / her how important your library is to the community – and its voting citizens.
- Tell him / her that increased funding for libraries is ESSENTIAL and CRITICAL.
- Use NYLA’s helpful advocacy tools to help shape your personal message.
We have a great opportunity to speak out for additional funding for electronic resources, construction, and aid for all libraries. It’s not hard–and we all need to do our part in strengthening New York’s libraries, library systems, and special collections.
NYC School Libraries: Participate in Library Snapshot Day!
February 15, 2011
NYCSLA invites all New York City school librarians to participate in Library Snapshot Week (February 13-19, 2011). Here’s the information from their web site:
What’s life like on a typical day at your library? Wouldn’t you like to document just how busy and essential your library is with statistics, pictures, videos and user comments?
Then join New York’s libraries and participate in SNAPSHOTNY: A Day in the Life of a Library by collecting statistics, comments, and photographs/videos from one day to provide tangible proof that libraries consistently provide invaluable services to our communities, in our schools and on our college campuses.
Ready to join? Then pick a day and collect statistics on:
- How many patron visits?
- How many people used your public computers?
- How many reference questions did your staff answer?
- How many children participated in programs (including school visits as well as library-sponsored programs)?
- How many adults participated in programs?
- What was the total circulation for the day?
- How many hits did your website receive?
We’d also appreciate it if you ask your patrons why your library is essential to them.But just as important we need you to send us your photos and videos of A Day in the Life of your Library.
Submit your statistics and testimonials by Feb. 23rd so we can compile everything and showcase the information at Library Advocacy Day, Tuesday, March 1st in Albany. The libraries submitting the top three videos/photos/comments will receive a Flip Video Camera and one free registration to the NYLA Annual Conference in Saratoga Springs – Nov. 3-5, 2011.
It’s short notice, but please participate if you can! Let’s represent our NYC school libraries in this portrait of libraries across the state.
March 9 Meeting: Graphic Novels with Jesse Karp
February 10, 2011
The New York City School Librarians’ Association (NYCSLA) is happy to announce our March 9 meeting, featuring guest speaker Jesse Karp, author of Graphic Novels in Your School Library. The meeting will include a presentation by Jesse and focused discussions of graphic novels by age level.
For more than 10 years, Jesse Karp has been a school librarian at LREI (Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School), one of Manhattan’s oldest independent schools and a long-standing leader in progressive education. He works with students across the curriculum, from beginning readers to high school students with all kinds of material, including graphic novels. He is a graphic novel and picture book reviewer for Booklist, as well as contributor to Book Links and American Libraries. He has delivered seminars on the sequential art form at Pratt Institute and Queens College and, as of May 2011, will be teaching a course about the history and analysis of the form at Pratt. He has been a graphic novel panelist at Book Expo America for two years running and currently serves on YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens committee. In addition to the forthcoming Graphic Novels in Your School Library, he is also the author of the YA novel Those That Wake. Visit him online at http://beyondwhereyoustand.com.
Details
Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Time: 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Place: P.S. 89 Library, 8528 Britton Avenue, Elmhurst, NY (Queens)
Cost: Free to NYCSLA members!
Directions for PS 89: The school is located at 8528 Britton Avenue, between Hampton Street and Gleane Street. Nearby buses include the Q29, Q32, Q33, and Q52. By train, take the 7 to 82nd St – Jackson Heights. Head east on Roosevelt for one block, turn right onto Gleane Street, and walk for one block to Britton Avenue. Or take the M or R to Elmhurst Ave, walk northeast on Britton Avenue for 6 blocks, and the school will be on your right. There is free but limited street parking in the surrounding blocks, as well as meters nearby on Gleane Street and a parking garage on Roosevelt at Elbertson Street.
SPACE IS LIMITED! RSVP to reserve your space. Please send your RSVP to nycsla.librarians@gmail.com. Please bring titles of your favorite graphic novels for kids and teens.
