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NYCSLA supports NYLA Advocacy Day: Virtual Meeting on Feb. 28th

February 16, 2011

If 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.

Posted in Advocacy | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

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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.

Posted in Advocacy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

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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.

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February Book Club: Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpool

February 10, 2011

After a brief winter hiatus, please join NYCSLA’s book club with our February pick for the 2010-11 school year: Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpool. The NYCSLA book club is dedicated to reading engaging new literature for children and young adults. Moon Over Manifest is Vanderpool’s first book AND our newest Newbery Award winner. Here’s a portion of the starred review in Booklist:

After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can’t understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier; but over the summer she pieces together his story…. Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, bootlegging, and a mother in hiding. With believable dialogue, vocabulary and imagery appropriate to time and place, and well-developed characters, this rich and rewarding first novel is “like sucking on a butterscotch. Smooth and sweet.”

Please add your comments about February’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!

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Take action! Elimination of Middle School Library Mandates

February 5, 2011
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED

The NYS Board of Regents is meeting this coming Monday(February 7, 2011)  to consider eliminating certain curriculum mandates.  One of the middle school mandates they are contemplating removing is library and information skills.

“Other draft mandate relief options reflect the areas of Curriculum and Instruction:
Eliminating some middle school mandates, including home and career skills, technology education, and library and information skills”

Review individual agenda items for the meeting: http://www.regents.nysed.gov/meetings/2011Meetings/February2011/211p12sad1.pdf

It is critical that you contact the Regent from your region and email them the letter below before they make a decision on Monday.

Listing of Board of Regents by region : http://www.regents.nysed.gov/members/findrep.html

Click on the region where you live and then click on their email address.
Copy, cut and paste the letter below and address it to your Regent (i.e. Dear Regent Cohen).
Please circulate this as widely as possible!
————————————————————————————————————————-

Dear Regent  _______________:

I am writing to urge you to reject the proposal to eliminate requirements for middle school library and information skills in the curriculum. State-by-state research repeatedly shows that a well-funded, fully-staffed school library program with a state-licensed school librarian is an integral component of a successful student’s education. Studies demonstrate that students in schools with strong school library programs achieve better grades and score higher on standardized tests than their peers without such programs.

As you prepare to discuss the draft mandate relief proposals, we ask you to consider the imperative role of the school library program in the preparation of students for college and career readiness. There is a genuine need to keep library skills a requirement in middle level education. Only at the middle school level is curriculum-specific in inquiry and information skills, a requirement for students. Removing these skills at the middle school level removes them from the curriculum completely and only increases the likelihood that students will graduate without the skills in place that they need to be successful beyond their K-12 career.

Colleges throughout New York State have struggled to meet the needs of incoming students who are deficient in information fluency skills. These are the same skills that allow them to work independently and successfully manage diverse sources of information and media for research, writing and study. Regions of the state have formed committees composed of college and school librarians working to bridge curricular gaps in library skills. Eliminating the mandate of middle school level library skills creates a gap that is not able to be filled.

I ask you to continue to require library skills as part of the curriculum in middle school level education.

 

Posted in Advocacy | 9 Comments »

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Work on Your Web Site with NYCSLA

January 18, 2011

Does your web site need some spiffing up? Is it one of your New Year’s resolutions to get a web site off the ground for your library? Or to transform your current site into something better?

NYCSLA President Sara Lissa Paulson is hosting a series of hands-on sessions for members to get together to improve or create their web sites. Why a series? Because, as you know, it will take a few sessions to get your site going, or to make improvements to your existing site.

If you want the camaraderie and discipline (not to mention hot tea and chocolate and expertise of your peers!) to work on your web site, join us at PS347 in Manhattan every Wednesday starting Jan. 19 until midwinter break from 4:00-5:30 p.m. P.S. 347 is located at 225 East 23rd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Ave.) in Manhattan. The closest trains are N, Q, R, 4,5,6, F, D, and B lines.

If you are working on your web site virtually, let us know and we will feature your site on the NYCSLA web site. We want to inspire each other!

Wireless is available if you want to bring your own laptop. RSVP to reserve one of the iMacs or Dells to work on. Sara has experience with Destiny, GoogleSites, Blogger, Wikispaces, WordPress, iWeb, Netvibes, and Ning sites so there will be live help!

Also, NYCSLA is still accepting 2010-2011 membership applications, so become a member today! Save the date: Our next meeting will be in Elmhurst, Queens on March 9th at PS89.

Posted in Meetings | Tagged | 1 Comment »

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December Book Club: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

December 2, 2010

Please join NYCSLA’s book club with our December pick for the 2010-11 school year: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. The NYCSLA book club is dedicated to reading engaging new literature for children and young adults. Ship Breaker is Bacigalupi’s first science fiction novel for young adults, and it was a finalist for the National Book Award. Here’s a portion of the starred review in Booklist:

In a world in which society has stratified, fossil fuels have been consumed, and the seas have risen and drowned coastal cities, Nailer, 17, scavenges beached tankers for scrap metals on the Gulf Coast. Every day, he tries to “make quota” and avoid his violent, drug-addicted father. After he discovers a modern clipper ship washed up on the beach, Nailer thinks his fortune is made, but then he discovers a survivor trapped in the wreckage—the “swank” daughter of a shipping-company owner. Should he slit the girl’s throat and sell her for parts or take a chance and help her?… Vivid, brutal, and thematically rich, this captivating title is sure to win teen fans for the award-winning Bacigalupi.

Please add your comments about December’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.

Posted in Book Club | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

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Appeal Terms Workshop with Olga Nesi

November 30, 2010

On a cold and crisp Saturday in November, an intrepid band of librarians passed a lovely day with NYCSLA’s own Olga Nesi, middle school librarian and appeal terms guru. Materials from the presentation were available here until December 17, 2010, for all NYCSLA members; workshop participants may email nycsla.librarians@gmail.com to receive copies after December 17th. Thank you so much to Olga and all our participants!

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Saturday Workshop with Olga Nesi

November 12, 2010

The New York City School Librarians’ Association (NYCSLA) is happy to announce our Saturday workshop with Olga Nesi, “Going beyond “Interesting”: Giving Students Vocabulary to Talk about Reading” on Saturday, November 20.

If you…

  • Heard Olga Nesi at last spring’s conference, and were intrigued by the idea of teaching students vocabulary to talk about books…
  • Read her article “It’s all about Text Appeal” in the August issue of School Library Journal…
  • Or attended her session, “Getting beyond interesting: Giving Students a vocabulary to discuss their reading” at the conference at Brooklyn Tech last week…

and were excited about what you heard or read, this workshop is for you!

At this hands-on workshop, we will:

  • practice working with “appeal terms”
  • practice writing and critiquing book “hooks”
  • discuss the challenges of teaching appeal terms to our students

Details
Date: Saturday, Nov. 20
Time: 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Place: Library, East Side Community High School, 420 East 12th Street, New York, NY
Cost: Free to NYCSLA members, $20 for non-members

Note: This workshop is NOT an introduction to appeal terms. Before attending, if you did not attend her workshops at this or last year’s Fall Conference, please make sure to read her School Library Journal article.

SPACE IS LIMITED! RSVP to reserve your space. Please send your RSVP to nycsla.librarians@gmail.com. Hope to see you there.

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November Book Club: One Crazy Summer

November 5, 2010

Our November book (selected by NYCSLA Vice-President Cheryl Wolf) is One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. The NYCSLA book club is dedicated to reading engaging new literature for children and young adults. One Crazy Summer is currently a 2010 National Book Award finalist. Here’s a portion of the starred review in Booklist:

Eleven-year-old Delphine has only a few fragmented memories of her mother, Cecile, a poet who wrote verses on walls and cereal boxes, played smoky jazz records, and abandoned the family in Brooklyn after giving birth to her third daughter. In the summer of 1968, Delphine’s father decides that seeing Cecile is “something whose time had come,” and Delphine boards a plane with her sisters to Cecile’s home in Oakland. What they find there is far from their California dreams of Disneyland and movie stars…. Regimented, responsible, strong-willed Delphine narrates in an unforgettable voice, but each of the sisters emerges as a distinct, memorable character, whose hard-won, tenuous connections with their mother build to an aching, triumphant conclusion.

Please add your comments about November’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.

Posted in Book Club | Tagged , , | 3 Comments »

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