Available on the website at <http://www.oasl.info>

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Volume 20, Number 8                                               April, 2008

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FROM THE PRESIDENT
the "official" letter ----- Gregory Lum

FROM THE MEMBERSHIP
1. From our retirees - Life after the library
2. National Poetry Month ---- Patty Sorensen
3. More Poetry ---- Meg Miranda
4. More and More Poetry ---- Debbie Alvarez
5. OBOB Update ---- Debbie Alvarez
6. Bits of wisdom ---- Debbie Straw

FROM THE STATE
1. Mover and Shaker - Caleb Tucker-Raymond
2. Mover and Shaker - Darci Hanning

FROM ALA and AASL
1. ALA Member Reminders
2. Professional Development Opportunity ---- Toyota
3. School Library Media Month --- Melissa Jones (AASL)

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FROM THE PRESIDENT --- Gregory Lum
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Last month I hosted the Region 1 Battle of the Books competition. It was a great experience for me as I saw students excited about books, supportive parents encouraging children, and coaches guiding their teams. One of my favorite teams was an all boys team from Beaverton School District. During the first round, one of the members was so nervous that he blurted out the answer before consulting with his team and spokesperson. Also, they answered a question correctly from Shannon Hale's Princess Academy.
The state battle is on Saturday, April 19th at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.
If you would like to volunteer for the state battle, please contact Debbie Alvarez, OBOB chair, at Deborah_Alvarez@beavton.k12.or.us.

In Phoenix last month, the other Jesuit high school librarians and I are developing national curriculum and standards for Jesuit libraries. Using Googledocs, we are in the midst of our work. Have you not heard about Googledocs? Here is a link from Atomic Learning that will be useful to you: Atomic Learning recently announced a free tutorial series on Google Docs, the free Web-based word-processing program that allows users to keep documents up to date and allows selected individuals to update files from their personal computers. The Atomic Learning series, titled "Google Docs - A Focus on Docs," includes more that 60 short, show-and-tell movies that guide users through the creation, implementation and use of Google Docs. Topics include working with documents, organizing files, document options, sharing and publishing, working with collaboration, and utilizing the edit, insert and revision tab options. The series is being offered, free of charge, through May 1, 2008.
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/google_docs/

Remember to celebrate National Poetry Month! Here is a poem by Varda One of Hawthorne, California.
Thanks, Varda, for sharing!

My Library

It's only a room with shelves and books,
but it's far more magical than it looks
It's a jet on which I soar
to lands that exist no more.
Or a key with which I find
answers to questions crowding my mind.
Building my habit of learning and growing,
asking and researching till I reach knowing.
Here, I've been a mermaid and an elf
I've even learned to be more myself.
I think that I shall never see
a place that's been more useful to me.
With encouraging kind friends with wit
Who tell me to dream big and never quit.
It's only a room with shelves and books,
but it's far more magical than it looks.

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FROM THE MEMBERSHIP
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1. From our retirees - Life after the library

From Sheryl Steinke-
Life after retirement means:
--finally doing what you want to do . . . when you want to do it . . . with whom you choose.
--being as busy or as idle as YOU choose.
--taking a vacation during times other than summer, spring break and winter break.
--staying up as late as you want to finish reading a book.
--joining a women's hiking group every Thursday.
I miss:
--camaraderie with work mates
--not much else
I don't miss:
--getting up at 5:30 am
--picking up groceries along with everyone else on my way home from work
--attending boring meetings
--being a slave to emails
--working with people I wouldn't choose as friends

From Linda Schaffer -
I retired in June, 2005, and since then I have traveled to France twice and to China once. In Beijing the temperatures and humidity both must have been in the 90's, but the pollution was such that we never saw the sun. Fantastic experience nonetheless.
I also started volunteering at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, first at the admissions desk and now as an Exhibit interpreter - like docent except with an emphasis on interaction with the students, drawing out their responses to the art. Most of our groups are school groups. For me, this is a whole new educational direction and I am really learning and enjoying.

2. National Poetry Month ---- Patty Sorensen

April Quotes for National Poetry month.
"The first sound a child hears is actually a poem, the rhythmic, rhyming beat-beat-beat of a mother's heart," writes Jim Trelease in his introduction to Jack Prelutsky's classic anthology, Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young (Knopf, 1986).
....the message we'd like to get across during National Poetry Month, along with how easily poems can help children develop phonological awareness, a key component of literacy. We also plan to quote Jim Trelease a lot during April. Here's how he concludes his memorable introduction: "Unlike the toys we buy our children, poems cannot break. Their flavor will last longer than a hundred boxes of candy. They come already assembled and need only one battery-a reader connected to one child. And that reader can start a glow that lasts a lifetime."
Link to the full article in March 2008 School Library Journal:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ulh&AN=31167041&site=src-live

Library of Congress Poetry Resources: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/

Poetry 180 Project; a poem a day for American high schools from the Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/

Oregon State Poetry Association, Have you heard of it? The organization was established in 1956!
http://www.oregonpoets.org/

New Ambassador for Young People's Literature Named.
In January, the Library of Congress and the Children's Book Council, a trade group, announced the appointment of the USA's first "ambassador for young people's literature," a sort of poet laureate for the Harry Potter set. As the inaugural ambassador, they named renowned author Jon Scieszka.

Read more about this from the USA Today article on 2/12/08:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mih&AN=J0E092628862008&site=src-live

3. More Poetry ---- Meg Miranda

One of the various things that I do for Poetry month is refrigerator poetry. I move my small refrigerator out to the circulation desk and place magnetic words on a book cart in front of the refrigerator. Students and staff are welcome to create magnetic poems on the refrigerator. When it gets full we put the words back on the cart. In the past I have also taken digital pictures of the poems, printed them and posted them around the library.

4. More and More Poetry ---- Debbie Alvarez

Here's my favorite celebration for National Poetry Month: For the past two years the Ridgewood Carnival partnered up with the Ridgewood Book Exchange which is usually a simple ongoing program in the library, but when April rolls around it becomes a major program with hundreds of PTC dollars committed to purchasing books specifically for 4th grade and up (and then other books come in for lower grades from donations). The week of the carnival/book exchange correlates with National Children's Poetry Week, so the students who have a poem in their pocket, different one each day, can share it with any adult at my school and receive a book exchange credit. Then, if they want to share their poem with others that day as well, they then receive a "beep beep" which is a special citizenship award ticket. I've done many other things for Poetry Month- poetry nights, poetry slams, poetry workshops, etc. but this one is simple, involves my entire staff, and the staff and students are excited about poetry and check out numerous poetry books!

5. OBOB Update ---- Debbie Alvarez

Congratulations to the following teams who qualified and are coming to the OBOB State Competition! West Tualatin View Elementary, Montclair Elementary, Sexton Mt. Elementary, Whitford Middle School, Five Oaks Middle School, Conestoga Middle School, Robert Frost School, Patton Middle School, Linus Pauling Middle School, Amity Middle School, Pratum School, Memorial Elem. School, West Intermediate, Page Elementary, Fullerton IV Elementary, Springfield Middle School, Joseph Lane M.S., Highland Elementary, Maplewood Elementary School, Willamette Primary School, St. Mary's Academy, McCarty Middle School, Walt Morey Middle School, Floyd Light Middle School, Adrian Elementary School, Vale Middle School, Armand Larive Middle School, Tumalo Community School, Three Rivers Elementary School, and Cascade Middle School.

OBOB 07-08 is in the final portion of the program! On April 19th, 2008, all finalist teams will be coming to Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon and will have battles until the final winning team is identified for grades 3-5th and 6-9th. The OBOB team also looks forward to soon identifying the 2008-2009 titles for both 3-5th and 6-9th grade division and distributing books to their 100 grant recipients with the support of the LSTA Grant and OASL support!

Please contact: lsta_oema@yahoo.com with any questions!

6. Bits of wisdom ---- Debbie Straw

(Note from your newsletter editor  When seeking articles for the Spring Interchange, I suggested a number of things to write about. Here are some bits of wisdom which didnt fit into the Interchange.) -- Need kids' attention for a larger new step? Have them turn monitors off.
-- Set a timer to beep 5 minutes before: end of period, start Channel One, etc.
-- Hang kites from ceiling for instant, reasonably priced "spruce it up." A 10' PVC pipe with hacksawed notch for hanger can help with high ceilings.
-- Paper airplane "party" in library as low-cost reward. Elem level; kids all get one flight. Quick, simple, and fun.
-- Dark chocolate, the more the better.
-- Remember the film "Breakfast Club?" The student on Saturday detention didn't just remove the cards, he very deliberately moved them to the wrong places in each drawer. Who will appreciate the diabolical nature of this act now that we have OPAC?
-- Do a lesson on navigation, evaluation, etc. using your own school's website or other local site.
-- Check out http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/ : You won't believe the variety. Great starting point for art class projects, or identifying genre or subject.

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FROM THE STATE
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1. Never Satisfied: Caleb Tucker-Raymond, Multnomah County Library ---- Mover and Shaker, Library Journal, 3/15/2008

2. Giving Back: Darci Hanning, Oregon State Library -- Mover and Shaker, Library Journal, 3/15/2008

(From libraryjournal.com)
After almost 15 years of corporate IT/software engineering and development, including a five-year stint at NIKE, Darci Hanning felt the need to 'give back' to society in a more direct way. "Librarianship became that way." And "give back" she has. The Plinkit project (oregon.plinkit.org), developed for the Oregon State Library, is based on the open source Plone Content Management System and provides 36 rural Oregon libraries free, content-rich, easy-to-update web sites that can be maintained locally. Each web site provides libraries with an events calendar, incoming and outgoing RSS feeds, catalog search, and links to databases (including remote authentication), plus pages staff can update themselves. All for free! "And free is a very good price," as the Plinkit web site proclaims. It's also expanding to three more states through the Plinkit Collaborative (www.plinkit.org). In return, Hanning gives back to the Plone community as an active member of the Plone Documentation Team and by making presentations, helping users on the #plone IRC channel, and serving as the Plone Foundation's board president. Her involvement in the open source software community as it relates to libraries and her dedication to disseminating information and expertise has vaulted Plinkit and Plone into national and international prominence. Hanning loves it when librarians with no HTML skills tell her that working on their web site is going to be fun. That's when she "knows we're providing a much-needed service."

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FROM ALA, AASL and BEYOND
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1. ALA Member Reminders

--The last date for returning the annual election ballots is April 24 at 11:59 p.m. CST.
--The annual conference is in Anaheim CA from June 26 to July 2. (So close it is practically a roadtrip possibility,)

2. Professional Development Opportunity for Teachers/Librarians (Grades 6-12) Sponsor: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

The Toyota International Teacher Programs offers fully-funded, short-term international professional development opportunities for teachers. Educators of different disciplines, grades and backgrounds are selected to travel together, study program themes, and bring these experiences home to their classrooms. Comments from past participants highlight the educational benefits:
"International opportunities such as these completely expand our worldviews and shift our priorities. My approach to teaching has changed - I have become more passionate about making my students global citizens with knowledge of and sensitivity to international issues."
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. sponsors this program to honor secondary school teacher's commitment to education. In 2008, study visits to the Galapagos will be open to librarians and classroom teachers (grades 6-12, all subjects) from all fifty states and the District of Columbia.

Galapagos Program:
The Galapagos Program is a 12-day study program from November 22 - December 6, 2008 geared toward international and environmental study. Participants work together to create an interdisciplinary environmental lesson that is shared with teachers on the Galapagos Islands. Applications for the 2008 program are available now and due no later than May 9, 2008.

If you have any questions or would like more information, visit our website at www.iie.org/toyota or please do not hesitate to contact me by email at toyotateach@iie.org or by phone at (toll-free) 877-832-2457. Kaitlyn Jones, Toyota International Teacher Programs Institute of International Education

3. School Library Media Month --- Melissa Jones (AASL)

To help observe School Library Media Month (SLMM) during the month of April, school library media specialists can find public service announcements (PSAs), links to fun activities, and other tools on the AASL Web site. Several PSAs, created by Carmen Agra Deedy, award-winning author of "Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale," convey the importance of school library media programs. To listen to the PSAs and take advantage of the other tools available for SLMM, visit http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslissues/aasladvocacy/schoollibrary.cfm.

Idea: have the PSAs aired on local radio stations and make them a part of your school's broadcasting system.
For information on how to get PSAs aired on your local radio station, visit http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bbwlinks&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=133105

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Oregon Association of School Libraries