OEMA Newsletter
  
An Electronic Newsletter
of The Oregon Educational Media Association
Volume 17 No. 1
September, 2004

FROM THE PRESIDENT - Martha Decherd

The end of summer: back to work, and the kids back in school. College students out the door, leaving an unreal quiet behind them. Time to turn our heads from books on the beach to books on the shelves, ready to send them out the door in the hands of our students. As I'm preparing to go back to work, several events from this very busy summer stand out in my mind.

In June, the American Library Association convention in Orlando. What an exciting, overwhelming event! Highlights included breakfast with Tomie dePaola, meeting E.L. Konigsberg, hearing Andre Codrescu read from his new book, and observing the process as the Best Books for Young Adults committee worked on this year's list.

In July, our own Summer Institute. Those of us who made it to Newport were treated to two days of information and insights into how to build an influential library program that will be invaluable as the new school year progresses.

In August, our annual board retreat at Silver Falls. We made positive connections with members of the OLA board, and worked hard on issues that will affect us all. I am so impressed by the librarians who volunteer their time to work for OEMA. We all benefit from their work on our behalf.

Thanks to many, many hours of hard work on the part of Sheryl Steinke, Jim Scheppke and others, every public and private non-profit school in Oregon will have free access to the EBSCO databases this year. They have worked hard to make sure that the OSLIS web site and Citation Maker are available to all of us as well.

Details about EBSCO and OSLIS will be discussed during sessions at our fall conference in Seaside, October 8-9. This year's conference is packed with great sessions, fabulous authors, wonderful speakers, and loads of vendors. You should have received your copy of Interchange, full of information about the conference, and your registration packet, in the mail. If not, registration information is on the web site at
<http://oema.net/conferences/2004/index.htm> Be sure to register early, and join us for two days of fun and inspiration.

See you there!

SCHOOL LIBRARIES: THE NEW CORPS OF DISCOVERY

Another new year is just beginning! In all of your fall mail, you should have received your conference packet and fall issue of the Interchange.  School Libraries: The New Corps of Discovery will enhance you and your work in school libraries. The 2004 Fall Conference will be at Astoria High School and the Seaside Convention Center on October 8 & 9, 2004. If you did not receive the conference mailings, check the OEMA website <http://www.oema.net/conferences/2004/index.htm> for conference details. 

If you have never attended an OEMA fall conference, apply for the first timer conference scholarship. You could be one of four recipients (certified or classified) that will receive a two-day conference registration, a ticket to the Celebration Luncheon, and a one year membership to OEMA. First timer deadline is September 20th. Do not delay!

Besides the featured keynote speaker Wayne Free and featured authors Dorothy Hinshaw Patent and Nancy Farmer, you will have the opportunity to meet several other authors.

If you have any questions, please email Gregory Lum, 2004 Conference Chair, at <glum@jesuitportland.com>

“FIRST TIMERS” FALL CONFERENCE SCHOLARSHIP

Have you never attended an OEMA fall conference?  OEMA is offering four scholarships to attend OEMA's School Libraries: The New Corps of Discovery Conference this October 8 and 9, 2004, at Astoria High School and the Seaside Convention Center.  The scholarship is open to library media staff, both certified and classified, who have never attended an OEMA fall conference.  It includes one year of OEMA membership, two-day conference registration, and a ticket to the celebration luncheon. “First timer” conference scholarship recipients will be recognized at the celebration luncheon.
 
In 2003, OEMA was pleased to award conference scholarships to:  Diana Henigan, Librarian at Alameda Elementary School in Ontario, and Gloria Wurdinger, Library Assistant at Gervais High School.  

Because of the positive results of this new project for OEMA members, the board agreed to increase the number of conference scholarships. If you would like to attend the annual conference, complete the conference scholarship application included in the conference registration packet or on the web at <http://www.oema.net/conferences/2004/forms.htm>. You may be one of four “First Timers” at the fall conference.

Any questions, contact Jenny Takeda, <Jenny_Takeda@beavton.k12.or.us>. Do not delay as the deadline is September 20, 2004.

CONFERENCE APPAREL: ORDER BY SEPT. 13

Remember to pre-order your conference shirt or sweatshirt. The order form and photographs <http://www.oema.net/conferences/2004/apparel.htm> of the apparel are available on the conference website at <http://www.oema.net/conferences/2004/index.htm> where you can download a form. All five items – from the multi-language “@ your library” to the fleece vest – need to be pre-ordered by Monday, September 13, 2004. Any questions, contact Gregory Lum, <glum@jesuitportland.com>

OSLIS: ACCESS FOR ALL

OEMA and the Oregon state library are working very hard to provide access to OSLIS and the EBSCO databases to ALL Oregon K-12 students, public and private. Bringing this access to ALL of you is a BIG undertaking. Beginning Friday, Sept. 2 OSLIS <http://www.oslis.k12.or.us> came to you from a server at the University of Washington iSchool.

After a great deal of deliberation, the OEMA board decided to form a new partnership with the University of Washington iSchool to host OSLIS which means migrating the OSLIS website from the OPEN Clearinghouuse to the iSchool. OEMA's partnership with the iSchool includes the development of a 3-year plan for continuing to enhance and improve OSLIS.

The second arena in which OSLIS is improving service to Oregon school libraries is providing statewide access to EBSCOhost. Statewide access is being paid with funds from the Oregon State Libary and the Oregon Department of Education. We are working daily with EBSCO to enter your district and private school IP addresses so that your access to the EBSCO databases is seamless.

In the meantime existing access for subscribing districts will remain in effect for a month or so to help in the transition. Your 2003-04 district user ID and passwords will continue to work for remote access during this time.

If your district did not subscribe to EBSCO during the 2003-04 school year, you can use the current OSLIS UserID and passwords to access EBSCOhost both at school and remotely from home. The User ID for ALL of the EBSCO entry points is oslis. On the OSLIS secondary page <http://www.oslis.k12.or.us/secondary/howto/>, the password for the high school entry is high, for middle schools is middle. On the elementary OSLIS page <http://www.oslis.k12.or.us/elementary/howto/> the password is elem. Each of these passwords will also bring up EBSCO en Espanol at each of the three levels.

BTW, don't forget about access to the Oregonian databases.

Thank you if you have returned the form that the state library sent in the two letters to every public and private school in Oregon announcing statewide access. If you haven't returned the form, please look for it in your mailbox, fill in the requested information and mail it to the state library today.
Statewide access to OSLIS/EBSCO is a big undertaking, and the OSLIS committee hopes that you appreciate the issues involved with setting up access for all Oregon K-12 schools, public and private. Along the way there may be some bumps. But we hope that you agree with us that these inconveniences are a small price to pay for the major financial commitment that the state library and the ODE are making for Oregon school libraries.

The OSLIS committee welcome your input. The members are Sheryl Steinke (chair), Melanee Lucas, Mary McClintock, Patty Sorensen and Jim Tindall.

CITATION MAKER REVIEWED IN SLJ

The Citation Maker was included in SLJ's Librarian's Internet column by Gail Munion-Metz in the July 2004 issue.  OSLIS - Secondary and Elementary were mentioned on page 24.

BEVERLY CLEARY POSTERS & STICKERS
Beverly Cleary Childrens Choice Award <http://www.oema.net/cleary/index.htm> posters and stickers will be available at the conference, or by sending money to

PSU LIBRARY MEDIA ENDORSEMENT CLASSES FALL 2004

The following classes are available at PSU fall term, which starts on Sept. 27, 2004. Classes marked with an asterisk are available online with only 2 on-campus meetings. 

Details about classes and registration may be found on the PSU web site www.pdx.edu or you may contact Deanna Draper at (503) 725-8579 or e-mail to draperd@pdx.edu

OREGON SCHOOL LIBRARIANS NEEDS MORE NATIONALLY CERTIFIED TEACHERS

National Certification for Veterans. If you are interested in pursuing national certification and are a veteran, you may be eligible for full
funding. Consult the NBPTS website at http://www.nbpts.org/news/200405news.cfm#1

National Certifcation Candidate Funding. The Ford Family Foundation has announced that it will fund a fourth cycle of candidates for national
certification. Additionally OFATE will be offering partial funding for candidates.

Questions may be addressed to Sarah Reeve <sreeve@tfff.org> of the Ford Family Foundation and to Keith Menk <Keith.Menk@state.or.us> of TSPC for OFATE funding questions.

BIG6 ONLINE COURSE TAUGHT BY OEMA's JANET MURRAY

OEMA member Janet Murray is teaching an online course in the Big6 Skills - from Japan! The University of Washington's Extension Office offers the three credit pass/fail class as a distance education option. A couple of articles in the Big6 eNewsletter describe the course in more detail: http://www.big6.com/showarticle.php?id=419 with an internal link to student comments. To read the course introduction and/or register, go to the UWEO web site: http://www.onlinelearning.washington.edu/ol/courses/edu/edci494.asp

Janet is also writing a regular column for the Big6 eNewsletter the deals with achieving information literacy, national educational technology and content standards by using the Big6. Achieving standards is also a focus of the online course. 

2004-05 PATRICIA GALLAGHER PICTURE BOOK AWARD

Students of all ages should vote for their ONE favorite. Votes should be reported by May 1, 2005 to Carol Brown <carolb@peak.org> or 541-753-2800.

The Oregon Reading Association Patricia Gallagher Picture Book Award is a children’s choice award named in honor of Patricia Gallagher, a past president of ORA. She is retired from teaching children’s literature at Western Oregon University and serves on the committee to choose the candidates.

Books are selected using this criteria: available in paperback, original copyright no more than four years old, innate appeal to children, quality of text and illustration with preference given to Oregon authors.

Tom Birdseye of Corvallis was the 2004 winner for Look Out Jack, the Giant’s Back.

JAN BRETT IN OREGON

Picture book illustrator and author Jan Brett will be in Oregon the week after the fall OEMA conference. She has visits scheduled for Medford and Portland among others. Log on to her website, <http://www.janbrett.com> for a list of cities on her "Umbrella" tour.

OREGONIAN JUDY COX WINS JOHN STEPTOE AWARD FOR NEW TALENT

Last winter Oregon teacher and author Judy Cox told me her book, My Family Plays Music, had received the John Steptoe award for new talent. When I looked for the announcement I had trouble finding it –books chosen by the Coretta Scott King committee were buried at the bottom of the list of award winners. Unfortunately, that meant Judy’s book never got much attention from the Oregon press.

Sometime later, in an email writers' newsletter I came across this column by Midge Tomes, a children's book reviewer She makes a valid point--it would be nice if each of the books received its own focus. I asked the editor of the newsletter which published the article for permission to share the article with OEMA, and she and the author graciously gave reprint permission. I don’t know if any of you have any influence with the national awards people, but it is definitely something to think about. Sybilla A. Cook

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MIDGE TOMES’ DIARY—FEBRUARY 1, 2004 from THE BUSINESS SIDE OF CHILDREN'S PUBLISHING

Now that the Big Awards have been announced, I've been thinking about awards "overlap." It's bothering me. As we all know, it's difficult to get attention for a book - even a great book. I bet if we asked Jim Murphy how many bookstores were clamoring to host a signing for An American Plague, which scored the Sibert Award for best informational book AND a Newbery Honor, or how many mainstream newspapers and magazines reviewed his book before he won, the answer would be - in both cases - in the very low single digits. I don't begrudge him his double win - it's a great book - but I do worry about the other books that failed to get any shiny round stickers while Murphy will have to find space on his book jacket for two.

How about last year's trifecta for The House of the Scorpion? The National Book Award, a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor for one book - there was barely room on the cover to display all three stickers. A consumer might conclude that either the book was the most terrific book ever written, or - that there are too many awards. Both conclusions would be wrong. The real answer, I think, is that too many awards are announced on the same day.

Here is what happens in American newspapers the day after the Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, Sibert, Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpre, Margaret Edwards, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Batchelder Awards are announced. They run a story about the Newbery and Caldecott winners. Maybe there's a little paragraph at the bottom about one or two of the other awards, but more than likely the winners of these awards never get the attention they deserve because American newspapers simply don't have space to run lengthy lists.

It's boring reading, too. After you get through the winner and the honor books of two or three different awards, the eyes tend to glaze over.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Announce the awards on different days. Yes, this would take some juggling of schedules by committee members. There would be ego involved in whose award was announced first, and whose last.

Why not give out a few of these awards at the annual convention in the summer? Yes, we would have to wait, but wouldn't that build excitement? And wouldn't the knowledge that a book has already won a major award aid committees -- either in affirming their choice or by giving them an opportunity to spread the awards around?

The week before the Newbery was announced, Richard Peck's The River Between Us was on everybody's short list. Then it won the Scott O'Dell award for historical fiction. Is this why the Newbery Committee bypassed it? Only the committee knows. But I think it's okay if that was part of the committee's calculus. A fine book got recognition. It will get a sticker. Kids will read it. It will live on.

Why spend the award capital of the Newbery on the same book? Let's shower praise on as many books as possible. Awards committees value their independence too much to confer on which books they're considering, but by spreading out the announcements - even if it's by a day - there's a chance to get more attention for great books. Isn't that the whole point of these awards in the first place? Listen to Midge. I've been right before.

Note: Midge Tomes is a pseudonym for a newspaper book reviewer. Reprinted by permission of the author. First appeared in The Business Side of Children's Publishing e-newsletter.

FALL CONFERENCE SPEAKER CHERYL COON

“It’s time to say goodbye,” Julie said in a hesitant voice.
“NO! I don’t want you to go!” shouted six-year old Lily.

It was Lily’s first day at school and both she and her mother felt ambivalent about it. Fortunately, Lily’s teacher, Abby, was prepared. Her school librarian had provided her with a list of recommended fiction books in which characters experience various issues, such as starting school, learning to share, and bullies. She knew that reading with children about fictional characters and how they handle a problem offers a roadmap, not only to solutions to that particular problem but also to the very tools of problem-solving.

--Cheryl Coon is the author of Books to Grow With: A Guide to Using the Best Children’s Fiction for Everyday Issues and Tough Challenges (Lutra Press; ISBN 0-9748025-7-3; July 2004), a comprehensive guide for parents, teachers, counselors and librarians to over 500 children’s fiction books that portray more than 100 common issues kids face. She will present a workshop at the OEMA Fall Conference on how to use children’s fiction to help kids.

CALENDAR

OEMA Newsletter -- Editor: Sheryl Steinke

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