5m
Paul Hover writes: “The call for action came from Michael Dowling, director of the ALA International Relations Office. According to Dowling, the library of Mzuzu University, in Mzuzu, Malawi, was ‘in dire, dire need’ after a devastating fire on December 18, 2015. Nothing was left of the library, the only one at the principal institution of higher learning in the least-developed region of this very poor African country. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was one of the first to hear about the fire.”
American Libraries, international supplement, Sept.
18m
Students will continue to learn the origin and central features of Islam in middle school under new draft standards proposed by the Tennessee State Board of Education. The changes to the standards for all grades, currently under review, are meant to streamline the content teachers are expected to teach students in any given grade, said Laura Encalade, director of policy and research. Under the new draft standards, students are asked to learn the origins, spread, and central features of Islam.
Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 27
27m
Marlon Hernandez writes: “In my previous post I showed how we turned a Raspberry Pi into a digital display device by installing a Video Looper application. Now let’s take a look at how to fill that display with content. I went with PowerPoint, as it met two major requirements: low cost and user familiarity. With that said, I will look at: export capability, templates, working in PowerPoint, Raspberry Pi, and fine tuning the project.”
LITA Blog, Sept. 29
41m
Effective interpersonal communication lies at the center of the library profession. In Library Conversations: Reclaiming Interpersonal Communication Theory for Understanding Professional Encounters, published by ALA Neal-Schuman, Marie L. Radford and Gary P. Radford offer expert analysis applicable to all types of library situations. The book uses examples from different types of library interpersonal encounters, to discuss how theoretical, historical frameworks apply to libraries.
ALA Neal-Schuman, Sept. 29
50m
Three new articles are now available in the AASL peer-reviewed online journal, School Library Research (SLR). Nancy Everhart reports on “A Proposed Theory of School Librarian Leadership”; Violet Harada discusses a professional development initiative that targeted teams of teachers and librarians working with high school students; and a team of researchers from the Lilead Project presents findings related to the position and office of district-level library supervisors.
AASL, Sept. 28
23h
Paul Wisenthal writes: “Eleven-year old Joe struggled with temper tantrums. His anxieties drove him to physical violence and numerous school suspensions. A year ago his uncontrolled outbursts were tempered after James McKeon, a school psychological counselor, began working with him using MakeBeliefsComix.com, one of the world’s most popular educational comic websites. The troubled teenager learned to channel his anxieties and fears into storytelling using the comics.”
Huffington Post, Sept. 6
1d
Timothy Noah writes: “The phone call died, according to Nielsen, in the autumn of 2007. During the final three months of that year the average monthly number of texts sent on mobile phones (218) exceeded, for the first time in recorded history, the average monthly number of phone calls (213). A frontier had been crossed. The primary purpose of most people’s primary telephones was no longer to engage in audible speech. It’s a lonely business, this life without telephone calls.”
Slate, Sept. 18
