Published by rwatstein September 21st, 2008
in libraries and reading.
Libraries in Laramie County, Wyoming, are the best of an excellent lot. The collection is skewed towards local interests; there is a lot of Christian fiction, as well as volumes on truck repair. The central library runs book clubs for home-schooled children and teenagers, which are well-attended. In southern Wyoming, at least, an excellent library system was not built in the face of resistance to public spending. The interesting truth is that it is excellent precisely because of it.
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Published by rwatstein July 12th, 2008
in education, books and reading.
This summer reading list features titles on improving teaching and learning at the college and university level, most from a national association of faculty developers.
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Published by rwatstein June 21st, 2008
in books and reading.
Asking teens to read ten books and log their hours is, well, just a big yawn to them. Teens and young adults need interaction and energy-expending activities more than ever during the summer months, and we’ve turned up some great Teen Summer Reading Programs that put a new spin on spending time at the library.
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Published by rwatstein June 21st, 2008
in libraries, library services and reading.
Librarians need no excuse to read more, but our patrons, funding agencies, and skeptical acquaintances might derive some benefit from this list. “ 15. Experience other people’s adventures: From climbing Mount Everest to building a multibillion-dollar corporation, you can experience part of these feats by reading about them.”
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With her students out on summer break, now might be the only time to learn the whole story about Cary Kelly, the one-of-a-kind librarian with the multiple personalities. A former professional ballet dancer, Kelly, 60, sees her job these days as a different kind of performance – one that inspires children to embrace the joy of reading and grasp life lessons not easily addressed in a traditional curriculum. The Sacramento Country Day School librarian does it in ways that may be unlike any educator in the country – she goes into character, time after time after time. Voices, costumes, lingo, the whole bit.
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In addition to the hundreds of celebrity suggestions from librarians, teachers, readers, and fans, ALA Graphics staff seeks out celebrities from a wide range of occupations: movie and TV stars, comedians, athletes, musicians, innovators, heroic figures, and the like. They try to find highly recognizable—and therefore popular—celebrities. They also consider a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds to reach the diverse populations libraries serve.
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Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in children, books and reading.
Children have welcomed the Harry Potter books in recent years like free ice cream in the cafeteria, but the largest survey ever of youthful reading in the United States by Renaissance Learning revealed May 5 that none of J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally popular books has been able to dislodge the works of longtime favorites Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, Judy Blume, S.E. Hinton, and Harper Lee as the most read.
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Read the full report What Kids Are Reading here
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The theme for the Summer Reading Program at many New Mexico libraries will be “Catch the Reading Bug.” Ami Segna, youth services librarian at the Alamogordo Public Library, is taking it one step further. She plans to tell children she will formally eat a bug for their viewing enjoyment. The choice of bug will be based on how much they read. “If it’s 60 percent of their reading, it will be a chocolate-covered ant. If it’s 70 percent, a cheddar-cheese flavored meal worm.”
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President Bush’s $1 billion a year initiative to teach reading to low-income children has not helped improve their reading comprehension, according to a Department of Education report released recently. The program, known as Reading First, drew on some of Mr. Bush’s educational experiences as Texas governor, and at his insistence Congress included it in the federal No Child Left Behind legislation that passed by bipartisan majorities in 2001. It has been a subject of dispute almost ever since, however, with the Bush administration and some state officials characterizing the program as beneficial for young students, and Congressional Democrats and federal investigators criticizing conflict of interest among its top advisers.
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Published by rwatstein March 3rd, 2008
in libraries, library services and reading.
Readers’ advisory is spreading across the Internet. Online RA generates more thorough interviews with superior results, and attracts patrons who normally don’t use it. RA guru Neal Wyatt tells what you need to know
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Published by rwatstein January 12th, 2008
in reading.
Ed Balls, the U.K. Secretary of State for Children, Schools, and Families, joined Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street January 8 to launch 2008 as the National Year of Reading. He called for every British school, library, and college to sign up for activities and encourage new opportunities for reading
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Published by rwatstein December 16th, 2007
in news and reading.
Readers of newspaper Web sites are 52% more likely to share their opinions than those who do not visit newspaper sites, according to study conducted by Millward Brown and sponsored by the Newspaper National Network and Newspaper Association of America in September and October.
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Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007
in users, television and reading.
US consumers say their favorite leisure activities are reading, watching TV and spending time with friends and family, according to The Harris Poll. Computer activities were named fourth most favorite, although the percentage of respondents listing it as a favorite has increased slightly in the last seven years.
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Published by rwatstein November 20th, 2007
in web 2.0 and reading.
Imagine facing a reader who asks for book suggestions based on the newest cutting-edge slipstream novel by an author you have never heard of. You don’t even know if your library owns the title, but you gamely look it up in the catalog…only to discover that not only do you own it, but your sf/fantasy expert has entered some read-alike suggestions and provided a brief comment on the major appeals of the genre. In addition, patrons have tagged the book with a range of descriptors, submitted their own reader reviews and reading suggestions, and given the book five stars. Suddenly, you know a great deal more about this book and can not only make some better informed suggestions but can also invite the patron to join in the dialog by submitting comments, reviews, and ratings. This day is not far away in the future of readers’ advisory (RA) services
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Published by rwatstein November 3rd, 2007
in internet and reading.
Since 2001, most Internet users say that they have continued reading the same amount of printed material, according to the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future. Three-quarters said so in 2001, and 70% did in 2006. But the number of Internet users saying they spend less time with offline printed materials rose from 19.3% in 2001 to 23.2% in 2006. In a statement accompanying the findings, the USC Annenberg Center said Internet users “are using printed materials less often and are instead seeking out that information online, frequently from the online versions of the same sources. Everything in our work strongly suggests that this trend will increase significantly.”
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Read highlights of the report here
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Published by rwatstein November 3rd, 2007
in gadgets, literacy and reading.
Columnist Steve Johnson writes: “I just read Pride and Prejudice on my BlackBerry. And, against all my own prejudices, all my own pride in the history and tradition of the printed word, I liked it. I liked holding it in one hand, having it always with me, and customizing my fonts and screen color. I really liked reading it in bed without the encumbrance of a book light. I hadn’t expected to fall so easily under the spell of the e-book.”
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