Social Media Has Gone to the Dogs!

I love watching the Westminster Dog Show every year...and found this article describing all the uses of social networking at this year's event just as interesting. All kinds of devices, including QRs, were in use to keep people updated and informed.

Have YOU experienced a QR (Quick Response) code yet? Is your phone smart enough to do so? Check out more info about them here. Here is a sample of one.

Hickory is enjoying his filet mignon reward for winning. Lucky dog!

Photo credit: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

028.6 Cybil Awards: Round 4

The 4th set of Cybils Awards list is out.

For those who may be unfamiliar with this book award, all of these winners have been selected by a panel of bloggers who took extensive lists of nominated titles made by blog readers! All books were published with in the last year since the previous contest so these are the latest and greatest out there!

There are various catagories for different reading tastes and different ages. The groups include fiction picture book, nonfiction picture book, easy reader, early chaper book, poetry, graphic novel, fantasy and science fiction, middle grade fiction, YA nonfiction, YA graphic novel, YA fantasy and science fiction, and YA fiction.

Here is a list of the top nominees in each of the catagories for 2009. If you are looking for new additions to your collection you may want to take a look at these choices and see if they meet your needs.

Past winners for 2008, 2007, 2006

Artwork: used wth permission by Cybils

028.162 Pura Belpré Awards

Author award:

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle

Illustrator award:

Just In Case, illustrated and written by Yuyi Morales

Here is a video provided by Yuyi Morales about her award. It features Señor Calavera, a character often found in her books.

Invited from Yuyi Morales on Vimeo.

659.102 100 Best Ads: Little Bits of Cultural History

Comments from bloggers can take you to the most interesting blog posts/sites.

The latest one lead me to the The Top 100 Advertising Campaigns, not necessarily a new site, but new to me. I had fun going down the list and remembering all those little mini-movies and stories that entertained us between breaks in the stories we were watching on TV. Most of these

became household icons because A. we had no remotes and B. we had only 3 TV stations to watch for a really long time.

Granted there are a handful from as far back as the 1920s included, but the vast majority made the list because of the time they spent on the airwaves, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s...up to and including the infamous 1984 Macintosh computer commercial!

As is my usual plan, I went thru the list thinking about a visual to include...one of the campaigns that was a personal favorite of mine. Most of the symbols, etc. were found on sites that had rights reserved so I decided on Smokey, the fun icon of my childhood who taught me a lot about how to be careful in the forests of my summertime home.

Once I started reading, I found out the campaign is the longest PSA (public service announcement), Smokey has a very comprehensive interactive website with all kinds of safety info and history of the real Smokey and the ad campaign itself!

By the way, Smokey doesn't remind you that only you can prevent forest fires. Starting in 2001, it was changed to wildfires...doesn't have quite the same ring...messes with the cadence of my brain, but nevertheless, is still an important thing to remember. AND even an icon as important as Smokey does have to undergo a makeover every once and awhile so "GetYour Smokey on!"

Ok, ok, I digress...back to the list of ads. There are so many on it that were fun: Where's the Beef...inspirational: Keep America Beautiful's Crying Indian...and even some that go straight to the heart: Hallmark anything! Come on, you know you tear up sometimes!

Now it's your turn. What's a favorite for you? What memory didn't make the list and should have?

P.S. Not sure what criteria was used in making selections and the information attached to the list doesn't always talk in the "lovely memories" tone of this post. Each to his/her own. That's what great about the 2.0 world!

Visuals from SmokeyBear.com

TASLA 2nd Morning Session Part 2 Book Awards

Exploring State Book Awards - Janet Hilbin & Jane Claes

49 states have some kind of an award now...190 awards given, not including recommended reading lists...Mississppi is only one currently not giving one

does not include Lone Star, Tayshas type lists

some go back 60-70 years!!

children had some voice in nomination, selection or voting for winners

Bluebonnet is one of largest...used as collection development tool in the state

criteria for nomination varies greatly! purpose is more standard...encourage reading!

Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Award 1940

Kansas had first individual state award 1952

of 95 looked at

21 by adults only

11 chosen exclusively by children

rest are adult selections with student selection of winners

often winners of big awards like Caldecott, Newbery can not be nominated

since 2004:

Eragon 21 awards

Twilight 16 awards

Lightning Thief 16 awards

Tale of Despereaux 15 awards

Loser 12 awards

only picture book with 10 or more My Lucky Day had 11

in total 450 books received awards..76% of the books only got one award (vast majority being picture books)

question: how many have been banned...not sure, but thought only 3-4

top 5 winners are all considered fantasy/science fiction, magical realism

25 have add movies made or are in production

Kehert, Clements, Gutman are top winners but have never won national awards

only 5 awards given exclusively for nonfiction, but 41 non fiction books have won various awards

27 books about dogs won 47 awards

8 adult titles won 19 awards

this data can be important for collection development

they have be thru selection process

trends in student reading

librarians not necessarily using this info

they are publishing this in a book (Linworth) to be out in the fall Coast to Coast: Exploring State Book Awards by Janet Hilbin and Jane Claes from the beginning to 2008

there will be some author interviews included ..they talk about impact on them and how they feel about kids reading

Guess what! Lunch!

028.162 Bluebonnet Reviews in a Snap!

ReaderBuzz has a short, sweet and to the point list of  reviews for the current list of Bluebonnet books. Takes about a minute to read her good and bad points about each title!

...and we agree on our favorite one!  ribbit!

Enjoy!

P.S. She also has thoughts about books for older readers.

371.2 Certificates & Awards: End-of-Year Activities

I will admit to almost being a image generator junkie these days. I LOVE all the free stuff you can do with pictures these days like here and here and here...and more ideas here.

But, boy, o boy, here's JUST what any one with end-of-school ceremonies, award assemblies, and parent programs luming on the horizon needs...a huge fantasitc, easy-to-use FREE web site full of certificates and awards called My Award Maker.

Go have lots of fun!  (And save yourself a lot of work!)

028.6 Cybil Awards for the 3rd Time

The winning titles of the Cybil Awards for the 2008 year have been announced and can be reviewed here in detail.

I love the nonfiction picture book Nic Bishop's Frogs selection of course...in fact used it in a catalog class situation last week. It is a perfect example of why kids can't get enough visually-stimulating science books! Here is a podcast with the author of the winning book from the Just One More Book site!

The only other winner I am familiar with enough to even mention knowing is the haunting, somewhat disturbing, YA novel Hunger Games. So much to think about on many levels.

Information about past winners can be found here for 2006 and here for 2007.

Happy Reading!

976.4 Speaking of License Plates: More than One Winner!

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) took advantage of the interactive nature of the Web this month when it held an online vote for the next car license plate. Several choices (including the one released in 2000) were available and 1.2 million "voters" cast their choice.

I voted for the winner!! Although the bluebonnet one was pretty, this one got me in the heart. The media describes it as the one with the big white star or Lone Star. I suspect that many, many of the 400,000 + voters that selected this one saw what I saw...the beautiful mountain range and powerful cloud formation...yup, a west Texas scene won!

O, by the way, changing the design was not the only reason for the change. Seems we have used up all the alpha-numeric combinations possible with the 6 character format. Took us 33 years to do so. TxDot needed to add a 7th character so they decided that it was also a good time for a design change as well. Personally, I'm glad...never cared for the tiny hodge-podge symbols on the current one.

As part of the 23 Things program that the SBISD Library Information Services Department is sponsoring, Players get to mess around with lots of image generators. One in particular is Image Chef that has a license plate (and yes, other states ARE available!) on which you can create messages. My "practice" plate for the 23 Things advertises the program.

Then I just played around a bit more to show you some other ideas for this fun Thing! Maybe the other states could be incorporated into the traditional states' reports we all have our kids do at some point?

Go see what kind of fun you can make!

028.6 Cybils : And the Winners Are...

Took you thru the nomination process and the finalists lists so I need to bring closure to the experience...here are the books selected winners in the 8 different categories. ( a couple have sub-divisions.)

Each title is linked to SmartLinks, a personal browser. Click on the little blue arrow next to each title for additional information. (You can go to the site and create your own search tool for subjects of personal or professional need.)

P.S. YES...the hole is making me crazy. I have moved them around and around, but I have learned to let it go!

028.6 2007 Cybils: Nomination Finalists Part 2

The rest of the Cybils finalists were released today.

YA Fiction - 7 titles from 123 nominations!!

A lot of discussion about Twight title not being on this list (or even the sci fi/fantasy list of last week)...I know a librarian or two who will not like this result, I bet (but hey, the Meyer's books arewinners on their own!) The Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian is a particular favorite of mine based on a couple of book talks I witnessed and all the press I have been reading about this title.

Non- Fiction Picture Books - 7 selections from 45 nominations.

I "read" One Thousand Tracings in the bookstore over the holidays...made me cry!

Graphic Novels - 5 each for the high school level and the elementary/middle school level from 34 nominations

Middle Grade/YA Nonfiction - 45 nominations were narrowed down to 7 finalists.

O, BTW, the awards will be announced February 18th. And if you want to review Part 1 (4 other sets of finalists)

Here is a pdf file of all finalists...includes short description of title.

92 Jon Scieszka: the "Stinky" Kids' Ambassador

Jon Scieszka has been name the first Ambassador for Young People's Literature, a new position created jointly by the Library of Congress and the Children's Book Council. A panel of five made the selection.

A major portion of his responsibilities will be to visit with children AND parents about the value of reading and books in this time of emphasis on technology. Scieszka does take advantage of the 2.0 world to help promote reading and encourage kids through his Guys Read website and includes girls in the encouragement as well!

I really hope you are at least familiar with his books, if not a fan, as I am. There are currently 25 and many are in Spanish as well! His often illustrator Lane Smith is a kick too...I have never had the opportunity to be around Scieszka, but did get to facilitate Lane Smith's presentation at TLA a few years ago..and it was a hoot. no wonder their books are so much fun!

x

The next two years surely should be interesting!

Other articles:

NY Times announcement - check out his "newer" photo!

Washington Post article

Voice of America audio version

DayLife a group of reports

From the Newsweek article...something I hope I can overcome as well!

Newsweek: Especially now that you're the children's laureate, we need
to make sure everyone gets your last name right. You tell people that it's the
Polish word for "path" and that it rhymes with Fresca. Does that usually do the
trick?
Jon Scieszka: That's a good start, but people still butcher it.

028.6 2007 Cybils: Nomination Finalists Part 1

The first four final nominations lists for the Cybils are out.

Science Fiction and Fantasy - 94 nominated books down to 10 finalists divided into 2 groups based on age level.

Fiction Picture Book - from 118 nominations down to these 7 finalists.

Poetry - these 7 were selected from 94 nominations.

Middle Grade Fiction - 8 finalists from a wide ranging group of 75 nominations

I hope you see some of your favorites listed here OR you find some great new titles to add to your collection.

The other four catagories will be released next week (and yes, I will put them up for you!)

The winners will be announced later...(February? March?...I have forgotten!)

P.S. If you are not familiar with the Cybils, take a look.

006.7 More Edublogs Awards (and Second Life) Reactions

The teacher winner of the Edublog Awards Betchablog has an entertaining description of the awards ceremony in Second Life. Enjoyable reading especially since he was a fairly new in-world visitor like me!

...What did intrigue me though was the notice I received to say that the awards ceremony would be held on Jokaydia Island. “Cool!” I thought, I get to fly off to some tropical resort on some exotic island somewhere to attend the ceremony. Well, it’s true, I did fly off, and it was an exotic island, but it existed only in the virtual world of Second Life. Yes, the Edublogs Award ceremony was to be held in a virtual 3D space - a space existing only as a collection of bits, bytes and packets inside my computer, arranged into an amazing 3D environment by the creativity of the people who build these virtual spaces...

He also has some more pictures that show some event highlights. And lots of other good stuff as well that I will be working my way thru!

Another view of the whole awards process including graphs (that I am not totally sure I understand) was put out by James Farmer, brains behind the Edublogs thing itself and a major player in the awards and its super ceremony, (and a right nice friendly, helpful guy when I was having fits at my Edublogs blog.)

...The process was split into three stages, nominations of blogs for the awards over a few weeks (we received over 500 via an email contact form...nice barrier!), voting over a couple of weeks and then the announcement of the winners...

I am so in awe of all these creative people that I get to learn from!

912 The "Worldliness" of the Edublog Awards

I have had some inquiries as to where are the winners from...as in how worldly is this thing?

So I did a map...please, it's not perfect...it is a generalization of where the winners are (some of them are multi-authors/hosts) and where the other great librarian finalists are from. And I know the other finalists in other categories would make the map even more colorful, but I just don't have the strength!

Locations...Spain, Hungary, Shanghai, Scotland, UK, Australia, Canada and the USA (CA, NC, GA, CO, MA, NJ, and Texas! How is that?!

I have been reading and learning from many of these people for quite some time. One of the best things about this whole experience is that I have now "found" other people to learn from. And I will be sharing some of those new learning experiences as time goes by, but in the meantime, you can watch for additions (some are already there!) to my blog rolls.

And you can learn from these folks on your own.

P.S. 195 votes, 34%, total cast 575

Other winning percentages for some categories

41% Is it Ok to be a technologically illiterate teacher? Karl Fisch
41% elearning Technology
46% Smartboard podcasts
41% Welkers Wikinomics
43% Suffern M.S. in 2nd Life (warning...an Animoto may play automatically...loud!)
52% 587 votes! just for this blog Classroom 2. 0 (they do have 4000+ members :-) )
61% 644 votes! just for this blog El tinglado (tech support)

006.7 Edublogs Awards: A Surreal Adventure

The Edublog Award winners were announced Saturday at a multimedia, video streamed event held in Second Life (SL) and through other audio connections.


I created an Avatar and went to the ceremony on Jokaydia Island. It was fun and frustrating, interesting and intimidating, cool and confusing. Having only spent about five hours total in the virtual world of SL prior to the event, I was struggling to operate outside of my comfort zone and still take in all the excitement around me.
Click on the picture and you can see a few screen shots I took to give you an idea of everything that was going on. You can see other pictures as they are collected on Flickr.

JUST like at the Academy Awards, I really did not think my little blog entry would "win" against the heavy hitters that were in the category and so when the blog was called, I really had nothing prepared to say! It was ok tho' because others were waiting to speak at the end due to all the technical issues (yes...even in something this BIG!). I tried at the end to use my headset and my 15 minutes of knowledge of the set-up to try and say thanks...I "screeched" so badly that attendees begged to pull my plug so I did! Newbies with new toys should not try to "play" with the big boys and girls!

There were several people who were so kind to me as I tried learning how to maneuver around...walking, sitting...flying! I spent more time in the bushes and UNDER structures. And as far as the flying goes...well, those of you who have seen me operate in the real world...let's just say it wasn't a pretty picture. But Jokay, the island owner, spent precious time the day before helping me while she should have been tending to more important details, and Ruby Imako and Sandbox Builder Leah Planer gave me several pointers during the ceremony itself.

It was S-U-R-R-E-A-L!

And now I must try to adequately say thanks to everyone who was responsible for this nice thing happening to me.

I started this blog a little over a year ago to do something that looked like a fun way to share bits and pieces of information I find with people who might want to read what I had to offer. I have a great group of colleagues and friends who follow my ramblings fairly regularly and, on occasion, would share their thoughts with me and others about the topic. I also know I have a lot of them lurking...they will talk to me about the posts, but won't write. My goal this year...more commentors, less lurkers!!

No way did I think ANYTHING I wrote about would attract attention outside my little circle of influence. But the structure of blogging allows for others to find my words when they match up with their words! And that is just plain cool! to see something I thought about quoted in someone else's post...o wow!

I feel very honored to have been nominated and selected as a finalist because there are so many good things going on out there in the library blogging world. And to have had friends and colleagues put out the efforts needed for me to be the "winner"...I appreciate all their efforts and time...and more importantly, their confidence in and support of me.

I want this honor to reflect ALL the good things we have going on in our libraries, but especially with respect to the "new" ways of doings things. Many of us have been fighting an uphill battle for many years to prove our worthiness to others. It's a win for all of us.

I will work hard to earn the respect connected with "winning" something like this by continuing to have lots of fun learning and sharing...and I will do my best to pay it forward.

THANK YOU!

006.7 Blogging: A Vote for Social Networking & Collaboration

So many kind remarks regarding the nomination of this blog for an Edublog award. They are all appreciated. I think I floated most of the day from just the shock of the nomination. I do appreciate any and all efforts that went into this action from any and all who prefer to remain "anonymous."

So many more questions about the voting. Currently the voting box is "missing" inside the district because it is blocked. A request has been made to get it open, but no one knows when. So for the time being, voting, if you choose to do so, must take place away from the district.

AND the award managers put out some voting guidelines late today :

Please note that we’ve set the maximum as 50 votes from the one location (as long as it’s an institution - home internet accounts submitting that many votes are being dodgy) as that would seem a reasonable amount of support to garner from your students and peers, and also be in the spirit of things (voting being decided by quality, not quantity).
So… if there are more than 50 votes from one location they all get removed.

...please take a look before enthusiastically jumping into voting mode. One very enthusiastic science teacher about 1/2 a day's drive away who is near & dear to my heart added about 70 votes after school and they were removed before she got home (and she lives across the street from her school!)...she didn't see the informative email before starting!

So, if you are inclined, I appreciate your vote of confidence...I look at your support as support for the things that, as a group, we are all trying to achieve...for the benfit of our most precious resource...our students, our children.

Thank you all.

028.6 Cybils Nominations for 2007 Are Up

Thought you might want to see the various titles in each catagory...may be useful for collection development ideas?

Fantasy & Science Fiction

Fiction Picture Books

Graphic Novels

Middle Grade Fiction

Nonfiction: Middle Grade & YA

Nonfiction Picture Books

Poetry

Young Adult Fiction

The winners will be picked by a group of blogger judges and annouced after the first of the year.

hope some of your new favorites are there!

028.6 Cybils Book Award for 2007 : Nominations are Open

Nominations for this year's Cybils are now open. It is a book award process that is completely done thru the online world. Anyone with an email address may make a nomination and then a group of bloggers narrows down the lists and eventually selects the winners.

This will be the second year for this award. Here is the list of last year's winners. Here are the finalists from each group. A printable list here with synopses included. Another BOOK SELECTION TOOL!

There are categories for children's and YA's titles:
Fantasy/Science Fiction
Fiction Picture Books
Graphic Novels
Middle Grade Fiction
Non-Fiction: Middle Grade
Young Adult Non-Fiction Picture Books
Young Adult Fiction
Poetry
Go to the blog to communicate with the various organizers for each of the categories.

If you want to see a book considered, send it in! It must have been published in 2007 and you may only submit one title per category. You have until November 21st.

031.02 Seven Wonders of the World: The New Bunch

100 million votes later and the list of the new Seven Wonders of the World was revealed today.

And the "winners" in no particular order are:

The Great Wall of China

Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janerio

Machu Picchu [slow loading site, but fabulous pix]

The Colosseum in Rome

The Taj Mahal

Petra, Jordan [must admit this one eluded me--had to read up on it!]

The Chichen Itza pyramid in Yucatan, Mexico.

My personal favorite (hence my choice for picture) is the Great Wall...I am especially fascinated by the thought that it is the only man-made structure the astronauts can see from space! My only claim to fame of any of these magnificent structures is that I have been to a "cousin" of Chichen Itza.... the pyramids right outside of Mexico City...so impressive and SO scary when I was climbing back down!!

The Egyptian pyramids ware the only remaining structures from the ancient Seven Wonders of the world and were not included in this poll. They are what they are on their own---a continuing wonder.

No "U.S." representative...the only one mentioned in the early news stories...the Statue of Liberty was way at the bottom of the list...and does that really count because it was a gift from France? I'm not concerned...we have have contributed in our own way to the world...and besides, remember we have only existed a mere 231 years...a baby amongst some of these other civilizations and their structures!

Betcha got a favorite?