LOST IN PHILLY

I have been trying for the few days to download my Jing video assignment. I still haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong. I have to go to work now. I'll work on this again later.

Lost and late in Philly

BOOKS

Books are quiet

They do not dissolve into wavy lines or snowstorm effects.
They do not pause to deliver commercials.

They are three - dimensional having length, breath and depth.

They are convenient to handle and completely portable.

Anonymous

Bedtime stories going digital

I recently read an interesting article someone had left in my mailbox, titled Cuddling up with a good MP3, Bedtime stories are going digital by Melissa Rayworth, Associated Press.

Nearly a third of children ages 6 to 10 are regular users of digital audio players, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. and thanks to entrepreneurs such as Don Katz, they can now use them to listen to bedtime stories.

In March, the Audible.com founder launched AudibleKids.com, where children can download books directly onto their digital audio players.

It seems according to Michele Cobb, Audio Publishers Association president when people put their kids to bed, they put them down with an audiobook.

Children and teen books account for 13 percent of all national audiobook sales in 2007, according to the Audio Publishers Association. That's a relatively small number, but it's nearly double the 7 percent that was estimated by the group in 2004.

AudibleKids, offers books for preschoolers on up and aims to further their interest by offering a social networking community where they can talk about books with one another and with parents, teachers, and even authors such as R. L. Stine of Goosebumps.

Random House's Listening Library has been producing audiobooks for youths for more than 50 years. What's new is the digital technology - companies such as Fisher-Price and Disney now sell kid-friendly digital audio players for children as young as 2.

Katz believes reaching kids through digital media may inspire them to have a life-long love of books - even the old fashioned printed kind.

"The world of reluctant readers is huge," says Katz. For many children, " reading outcomes tend to fall apart around third grade," which is often the same time parents stop reading to them.

Digital audiobooks, especially those narrated by talented artists, can "extend the pleasure of being read to by your parents into fifth, sixth, seventh grades," he says.Macmillian Audio launched a children's list this spring with narrations by actors Gwyneth Paltrow and Tony Shalhoub.

For some parents, the idea of children chatting online about Holden Caulfield instead of Hannah Montana is pretty compelling. But for those who spent their own childhood summers reveling in the crisp pages of paperbacks, there are real concerns about what may be lost if their offspring tackle a summer reading list via MP3.

The American Library Association recommends reading every day to children who are not yet in school. The group says it's not just hearing the story that's important - it's connecting the words to the letters on the page, and eventually learning to read them.

The association's president, University of Texas professor Loriene Roy, believes that audiobooks can play a valuable role in encouraging literacy, but they're not meant to be used exclusively.

"Audiobooks can help the good reader and the struggling reader," she says, because they help young readers to listen beyond their reading level.

She also makes a point to say that, "Parents are their first teachers and the best role models. If you want the child to be an independent reader, someone who will pick up the text, they're going to watch what adults do."

The temptation to skip the nightly routine might be strong, even though nothing beats a live performance, says Susan Linn, author of The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in Our Commercialized World.

"In a way," Linn says, "this is another gadget for outsourcing parenting."

Even among today's multitasking teens, listening instead of reading might cause them to lose focus as they half-listen while attempting to reach the next the next level of Halo 3 and text-messaging a friend.

Katz says he isn't aiming to discourage parents from reading to their children. But with youths so fully embracing the digital age, he believes it's the best way to reach them.

"It's not just that very kid has an MP3 in his or her pocket," he says. "It's that there's a cultural and almost educational change going on that has to do with kids being extremely adept at multimedia and multisensory intake."

As a Books Aloud specialists for the library I'm always preaching the importance of reading aloud to young children. Reading aloud to children helps them with the skills they need to know before they can learn how to read. Skills such as print motivation, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and letter recognition. Audiobooks have their place, after all I've put them in my listening centers, but they can never replace the closeness a child feels when that child is being read to by someone they love and who loves them.

Just a thought!

Libraries for the Future, New York

Libraries for the Future is a national nonprofit that supports innovation and investment in America's libraries. For fifteen years, Libraries for the Future (LEF) has helped public libraries respond to the changing needs and opportunities of their communities. For the past four years, the organization has operated under the name Americans for Libraries Council (ALC), with Libraries for the Future as its "program arm". The organization has recently returned to Libraries for the Future as its official, overarching name. Through innovative program models, professional development activities, forums, and research projects, LEF transforms libraries into 21st century community centers for information, education and civic engagement. Emphasizing collaboration between libraries and community groups, LEF links professionals across disciplines - early childhood development and space planning, for instance - to allow participants to think beyond their own specialities and devise new solutions to shared challenges.

Family Place Libraries

Did you know, a Family Place Library is a center for early childhood information, parent education, emergent literacy, socialization, and family support. Expanding the traditional role of children's services, Family Place builds on the knowledge that good health, early learning, parent involvement, and supportive communities play a critical role in young children's growth and development. The Family Place Libraries initiative provides a development framework and comprehensive model for family centered library service.
Family Place is a project of Libraries for the Future and Middle Country Public Library. Since 1996, this partnership has brought Family Place to more than 225 sites in 24 states.

C&RL Go Open Access

College & Research Libraries (C&RL), the bimonthly scholarly journal of ALA's Association of College and Research Libraries, has announced the launch of an open access, prepublication service for accepted articles.
The preprint service, which debuted in March, moved to an open access model in an effort to make timely new research articles available to a wider audience. C&RL preprint articles are available at www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/.

TECHNOLOGY

Check It Out!

A new 24/7 service from ChaCha allows cell phone users to ask a wide range of reference questions in conversational English and get answers free of charge. Each question is routed to a live person who searches the web for the information and within minutes returns the answer in a text message with a web reference link.
The online and mobile search company announced the new voice service in April at CTIA: The Wireless Association's 2008 convention in LasVegas. At 800-2-ChaCha (800-224-2242), the service works on any mobile phone that supports normal SMS text and voice capability.

Asked if ChaCha represents competition for reference librarians, David Tyckoson, president of ALA's reference and User Services Association, told American Libraries that people already rely on librarians less for help with finding short, factual results that they can obtain on their own. "What they need a librarian's help with are the more complex searches," he said.

"People can pick up that same cell phone," Tykoson added, :and use it to call their local local library, where they can talk to a professional librarian who can help with any type of question, from the simple to the complex. Both services are free, but the library will not limit you to 160 characters."
What do you think?

Googlepoll: Ask the Crowd

I gave a Books Aloud Workshop tonight for 40 participants, mostly teachers. It took some time putting it together, the first one of the month is always the hardest (new topic). You're never sure how it will go over, but it went well. I have three more workshops this month, then I'm done until October. So, I'm a little behind on my schoolwork.

Did you know you can use Google to search for people's opinions on everything imaginable. For example, you can enter "I wish I had ..." into Google and see what people complete this sentence with. This method is called Googlepoll, and it gives you instant answers to how people are feeling, what they are wishing to achieve, what obstacles they face. All you need is a search engine.
This is some of what I found.

I wish I had ...

• freckles
• duck feet
• been there
• known that
• more time to read
• wheels
• waited
• written Regina
• a pencil thin mustache
  
• one of those
• written this
• known when I was 18
• played practical jokes
  
• learned in library school

Try it, it's fun!
55 Ways to Have Fun With Google by Philipp Lenssen