PLA Blog

Topic: Discussion of emerging and “pressing” trends in technology effecting libraries.

And in the beginning:
The discussion started with ebook technologies that are currently being developed such as Findaway World’s new Playaway device that plays a single audio book. This is a small (slightly larger than a business card & with less than a 1/2″ of depth) handheld device that comes with the information in it, unlike the Sony Reader, which can contain more than one selection that must be downloaded. The price point on the Playaway is understandably much less than the Sony Reader ($300-$500) and comes in around $35-$50. This is comparable to costs in the audio books cd market. You can either buy headphones to come with the Playaway or use your own. One of the positives: the device fits in the palm of your hand. One of the negatives: runs on a “AAA” battery. In a library setting: who’s going to replace the batteries for a collection of Playaway’s???

And then there was…
The other topic suggested to receive attention at 2006 Annual is Podcasting. Of particular note were the experiences of folks at Purdue University, where a professor took it upon himself to podcast his classes without the University’s assistance (others are now looking to him for guidance) and Emory University, where classrooms are built with technology for podcasting built-in and professor-friendly. Implications for public libraries??? Unknown. Please post comments if you have thoughts or suggestions.

Other Tidbits:
PDF continues to be the defacto content container for ebooks.
PDFa takes forever, plus one day, to download.

WebJunction is good, but what further can be done with it?

Other technologies/orgs making an impact: Overdrive, Audible, Open Content Alliance… and Apple’s IPod was cited as “doing one thing and doing it very well”. This was stated in the context of the potential for a book reader that will do wireless internet, bluetooth phone, calender, wash the dishes, etc– and to the point: a one for all approach may not work as well as the do one thing well approach. Time and market will tell…

Audio is hot right now.

January 23, 2006

I thought the webcast was at 9 Central… it was at 8, so thanks to Jennifer Williams for posting this info to the YALSA list!

I also found the official press release at Yahoo! news before it hit the ALA website: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060123/cgm019.html?.v=30

CALEDECOTT MEDAL
(outstanding illustration in a book for children ages 0-14)

Caldecott Medal Winner:
The Hello, Goodby Window - Chris Raschka/Norton Juster

Caldecott Medal Honors:
Rosa - by Nikki Giovanni/ilustrated by Bryan Collier
Zen Shorts - Jon J. Muth
Hot Air: The mostly true story of the first hot air
balloon ride - Marjorie Prieceman
Song of the Water Boatman and other pond poems -
Beckie Prange/ by Joyce Sidman

NEWBERY AWARD
(most distinguished American book for children 0-14)
Newbery Medal Winner
Criss Cross - Lynne Rae Perkins

Newbery Medal Honors
Whittington - Alan Armstrong
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow - Susan
Campbell Bartoletti
Princess Academy - Shannon Hale
Show Way - Jacqueline Woodson

MICHAEL L. PRINTZ AWARD
(best book (literary quality) for teens age 14+)

Michael L. Printz Award Winner:
Looking for Alaska - John Green

Michael L. Printz Award Honors:
Black Juice - Margo Lanagan
I am the Messenger - Markus Zusak
John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth - E. Partridge
A Wreath for Emmett Till - Marilyn Nelson

CORETTA SCOTT KING AWARD
(writing, illustrating and new talent awards given to African-American authors & illustrators)

Coretta Scott King New Talent Award
Jimi and Me - Jaime Adoff

Coretta Scott King Illustrator winner
Rosa - illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Nikki
Giovanni

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor
Brothers in Hope: The Story

Coretta Scott King Author Winner:
Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialouge - Julius Lester

Coretta Scott King Author honors:
Maritcha - Tonya Bolden
Dark Sons - Nikki Grimes
A Wreath for Emmett Till - Marilyn Nelson

MILDRED L. BATCHELDER AWARD
(work in translation)

Mildred L. Batchelder Award Winner
An Innocent Soldier - Josef Holub (Arthur A. Levine)

Mildred L. Batchelder Award Honors
Nicholas - Rene Goscinny (Phaidon Press)
When I Was A Soldier - Valerie Zanatti

PURA BELPRE AWARD
(10 year anniversary of the award for Latino authors & illustrators)

Pura Belpre Award Illustrator Winner
Dona Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a
Great Big Heart - Raul Colon, by Pat Mora

Pura Belpre Award Illustrator Honors
Arrorro, Mi Nino: Latine Lullabies and Gentle games -
illustrated by Lulu Delacre
Cesar: Si se puede! !Yes we can! - David Diaz, by
Carmen Bernier-Grand
My name is Me llamo celia: the life of celia crus/la
vid - Rafeal Lopez, by Monica Brown

Pura Belpre Award Author Winner
The Tequila Worm - Viola Canales (Wendy Lamb Books)

Pura Belpre Award Author Honors
Cesar: Si se puede! !Yes we can! - by Carmen
Bernier-Grand, illustrated by David Diaz
Dona Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a
Great Big Heart - Pat Mora, ill. Raul Colon
Becoming Naomi Leon - Pam Munoz Ryan (Scholastic)

ROBERT F. SIBERT INFORMATIONAL BOOK AWARD
(best informational book)

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Winner
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the
Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley - Sally M. Walker

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Honor
Hilter Youth: Growing up in Hilter’s Shadow - Susan
Campbell Bartoletti

SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARD
(book that embodies expression of a disability experience)

Schneider Family Book Award for teens - Under the Wolf, Under the Dog - Adam Rapp

Schneider Family Book Award for middle school - Tending to Grace - Kimberly Newton
Fusco

Schneider Family Book Award for children - Dad, Jackie, and Me - Myron Uhlberg,
illustrated by Colin Bootman

THEODOR SEUSS GEISEL AWARD

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award Winner
Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas - Cynthia
Rylant

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award Honors
Hi! Fly Guy - Tedd Arnold (Cartwheel Books)
A Spendid Friend Indeed - Suzanne Bloom
Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa - Betsy Lewin
Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day - Jean Van Leeuwen

ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL
(outstanding children’s video)

Andrew Carnegie Medal Winner:
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers - Michael Sporn
Animation/Weston Woods Studios

MARGARET ALEX EDWARDS AWARD
(for lifetime achievement)
Margaret Alex Edwards Award Winner:
Jacqueline Woodson

MAY HILL ARBUTHNOT HONOR LECTURE AWARD
May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award
Kevin Henkes

Steven and I arrived to the President’s Progam a little late from lunch, to find a nice man from New Orleans (whose name escapes my mind) talking about the state of things in the host city of this year’s ALA annual conference. He took great pains to assure us that all is ready, that improvements continue to be made, and that we wouldn’t be guinea pigs for their improvements, so to speak, since other groups would be coming down before us. Overall, the city is ready, willing, and able to accomodate our conference, with clean air, clean water, and clean facilities. He also took the time to thank ALA for not moving the conference, for having the faith in the city, and for supporting the city by bringing the conference to New Orleans.

Michael Gorman rose and spoke briefly after this gentleman, and mentioned a library relief program for the libraries of New Orleans, and I think he mentioned something about being able to volunteer hands-on help at the conference for the libraries. A URL flashed on the scren behind him, but I wasn’t able to get the whole thing (those pesky, long ALA URLs ::sigh::). I’ve ben poking around on the ALA site, and I haven’t been able to find it, but if you know the URL of which I speak, please leave it in a comment for this post.

Andrei Codrescu also reiterated thanks and praise for ALA at the beginning of his presentation, and encouraged librarians to come to the conference, and not to cancel their travel plans. He also passed along a message from the head of the New Orleans library about the level of devastation to the library system, and how the ALA conference coming to New Orleans will really help rebuilding the libraries, but gave the sense that it would also rebuild the librarians, too.

If you’re interested in reading more about the upcoming conference, or if you’d like to register as an Early Bird, check out the ALA Annual 2006 site.

Thumbs down
The Diary of Pelly D. by L. J. Adlington (slow starter)
Code Orange by Caroline Cooney (not as good as her other stuff)

Mostly thumbs down
Shelf Life by Robert Corbet (superficial, too many characters)

Mixed bag
Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block (a Weetzie Bat fan liked it, but others found it hard to relate to)

Mostly thumbs up
Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson (lots of people liked this one)
Naughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman (one person didn’t like it, but everyone else thought it was really powerful, I bet it makes the list)
Candy by Kevin Brooks
Phoenix Dance by Dia Calhoun (the folks who liked this enjoyed how it gave insight into bipolar disorder)
Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci

Thumbs up
Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black (yeah, they all loved this one, I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t make the list)
24 Girls in 7 Days by Alex Bradley (funny)
Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone
The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher (the word they kept using was “inspiring,” this one’s a good bet for the list, too) (I’m glad because I looove Chris Crutcher)

There were some other books that only one person mentioned, but these are the titles that kept coming up. Sorry, I only stayed until the beginning of the Ds. You’ll just have to wait for the list…

This morning I attended the PLA All-Committee Meeting at the Marriott Riverwalk hotel. Even though I wasn’t on a PLA committee, I am a PLA member, and will be attending the PLA Conference in Boston in March. What better way to be involved in PLA than join a committee?

Friday night I attended the NMRT Meet & Greet at the St. Anthony Hotel. It was great to catch up with people I only see once or twice a year at conferences! I met Heidi, another fellow blogger (and I just realized that she’s a blogger too).

Happy blogoversary to the PLA Blog! Started at ALA Midwinter 2005 in Boston, we’ve been here a whole year!

Many thanks to our past conference bloggers:

ALA Midwinter 2005 in Boston:
Sophie Brookover, Nanette Wargo Donohue, Gabriel S. Farrell, Beth Gallaway, Rochelle Hartman, Chris Jowaisas, Jenifer May, Jennie Pu, Beatrice Pulliam, K.G. Schneider

ALA Annual 2005 in Chicago:
Louise Alcorn, Kevin Delecki, Heidi Dolamore, Katie Dunneback, Beth Gallaway, Chad Haefele, Rochelle Hartman, Liza Hickey, Angie Miraflor, Gina Persichini, Tasha Saecker, Jennifer Snider, Ryann Uden

PLA Results Boot Camp 2005 in Salt Lake City:
Kathleen Hughes, Renee Vaillancourt McGrath

Our current crew here in San Antonio:
Heidi Dolamore, Beth Gallaway, Rochelle Hartman, Ryan Langhurst, Dale McNeill, Jennie Pu, Anne Robert

As you can see, we have many “repeat offenders” in our crews, as well as many new names. Thank you for all braving the teeming conference masses with us! May you inspire new and returning volunteers to run with us in the future.

A special thank you to Kathleen Hughes, our Managing Editor, the staff at PLA (big shouts to Barb Macikas, Sharon Distel, both of whom have posted for us before), and you, our readers.

Your PLA Blog co-managers,

Andrea Mercado & Steven M. Cohen

This morning, we the PLA “all committee” meetings at the Riverwalk Hotel. I chair the electronic communications advisory committee (which basically means that we advice PLA on their web site). We came to a bunch of conclusions on little things that we can change to make the site a bit more user friendly and to drive more traffic. These include:

+ Feeding the blog content to the site via RSS
+ Tutorial for feeding PLA blog posts to any other sites.
+ Change e-mail addresses to not have them “hot-link”.
+ Ask other committee chairs to send in information on what their committees are working on to share with PLA members.
+ Provide access to articles from the magazine on the site.

These are just of the few ideas that we discussed. Hopefully, we will be able to implement most of these ideas. If you have any ideas, please share them with me.

On another note, we need new committee members. If you are a member of PLA and would like to serve on the committee, please send me a note (stevenmcohen [at] gmail [dot] com) and I would be thrilled to discuss the possibilities.

Lots of dog puns, followed by appreciative groans
-several editors, publisher dinner

“YALSA Salsa” (the food, or the dance? not sure)
-random librarian, YALSA all-committee

“So…. are you a librarian?” (pick up line)
-random male, Swig, martini bar

A great story about a librarian who fell asleep on the shuttle bus and rode around for quite awhile… woke up and found herself alone on the bus - the driver had finished the route, but was happy to bring her to her hotel. Attributed to too many margaritas the night before.
-librarian, publisher dinner

“Are you movin’ & shakin’?”
-librarian, outside convention center

“For public libraries, right?” (about a petition to establish a gaming group within YALSA)
-library teacher, Marriot Rivercenter

“y’all @#$!ing ROCK!” (when the waitress forgot to bring the tab)
-waitress, Swig martini bar

“I have a shiny new job!”
-ingenue librarian, Marriot Rivercenter

“Do you have any ARCS?”
everyone, exhibit hall

“Firefighters don’t have to deal with MARC records.” (on why librarians in the UK have more stressful jobs than firefighters)
-OCLC Blogger Salon

“We’re kind of like Geico” (referring to a library’s customer service ethic)
-Boudreau’s restaurant

“The disabled community is the most disenfranchised community in public and academic libraries… we don’t always do the best job.”
-Boudreau’s restaurant

“I’m glad I had soup for the really theoretical part… no, I’m just kidding.”
-Boudreau’s restaurant

“15% of ALA members are students - about 10,000 people. THere are 100 seats on ALA council. That means there should be 15 student members on council. Where are the student councillors?” (student running for council)
-Medusa bar