Libraries: Have the Power to Change the World

Commentary: Technological and economic shifts have only made libraries more valuable
Washington Post: November 8, 2010 by Roberta Stevens

Today's challenging economy demands strategic investments. While the job market continues to recover, one of the best uses of public and private funds is to help ensure that people are digitally literate and are improving their employment skills.

Increasingly, the local public library serves as the community technology hub for training, digital literacy and, yes, even books.

While some believed the Internet might retire the library, the reverse has occurred. Over the past decade, libraries have embraced technology resources, and library visits and circulation have grown by 20 percent. The recession has only increased the demands on the public library.

Yet providing the full range of services to the public is possible only when libraries remain open. Locally, fiscal 2011 funding cuts have led to reduced staff and services and fewer operational hours in libraries in Arlington, Fairfax and Montgomery counties and the District.

As businesses in the D.C. area know, increasingly employment and government information is online -- and sometimes online only. Libraries open doors for millions of Americans who may lack Internet access or the skills to survive and thrive online. Sixty-seven percent of libraries, in fact, report helping library patrons apply for jobs online last year.

The 2010 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study conducted by the American Library Association and the Center for Library & Information Innovation at the University of Maryland found that in two-thirds of U.S. communities, public libraries offer the only free public access to computers and the Internet. Maryland and Virginia libraries report similar percentages statewide.

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Here's a message to elected leaders as they balance budgets: Today's libraries are an essential service and provide resources to ensure a competitive workforce.

All of us -- parents, families, seniors and businesses large or small -- must speak up to keep libraries open and available. The time to act is now: Phone or e-mail local officials supporting libraries and become a "friend of" your library.

The resources in your local library have the power to change the world; but the doors must be kept open. READ MORE !

Roberta Stevens is president of the American Library Association.

Libraries Around the World

Libraries Around the World
PRI’s The World: November 4, 2010

In the Geo Quiz we’re looking for one of the world’s oldest libraries that’s open to the public. 1368 is good year to start your search. This was the age of knights and crusaders, and the Ming Dynasty. And it’s when one King Charles V established a royal library. It packs in over 14 million books. Can you name it? …and tell us about great libraries you’ve had a chance to visit around the world.

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Now we want to tell you about one of the world’s newest libraries in Bhutan. Bhutan is a tiny kingdom sandwiched between two giants — India and China. It’s also perched high in the Himalayas — isolated for much of its history.
By Lisa Napoli

The village of Ura looks like it came out of a fairy tale a cluster of farmhouses in the midst of a valley of green. Most everyone here in this tiny community works the land. The children here represent the new, modern Bhutan: They’re learning to read, and in English.

So when a non-profit group announced it wanted to help the village start a library, the reaction was lukewarm. The library is only the second free lending library in the entire country. The other one is ten hours away in the capital Thimphu.

Kesang Choden came from there to help the villagers get the library up and running. She’s with the Bhutan office of the nonprofit group, Read Global. Choden says books aren’t the only thing in short supply in Ura.

“There’s just two stores, and those are grocery stores. You just get necessities. Like salt and oil. It’s very difficult for them to even get a pencil. Very difficult.”

Choden says some parents were worried by the idea that their kids would borrow books to take home. They were afraid the children might destroy them, and they’d have to pay. The sad part is that the parents here maybe because they’re illiterate don’t see the importance of a book. They don’t encourage their children to read. That’s the sad thing, right?

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Mostly, though, it’s kids who pack this place every day.

When we read more, we learn more, no? The children of Ura are so excited about the library that the staff is putting in extra hours. Kesang Choden doesn’t seem to mind.

Read Global hopes to open several libraries in other villages across the country by the end of the year. READ MORE !

6 Million Free Books Inside Boxes of Cheerios

Cheerios Serves Up 6 Million Children's Books Inside Boxes this Fall

Nov 3: Starting today, Cheerios, through its Spoonfuls of Stories program, is again bringing books to the breakfast table, by providing 6 million children's books, written in both English and Spanish, FREE inside Cheerios boxes.

Since Spoonfuls of Stories' inception in 2001, Cheerios has distributed almost 50 million children's books inside boxes. Families can see which book is inside through a special cut-out window on the front of the box, so they can select the specific book they want, or collect all 5.

Or: Check Out The Books @ Your Local Library

CalCat or WorldCat

All the World - Elizabeth Garton Scanlon
Beach Lane Books, 2009

Chaucer's First Winter - Stephen Krensky
Simon & Schuster, 2008

Jump ! - Scott M Fischer
Simon & Schuster, 2010

No T. Rex in the Library - Toni Buzzeo
McElderry Books, 2010

The Purple Kangaroo - Michael Ian Black
Simon & Schuster, 2010

Fix Our Schools Manifesto . . . Got It All Wrong

How to fix our schools: A manifesto
by Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and other education leaders
Washington Post: October 10, 2010

As educators, superintendents, chief executives and chancellors responsible for educating nearly 2 1/2 million students in America, we know that the task of reforming the country's public schools begins with us. It is our obligation to improve the personal growth and academic achievement of our students, and we must be accountable for how our schools perform.

All of us have taken steps to move our students forward, and the Obama administration's Race to the Top program has been the catalyst for more reforms than we have seen in decades. But those reforms are still outpaced and outsized by the crisis in public education.

Fortunately, the public, and our leaders in government, are finally paying attention. The "Waiting for 'Superman' " documentary, the defeat of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift to Newark's public schools, and a tidal wave of media attention have helped spark a national debate and presented us with an extraordinary opportunity.

But the transformative changes needed to truly prepare our kids for the 21st-century global economy simply will not happen unless we first shed some of the entrenched practices that have held back our education system, practices that have long favored adults, not children. These practices are wrong, and they have to end now.

It's time for all of the adults -- the superintendents, educators, elected officials, labor unions and parents -- to start acting like we are responsible for the future of children. Because right now, across the country, kids are stuck in failing schools, just waiting for us to do something.

So, where do we start? With the basics. As President Obama has emphasized, the single most important factor determining whether students succeed in school is not the color of their skin or their ZIP code or even their parents' income -- it is the quality of their teacher. READ MORE !

The Manifesto got it all wrong - Stephen Krashen
Sent to the Washington Post, October 8, 2010

" The Manifesto ignores the real problem: Poverty. The best teaching cannot overcome the enormous negative influence of malnutrition and hunger, lack of health care, environmental toxins, and lack of access to books. Clear evidence that poverty is the problem is the finding that American students from well-funded schools who come from high-income families outscore nearly all other countries on international tests. Our overall scores are unspectacular because the US has a very high percentage of children in poverty (over 20%, compared to Denmark's 3%).

The first step in "reform" is to protect children from the effects of poverty: Improved health care, good food, and improved libraries and library services for children in high-poverty areas. When all American children have the advantages that middle-class children have, our international test scores will be at the top of the world. "

Map from: National Center for Children in Poverty

Health Literacy Month: October 2010

Health Literacy Month: October

Struggling to Understand Health Information (A Podcast)
Engaging the Patient: October 4, 2010 by Geri-Lynn Baumblatt

By her own admission, Helen Osborne “had no idea what she was getting into” when she decided to found Health Literacy Month in 1999. Now, more than a decade later, the event is an annual institution. In this short interview, Helen Osborne sits down with Engaging the Patient’s own Geri Baumblatt to discuss Health Literacy, Health Literacy Month and the future of both.

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National Institute for Literacy [NIFL] Closes

National Institute for Literacy [NIFL] closed on September 30.
On October 1, the Literacy Information and Communication System [LINCS] moves to the Office of Vocation and Adult Education [OVAE].

A new website, LINCS, will continue to provide popular NIFL resources: publications, news items, discussion lists, archives of webcasts, and the America’s Literacy Directory.

LINCS will provide access to literacy research and resources with Regional Resource Centers, Resource Collections, Discussion Lists, and newsletter.

Created in 1991, NIFL strove to provide leadership on literacy issues, including the improvement of reading instruction for children, youth, and adults. We would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to the Institute for the numerous services provided and contributions to the field in its nearly twenty years of existence.

Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Summary — May 7, 2009

National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) $6.5 Budget

Despite nearly 2 decades of operations, NIFL has demonstrated little success in its mission of providing national leadership on literacy issues, coordinating Federal literacy programs and policies, and serving as a national resource for adult education and literacy programs. Federal literacy activities remain diffuse and duplicative, and the Administration believes that the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) is better positioned to provide effective national literacy leadership and coordination. Folding NIFL's functions into OVAE also would allow all of its resources to be used for national activities rather than for staffing and overhead, which currently absorb almost half of NIFL's appropriation.

It's a Book

It’s a Book by Lane Smith
- video from YouTube



Roaring Brook Press, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1596436060

Read On @ Your Local Library: CalCat or WorldCat