… Time to revisit the M.S. 88 library blog! School Library Journal is running a 23 Things style program this summer that I’ve decided to join. 23 Things is a low-key way to learn about all kinds of Web 2.0 technologies and think about ways to apply them to the library. It will be fun (in a nerdy kind of way) to see what technologies we’re already using at M.S. 88 and learn about new cool stuff to use in the fall. For example, Day One covers blogs… check!

In the 2008-09 school year, I want to make the library blog more of a destination for teachers and students to get library news and to collect all of the information I’m picking up throughout the year. I’ve learned the hard way that it’s difficult to keep blogging, so an important goal for the fall will be to keep up the flow of content (as in, at least a trickle of content, please.) Maybe it would be helpful to set posting goals–at least once a week, more than six times a month–
and then make posts more of a daily or weekly routine.

Participating in the SLJ 2.0 Experience is going to be a great way to get back into library blogging, since there will be something to talk about throughout the summer and I’ll be linked into a larger community of school librarians.

Do you Twitter? Your library does! Twitter is a form of “micro-blogging”: short (140 character) text posts about what’s going on at any moment. Check out the Twitter feed on the right-hand menu bar for the latest or go directly to the M.S. 88 Library Twitter site. You can subscribe to the Twitter feed to get updates sent in a text message to your cell phone or to your instant messenger account.

Whew… blogging is hard. To maintain, that is. It’s been a while, but here are some updates from the staff book club:

We’ve finished  A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage and The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho. Our new pick (to finish before winter break) is No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. This may be accompanied by a movie field trip to see the new Coen brothers adaptation…. details to come.

Don’t forget: the staff book club is meeting in the library tomorrow (Tuesday, October 16) at 7:30 a.m. to discuss the end of Blindness and spin the Wheel of Books (TM) to determine our next selection.

Why was the library closed on Friday? Ms. Ahart and Mr. Walling (who braved hordes of librarians) were presenters at the fall New York City School Library Systems fall conference. They were showing off last year’s civil rights museum project with 807 and 809. Here’s a copy of the Powerpoint if you want to check it out.

September passed like a flash in the library. Here’s the highlight reel:

• All literacy classes had their library orientations and checked out the first books of the year. The library orientation video got the red-carpet treatment, so thanks to all of the teachers who made cameo appearances!
• Mr. Carioto and Ms. Valentine’s 7th-grade social studies class came by to learn how to take notes on primary sources. Two-column note-taking is the wave of the future!
• Ms. Krywanczyk and Mr. Hoffner’s 6th-grade literacy classes learned about our freedom of speech and wrote postcards to political prisoners through Amnesty International to observe Banned Books Week.
• Lots of new paperback books arrived!

And looking forward to October:

• The winners of the Summer Reading Stars contest will be announced on Monday… congratulations to all the students who were busy readers this summer.
• Ms. Ahart and Mr. Diaz’s comic book club will start Monday, October 5, after school. Comics club will meet every Monday from 3:15-4:15. If you love manga, superheroes, drawing, or making up stories, then this is the club for you! Come by the library to sign up.
• October 14-20 is Teen Read Week . The theme this year is “LOL at Your Library,” so check out displays and book lists to tickle your funny bone.

One last note: the library will be closed on Friday, October 12, because Ms. Ahart will be attending NYC School Library System’s fall conference for secondary librarians. She and Mr. Walling will be presenting a panel on technology, collaboration, and 8th-grade exit projects. See you on Monday.

What do Alvin Schwartz, Maya Angelou, Robert Cormier, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, J.K. Rowling, Judy Blume, and Katherine Paterson have in common? They are all in the top ten authors of the American Library Association’s list of 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990-2000. At M.S. 88, I’m celebrating Banned Books Week in the library by displaying books by these authors and other books from ALA’s list and, later this week, planning activities in the library for literacy classes that celebrate our freedom to read.

Don’t forget: the first staff book club meeting is in the library tomorrow (Tuesday, October 2) at 7:30 to discuss the first 160 pages of Blindness by José Saramago.

I’ll be at curriculum night tonight passing out family literacy guides for parents and community members. This is a great tool to introduce reading into your family life, with suggestions for making your home a book-friendly place and recommended reading lists for all grade levels.

 If you couldn’t make it to curriculm night, you can download the guide from the Dept. of Education web site. You’ll find versions in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, and Urdu.

In this week’s email newsletter from Marylaine Block she mentions the Unshelved Book Club, which is just. so. cool! Every week the good folks at Unshelved produce a YA booktalk in the form of a full-color comic. They range from giggle-worthy to downright hilarious… I particularly enjoy the strips for Gregor the Overlander and Coraline.