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ALSC Online Education (image courtesy of ALSC)

Starting this summer, I will be teaching an online course for ALSC called It’s Mutual: School and Public Library Collaboration. As two public institutions, it’s important for us to reach out to each other, especially as budgets tighten. We already share an audience that we hope will turn into lifelong learners (and library users).

With early literacy programming, public libraries are often the first place kids start learning, when they become students we supplement their learning, and hopefully, when students graduate, they will still rely on the library to aid their learning. When schools and public libraries come together they can share expertise, workers, and save money by sharing resources. Let’s say you have a database that doesn’t see a lot of use. If every student has a library card they can all get to the database. If public librarians and school teaching staff get together to teach the students how to use the database, it will get more use and teachers will be aware of its existence to promote it. Collaborations help communities value education and become aware of resources, as well as position public libraries as “educators” too.

I created this course to help public librarians, school librarians, teachers, and school administrators come together to benefit the students and the institutions they belong to as well.

In this class, you will practice making materials for different school services scenarios. You will learn to research local statistics in order to state your case to school administrations and library board members. You will learn to set up a basic yet comprehensive school services program that opens up communication between libraries and schools (and maybe leads to more joint projects). School services librarians are not here to replace school librarians, but to work together on programming, promotion and library resources to benefit our preschool to high school community.

If you would like to sign up, register here: http://www.ala.org/alsc/its-mutual-school-and-public-library-collaboration. This is a six-week course, beginning July 13th.

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Rachel Reinwald is the School Liaison Librarian at Lake Villa District Library. She has an MLIS from Dominican University as well as several teaching certificates. She loves supporting teachers through professional development, sharing library resources, and suggesting helpful websites and apps. Her interests outside of libraries are lesson planning (oh wait, that’s work isn’t it) rock climbing, writing, and moonlighting as a personal trainer. She blogs at www.litlaughlearn.com.

The post It’s Mutual: School & Public Library Collaboration appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Have your books been updated and made for sale as ebooks? Are you on the Kindle store, the Nook store, or the Kobo store? Great.
But if you’re not on the iBook store, you’re missing sales. Here’s why.

In a recent 2014 survey by Education Market Research, they surveyed schools about what tablets they currently own. Apple’s iPad overwhelmingly wins the tablet wars with 79.7% of the market. Distant competitors include Microsoft Surface at 10.2% and Samsung Galaxy Note at 6.2%. Wow! iPads rule! In schools, at least, Kindles only have 1% of the market.

Further, respondents said there are 2.3 million tablets in U.S. schools. That means about 1.6 million iPads are floating around the school buildings. That’s a huge market that you can’t afford to ignore! Especially when the respondents were asked about future purchases. Again, iPad tops the market share with 65.7% planning to buy iPads.

See my books on the iBook store!
To see if your ebooks are on the iBookstore, use the iTunes Link Maker tool. Search for your name under the books category. In the comments below, report what you find!

Darcy Pattison’s books on the iBookStore

Other eBook Options

Just because a school owns a dozen iPads, though, it doesn’t mean the school library will order from the iBookstore. Schools buying patterns are way more complicated because of factors such funding sources, issues related to inventory and checking out books, etc. In a September, 2013 article for Digital Shift, “SLJ’s School Ebook Market Directory,” Matt Enis and Sarah Bayliss run down 22 options that school have for purchasing ebooks for their libraries. Many options are simply a publishing company offering their backlist. Other options include ebooks from multiple publishers. The King among these options is Follett eBooks:

“Sixty-seven percent of PreS–12 schools using ebooks purchase from Follett, according to a recent Library Journal survey. Special features from Follett include note-taking capabilities in all titles and highlighting options in most, along with a tool allowing teachers and students to write and share notes. Additional Follett tools aim to support close reading and Common Core State Standards goals and offer scaffolding structures for struggling readers. Printing, copying and pasting, and text-to-speech features depend on publishers’ DRM specifications.”

One of the main reasons schools go to these ebook distributors is their desire to be “device independent” or “device agnostic.” They understand the limitations of being tied to a certain ebook reader. When a company provides “device independent” books, it usually means the ebooks are browser dependent. Any device which has a browser–such as Kindle Fire or iPads–can read that type of ebook. The versatility and universality of the browser dependent ebooks makes them an attractive option for schools. They aren’t tied to costly upgrades of tablets that tend to break. Instead, ebooks are read on whatever device is working.

Are your books available on these services? You’ll have to look up each one. Follett’s titles can be checked in their titlewave.com website, which is only available to customers. That means you’ll have to find a friendly children’s librarian to look it up for you. Yes, all my books are available on Follett’s ebook platform!

Finally, some publishers are making their eBooks available for purchase on their own websites. My indie books are available in epub or Kindle formats at MimsHouse.com. If you own the ebook rights to your books, you can sell them from your own website, too.

Book Reviews: A Difficult Ask

Of course, this means more work for authors as they work to get the oh-so-necessary-reviews. Already, we ask friends and family to review our books on Amazon/Kindle and maybe on GoodReads. KoboBooks used to pick up reviews from GoodReads, but since it’s been bought by Amazon, that’s not smart business; now, Kobo asks its customers to review on its site. And now, you should really ask for reviews on the iBookstore. Is it too much to expect from a friend?

What you are about to see is real. These are the books that actual, honest-to-goodness children are putting on hold at the school libraries where I work. The photo below (of books on hold at my 3rd and 4th grade school) has not been altered in any way.

Wait, let’s make this easier on ourselves:

Much better. Okay, since it’s a fairly crowed shelf this month, let’s put these books in categories.

The No Surprises Group:

39 Clues, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Calvin and Hobbes, Goosebumps, Scholastic Book of World Records, Batman/Superman

You didn’t know these were popular? I’d like to welcome you to 2010, because it is very likely you are a time traveler from the past.

The Seasonal Sensations:

Halloween, Mostly Ghostly

There’s something I love about the annual renewal of interest in seasonal books. It’s like they become famous again every year.

The Perennial Classic:

Where the Sidewalk Ends

This book just continues to get love – as you can probably tell by the condition it’s in. It has the pesky top o’ the spine tear going on.

The High Interest Nonfiction Contingent:

The Loch Ness Monster, Buck Wilder’s Small Fry Fishing Guide, The Golden Retriever

Lovers of facts make their presence felt on the hold shelf with this trio of titles.

The “I Didn’t Realize that was Popular Until I Realized It” Crew:

The English Roses series by Madonna, The Young Dancer by Darcy Bussel, The Scary States of America by Michael Teitelbaum

English Roses has been a unquestionable smash hit at my schools. As a result, my tongue-biting strength has never been better. The popularity of The Young Dancer once again re-affirms that one can never underestimate books on this topic. Scary States, a collection of 50 scary short stories is almost always on hold. If I can recommend you purchase one lesser-known title on this list, this crowd-pleaser would be it.

The Fiction Creeper:

Peak by Roland Smith

This book has been getting a bunch of checkouts recently – I’m chalking this one up to positive student word-of-mouth, which is always welcome.

Look for more books On Hold @ the Library next month.

As a school librarian, I can’t tell you how many times people offer used, new or self-published books for the school library. For one reason or another, nine times out of ten, they are not appropriate for our collection.

Want your book’s spine facing out on the library shelves? Then listen up…

1. Enough with the anthropomorphic animals, people!

So you wrote a charming picture book about a helpful squirrel or a shy frog. Good for you. I have 3, 276 of them already. Talking animals have been done to death. Unless you’re the next H.A. Rey or Kate DiCamillo, please consider a premise with more minty freshness. Kids are tired of these books and so am I.

Talking robots or mutant woodchucks?  Now you’re talking.

2. I will throw your book across the room if you mention the phrases “learns how to…” or “teaches a lesson…”

Seriously. One whiff of GRANDMA TAKES RAINBOW KITTY TO THE DENTIST and I’m out. Kids want to read about complex characters tackling conflicts in a vivid setting. They don’t want to be taught or lectured. They want to get lost in a story and draw their own conclusions. Leave the lessons in Sunday School, please.

Didactic books are so last century. Don’t go there.

3. Your writing style reveals you don’t have a clue about your audience.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started reading a so called “children’s book” with the voice of a misty eyed eighty year old.

Gee whiz, Gramps.

If your dialogue, phrasing and plot conjure the words  “heartwarming, old fashioned fun” or “Dick and Jane antics,” you don’t know Jack about what kids are reading.

If your story would make a great hallmark movie, it’s probably not a home run for today’s market. Or my library.

4. Your writing style reveals you don’t have a clue about format or genre.

A 30,ooo word picture book? A twenty page mystery for sixth graders? Fritz the Friendly Frog, a chapter book for shy tweens?

No. No. And heck No! Maybe you chose the wrong format. Maybe your picture book is really a middle grade novel. Maybe your middle grade chapter book with an eight year old protagonist is really an early childhood picture book. Maybe your voice is not a good fit for your target audience.

Maybe no kid of any age would touch your book with a ten foot Nerf bat. Just sayin’.

5. I’ve read books written by second graders better than yours.

After reading your typo filled book with the dayglo, grainy stock photo cover, I suspect you barely have opposable thumbs.

I don’t just reject these dreadful books, I exorcise them from my library. Get thee behind me, Lulu!

6. Your books scares me. And not in a good way.

Your anime style romp with sword wielding, brimstone breathing, scripture quoting heroes in spandex? Tis’ the mark of the beast.

Your middle grade chapter book infused with colorful pejoratives and racist overtones? No thank you, you are not, in fact, this century’s Mark Twain. Kindly respect the restraining order.

Okay, before you the comments section with hate scented air freshener, just know I’m exaggerating. A little.

Maybe.

What turns you off a book? I’d love to know.

Hungry for more? Try these Indoor S’mores, the eas

Last year I renewed a subscription for my library, a magazine the kids love to read. We got a special offer, $49.95 for twelve issues! This year, we got another "special offer" - the same amount for a whole ten issues! Yay! But ONLY if we subscribed NOW. Two months ahead. It took me ages to get through to the publishers to clarify. They kept answering every question except the one I had actually asked: what happens if I don't take advantage of your fabulous offer? Do I pay more but still get 12 issues? Are you cutting back to ten issues a year? And whoever was replying refused to give me a name to speak to. It may be I was hearing from more than one person, but still...

Finally, someone admitted that they were cutting down to ten issues a year and I had to renew, because they STILL haven't told me what I have to pay if I leave it till August, the date we really are due and I have had enough of this back and forth.

I have to take my hat off to this company's marketing division, though :"Let's send them a whiz-bang special offer and hope they don't notice we've cut the goods back AND we get all the interest on the payment in the meantime." Take from your customers and make it look like you're doing them a favour. As far as I'm concerned, I would have preferred to get a message saying, "We're cutting back, but if you renew now we can keep it at the old price." I would still have taken up the offer, but not had all the annoyance.

Ah, well.

Addendum: Today I got in to work and found a new message from the company offering TWELVE issues for the same price as the previous one. After I'd faxed through the order for the ten.

I rang up the company and spoke to a nice gentleman who fixed it for me and promised an invoice in a few days. I got his name. When you get a competent person on the other end, you don't want to lose them.

A member of my critique group recently bought two autographed copies of my book, If I Could Be Anything, for the school library where her kids go to school. She recently reported back that my book has been in the Requested/Reserved pile at the library for the past few weeks. She told me that it’s not a big pile, and only the best books wind up in that pile. How cool is that?

My books have gotten some pretty good reviews so far. But this tells me more than anything else, that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. Kids actually waiting to read my book, is probably the most glowing review of all. I'm doing the happy dance!

Orca author Troy Wilson has just launched his “Be a Book Hero” project. For every twenty dollars donated, he’ll send an autographed copy of Perfect Man to any school library (of the donor’s choice) in North America and donate $7.50 to either Love of Reading (Canada) or Reader to Reader (USA).  Also included in the package to be sent to the schools will an 8 1/2 x 11 color sketch of Troy Wilson as the superhero of the donor’s choosing, with a caption that reads, “What are your super powers?”.

This is a great opportunity to show your support and help get books into schools. More info about how to get involved here.

In addition to being National Poetry Month, April is also a time for celebrating School Library Media Month. Take a moment to think back about the library at your school when you were growing up. What role did it play in your reading? What about your neighborhood school today? Libraries can be pivotal in the school environment and are known to boost children’s achievement by providing greater access to print and media resources, particularly under the guidance of a knowledgeable librarian or library media specialist. It’s all about that person at the hub. Here’s one of my favorite poems about a school librarian from Kristine O’Connell George’s poetry collection for middle school.

School Librarian
By Kristine O’Connell George

Mrs. Thompson knows I love sad stories.
The books she lends me
come with
hidden bookmarks—


folded tissues tucked into
the sad parts.

From: George, Kristine O’Connell. 2002. “School Librarian” from Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems. New York: Clarion Books, p. 35


Here are a few more poem gems about school librarians/library media specialists:

For the elementary grades:
“When the Librarian Reads to Us” by Kalli Dakos
From Put Your Eyes Up Here and Other School Poems. Simon & Schuster, 2003.

For high school:
“See, the Library” by Ellen Hopkins
From burned. McElderry, 2006.

And a cautionary poem:
“The Library Card” by Jane Medina
From My Name is Jorge on Both Sides of the River; Poems in English and Spanish. Boyds Mills Press, 1999.

You’ll find more lists of poems about libraries in my books Poetry Aloud Here and Poetry People, as well as in my 2006 article: “A place for poetry: Celebrating the library in poetry.” Children and Libraries. 4, (2), 35-41. As you can see, I love this topic! ☺

Picture credit: TWU SLIS

Walter Moers, author of Rumo and The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, is one of the best-known and most successful German authors and illustrators. In his new novel The City of Dreaming Books, Moers invites readers to experience the strange world of Bookholm, a book-obsessed metropolis in the land of Zamonia. Translated from the German by John Brownjohn.

New Yorkers in search of a literary fix this weekend are cordially invited to attend the second annual Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, September 16, 10:00am to 6:00pm, at the Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza.