2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

What are kids–your audience–reading today?
“The Accelerated Reader Real Time database includes book-reading records for more than 8.6 million students from 27,240 schools nationwide who read more than 283 million books during the 2011-2012 school year.”

Renaissance Learning, the folks who do the Accelerated Reader program and testing, has just issued the 2013 report, “What Kids are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools.” It uses the data collected from millions of AR-reading tests to report on what kids have actually read this past year. Of course, the caveat is that these are also books they tested on, and therefore may not give the clearest picture of leisure reading. An AR-test must exist and a school must have it available for a student to test on the book; students often read books that they don’t test on.

Classics. Overwhelmingly, classics rule (think Dr. Seuss), followed by high-profile books, such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid. One interesting dataset lists the Caldecott and Newberry winners and shows their ranking among 1-5 graders. The Caldecott winners languish, with only three titles breaking into the top 100: Officer Buckle and Gloria at #17; Where the Wild Things Are at #20; The Polar Express at #50; and, The Snowy Day at #62.

For the Newbery Award winners, nothing before 1960 made it into the top 100 list for 6th-8th graders. However, they fared better, with twelve Newbery titles on the list: The Giver at #11; Number the Stars at #14; Holes at #17; Maniac Magee at #41; Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry at #40; Bud, Not Buddy at #43; Bridge to Terabithia at #47; Island of Blue Dolphins at #63; The Westing Game at #65; Walk Two Moons at #72; Out of the Dust at #95; and, A Wrinkle in Time at #96.

Overall, books that receive national exposure by being made into a movie were hits: The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, rising from #210th most popular to #28 this year for third graders; The Help by Kathryn Stockett, from #1273 last year to #24 among high schoolers; and, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which had done well in high school and middle school in previous years, but this year jumped from #1478 to #24 in fourth grade and from #92 to #4 in fifth grade.

Text complexity in early 20th century for required reading in high school was about 9.0 ATOS, but has dropped to about 6.0 ATOS.

CCSS Exemplar texts were popular. The report states “. . .examining the popularity of the CCSS exemplars revealed that, although not intended to be used as a curriculum, almost all of the Informational Texts and Stories Exemplars were read by a slightly greater proportion of students in 2011-12 than the prior school year, suggesting the new standards may be influencing both curricular choices and less formal recommendations.”

These are fascinating pieces of data. The information is broken into favorites by grade and gender. You can also download these reports:

• Top 100 Nonfiction Books Read by ATOS Book Level Range, Grades 1-12
• Top 100 Fiction Books Read by ATOS Book Level Range, Grades 1-12
• Top 25 Spanish Books Read, Grades 1-12

Here’s an infographic from RenLearing.
Click to see full size. R-Click to save.

It would also be an interesting project to cross-reference this material with Scholastic’s 2013 Kids and Family Reading Report, which analyzes data from a survey of families about what kids are reading.

How Does the Top 100 List Affect Your Writing?

Backlist is your real competition. First, realize that your real competition for kids’ attention isn’t today’s books, but the backlist. In schools, it takes time for teachers to fall in love with your book, develop lesson plans and incorporate it into the culture. If you can write a book that passes that gauntlet, you’re likely to have real staying power. Winning a major award might help, but the majority of award winners, have fallen off the charts.

Humor rules. Really. If you read over the list of top 100 books for the younger grades, it’s humor all the way. From Dr. Seuss to Laura Numeroff, kids like funny books. Jeff Kinney and Dav Pilkey combined capture ten of the top 20 for fourth grade. You may not win the Newbery for a funny book, but you might find your place in the classroom.

Trade Books rule. And lest you think that means you should look to educational publishers, look again. Most of these titles are from trade publishers.

Teen Books. Write on a teen level. In 8th grade, The Outsiders still ranks #3. Maybe that’s because it gets assigned by teachers, but it’s still popular with kids.

Nonfiction Popular Books

Also available is the Top 100 list of nonfiction titles. Accelerated Reader’s strength isn’t nonfiction, but it’s still interesting to see what titles turned up.

Grades 1-3. Nature/animal books, biographies and titles related to English Language Arts (such as #12, Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is an Adjective? by Brian P. Cleary) were most popular. For example, Penguin Chick was #1, The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle was #2, How Much is a Million? by David M. Schwartz was #3, and Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr by Doreen Rappaport was #4.

Grades 4-5. Biography and history edges out nature/animal books. For example, Finding the Titanic by Robert D. Ballard is #4, and Nights of the Pufflingsby Bruce McMillan is #9.

Grades 6-9. Biographies (including tales of faith)and history compete well at this level. Nature/animals lose traction, except for a few true tales or a few books on predators. Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo is at #2 and Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family and Fighting to Get back on the Board by Bethany Hamilton is #3. Seymour Simon’s book, Sharks is #18.

Grades 9-12. History dominates the top 100 list here. It’s true that Snakes by Kelly L. Barth is #2, but it’s the only nature/animal book listed until Snake by Chris Mattison at #86. At #3 is An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy, followed by the #4 title, 10,000 Days of Thunder: A History of the Vietnam War, by Phillip Caputo.

By Jennifer Burns

How does being a guest on The Colbert Report compare to being a guest on The Daily Show? Here’s a breakdown!

More Face Time with Everyone: Backstage at The Daily Show was a blur; I had no sooner arrived than I was in make-up, met Jon, and was heading out into the lights. By contrast, I had lots of time at The Colbert Report to see the stage, meet the producers, and chat with sundry tech people. And I got way more face time with Stephen Colbert! “I’m not my character!” was pretty much the first thing he said to me. He explained that he would feign willful ignorance and my job was to educate him and the audience. And of course we talked about Ayn Rand. Colbert told me he read Anthem in a Christian ethics class in college, and then while backpacking in Europe traded somebody for Atlas Shrugged. But he only made it to the scene where Dagny discovers world renowned philosopher Dr. Hugh Akston flipping burgers at a roadside diner and recognizes his genius by the way he handled a spatula — this stretched credulity for Colbert and he gave up on reading the rest!

The Audience: The audience was a much more intimate part of The Colbert Report than The Daily Show, where guests make a grand entrance and can’t even see the audience because of the blinding lights. This time, I was seated on the set for about a minute beforehand in full view of the audience, and their laughter and response seemed a bigger part of the interview. While I was waiting to go on, I could hear everyone laughing uproariously, clearly having a great time, and that made me feel excited and ready.

The Host: The biggest difference, of course, is Jon vs. Stephen, but I had an unexpected reaction. Where most people seem to think Stephen Colbert would be a more difficult interview, I actually found him to be personally warmer and easier to talk to than Jon Stewart. Some of this was because I felt more confident the second time around. But the interview itself was also less serious and more of a performance, whereas on The Daily Show I felt I was being grilled by a formidable intellect. Before The Daily Show interview, the producer told me it would be extemporaneous, and that Jon didn’t have notes. But as I was waiting for my interview with Colbert to start, I was told he was finalizing his jokes. When I was seated on the set, I could see a detailed note card on Stephen’s side of the table. I’m pretty sure we veered off the script, but that level of planning was reassuring. The Colbert producer also did a great job of helping me understand what would create a good interview. Her top piece of advice (which I also heard at The Daily Show): “Don’t be funny!”

Author Jennifer Burns on The Colbert Report

Author Jennifer Burns on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Jennifer Burns is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University and the author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. A nationally recognized authority on Rand and conservative thought, she has discussed her work on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Book TV, and has been interviewed on numerous radio programs. Read her previous blog post: “Top Three Questions About My Interview On The Daily Show”

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Thank you to everyone who registered for the "Banned Book Challenge" in 2010. A total of 31 people pledged to read 354 books between February and June 2010. Registration is now closed but watch for the Banned Book Challenge to return in February 2011 (Freedom to Read Week in Canada). Feel free to submit book reviews or links in the comments below or email them and I will post them.

Watch for Banned Books Week in the US from September 25 − October 2, 2010. If you need a challenge to help focus your reading, Bibliobabe has a comprehensive list of other book challenges.

Enjoy your summer reading.

Thank you for taking the Banned Book Challenge for 2010. The challenge is now closed but feel free to keep reading. The challenge will return in February 2011, during Freedom to Read Week.

We had 31 participants pledge to read 354 books that have been banned or challenged. Congratulations everyone!

If you would like to take part in another reading challenge in the meantime, check out Bibliobabe's blog for a HUGE list. Happy reading!

To date, 28 people have signed up for the Banned Book Challenge with the goal of reading 332 books.

There is still time to sign up. The challenge goes until June 30. Set your own goal and let us know about it. I will publish any reviews, etc. as they are sent to me.

A comment today indicates that one of our participants has accomplished reading 38 challenged books to date. Great work. I set myself the modest goal of four and have completed them. I love the challenge of reading books I may not have otherwise chosen for myself.

To date, 20 people have signed up for the Banned Book Challenge with the goal of reading 174 books.

Of interest is a course which is giving extra points to students who take the challenge.

There is still time to sign up. The challenge goes until June 30. Set your own goal and let us know about it. I will publish any reviews, etc. as they are sent to me.

Check out our new look.

Why should you take the time and spend the money to attend the NYC SCBWI Midwinter conference? Because it’s worth it!

Reports from the NYC - SCBWI Midwinter 2009 Conference

The conference changed venues to the Grand Hyatt, which is literally next door to Grand Central terminal. This made transportation simple: a shuttle bus for $12 from La Guardia right to the Grand Central terminal made arrival a snap.

I got there on Wednesday afternoon, because I had set up appointments with a couple editors on Thursday.

Meeting Editors in NYC

One of the best things to do is set up either pre or post conference meetings with editors.

Philomel/Penguin Putnam offices are at 345 Hudson, just a couple blocks off the Hudson River, on the west side of lower Manhattan. For those of you like me, who don’t know NYC, the area is called Tribeca, or TRIangle BElow CAnal street.

I met with my editor and went over a mss for a while, discussed other things she’d like to see and generally got to know each other a bit. This was possible because I have one picture book out with Philomel, but I’ve been assigned to work with a new editor there. This type of meeting is the biggest reason for me to visit NYC.

Visit Ground Zero & Experience the Urban Canyon

Another reason to visit — though, not the main one in deciding to spend the money — was to see NYC. After the meeting at Philomel, I went across the street for fabulous hot chocolate, then walked. And I mean walked. I walked about ten blocks south to Ground Zero, which is now a construction site. Since I didn’t see the World Trade Center in person before, I didn’t miss the skyline. Instead, it was interesting to see the hustle and bustle of construction workers coming and going for lunch.

I ate at the Amish Market, one of the many delis in NYC that make lunch times affordable. I did think it ironic that the deli was named “Amish,” yet it was two blocks from the former world trade center!

After that, I just walked. Over to Wall Street, to St. Patrick’s cathedral, and then north on Broadway, which is also known as the Canyon of Heroes, where ticker tape parades used to take place.

In fact, I walked up Broadway for a couple hours, just looking around. Past the French Culinary Institute where a friend’s son graduated from (it’s right on the edge of Chinatown) and through the SoHo area (the area SOuth of HOuston street). Then, past the Scholastic offices at 555 Broadway, and on up to Union Square, where Park Avenue intersects and the new Harcourt offices are just half a block off the square.

It was interesting to walk through NYC like that. When I came to places where the skyscrapers were replaced by just ten story buildings and I could see sky — I realized that I didn’t like the hemmed in feeling of the urban canyon; I wanted to see the sky. Of course, I don’t exactly like the wide open skies of the Kansas prairie, either, but found that I like something in between.

Surviving Changes in Publishing with Another Editor Visit

Finally, I went to visit a Harcourt editor. Harcourt Children’s Books was bought last year by Houghton Mifflin and their new offices are on the same floor with Houghton Mifflin and Clarion imprints. Big changes. Which meant I needed another time of connecting with a new editor — and it was another great visit.

After all that walking, though, I took the lazy way back to the hotel, a cab.

Poster courtesy of American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression


The deadline to register for this year's "Banned Book Challenge" is June 30. To date, 61 people, including the people below have signed up to read 481 banned or challenged books.



Elana B., Australia, 7 bannedbooksarethebeesknees, USA, 5
Cleo, USA, 2

Please see comments for reviews from people who have submitted their completed titles.

A number of people have begun to submit a title they have read from the "Banned Book Challenge." Please let us know what you have read and why you think it was challenged on the form below and I will inlude your comments when I report on the "Banned Book Challenge" in the comments.

To date, 52 people, including the people below have signed up to read 398 banned or challenged books.

Joanne, USA, 20
dbing93, USA, 2

To date, 40 people have signed up for The Banned Book Challenge and have pledged to read 327 banned or challenged books. From now until June, pick a goal for the number of banned, challenged, or censored books you would like to read. Register by clicking on the logo or the link to The Banned Book Challenge. See the sidebar for lists and for links to other sites.

Bethany C., US, 4
colleen, USA, 10
Tammy R., USA, 20
Lois L., Canada, 15
Geiar, USA, 6
Nessiana, Canada, 5
Faith, USA, 6
aduncan365, Canada, 15
redrobbie, Canada, 15
joanna, Belgium, 6
xXtr3ehu9g3rXx, USA, 10
sgillis, USA, 10
A Little Bit Moore, USA, 10
Veronica C., Canada, 5
Lynsey, New Zealand, 6
Susan, Canada, 5
flyaway123, USA, 10
ad_absurdum, Canada, 7
sandra nieuwenhuijsen, Canada, 5
Tammy, USA, 5
marit freya, USA, 50
Callista, Canada, 4
amethystd, USA, 1
janice, singapore, 4
KaraT, USA, 6
Rich, USA, 4
Lena, USA, 5
Debi, USA, 4
[email protected], USA. 8
Becky, USA, 3
Sharon, USA, 3
3m, USA, 8
Nibbs1_99, USA, 15
The Biblio Brat, USA, 5
Janis Savoie, USA, 3
Jaime Grijalba, Chile, 15
Paul Litterick, New Zealand, 1
Elaine A., Canada, 8
Juli, USA, 5

Last year, we featured posters throughout the years from the Freedom to Read organization in Canada. This year, we feature posters from our friends in the United States.


The Fire Still Burns courtesy ABFFE (American Booksellers For Freedom of Expression).

One year on from the introduction of the UK government’s 24 hour licensing laws, the official report finds a “mixed picture” of their impact. I asked Martin and Moira Plant, of the Alcohol and Health Research Unit at the University of West of England, for their reaction to the report as they wrote our book Binge Britain: Alcohol and the National Response. This is their short, hard-hitting reply. What do you make of liberalizing alcohol laws? Let us know in the comments below.

(more…)

Share This

By Kirsty OUP-UK

Susie Dent, author of OUP’s annual Language Report, has told us that the word of the year for 2007 is “footprint”, but can any one word sum up the 21st century so far?

We are conducting a poll over at the AskOxford website, and would love you to take part. You can either choose from one of the selection that Susie has put together from her five years of monitoring the language for her books, or if you don’t agree with any of them, you can nominate your own.

To get you thinking, here are a few of the words you can choose from: (more…)

Share This

It’s taken a long time for them to release this, but OCLC has finally made their Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World report available for free on the web.

“The practice of using a social network to establish and enhance relationships based on some common ground—shared interests, related skills, or a common geographic location—is as old as human societies, but social networking has flourished due to the ease of connecting on the Web. This OCLC membership report explores this web of social participation and cooperation on the Internet and how it may impact the library’s role, including:

• The use of social networking, social media, commercial and library services on the Web
• How and what users and librarians share on the Web and their attitudes toward related privacy issues
• Opinions on privacy online
• Libraries’ current and future roles in social networking

The report is based on a survey (by Harris Interactive on behalf of OCLC) of the general public from six countries—Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States—and of library directors from the U.S. The research provides insights into the values and social-networking habits of library users.”

I’ve heard OCLC staff say they don’t believe they asked the right questions for some of the topics, which I agree with, so I think we have to take the data with the proverbial grain of salt. You’ll be able to order a 280-page paper copy starting October 28, which is how I’ll read this if I can get my hands on a copy. I couldn’t totally resist, though, so I did jump ahead to the conclusion (PDF) and already I’m intrigued.

“In the 18 months since the publication of the Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report, the use of search engines and e-mail has grown by more than 20% over what were already enormous participation levels. User participation in basic Internet services, such as searching and e-mailing, is approaching total participation. More than twice as many respondents are using blogs now as then….

Internet use has not simply increased, it has infiltrated our lives, offering more and more services at more and more service points. Use has grown for almost every Internet service we measured in this survey—well, almost every service.

The percentage of Internet users that have used a library Web site has decreased. Library Web site use declined from 30% of respondents in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. in 2005 to 20% of the general public in these same countries in 2007, a 33%
decrease….

The more intriguing question is—what are the services and incentives that online libraries could offer users to entice them to come back or to visit more often or even devote some of their own time to help create a social library site?…

If convenience does trump quality, then it is the librarians’ job to make quality convenient. If sharing will trump privacy on the social Web, it is the librarians’

On the social Web, the library brand must go from institutional to personal….

The social Web is not being built by augmenting traditional Web sites with new tools. And a social library will not be created by implementing a list of social software features on our current sites. The social Web is being created by opening the doors to the production of the Web, dismantling the current structures and inviting users in to create their content and establish new rules.

Open the library doors, invite mass participation by users and relax the rules of privacy. It will be messy. The rules of the new social Web are messy. The rules of the new social library will be equally messy. But mass participation and a little chaos often create the most exciting venues for collaboration, creativity, community building—and transformation. It is right on mission….

The new Web is a very different thing. Libraries need to be very different, too.”

Now, I give full credit to OCLC for running, analyzing, and publishing (especially freely) this report (I so wish MPOW published this kind of wonderful data this freely), but I have to dock them points for the way they invite feedback on this report. On social networking. And sharing online. And privacy concerns.

Where do the points come off? The only way to submit feedback is via a form that has your name and email address as required fields and which sends the message off into the ether instead of posting it online. No discussion at all on the report’s site. Given the social efforts OCLC is making elsewhere (WorldCat, WebJunction, etc.), I have to believe they have something in the works that just wasn’t ready yet, but this certainly does fill the belly of the irony beast.

I have returned from a couple of weeks holidays.

We have wound down the Fahrenheit 451 Banned Book Challenge for 2007. Thank you to everyone who participated. I know for me, reading from a banned book list helps me to broaden my reading horizons.

Although I didn't finish it on time for June 30th, I managed to read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It was a wonderfully rich read.

Finally tallies:
169 people pledged to read over 1714 books.

Continue to check back here for periodic news on book challenges and continue to submit your completed titles and I will post them in the comments. Thanks again everyone for your participation.

There are two days left to read for the "Banned Book Challenge." I will continue to publish your submitted titles under comments for as long as they come in.

Three days remain in the "Banned Book Challenge." While I have reached my goal of 6 books, I was hoping to finish the Grapes of Wrath. Remember to submit your titles and let us know how you did.

169 people, including the person listed below have pledged to read over 1714 books.

smirk, philippines, more than 25

Take the "Banned Book Challenge" along with another 168 people, including the people listed below, who have pledged to read over 1689 books. June 30 is the end date for this challenge, so there is still a little time for one or two quick reads. Check our lists on the right sidebar for book suggestions.

countrygl22, USA, 2
Ali, USA, 1
geoffwickersham, USA, 2
nlgmcr69, USA, 6
sokol71688, USA, 4
PAR1138, Canada, 2

Register to read a banned or challenged book up until June 30.


Register completed titles.


Let us know if you completed the challenge.

Take the "Banned Book Challenge" along with another 162 people, including the people listed below, who have pledged to read over 1672 books in the Banned Book Challenge.

Erin OFarrell, Canada, 3
Erin French, USA, 5
Anna OHara, Canada, 6
Michelle Smith, USA, 2
Big Orange, USA, 4



Take the "Banned Book Challenge" yourself. Register and set your goal, submit a completed title, and let us know when you have completed the challenge. The challenge runs until June 30, 2007.

Take the "Banned Book Challenge" along with another 157 people, including the people listed below, who have pledged to read over 1652 books in the Banned Book Challenge.

Andria, Canada, 20
kbernard2010, USA, 10
Celticifsh, Canada, 1
Mr Human, Singapore, 5


Take the "Banned Book Challenge" yourself. Register and set your goal, submit a completed title, and let us know when you have completed the challenge. The challenge runs until June 30, 2007.

See the comments below for titles that have been submitted.

Take the "Banned Book Challenge" along with another 149 people, including the people listed below, who have pledged to read over 1562 books in the Banned Book Challenge.



Freedom to Read Poster 2006



dlm12, Canada, 2
regansmith, USA, 10
spacecadet08, USA, more than 25
AGhra, Sweden, more than 25

Take the "Banned Book Challenge" yourself. Register and set your goal, submit a completed title, and let us know when you have completed the challenge. The challenge runs until June 20, 2007.

See the comments below for titles that have been submitted.

ALA has published The State of America’s Libraries (pdf link), a 17 page report about what libraries in the US are up to and how they’re doing. Actually it’s more like how ALA is doing. There are a lot of people lately telling us what’s up with libraries and technology. The Gates Foundation likes to say we’re all getting wired and all getting the help we need if we’re not wired. I wonder about their results sometimes and I’m curious about ALA’s. They say a lot of what you’d expect. Despite the title, this is almost entirely about US libraries, though there is mention of Montreal’s new building.

According to the executive report: Library use is up up up, even at “one-room rural outposts” which are then contrasted with the “spectacular” Seattle Public building. I work in a rural outpost and let me tell you, no one likes to think of themselves as an outpost and the people who live there certainly don’t see their one-room library that way. Perhaps I’m touchy. Investment in e-books is up which is hardly surprising since they’re still fairly new as “book technologies” go. It’s also fairly concerning since e-books are rarely owned, often just rented. What does this mean for the actual capital of American’s libraries? Are we owning less but paying more? Additionally, people are still reading books (amazing!) I bet we will never see the ALA report that even implies that people aren’t reading as much as they used to, no matter how the numbers have to bend to support this. School libraries are still dealing with funding headaches.

The library community is still defending its users against intrusive government and censorship challenges. They don’t mention how many libraries and library systems have installed or enhanced filters that restrict access, but this number is pretty important too, and totally absent from the document. The report itself states that it’s only a “highlights” report which sort of contrasts with the title, but that’s not terrifically surprising. A few other observations and some pullquotes.

- We’re still measuring “visits” when we talk about who is going to the library. As near as I can tell a “visit” does not include a trip to the website or interaction with the library that does not occur inside the library building. For all of our 2.0 talking we’re still not totally validating “outside the box” library interactions at our highest levels. Huh. There is no mention of website statistics of public libraries at all. This has to change, and change quick. I think one thing that could rapidly change the way we think about libraries is if we would collect these sorts of numbers with the traditional library data we collect. Make libraries report their website statistics and maybe they’ll start looking at the website as a real library service. If we’re so techie now, why don’t we do this?

- “Virtually all (99 percent) U.S. public libraries now provide free public computer access to the Internet” 99% is a nice big number, but that would mean in Vermont we have two or three libraries that don’t offer this access. I wonder what their story is? I wonder how we can help them?

- “Academic libraries explored new virtual ways of providing services using technologies such as blogs, wikis, avatars, YouTube, Facebook, etc.” I know this is nitpicky, but this is a very short paragraph in a long document that dedicated nearly a page to “visits.” Where are the stats for this statement? It’s as easy or easier to track contacts in YouTube, for example. Why aren’t we seeing those numbers? If we want social tools to move beyond flavor-of-the-month status, we have to treat social tool interactions as “real” library interactions. Also, the mishmash of technologies, tools, and plain old nouns (avatars?) in this list implies strongly that whoever wrote this was either pressed for space or unclear on the concepts. Where is IM?

- Don’t miss this conclusion they draw when discussing the school library shortages: “Often the cuts in school libraries are being linked to the key requirements of the No Child Left Behind legislation.” While using the weak verb “are being linked” is a bit of a cop out, we are seeing that schools which are short of funding are having to channel that funding into getting the numbers required by No Child Left Behind and away from general educational resources like the library. The impact of this is felt disproportionately by poor and rural areas. This is shameful.

- Salaries rose but there is no indication if they rose ahead of or behind inflation and cost of living. We’d know more, but further data is contained in an ALA-APA report which you can’t get without paying for.

- Serials expenditures are up 273% While the report implies that this is because libraries are buying hard copy and electronic versions of the same titles, it’s more likely that libraries are simply being gouged by vendors who have mysterious pricing rubrics that seem more based on ability to pay than any cost of delivering or preparing services. Why aren’t we more critical of this number? Why aren’t we more critical of this disturbing trend?

- They mention Ilovelibraries.org. My impression from hearing about it: someone is not learning the “don’t make your website a destination, become part of a community” lesson from the 2.0 world. My impression on clicking that link: embarassed as all hell. It’s marketing 101 to not announce a website before it’s ready to go live. The fact that this isn’t done by National Library Week is clearly a case of someone dropping the ball or terribly misjudging how long it takes to make a project like this go live. The “we’re not ready” page could have been a nice savvy page that made people smile and maybe even bookmark it. Instead it shows a lack of attention and respect for my time. I typed in a URL I read in their report (a non-hyperlinked URL I read in an HTML document, geez) and it looks like someone didn’t even care enough to spend 30 minutes to make a nice page with margins and maybe a box to put the text in. It’s 2007, we expect more from the web.

- 80% of US libraries are rural. I have no idea how they arrived at that number or what it means. By population? By number of buildings? It’s almost impossible that 80% of Americans are served by rural libraries, so what is going on? I assume they mean buildings.

- Spectrum Scholarships are up. This is great. Thanks to IMLS for providing addtional grant moneys to put more students into this great program.

- The ALA came out against DOPA. This is good news. However, their stated position “DOPA, as written in the House in 2006, leads to a false sense of security while over-blocking constitutionally protected material.” They stress the business uses of social tools and other “legitimate purposes” which I think glosses over 1) there is nothing wrong with social networking generally, nothing at all. It’s no less safe than the mall. 2) just because something is used in a social sense doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value and shouldn’t be overlegislated by scaremongers who don’t understand it. I wish ALA had a more savvy response to DOPA, but I am happy they came out against it.

- The ALA is trying to attract more libraries to the E-Rate program so that they can get funding for technology. This is good. However, we all know that E-rate money comes with filtering strings attached. This is bad. Libraries should be able to make their own choices about what sort of access they provide to the Internet.

- Three sentences on Google. Eesh.

So, the news is good, generally. The ALA is looking medium-clueful which is up from not-at-all-clueful a few years ago, but there’s still clearly work to be done.

Take the "Banned Book Challenge" along with another 145 people, including the people listed below, who have pledged to read over 1500 books in the Banned Book Challenge.



Freedom to Read Poster 2005



aichaku, Singapore, 3
Judi Repman, USA, 1
VasilisaSage, USA, 2

See the comments below for titles that have been submitted.

Take the "Banned Book Challenge" along with another 142 people, including the people listed below, who have pledged to read over 1495 books in the Banned Book Challenge.

Freedom to Read Poster 2002


Anonymous, 2
mokacoffee, USA, 2
katieam, USA, 10
Superfast Reader, USA, 3
naridu, Australia, 2




See the comments below for titles that have been submitted.