cln659

Bid to censor Anne Frank's 'pornographic' diary in schools fails

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:49:07 +1000

Bid to censor Anne Frank's 'pornographic' diary in schools fails:

A mother’s attempt to ban Anne Frank’s diary from classrooms in Michigan over “pornographic” anatomical descriptions has failed, after a committee ruled that the title’s removal “would effectively impose situational censorship”.

Coverflip: author Maureen Johnson turns tables on gendered book covers

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:12:00 +1000

Coverflip: author Maureen Johnson turns tables on gendered book covers:

Johnson started out with an idle musing on Twitter: “I do wish I had a dime for every email I get that says: ‘Please put a non-girly cover on your book so I can read it – signed, A Guy.’”

She pointed to one of her own covers as an example – showing, on a neon pink background, an image of an attractive teenage girl displaying part of her stomach, with the words “a novel” in a dark pink heart. “This is The Key to the Golden Firebird. It’s about three sisters who are dealing with the sudden death of their father. May, the middle sister, is trying to hold her family together and learn how to drive. This is the cover,” said Johnson.

She was inundated with support, prompting her to ask her fans to redesign books by male authors, imagining them as by and for female readers. “Take a well-known book … Imagine that book was written by an author of the opposite gender. Or a genderqueer author. Imagine all the things you think of when you think girl book or boy book or genderless book (do they exist?). And I’m not saying that these categorisations are right – but make no mistake, they’re there,” Johnson urged.

You can check out responses to Johnson’s challenge at:

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/coverflip

A Place to Hang Out (Read, Too)

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:13:33 +1000

A Place to Hang Out (Read, Too) :

Gone are the library’s revolving doors and those original Winnie-the-Pooh dolls, sitting behind glass in the Children’s Reading Room. It may not even be called the Donnell anymore.

The Donnell Library Center’s replacement, which the New York Public Library is to unveil officially on Tuesday, has been reconceived to fit at the base of a high-rise hotel and two of the new library’s three floors will be underground.

A New Way for Gay Characters in Y.A. - Jen Doll - The Atlantic Wire

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:02:12 +1000

A New Way for Gay Characters in Y.A. - Jen Doll - The Atlantic Wire:

Suddenly, it seems like gay characters are everywhere in Y.A. literature. Or, if not everywhere, certainly in far more places and in a greater variety than ever before. Perhaps the most eye-catching recent example, which preceded Time’s controversial new issue, is David Levithan’s upcoming Two Boys Kissing—and its cover with, yes, two boys kissing. But beyond the covers, plots involving LGBT characters are twisting and turning and emerging anew from the traditional coming-out story of years past.

Getting Kids Engaged with Primary Sources | Cool Tools

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:12:16 +1000

Getting Kids Engaged with Primary Sources | Cool Tools:

Primary source documents, as you know, offer readers a unique, real-world perspective, and I thought my kids would love delving into them. I soon learned that my disappointing results weren’t due to the documents that I’d selected, but rather how I was having students use them. That first year, they weren’t doing anything but reading them. Today, Web-based tools enable students to discover more primary sources than ever before and engage them in dynamic ways.

Photo

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:46:03 +1000

E-Books and Democracy

Wed, 01 May 2013 22:44:00 +1000

E-Books and Democracy:

All of the Big Six publishers have, for the first time, agreed to make e-books available to public library users.

Censorship Issues in School Libraries | The Information Policy Blog

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:06:28 +1000

Censorship Issues in School Libraries | The Information Policy Blog:

This article discusses how to spot a censor, some of the unique challenges associated with a school library setting, the issue of self censorship, and censorship through internet access. Best practices are introduced for school librarians or staff to reference when facing a challenge. Finally, some notable banned books are listed and additional resources for further education are suggested. This wiki is intended for school librarians, but would be helpful for anyone working in a school library, including paraprofessionals and teachers.

Neil Gaiman: Neil Gaiman ponders what causes a book to be classified for children and recieves a standing ovation at TXLA

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:50:53 +1000

Neil Gaiman: Neil Gaiman ponders what causes a book to be classified for children and recieves a standing ovation at TXLA:

hipmamajenn:

It’s not always easy to entertain a room full of librarians, especially in Texas. A group of librarians can be split into thirds. One group fits into the stereotypical, up-tight old coot who whispers “SHHH,” and longs for the good-old-days. The second group consists of…

Disruption: Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Hits 300,000 Titles

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:42:06 +1000

Disruption: Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Hits 300,000 Titles:

Here’s another disruption that’s under-considered in library land. What if the e-book retailers crowdsourced a lending library like Kindle’s? Can libraries create a national or international lending library or are we forever bound by the boundaries of our institutions, cardholders, funding models, and servers?

"But the flat western wall held Mother’s treasure: six ceiling-high bookshelves, with rough..."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:55:54 +1000

“But the flat western wall held Mother’s treasure: six ceiling-high bookshelves, with rough pine doors, latched with metal locks […] This was Mother’s treasure, her insurance policy, her prized stock. She didn’t care if a book was a cheap paperback or a leather-bound first edition (and she had both types). The collection simply needed to be vast and well organised (alphabetised by author name), to allow for speedy retrieval.”

- Favorite, The Heroines (2008).

Photo

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:20:13 +1000

vintagelibraries: Teachers Reference Room [58th Street Branch],...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:18:29 +1000

vintagelibraries:

Teachers Reference Room [58th Street Branch], year unknown.

The Heart and the Bottle App Demo This is to give some sense of...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:58:40 +1000

The Heart and the Bottle App Demo

This is to give some sense of the interactive and textual features of the iPad adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’s The Heart and the Bottle.

Memories of a Bedtime Book Club

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:41:19 +1000

Memories of a Bedtime Book Club:

Dwight Garner is packing up the last, best books in his children’s picture book library and reflecting on his family’s nightly ritual.

deduction-to-seduction: If anyone’s wondering why I love my...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:35:02 +1000

deduction-to-seduction:

If anyone’s wondering why I love my school so much, let me introduce you to the Doctor Who read alikes display we have set up in the library

This is why I love my school

"A perennial highlight of Banned Books Week is the Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books,..."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:28:21 +1000

“

A perennial highlight of Banned Books Week is the Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books, compiled annually by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). OIF collects reports on book challenges from librarians, teachers, concerned individuals and press reports. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness. In 2012, OIF received 464 reports on attempts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves. This is an increase from 2011 totals, which stood at 326 attempts.

The most challenged books of 2012 are: “Captain Underpants” (series), by Dav Pilkey; “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie; “Thirteen Reasons Why,” by Jay Asher; “Fifty Shades of Grey,” by E. L. James; “And Tango Makes Three,” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson; “The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini; “Looking for Alaska,” by John Green; “Scary Stories” (series), by Alvin Schwartz; “The Glass Castle,” by Jeanette Walls: and “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison.

School libraries are bracing for further budget cuts as federal funding to the states shrinks and the states begin to reduce aid to education. Deborah Rigsby, director of federal legislation for the National School Boards Association, warned that this could lead to the closing of school libraries, among other things.

”

- ALA,

State of America’s Libraries Report 2013

http://www.ala.org/news/pr?id=12834

from Shiga’s Bookhunter (2007)

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:02:47 +1000

from Shiga’s Bookhunter (2007)

"In the critical vocabulary of the day, the show’s self-aware artificiality is a tactic of postmodern..."

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:10:00 +1000

“In the critical vocabulary of the day, the show’s self-aware artificiality is a tactic of postmodern self-referentiality that creates an ironic distance for viewers; television formulae are deconstructed through the creation of a simulacrum of the banal genre conventions, leading informed viewers to watch the series not as a genre show but a meta-genre show (that is, a comment on the genre while taking its form), turning a television show into a work of avant-garde art. For others, Twin Peaks was just another slice of the David Lynch weirdness that made a murder mystery inside a soap opera a strange but somehow entertaining experience.”

- Greg Metcalf, The DVD Novel (2012), p. 70.

http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=2147512528

(via iwouldntthinkso)

poplibrary: megzam: rachelfershleiser: Books are just about...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:27:56 +1000

poplibrary:

megzam:

rachelfershleiser:

Books are just about the Librarian’s most favorite thing in the entire world. Reading them can take you on exciting adventures in far-off lands, introduce you to new friends and cultures, and let you discover poetry, classic literature, science fiction and much more. (via LEGO.com Minifigures : Bios - Series 10 - Librarian)

The new LEGO librarian minifig. Appreciate the Oranges and Peaches reference.