Midwinter schedule so far

I have been getting so many flyers in the mail. My midwinter registration must have just kicked in and now I'm on the mailing list.

My plan so far:

Arrive Thursday. Dinner with friends. :) Start blogging for YALSA.
Friday: all-day YALSA advocacy institute
Friday night: YALSA gaming extravanganza, followed by drinks w/ Linda (and hopefully Jack from NYPL)
Saturday: Lunch with friends. :) :) Nothing else planned, so I'll probably cruise around the vendor floor and feel overwhelmed, young, and intimidated. Blog about it.
Sunday: head home.

There might be a committee meeting thrown in there somewhere, but since we're a virtual committee, it would just be a meet and greet. I'm following with interest the many conversations going on right now about how ALA should start allowing for virtual meetings. Too bad I'm really bad at tinkering with my avatar and I'm currently sporting a crop top and a bald spot in SL....

online predators vs. cyberbullies

We hear a lot about online predators and how they're a growing menace. While there have been a few sensational (and very sad) cyberbullying cases in the news lately, the topic just doesn't get as much press.

According to what I found out in my research for LIS406, publicized statistics show that 1 in 5 children are approached online by a sexual predator. This is the number that gets thrown around constantly by those who want to scare parents about social networking sites. Where does this number come from, and what does it mean?

Thanks to Benjamin Radford, I found that this stat originated in 2001 (red flag--6 years ago), when the Department of Justice conducted a report surveying teens about sexual solicitation online. The results were as follows:

• Almost one in five (19 percent) of the young Internet users surveyed received an unwanted sexual solicitation in the past year. Okay, that's bad, but break down that number a little further and you discover that...
  
• Five percent of the surveyed youth received a distressing sexual solicitation (i.e., the solicitation made them feel very or extremely upset or afraid).
• Three percent of the youth received an aggressive solicitation involving offline contact or attempts or requests for offline contact.
• None of the solicitations led to an actual sexual contact or assault.
• Adults (age 18 and older) made 24 percent of all solicitations and 34 percent of aggressive solicitations.
• Juveniles made 48 percent of all solicitations and 48 percent of aggressive solicitations.

While these numbers are still troubling, the fact is that a very small percentage of online youh received distressing or aggressive sexual solicitation, and nearly half of any kind of sexual interaction was initiated by another teen (this doesn't make it okay, but it does make it a different story than a child being solicited by an adult, in my book).

In other positive news, I found the following news item via Scott McLeod's blog:

Children less likely to encounter online predators

In contrast, 32% of teenagers who use the internet say that they have been the target of cyberbullying—"a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities, such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online" (Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2007).

To me, this is the scarier issue. The web makes it easier to bully because it's easier to be anonymous. Bullying is an issue IRL, for sure, but parents and educators most likely have no idea when cyberbullying is happening. Are we teaching kids how to handle this? Are we talking to parents about it in the same way that we scare the crap out of them with all this sexual predator talk? Ultimately, the topic is brought up as a reason to block kids' internet access or take away their ability to use social networking sites. Which does nothing--they just use a proxy and hop right back on there, unarmed with any knowledge of what to do if they DO get solicited or bullied.

filtering

Why do I always find myself embroiled in yucky debates on LM_NET? I find that listserv to be particularly conservative, but where else are the school librarians supposed to go for quick feedback to questions?

Recently, another school librarian posted about how her students are accessing MySpace through bypass proxies. So, inevitably, librarians are spending a lot of time figuring out what these proxy sites are and passing that along to IT so that they, too, can be blocked.

And when I responded, asking if it wouldn't just be easier to let the students use MySpace, I got lots of responses:

If there wasn't porn on it I wouldn't care.

...trying to keep kids on educational tasks when they want to be continuously checking MySpace is a waste of my time. They can check MySpace somewhere else.

Of course there were some posts from people who agreed with me, too...but I know this is a fight I won't win; by which i mean I won't be able to ever convince the dissenters that social networks AREN'T porn and that they DO belong in the library.

I'm doing a project on filtering for my class; I'm presenting on it this Saturday, so I'll post my findings next week. I think that filtering is one of the biggest obstacles facing librarians today--especially those who serve youth.

facebook and myspace vs. a database

I just had a great conversation (totally unprompted by me) about the changes that myspace has implemented to make it look more like facebook. What struck me is how good this student was about noticing very small changes and features on myspace, and how attuned she was to the fact that myspace is mimicking facebook.

Of course, the whole time I was thinking, man, if I asked you anything about our new history database right now, you wouldn't even be able to call to mind what it looks like, or what it is, let alone knowing where the different buttons are for particular features.

It just goes to show you that teens pay attention to what matters in their lives and to what affects them in a personal way. And what I got out of this wasn't that she was oblivious about the history database (which is somehow supposed to matter more), but that she's actually very savvy and smart. I love that kids are aware of this stuff.

oops, i forgot to blog

There are SO MANY COOL THINGS going on right now, NONE of which I can write about. Oh, poo.

Fun things I can talk about: I started twittering, for real this time. I guess what I am discovering about myself is that I get really excited about a new piece of tech and then lose interest or forget that it's there. This may be because I don't really have a way to get online unless I'm at my desk or at my apartment, but it also may mean that I am very busy keeping up with things like...book orders. Oh, how DULL!

(Not really--I know it's not chic to still care about books as much as I do, but I can't help it.)

R. and I are flying to St. Augustine tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with his parents. It's going to be 70 degrees there. 70. I'm hoping for a manatee sighting.

Oh, one more thing: I am going to Midwinter. Yay! I'm going to the YALSA gaming extravaganza....hopefully I'll get to try a Wii.

Not so fun: the stupid writer's strike. For an addict like me, this is not good. Maybe I should start watching Quarterlife?

Okay, have to go pack my shorts. Happy Thanksgiving!

Been a little while...

So, I got married. It was awesome, and I'm really happy.

I've been thinking about this blog a little and I think I need to start writing about only the things that really interest me. Those things, namely, are:

1. Young adult lit. Any kind, really. I tend not to read books marketed to boys (especially realistic boy fiction), but my tastes here are fairly broad.

2. TV. Yep, I am fully addicted to TV. This summer has been pretty slow, television-wise, so I've been devouring about a book a day. I know this is good for me, but I'm also super-psyched for the fall season to start up.

Um....that's about it. There are other things I care about, like vegetarian recipes, dorky point-and-click games, girly movies, knitting, celebrity gossip (although I am really trying to wean myself off of this), animals wearing outfits, abortion rights (how did that slip in there?!)...but I think it will be easiest/most fun for me to write about YA and TV.

Yay!

Okay, I want to mention three things before I head off to bed.

1. Veronica Mars. I admitted to my husband this afternoon that I have not yet watched the final two episodes because I don't want the series is over. He told me that this is unhealthy behavior. I guess I am still in denial. I heard the other day that Kristen Bell (who is probably one of my top-three favorite actresses, in part because she's an animal-rights activist) might be guest-starring on Lost this year. Now, I stopped watching Lost sometime last year because I got so sick of the stupid run-around the writers/producers were putting the viewers through. I'm still curious to see what happens, but I'm not interested in watching the journey there, since the pace is so excrutiating. However...smart move, Lost! I think there are plenty of broken-hearted V Mars fans out there who are going to tune in just to see KB on the small screen again. I might have to! What am I going to do without the sass this year? We'll see how it goes--I'll watch the first ep with her in it (if she ends up doing it) and decide then, I guess.

2. 24. The franchise lost me last year. I'm going to rent the entire first season of Heroes and then start watching that instead.

3. Stephenie Meyers books. Meg Cabot had a great post in her blog (scroll down to the August 9 entry) about how, as a feminist, she rejects the idea that a girl should have to change her entire being--her species, for god's sake--for a boy. Tooootally agree about the gross message that these books are sending teenage girls. (Full disclosure: I've only read Twilight, but I've read reviews/synopses of the other two.) But I hate Edward Cullen. I find him mean, bullying, violent, and abusive. Yeah, he's good-looking and mysterious. But does that mean that a girl--conveniently, a clumsy, incompetent one--should follow him around and let him treat her like she's helpless and take his crap just because he's hot, moody, and secretive? No! I've been in that real-life relationship and it is baaaaaad news. I know that there are a lot of romance books out there that follow this theme, but the Meyer books are super popular at my library, not to mention nationwide, and I find that troubling. Yeah, I'm going to put them on the shelf becaused it's my job to give the kids what they want, but I'm not going to like it.

That's it for now. School starts up in a couple of weeks. Yikes!

Good night.

Kids and social activism -- a booklist

This is a list of middle-school books I put together for a former colleague of mine. His original request:

We are planning a curriculum for next year that will involve urban sprawl, city planning, and social action (all of the expeditions focus on some sort of social action). Do you know of any young adult novels that would contain the theme of social activism or kids working with the city government on community issues?

Annotations are taken from NoveList

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg
Upon leaving an oppressive summer camp, twelve-year-old Margaret Rose Kane spearheads a campaign to preserve three unique towers her grand uncles have been building in their back yard for over forty years.

Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town's corrupt mayor.

Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael Winerip
While serving as co-editors of their school newspaper, middle-schoolers Adam and Jennifer uncover fraud and corruption in their school and in the city's government.

The Heart of the City by Ron Koertge
After she and her parents move to an ethnically mixed inner city neighborhood, ten-year-old Joy and her new friend Neesha decide to do something to keep drug dealers off their block.

All of the Above by Shelley Pearsall
Five urban middle school students, their teacher, and other community members relate how a school project to build the world's largest tetrahedron affects the lives of everyone involved.

Soccer Chick Rules by Dawn Fitzgerald
While trying to focus on a winning soccer season, thirteen-year-old Tess becomes involved in local politics when she learns that all sports programs at her school will be stopped unless a tax levy is passed.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.

The Young Landlords by Walter Dean Myers
Five devoted friends become landlords and try to make their Harlem neighborhood a better place to live.

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
One by one, a number of people of varying ages and backgrounds transform a trash-filled inner-city into a productive and beautiful garden, and in doing so, the gardeners are themselves transformed.

The mission of the school library

This discussion going on in LM_NET has gotten me thinking about what a school library's job is. Call me crazy, but I think it's okay if a kid walks out of here without knowing Dewey. I think all they need to know is this:

1. The library is a great place to find information.

2. Librarians are really nice and they'll work really hard to get you what you need.

3. The library is arranged in a certain way, and there is a way of finding the stuff in the library.

All libraries are different. I don't think uniformity is necessarily the number one quality of a library. And the new generation of library users is very adaptable. They don't need everything to look the same in order to be able to use it; they learn by doing.

And I don't think information literacy goes away as soon as you change the way a library is organized. Just because you don't have to look up and find a call number doesn't mean you're not learning how to find the best source possible.

...who knows. I'm excited to see what happens with the Arizona library. I think I just get a kick out of seeing things shaken up a bit.

Farewell to Dewey?

The internet is buzzing today about one library's decision to do away with Dewey. [There is some debate about whether or not this statement is really true.]

Most people aren't too happy about it, judging by the reaction on LM_NET and in the library blogs.

I've always wanted to create subject-specific mini-collections that are highly browsable, like in a bookstore. Lump all the sports books together and then arrange by sport and then author's last name. I know this is really similar to Dewey, but not quite--it's not as specific. So books about baseball, books about specific baseball players, and books about the Black Sox scandal will all be in the same place, and intermingled. No need for highly-specific Dewey numbers.

And tagging will allow users to identify books using their language, not ours.

This is still a fairly nebulous and potentially problematic idea, but I definitely subscribe to the bookstore model. Like Linda Braun says, people go to bookstores to a reason--and by the same token, don't go to libraries for the same reason.

Hmmmm....

Right now I am planning a major library reorg to take place this summer. It's a bit overwhelming, but in the end I think it will do good things for the library. One of the most difficult things is actually showing people that change is a good thing. I love change. This might mean something about me, you know, psychologically. I was the kind of kid who was always rearranging her bedroom. In the middle of the night. I don't think we should change public spaces for the sake of changing them, necessarily, but if shaking things up a bit will mean you've got a better library on your hands, don't stress about "how it's always been."

I know this takes diplomacy, though, and that's hard. I'm still learning how to argue my case with empathy, understanding, and an open mind.

On another note, I was THRILLED to see the recent post in the YALSA blog about hip hop. The list of artists that they put together is fantastic, with a lot of my favorites on there. Take a peek, and stock your shelves with this stuff!