LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

WHEN Geri Ellner began her job this school year as the librarian — or in the current parlance, as a library media specialist — at the Brooklyn Collegiate, a public school for Grades 6 through 12 in Ocean Hill, Brownsville Brooklyn, she did not have much of a book collection.

Many of the shelves in the small library, illuminated by harsh fluorescent lights, were bare, and many books were outdated or not particularly age-appropriate, like a children’s volume titled “Now We Are Six.” For the children's books, she created a section entitled Memory Lane.

So Ms. Ellner, who has been working in the school library system for 10 years, did what she could to improve the library with a limited book budget of $3,244 for the school year. New York Times.

A reverend at a Blue Springs parish and school has removed two books about President-elect Barack Obama from the Catholic school's library.

The Rev. Ron Elliott at St. John LaLande School said someone complained about the content of the books, and he wanted to review them.

School Library Journal Reports the man President-elect Barack Obama has tapped as secretary of education, Arne Duncan, spent the last seven years as CEO of Chicago Public Schools—and during that time he’s shown solid support for school libraries.

The Boston Globe reports on how Chelmsford HS now has a "Learning Commons" replete with the latest buzzwords, comfortable furniture, fresh carpets, multimedia-equipped classrooms -- and lots of students.

THE Philadelphia School District has a severe textbook shortage despite having spent $124 million on books since the 2004-05 school year, the Daily News has learned.
In many cases, teachers have one set of books for five classes, so students must share and can't take books home to study.

"In my English 4 class, we had a grand total of two textbooks," said Dahrell Carriker, a junior at Sayre High. "There aren't any underneath our desks, there are none on the shelves."

Ankeny superintendent recommends no book ban: The superintendent of the Ankeny school district is recommending that a book about two male penguins raising a chick together not be banned from an elementary school library.

...from LA Youth, "the newspaper by and about teens". She goes from absolutely hating libraries to proclaiming 'libraries rule'.

Did you know....that according to (Connecticut) state law, for a pickle to be qualified as a pickle it must bounce when held 1 foot above an oak table?

Well, Martin Elementary School media specialist Lisa Plavin (Manchester, CT) knew that, plus nine other fascinating facts about her state. As a result, she has won for her school a 52-volume set of children’s books about the United States from Scholastic Library Publishing.

Other interesting tidbits can be found in this Journal Inquirer article.

Castelar Elementary in Los Angeles has been without a library since 2002, forcing students to walk to the nearest public library every time they need to use one. The district was supposed to replace the school's library, but the project has been tied up in the design phase, and now the budget has doubled. Parents have been organizing a protest for the next LAUSD Board meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 25. The district heard about the planned protest and scheduled a last-minute meeting at the school on Friday, Nov. 21. Parents who are not satisfied planned to attend the Nov. 25 school board meeting.

A book that some call profane and anti-Catholic is causing a stir at Orestimba High School in this central valley town southwest of Turlock. Teachers argue the work, "Bless Me, Ultima," is a powerful story that connects with teenagers. Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District Superintendent Rick Fauss decided the book is not suitable for teenagers and banned it for the rest of the school year.

"I think there's room for exposing students to other experiences, but do we have to sacrifice the values of our families and our community to do that?" asked Fauss, a former high school English teacher.

He hasn't read the entire book but said he's "read enough."