the Virtual Bookmark

Kaleidoscope Conference Open for Registration

Kaleidoscope Conference Open for Registration

Kaleidoscope Conference chairperson Cathy Yusep announced today that registration for the 2008 Kaleidoscope Children’s Literature Conference opens on February 1, 2008. The 9th Kaleidoscope Conference will be held November 6, 7 and 8, 2008 at the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Kaleidoscope Conferences celebrate literature created for children and young adults and aims to heighten the awareness and appreciation of the creative process through interaction with authors, illustrators, publishers, producers and performers and is an Alberta School Library Council Conference.

Delegates attending Kaleidoscope will have the opportunity to choose sessions from a wide range of presenters including past British Poet Laureate Michael Morpurgo. The conference will be opened on Thursday, November 6th by Ron Jobe, Professor, University of British Columbia (retired). Award winning Canadian writers and illustrators including Gayle Friesen, Wallace Edwards, Robert Heidbreder, Julie Lawson, George Littlechild, Bill Slavin, Ian Wallace, Melanie Watt, Tim Wynne-Jones and Werner Zimmermann will be present. The international lineup includes Betty Birney, Janell Cannon, Sneed Collard, Polly Horvath, Betsy and Ted Lewin, Lois Lowry, Ben Mikaelson, Beverley Naidoo, Allan Say, Eileen Spinelli, Janet Stevens, and Shaun Tan. Folklorist and scholar Jack Zipes will be in attendance as will Elizabeth Bicknell, senior editor at Candlewick Press. In addition to the programmed speakers, a gala banquet will be held on Friday, November 7 at which Michael Morpurgo will be the speaker. For each Kaleidoscope conference, a Canadian illustrator is selected to produce a fine art poster reflecting the conference theme. Werner Zimmermann has been selected for the 9th Kaleidoscope Conference poster to be inspired by the theme, "Story: Bridging Worlds." On-site book sales will be provided by United Library Services Inc.

Over the past 36 years, the Kaleidoscope Conference has brought an impressive array of speakers to Calgary including Philip Pullman, Eric Carle, David Almond, Bill Richardson, and Eric Walters among many others. Complete program and registration information can be located at www.kaleidoscopeconference.ca.

For further information please contact:

Diane Langston

Publicity, Kaleidoscope Conference

dlangston@uls.com

1-403-252-4426, ext. 222

Internet Safety-Libraries

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/05/12/internet-safety-issues-what-can-librarians-do/

Internet Safety Issues: What can librarians do?

Top Issues, Concerns and Questions from a public library perspective:

1.In a public school teachers have a captive space, in a library kids are not captive - you have to get creative to get kids to participate!
2.How do you keep up?
3.I want kids to be safe online as a parent and librarian, but I am not sure I know how to do that, or my role?
4.balancing safety and access
5.our constituents are our staff, the public, patrons, legislators: educating all about the role of a public library
6.how do we get seasoned professionals to see the value? (we referenced the diffusion of innovations graph)
7.Internet is ever changing / dynamic, how can we monitor the changes without becoming obsolete?
8.how do we fit this in with how we spend our time at work? (what is appropriate and not appropriate )
9.Classrooms are different: captive audience, year long relationship – librarians are in a different situation, how do we make an impact in our role?
10.Chat rooms and filtering are big issues: want to close down chats in some cases
11.People watching out for the children: it is not part of library policy but is a moral or social issue
12.No cheese with the whine
13.electronic gaming: hard to keep up, kids taking over the computer room
14.people have moved their role (CIPA) from protecting from objectionable content to keeping kids productive / on task
15.importance of boundaries and communication, texting, gaming
16.considering having teens make a social networking account (We discussed how a moderated and managed/controlled social networking environment like ning.com could be preferable to just having kids setup a MySpace page. We also discussed the importance of parent permission and getting signed forms for participation from them as well as kids.)
17.we may have to break bad habits
18.boundaries are so important: cell phone example, parents wanting that contact

Read more at:

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/05/12/internet-safety-issues-what-can-librarians-do/

Borrow a Person from the Library

iLibrarian
http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2008/borrow-a-person-from-the-library/

Living Library-

A Scandinavian event called the Living Library which lets patrons borrow human “books” is making its way around the UK according to the Times Online. During these special events, library readers are able to check out a person for up to 30 minutes for a one-on-one chat which will offer them the opportunity to learn about a different lifestyle, culture, ethnicity, etc. The books cataloged for the events include a wide variety of stereotypes including Gay Man, Police Officer, Person with Mental Health Difficulties, Muslim, Vegan, and Ex Gang Member.