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Happy Birthday, A. Lincoln.
The Lincoln Quick Step is campaign sheet music for the election of 1860.
Business card of Abraham Lincoln, probably printed by the Democratic committee in 1864.
The famous first words of a draft of the Gettysburg Address.
National inauguration ball, March 4th 1865.
LIBRARY LEGISLATION DAY
February makes me think of Valentines and ground hogs. I think of presidents and chocolate. I think of leap days and Black History. But, as my faithful readers well know, February offers so many more reasons to celebrate! So bake some cookies, visit the library, learn a new Black History fact, feed a bird, spay or neuter your pet, chew some bubble gum, plant some sweet potatoes, and eat a hot breakfast. February may be the shortest month of the year but it’s certainly not going to take that lying down! Enjoy!
Note: the comments in italics are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the ideas, musings, political leanings, or opinions of any other person, group or entity.
Birthstone: Amethyst Flower: Violet or Primrose
New Moon: February 6th Full Moon: February 20th
Lunar Eclipse: February 20-21
Solar Eclipse: February 6-7 (E. Australia, New Zealand)
Monthly observances…
AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month
American Heart Month
Bake for Family Fun bake some cookies!
February is Fabulous Florida Strawberry Month
International Boost Your Self-Esteem Month
International Expect Success Month
Library Lovers’ Month that’s every month for us, isn’t it?
Marfan Syndrome Awareness Month
Marijuana Awareness Month
National African American History (Black History) Month
National Bird Feeding Month
National Cherry Month even though they won’t be ready until Spring…
National Children’s Dental Health Month
National Get to Know an Independent Real Estate Broker Month
National Hot Breakfast Month have dried cherries on your oatmeal!
National Laugh-Friendly Month much more fun than unfriendly laughs!
National Parent Leadership Month wish that was a daily observance…
National Pet Dental Health Month do they make beef flavored toothpaste?
National Senior Independence Month
National Time Management Month
National Weddings Month
North Carolina Sweet Potato Month Calling All Queens!
Plant the Seeds of Greatness Month
Relationship Wellness Month
Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month make sure it’s empty when you find it!
Spiritual Teachers Month
Spunky Old Broads Month when I am old I shall wear purple…
Sweet Potato Month put on your green sequined prom dress and join the Queens!
Wise Health Consumer Month
Youth Leadership Month
Wonderful weekly observances…
2/1-7 National Patient Recognition Week I would hope my doctor would recognize me!
Solo Diners Eat Out Weekend maybe they could sit together!
Women’s Heart Week
2/3-9 Children’s Authors & Illustrators Week
Boy Scout Anniversary Week http://www.scouting.org/
International Coaching Week
National Consumer Protection Week
National Leadership Week
National Pancake Week eat at your neighborhood IHOP!
Publicity for Profit Week
2/3-3/22 Lent don’t give up pancakes!
2/4-8 International Networking Week
Intimate Apparel Market Week
National School Counseling Week
2/4-10 Dump Your Significant Jerk Week oh, the stories that could be told…
2/7-14 Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week
Rejection Risk Awareness Week especially if you’re a significant jerk!
2/8-14 Love Makes the World Go Round but Laughter Keeps us from Getting Dizzy Week
2/10-16 Children of Alcoholics Week http://www.nacoa.org/
Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
National Family, Career & Community Leaders of America Week
Jell-O Week get jiggy with it!
Heart Failure Awareness Week
2/11-15 Just Say No to Powerpoints Week use an overhead!
2/11-17 International Flirting Week
Random Acts of Kindness Week http://www.actsofkindness.org/people/days.asp
2/14-21 National Condom Week overlaps with the above – a coincidence?
World Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Week
2/15-17 NBA All-Star Week
2/15-18 Great Backyard Bird Count Week how do you tell them apart?
2/17-23 Build A Better Trade Show Image Week
2/17-25 National Engineers Week
2/24-3/1 National Eating Disorders Awareness Week
Telecommuter Appreciation Week http://www.yourata.com/index.html
2/25-3/2 Read Me Week
2/29-3/2 Texas Cowboy Poetry Week there once was a horse from Nantucket…
Fabulous February days…
2/1 Bubble Gum Day
Give Kids A Smile Day http://www.ada.org/public/events/gkas.asp
Hula in the Coola Day can you do this & chew gum at the same time?
National Freedom Day
Robinson Crusoe Day is it because it’s a Friday?
Spunky Old Broads Day hope I live to be one…
Wear Red Day
Women’s Hearth Health Day
2/2 Ground hog Day
Candelmas
Ground hog Job Shadow Day this is a real job?
Hedgehog Day
Imbolic http://www.moonstar.me.uk/page23.html
Teach Your Daughter to Volunteer Day
2/3 Four Chaplains Memorial Day
Super Bowl XLII make a football shaped paté!
2/4 Bun Day: Iceland
Dump Your Significant Jerk Day especially if they made fun of your paté
Liberace Day tickle the ivories in a sparkly outfit!
USO Day
2/5 Fastnachts Day http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8521.asp
International Pancake Day
Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday)
Mardi Gras get your beads! http://www.mardigrasday.com/
Paczki Day
Move Hollywood & Broadway to Lebanon, PA Day why?
Weatherman’s (Weatherperson’s) Day
2/6 African American Coaches Day
Ash Wednesday
National Girls & Women in Sports Day
2/7 Chinese New Year’s Day it’s the Year of the Rat
Wave All Your Fingers at your Neighbor’s Day
2/8 Boy Scout Anniversary Day
Laugh and Get Rich Day oh if only it were this easy!
Snow Festival: Japan
2/9-10 Corvette Days a car so cool it needed 2 days to appreciate!
2/10 Grammy Awards Day let’s pray for an end to the Writer’s Strike!
Man Day
Plimsoll Day
World Marriage Day
2/11 Pro Sports Wives Day
National Shut-in Visitation Day
Satisfied Staying Single Day for those not suckered into World Marriage Day!
Westminster Dog Show
White Shirt Day
Youth Day: Cameroon
Founding Day: Japan (660 B.C.)
2/12 Darwin Day ever heard of the Darwin Awards?
Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday
Safety Pup Day
2/13 Black Love Day
Employee Legal Awareness Day
Get a Different Name Day there are so many good ones still available…
2/14 Ferris Wheel Day
National Condom Day nope, no coincidence…
World Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day
League of Women Voters Day
National Women’s Heart Day
National Call In Single Day
Race Relations Day
Quirky Alone Day
Valentines Day rose are red, violets are blue…
Viticulturists’ Day: Bulgaria
2/15 Lupercalia
Susan B. Anthony Day
National Gum Drop Day http://www.candyusa.org/Classroom/calendar.asp
2/17 Daytona 500 gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines!
My Way Day listen to a Sinatra record!
National PTA Founders Day
World Human Spirit Day
2/18 Presidents Day
2/19 Chocolate Mint Day
2/20 Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day well, Hoodie Hoo!
2/20-21 Lunar Eclipse (visible in the Americas between 10pm and 1:15am)
2/21 International Mother Language Day
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
Single Tasking Day not possible…
Lantern Festival: China
2/22 George Washington’s Birthday
Martyrs’ Day: Bangladesh
2/23 Clam Chowder Day I’ll take a bowl of the New England style, please!
Curling is Cool Day only if you’re also into cheese rolling…
Iwo Jima Day
Open That Bottle Night why save it…drink it!
2/24 Academy Awards writers, writers, writers
2/26 For Pete’s Sake Day who is Pete and why should I care?
Spay Day USA spay and neuter and spay and neuter and spay and neuter
2/27 Inconvenience Yourself Day if you don’t spay or neuter we’re ALL inconvenienced!
2/28 National Chili Day 3-alarm for me!
Floral Design Day
National Tooth Fairy Day leave a flower with your tooth!
2/29 Leap Year Day
American Crossword Puzzle Convention (through 3/2)
Selected Author Birthdays:
2/1 Langston Hughes, 1902; Jerry Spinelli, 1941
2/2 James Joyce, 1882; Ayn Rand, 1905; Judith Viorst, 1931; Betsy Duffey, 1953 (?)
2/3 Norman Rockwell, 1894; Joan Lowery Nixon, 1927
2/4 Russel Hoban, 1925; Barbara Shook Hazen, 1930
2/5 Patricia Lauber, 1924; David Wiesner, 1957
2/6 Jerome Wexler, 1923; Weyman B. Jones, 1928; Betsy Duffey, 1953 (?)
2/7 Charles Dickens, 1812; Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867
2/8 Jules Verne, 1828; Anne Rockwell, 1934
2/9 Dick Gackenbach, 1927; Alice Walker, 1944; Stephen Roos, 1945
2/10 E. L. Konigsburg, 1930; Stephen Gammell, 1943; Mark Teague, 1963
2/11 Sidney Sheldon, 1917; Jane Yolen, 1939
2/12 Randolph Caldecott, 1846; Judy Blume, 1938; Jacqueline Woodson, 1964
2/13 Ouida Sebestyen, 1924; Simms Taback, 1932; William Sleator, 1945
2/14 Phyllis Root, 1949; George Shannon, 1952; Paul O. Zelinsky, 1953
2/15 Norman Bridwell, 1928; Elaine Landau, 1948
2/16 Elizabeth K. Cooper, 1908; Carol Gorman, 1952
2/17 Alice Mary Norton, 1912; Robert Newton Peck, 1928; Susan Beth Pfeiffer, 1948
2/18 Toni Morrison, 1931; Barbara Joosse, 1949
2/19 Louis Slobodkin, 1903; Jill Krementz, 1940; Amy Tan, 1952
2/20 William MacKellar, 1914; Rosemary Harris, 1923
2/21 Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, 1933; Jim Aylesworth, 1943
2/22 Edward Gorey, 1925; Harry Kullman, 1919
2/23 C. S. Adler, 1931; Walter Wick, 1953
2/24 Wilhelm Grimm, 1786; Uri Orlev, 1931
2/25 Frank Bonham, 1914; Cynthia Voigt, 1942; Iain Lawrence, 1955
2/26 Judith S. George, 1931; Colby Rodowsky, 1932
2/27 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807; Uri Shulevitz, 1935
2/28 Ben Hecht, 1894; Donna Jo Napoli, 1949; Megan McDonald, 1959
2/29 David R. Collins, 1940; Susan I. Roth, 1944; Patricia McKillip, 1948
Without a doubt, all of us are aware of the ease of obtaining email connectivity with G-mail through Google. Many of us use this tool daily and never take notice of the other awesome features on the G-mail home page. Allow me to introduce those of you who have not had time or opportunity to examine this page to GOOGLE.DOCS, a tool that can make you the most popular teacher-librarian among your faculty and students!
If you are looking for a tool where groups of people need input in document development, GOOGLE.DOCS is the perfect solution! Groups that can benefit from creating documents in this manner include students, teachers, committee members, departments, community groups, any set of people who need a voice in a particular project. GOOGLE.DOCS allows anyone (upon invitation) to access a shared document and make changes that will be saved so that everyone in the group can contribute to the document creation. It is, basically, a living, breathing document!
The process for setting up a google document is quite simple. The first step is to secure a G-mail account. Click on the Document link at the top of the page, and you are ready to open an existing document or create one for your group. The screen shots below demonstrate how simple it is to create a document, email to group members’ G-mail accounts, and then contribute to the document in progress.
Everyone has access to the latest changes on the document, and each participant can even choose a font style or color so individual member contributions are easily identified:
It is even possible to insert photos into a document or spreadsheet. Once everyone has amended the document as they wish, the project is complete and everyone has had input through this exceptional method of communication.
Uses of this tool are many and varied. It is simple to use, versatile in application, and brings a group together with no expense or travel required! A few ideas for this application include:
Very little, if any, training is necessary in mastering the GOOGLE.DOCS tool. With such easy access and instant document building capability, this proves to be an excellent way for teachers and students to communicate and work together on countless projects and assignments. Happy Googling!!
Phyllis R. Snipes
University of West Georgia
ALA Midwinter Conference was in Philadelphia this year-where it was actually warmer than it was here in Georgia! There were many things going on of interest to school library media specialists.
The new AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner
These were released by AASL last October and have been the subject of much discussion on the AASL Blog as well as LM_NET. I sat on the committee that wrote these standards and feel very strongly that they can shape our profession for the future. I think the confusion comes in because now people are wondering “OK, so now what do I do with them.” There are two more task forces working on this topic right now. I am on the one that is dealing with writing indicators and assessments to go with the standards and there is another task force that is working on developing guidelines to go with them. At the meetings in Philly many states shared ways that they have already have begun charting how these new standards can be integrated into their state curriculum. So be on the lookout for more to come on these new standards.
The AASL Affiliate Assembly meeting is always one of my favorite events. Library media specialists from all over the nation gather in one room to share what is going on in their state in our profession. I love to hear what is going on in other states and share what we are doing here in Georgia. I always feel extremely lucky for how good we do have it here in Georgia compared to other states. This also provides a time for the AASL Board of Directors to report back to what they are doing in response to concerns from the Affiliates. Sarah Kelly Johns, AASL President shared that the Board has decided to set up a task force on the issue of Reading Comprehension and the role of the school library media specialist and program in instruction.
School Library Media Month is coming up soon in April. AASL has set up a task force to help come up with a toolkit of materials and resources for building level SLMS to use to promote this. I am chairing this task force and will be looking for ideas. So if you have done something great to promote this before in your school please email your ideas to me. Also we have been working on a poster for School Library Media Month that will tie in with the Kit: An American Girl movie that will be coming out in July- here is the trailer: http://www.americangirl.com/movie/. The poster will be mailed to all AASL members in March and will have integration activities developed by our task force on the back of it.
Melissa P. Johnston (melissap@mindspring.com) Library Media Specialist, Silver City Elementary School
As we shiver through the cold weather, sleet, and snow that has hit the metro Atlanta area this weekend, I have had a different kind of “flake” on my mind: a cool Web 2.0 tool I discovered this weekend called Pageflakes.
What is Pageflakes, you may ask? It is a cool Web 2.0 tool that allows users to create personalized online desktops similar to that of iGoogle. Users can easily add widgets or “flakes” related to education, photos, social bookmarking sites, news, podcasts, fun games, and even comic strips!
I created a pagecast for our media center this weekend to help promote our library resources; we will be adding additional pages featuring podcasts (student created as well as librarian created!) in February. Our pagecast is designed to give our users another avenue for accessing our library resources as well as provide a little fun for them where they can play online games, listen to our podcasts (coming in February), and view RSS feeds to some of our most popular library resources.
Using Pageflakes is fairly easy: you create an account, and then you add content to pages you create by simply selecting content-based widgets you want on your page. You can add RSS feed widgets to your favorite resources that are not on the diverse menu available through Pageflakes, too. You also have many themes and color schemes as well as layout schemes to customize your page. To make your page viewable, you then choose the option to make your “page” a “pagecast”; once you take this step, your page is viewable to everyone else via a static link.
This is a tool teachers could also use to complement their websites; students can also create their very own pageflake account at http://student.pageflakes.com/. Best of all, the service is free, and as long as your district does not block it with their filter, you can log into it and edit it any time while at school.
You can learn more about Pageflakes in this PC Magazine review from December 7, 2007. To get an idea of what a library-based pagecast looks like, please surf over to our newly created pagecast at The Unquiet Library Pagecast!
Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S.
Creekview High School
http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com
I stumbled across this fun and oh so librarian 2.0 tool yesterday! Go to http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/ and fill in the fields to crank up your very own catalog card! Yes! If you don’t like the way it looks, just hit F5 to refresh, and you will see slight changes in the fonts, tint, and handwriting style. When you are happy with the results, right click on the image and save to your computer.
You have the option of making a “traditional” print card, an audio card, or even a video card!
How cool is this? This is great little tool for creating a PR graphic for your library or any special programs your media center may be promoting. 
Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S.
Creekview High School
http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com
You’ve located the perfect video segment to enhance an existing lesson. You’ve downloaded the clip and tested it on your computer before showing it to your students. But when you connect your computer to your television, you hit a bump in the road. Sound familiar? If you’ve ever experienced this problem – and I know I have – you are not alone. This “snag” is common for many educators who are integrating digital video files in the classroom but don’t have the luxury of displaying the videos with an LCD projector.
I’ve received numerous emails from educators who’ve requested my help with this problem, and my first question is always the same: “Have you tried changing the video acceleration rate for Windows Media Player?” Usually the acceleration setting is high since we tend to watch videos on computers. For some televisions, though, you may need to slow down the video acceleration rate so the video is viewable.
Follow the steps below and you should have better results:
1. Download the video from the Internet.
2. Play the video on your desktop and make sure the Windows Media Player expands to Full Screen so you are able to see the following grey tool bar options at the top of the screen (File, View, Play, Tools, Help).
3. Click on the “Tools” link in the Windows Media Player tool bar.
4. Scroll down and select “Options.”
5. Click on the “Performance” tab.
6. Under the “Video Acceleration” heading, slide the bar from “Full” to the mid-point (for “some video acceleration. Select if you are experiencing video playback problems.”)
7. Click “Apply.”
8. Try watching the video again on the television screen.
Katherine Aiken
Digital Distribution / TIE Network Manager
Georgia Public Broadcasting
kaiken@gpb.org
http://www.tienetwork.org
Wow, a topic like policies sounds exactly like what somebody in school library education would choose for a blog topic! But I’d like to share a few thoughts that made me think that it might be time to see whether our AUPs are doing what we want them to do.
The idea came to me last semester when I was visiting a practicum student in her high school. The media center was a busy place, with a class looking up information for an assignment. I noticed that the media specialist was doing searches in the OPAC and in GALILEO for some students and handing them print outs of the results even though there was a computer dedicated to OPAC searching that wasn’t in use. When I asked why I was told that she had to do this for students who didn’t have a signed AUP. WHAT???? A high school student without an AUP couldn’t use the OPAC or GALILEO?
My next stop was the GA DOE page that links to AUPs in all Georgia counties.
I have to admit that I didn’t look at every single county policy but I noticed that many haven’t been updated since 1997 and many weren’t dated. Just think of how our whole way of using the Internet and Web in schools has changed since 1997. Back in 1997 “google” was not a verb! MySpace and Facebook probably didn’t even exist in anybody’s imagination. Use of the Internet and Web are essential parts of information literacy today and we need to make sure that our policies address all of the new issues that we face in our schools. We also need to think about ways to get this message out to the parents of our students in a positive way.
Doug Johnson, who has a gift for thinking ahead on many school library issues, has written a great article on the topic called “Rules for the Social Web”. The pdf of the article can be accessed by linking to the archives of Threshhold (look in the Summer, 2007 issue).
Doug’s Blue Skunk blog also has a set of great links related to the topic along with links to a webinar he held for the Discovery Education Network:
And be sure to compare your county’s AUP with ISD 77’s AUP. You might have to add a new resolution to your list for 2008-a resolution to revisit your AUP!
I admit that a lot of things escape my notice. I don’t read all the email messages that come over the GeorgiaMedia distribution list, I don’t attend every conference session, and heaven knows that (after grueling days at work) I sat through many a grad school class in a state of semi-sleep. However, in my twelve years of working in public schools, I can’t recall any significant discussion about how library media specialists are recruited into the field.
Certainly, there are a number of fine graduate programs that offer great programs to those who are interested—but what makes one interested in the first place? What makes a teacher decide to earn a master’s degree in library media instead of administration, counseling, or their current curriculum area? I’m sure it has something to do with the fine examples set by the library media specialists in their schools, but I’d like to know more specifically what it is.
Why is this important to know why library media specialists choose this field? It’s important because we need to become active recruiters—headhunters, even—for the profession. In order to be successful as a library media specialist, one must have a great deal of training, but there are some essential traits that cannot be taught. (I can teach someone to catalog, but I can’t teach someone to love children.) Consequently, it is in the best interest of our students to identify the specific traits that are necessary for success and to actively recruit people who possess them.
So I ask you, fellow library media professionals, how do we recruit the best people into our field? What made you choose this profession? What are the attributes that you feel are most essential to success? What are the best ways to identify the people who have those attributes? What are the best ways to convince those people to pursue the Greatest Job in the World?
