School+Library+Journal

=School Library Journal=

The first thing I noticed about the cover of my January 2010 issue was the subtitle of this publication, "For Children's, Young Adult, and School Librarians." I had no idea this journal went beyond the scope of what goes on in schools. The second thing I noticed were the ads -- there were lots of them. I guess that's the price you pay for such a "pretty" presentation. The letters to the editor also caught my eye. All of them were concerning the November cover, which featured a group of librarians celebrating (rather stoically) in a bar; underneath them ran a tagline "This Blog's for You". Apparently, in the December issue, SLJ was inundated with letters from librarians complaining about the image portrayed. (Remind me to look up the names of *those* letter writers so that I don't mistakenly sit by them at a conference.) The letters featured in this issue were all very supportive of the fresh, vibrant, youthful, and fun image portrayed on the cover. As JoAnn Phelps, from West Bloomfield Township Public Library in MI stated, "All of the people who were so aghast at the cover showing librarians in a bar illustrate why we have the reputation we do of being without a sense of humor." While I bring up this issue rather tongue-in-cheek, I actually think this is important to our future as a profession. We must destroy the fuddy-duddy un-hip image many have of us if we want to be on the forefront of education and techonology in the 21st century. We must demonstrate that we are "with it" and can keep up with the ever-changing cultural trends if we ever want to prove we can keep up in the world of ideas and information. But besides the fuddy-duddies v. the hipsters, this issue contained a lot of other groovy stuff. The feature story was written by John Green (who seems inherently so nerdy he's cool) on "The Future of Reading", which I consider another major issue we need to contend with in our profession. While he goes on in the article, discussing the publication and dissemination of books, he said one thing that I found most profound, "Hating Twitter makes nothing happen; using Twitter to talk about something other than what you had for lunch, however, can make something happen." Wow. Reason #4783 to try and integrate social media into what we do. We can use it to make things happen. Elsewhere in the issue was an interview with Phillip Hoose, author of //Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice//. There was also "The Savvy Librarian's Night Table" with 10 book reviews on some arguably pretty fabulous books. And, of course, the customary reviews were there, including those for multimedia and audiobooks. Nothing earth-shattering but good stuff, nonetheless. Long story short, (too late!) this one, too, will be on the subscription list. --erin

The issue that I read was from March of 2010 and the cover story features an article about Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, the author of “Bad News for Outlaws” which recently won the Coretta Scott King Award. I noticed that in this issue there was definitely an ‘integrating technology against all odds’ theme and two of the articles covered the first hand accounts of teacher librarians and volunteers as they struggled to implement new technology into schools that weren’t quite up to standards. The first article, “A Man on a Mission” tells the story of one volunteer who attempted to introduce social media into a Harlem school and how he hadn’t taken into account the difficulties that the lack of proper resources would bring up. The next article, called “Of Mice and Mentors” details how one educator attempted to implement new technological plans into a K-5 Charter School in Oakland California but realized that she first had to teach students basic computer skills before she could really introduce the “fun stuff.” Logging in and out was the first step, but she also realized that students were unsure how to do things like navigate between screens and use the internet. The cover story featured a great question and answer segment with author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and I really enjoyed reading about what led her to write her award-winning book. One more article that I found interesting talked about streaming music in the library as a great way to connect to older students who would normally want nothing to do with the library (this made me wonder about how to censor innappropriate lyrics however). Overall, I really enjoyed this magazine and think that it will be extremely useful and pertinent to me as a future librarian, especially when it comes to selecting new books. The book review sections were vey thorough and detailed and I loved how they were separated into categories and age groups. This organization will really help sort through the massive amount of book options that are available out there to us as librarians. I also liked that there were feature articles that recommended books based on specific topics, such as biomes for example. This magazine was also very visually appealing and easy to navigate (it even featured a book review index) – I loved it! The ads didn't bother me too much during this reading, but I wonder if I read it regularly whether or not they might be too much. -Christie

The issue of School Library Journal I read was from February 2010. As I stated in my VOYA summary I am very impressed with the amount of book reviews in SLJ. I see this journal as a valuable tool to use in making book selections for my library. I appreciate the reviews for books for preschool through fourth grade. I also like that the book reviews are split up into age groups. With some books it can be hard to distinguish what level the book may be. SLJ would be a great resource to use in making that determination. I appreciate the books used within the different articles too. Themes in this issue were social media, the Caldecott Award process, diverse books and books about changing families. There was also an article featuring an interview with author Katherine Peterson. The article on Social Media featured how some people use social media. I found the article “Caldecott Confidential” by Nell Colburn to be very interesting. This article featured the process by which a book is selected for the Caldecott Award. Having a background in Early Childhood Education this award is my favorite because I love picture books. This article features tips for going through the process of selecting books for the award. I love the idea of clearing off a book shelf or getting a totally new book shelf because you will have tons of books to go through. I cannot imagine what a wonderful experience it would be to be a part of a committee in charge of selecting the winner of the award. Nell Colburn’s description of the process made it seem enjoyable and the best experience you will have in your career. At the midwinter meeting they sit down to discuss the nominees and she describes it as “the best book discussions” you will ever experience. I would love to be a part of that process. SLJ seems like it would be a valuable tool to use and I found all of the articles very interesting. It was hard to pick one to discuss! -Jessie

I read the September 2010 issue of School Library Journal. This was my third journal to read and I found it to be a little long. I enjoyed the articles and felt it was very informational but I'm not sure it is something I would be good at keeping up with if I received it on a regular bases. I read VOYA right before it and found VOYA to be a much easier read for me. I did enjoy the book reviews like other people have commented on above. I found them to be categorized very well and the age ranges were very helpful. They were also very in-depth reviews and I think I would use this journal to help order books more than anything else. I also enjoyed an article titled "Test Driving the i-pad." The article was interesting to read since I have never used an i-pad and have wondered how they work and what can be done with them. I enjoyed the multimedia and audio reviews in addition to the book reviews. I find I do not always know a lot about audio and multimedia so the reviews were helpful and opened my eyes to other products that are out there for use. In the journal there was a section called tools, trends, and gizmos which I found to be fun to read. There was a wood cover for an i-pod I have never seen before and some really interesting pens listed in this section ~Kaelin.

I love School Library Journal. Because I used to work in an elementary school, I love how this journal includes a lot of information that is relevant to teachers of younger kids. I read the May 2010 issue, which included several great articles, many of them about technology in schools (“Librarian Brings Kindles into the Classroom”, “Is the iPad Fit for School?”). SLJ always includes great book reviews and articles about books. There are also a lot of ads among the articles in SLJ, but they usually don’t bother me because I enjoy seeing all the new books, even if they are just in advertisements. This journal is an indispensible resource for choosing books for any school library. One article that I found interesting was “How I Corrupted America’s Youth” by children’s book author Dan Gutman. Gutman, author of the //My Weird School// series, discusses a letter he received from an angry parent who believes his books are depraved and should be banned from schools. Gutman uses his opinion as well as the opinions of other popular authors of banned books to explain why this parent is incorrect. First, he states that his books are purely for entertainment. They are not meant to provide a moral lesson. Gutman writes //My Weird School// specifically for the purpose of encouraging reluctant readers. He states that controversial phrases, such as “I hate school” may seem adversarial to a parent, but could hook a student who is frustrated with school and reading. Gutman also points to several principles of intellectual freedom, explaining that one parent has no right to make choices for every kid in a school. This article provided a lot of great points for librarians who are being challenged. It explained the issue of censorship from an author’s point of view, which was both interesting and informative. -Michelle L.



I read the August 2009 issue of School Library Journal. This is probably tied with VOYA for my favorite. I enjoyed how the articles were presented in a way that didn't make them hard to get through. I actually enjoyed reading this one cover-to-cover, and I feel like I gained a lot of knowledge in the process. I really enjoyed reading three main articles in this issue. "The Equal Opportunity Disorder" dealt with autism and how librarians can modify their instruction in order to really reach children with the disease. This article was informative because it lists statistics of how many children are diagnosed with autism today and how these students learn differently. Every autistic student learns differently from every other student, so it is important to be able to find what works best on an individual basis. "The Voices of Autism" discussed books written about autistic characters. I haven't been close to anyone who has been diagnosed as autistic, so these articles really opened my eyes to how prevalent the diagnosis is and how important it is to take into consideration when working in a library. The books that are discussed in the "Voices" article are definitely going on my "to read" list (Cynthia Lord's //Rules// and Nora Raleigh Baskin's //Anything but Typical//). The third article ("When Harry Met Bella") was all about fanfiction and whether or not librarians should be promoting it. The article touches on what you can do and what you can't do with fanfiction ( for example, you can't publish it for money, obviously, since you're stealing someone else's characters), and it discusses how encouraging students to write about characters in stories they enjoy can open them up to writing about other things. I like how the article gives website addresses to fanfiction sites and also addresses to resources about copyrights in relation to fanfiction. I've seen fanfiction in the past, and I never really thought about using it in a school setting, so this article opened my eyes to the possibility. Overall, this issue was just a really interesting and informative read, and I think that a subscription will be a valuable tool when I am working in a library. I also think the book reviews were well-organized and informative, so I will keep that aspect in mind as well. -Elyce