Round Up

This has been posted all over the place, but I thought I would chime in as well.

Not able to attend ALA but still want to find out what's going on in cutting edge technology and social software!? Well check out the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase. This is from their page- The Social Software Showcase is an online unconference occuring around and during the time of ALA Annual 2007. On this wiki, you will find eleven wonderful presentations on cutting edge technology and social software by librarians and leaders in the field. Regardless of where you are in the world, you will have the opportunity to discuss the presentations here in this space. We will also be having a face to face roundtable discussion with some of our presenters at ALA Annual in Washington D.C. on Saturday, June 23rd, from 1:30-2:30 in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room. If you are in D.C. please come and join us. Very cool.

I'm sure you have all heard the big hoopla some children's librarians made about the use of the word"scrotum" in Susan Patron's Newberry Award book The Higher Power of Lucky. First of all the librarians that objected should be ashamed. That's nothing but blatant censorship, something that we library folk are supposed to be against. I will never understand a society that is so afraid of anatomically correct names of body parts, of seeing body parts and sex. The same society that will think nothing of allowing children to see violent television programs and movies, and those horrific video games. I'll never get it.

Well, Puritanical librarians, who by the way, can Kiss Where I Twist, youth literature is filled with scrotum. So there.


Two books that I have really enjoyed:
Miss Alcott's Email: Yours for Reforms of All Kinds by Kit Bakke and That Girl Lucy Moon by Amy Timberlake.

Miss Alcott's Email is a combination biography and memoir. Kit Bakke tried to answer life's questions by having an email correspondence with Louisa May Alcott. This delightful book with it's clever format is also a great refresher history course, because of all of the greats that were in Louisa May Alcott's circle-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and her father Bronson Alcott. I ended up becoming very fond of Louisa's mother Abba. She was a pistol!! Not at all the retiring 19th century woman one would expect. And her father, and equally compelling character. Did you know that he would not wear cotton because he didn't want to support the slave trade? I borrowed this from the library, but I must have my own copy.

That Girl Lucy Moon is children's literature (ages 9-12) at its best. Why oh why did they not have books like this when I was a girl. That's okay I guess because I can enjoy them now. Lucy Moon is a 12-year old girl (who is vertically challenged and looks 8), who is a crusader in all of the best ways. With her green and yellow hat made from hemp, he photographer mom, and postman father, she lives in a Turtle Rock, Minnesota. Amy Timberlake did a great job with the dialogue. The dialogue is spot-on whether it's between Lucy and her best friend Zoe or between her and adults. Lucy is just, well, Lucy. She sees and injustice and tries to right it. We could all take a few lessons from the irrepressible Lucy.

Destiny's Book Reviews are book reviews written by a ten year old girl. The site says, books for young ladies, reviewed by a young lady. Just read a couple of her reviews. I guarantee, you will be charmed.

Dwight Garner, the senior editor of the New York Times Book Review has a blog entitled Paper Cuts and it is freakin' fabulous.

Okay peeps, I heard on the radio this morning that people are not voting on the New Seven Wonders of the World website. I shouldn't say people, Americans aren't voting. So take a second and vote. (please)

If you are a Lucy Maud Montgomery fan, then you must wander over to Picturing a Canadian Life: L.M Montgomery's Personal Scrapbooks and Book Covers.

Libvibe is a daily library news podcast. Who knew???

Have you visited sk-rt? sk-rt is social ranking platform geared towards women. It's a lot of fun and provides some quality links.

That's all peeps. Have a good weekend.

"I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us." Louisa May Alcott