National School Librarian of the Year is Really Local

The national School Librarian of the year is Todd Burleson of Hubbard Woods School in Winnetka.  See the School Library Journal article and announcement for more details.

Having worked several years ago with Todd at Hubbard Woods on creative and inventive projects like “The Sky’s the Limit” about all aspects of flight, I am personally very excited that his work as an educator is being recognized nationally.  Todd has been instrumental in collaborating with District 36 and the Parent-Teacher Organization to create a “libratory” at Hubbard Woods.  Having this IDEA LAB makerspace recognized on a national level is a wonderful affirmation of his – and the District’s – focus on the whole child.   Todd’s work has been profiled in the local press, including The Chicago Tribune, and is described in more detail on the Hubbard Woods School site and his blog: http://toddburleson.wixsite.com/hwsidealab

I was very fortunate to have viewed the many changes to the Hubbard Woods library in person during the celebration of Hubbard Woods’ 100th year.  And earlier this summer, Todd generously acted as a guest lecturer for a graduate Library Science course; he certainly was an inspiration to the new school librarians from all around Illinois. By far the favorite speaker, Todd's pictures and descriptions of the renovated space were very energizing for all involved.

It is so stimulating and motivating to see the many new spaces available to students in our community – whether it is the new library in W250 on New Trier’s Winnetka campus, the inviting look which has been created at Northfield, changes to the local public libraries, like Winnetka’s new children’s area, or the very innovative library space at Hubbard Woods School!  Congratulations to Todd – can’t wait to see what comes next!

eBook Updates, pricing and trends

Based on an annual study from Follett and School Library Journal, we can see that the percent of school libraries offering eBooks has plateaued, although the size of the collections continues to grow:

Perhaps this is due to the disparity in pricing and availability, which while better than a few years ago, is still an issue for libraries.  Based on work pioneered at Douglas County Public Library, we looked at comparable prices for this year’s Abe Lincoln award nominees:

The above chart basically shows that a librarian could buy roughly 20 (21) hardcovers OR 40 paperbacks OR 18 ebooks for the same money ($320 to $325). That amount is roughly double the cost that an individual would spend on Amazon ($172) to buy the same eBooks or, again, roughly double the cost of buying one paperback copy ($161) of each title.  Prices are as of June 2016.  Perhaps we will see some movement in the future as more consolidations occur.  This past spring, Follett purchased Baker & Taylor and last year, OverDrive announced it was being acquired.

Do you have an interesting way to promote eBooks?  Let us know.  Interested in etextbooks use of digital content in schools? Check out this joint report from ASCD and OverDrive, published in April 2016.

17,849 and counting

17,489 -- that is the number of petitions submitted to the Obama administration's "We the People" project. It is also roughly the number (slightly over 17,000) of signatures needed for the petition titled "Ensure all school libraries are properly staffed, open, and available for children every day."

Read Joyce Valenza’s plea for action, noting support from Library Journal, School Library Journal, and Horn Book – if you decide on signing a petition, it involves creating an account (simply supplying first and last name, email account and zip code) and then activating the account (to ensure that the email is a live address); a relatively easy task for important subjects such as this. The White House is promising relatively quick responses if the goal of 25,000 signatures are reached. According to the Wall Street Journal, 81 petitions have received that required number of signatures, with 15 new petitions being received every hour.

That’s an active democratic society and leads me to also refer to an inspiring presentation given last week by Dave Lankes at CARLI (Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois). He spoke about becoming more vital to the community and how librarianship is about improving society in “Expect More: Service is Proactive”. Take a few moments to read his blog post which has links to his slides and audio presentation.

eBook Summit reactions

I am still processing all of the learning from yesterday's Library Journal & School Library Journal eBook summit - and looking forward to having the full archive posted soon. School Library Journal's summary is linked here.

The Twitter feed (#ebooksummmit) was amazing - honestly, it was the first time that I had experienced reading the feed as someone was speaking and I was excited to see that attendees were actively sending summary tweets so that librarians who could not be at the webinar could still "hear" and learn from what was being said.

Here are links to others' reactions:
No Shelf Required
Librarian in Black