Wild Wild West or www.regulation

WWW.   Is that World Wide Web or Wild Wild West?  Is it time for the www to come to an end?  Last week,  Wikipedia and its friends went black to protest the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) legislation.  Lots has been said about these topics and anytime something like this hits Washington it gets a dozen different spins.  This post is not designed to rehash the pros and cons of these two acts specifically, but rather to address the topics of legislation in this basically free and "Wild West" virtual world of the Internet.  
The government has basically kept their hands out of the law-making business in regards to the Internet beyond the attempted laws to protect children and citizens from viewing or becoming victims to inappropriate behaviors/crimes.  We may have noticed an increase of legislation as state governments attempt to protect local businesses by taxing online sales.  But this is first, very public, attempt of the federal government to directly hold companies and individuals accountable for use of information (most copy written and owned by others) that is posted online for some kind of profit and ownership or covert reason.  Is it time for this kind of legislation? Are corporations, organizations, governments able to "police" enough to protect intellectual properties with or without a federal law?  
In the schools and education it is common for students and the schools to use information found on the Internet for educational purposes and most uses are protected under fair use copyright clauses.  But what happens when those students who have, for years, used others ideas, images, audio files, for presentations in education and learning now move into the corporate world where now corporate profit, salaries, and promotions are at stake?  Fair use and educational purposes are not vaild when someone is making money or receiving promotions for creating "original" documents and sales presentations from others' ideas.  This is where legislation and laws come into play.  Is it time to address these issues beyond basic copyright laws?  Should the individual be responsible for their actions or should companies like Google, Wikipedia or others be held responsible for allowing postings of copyright materials?  
Most would agree that more legislation is not the answer, but is some legislation needed to draw a line?  The question becomes where is the line and who is going to be in charge of that line?  When it comes to the Internet, those questions are gray and fuzzy.  The concepts and ideas are intangible and when posted online, can even be difficult to attribute to an individual.  
It seems that last weeks protest got the attention of people; I know in our school students and staff noticed that Wikipedia was not accessible.  Will discussion continue outside of Washington now that the "protest" is over?  Will lots of money and interest groups control what happens to the Internet as it does with many other aspects of our legislation?  Discussion between the intellectual properties of education and corporation, and the Internet holders of those intellectual properties of Google and Wikipedia, and government officials need to continue this discussion.  What makes this whole discussion difficult as a general citizen is who is representing whom?  Ideally, the government should represent the people, but that is put into question constantly.  We need to remember who the Internet properties represent because they have positioned themselves to say that they represent the individual.  We need to be careful of that.  We need to follow this and make our voices heard.  The Internet is ingrained in our lives whether we like it or not and this is too important to put in the hands of stake holders who do not have us, the people, in mind.  We are more important than the dollar, hopefully.  
Knee-jerk legislation cannot pass because we all know, once legislation is in play, it is almost impossible to rescind, and it ends up constantly getting morphed with "improvements."  Hopefully, discussion and collaboration can result in laws that do what they are intended to do: Protect those that use the Internet and ideas that are shared. 

Paperback books!!

We have unofficially announced January to be Paperback Book Month!!  It just seems to be a good time of the year to promote those poor flimsy books that have an inferiority complex next to their shiny, hard-backed brothers and sisters.  Paperback books have their place in a library and in our lives.  
I discovered the usefulness of paperback books several years ago.  I was working for Tony's Pizza Service delivering frozen pizzas to grocery stores, and I found myself waiting around all the time.  It was a hurry up and wait kind of job.  I found myself wanting to fill that time with something somewhat productive, but crossword puzzles and things like that weren't my thing.  It was the days before smartphones, so any kind of social networking was out.  So, I started carrying paperback books with me.  I loved those books because most (those under 200 pages or so) could fit in my back pocket easily.  When I found myself waiting for someone to open the back door of a store or to check in my product, which could take up to 10-20 minutes at times, I would pull out my book and read.  I became known as the "book guy" by other delivery drivers and store employees.  It was fun.  I got to read and promote literacy because they all wanted to know what I was reading and if it was any good.  It was great!!    Paperback books had a place with me.  
I don't encourage sticking a paperback book from a library in your back pocket, but paperback books are generally lighter, many times easier to read laying back, and many times lay open better than a hard cover book.  
For the next two weeks in the high school library, if you check out a paperback book, fill out an entry form and you just might win a "sweet" prize.

National Young Readers Week

Last week we celebrated National Young Readers Week in the elementary library.  We invited several guests to read to the students in grades K-5.  The students listened to the stories the guests brought, then they got the opportunity to ask the guest reader about his or her job.  Reading to the Kindergarten and first graders in an assembly in the commons were the principal, Mrs. Huene, two high school drama students Ellie and Sam, and our State Congressman Mike Unes.  Reading to second grade was Peoria Journal Star reporter and columnist, Steve Tarter.  Third Grade heard a story by WMBD television news reporter Kim Behrens and fourth and fifth grade students were visited by radio play-by-play voice of the Peoria Chiefs, Nathan Baliva.
The kids really seemed to enjoy the stories, but even more fun were the great questions they had for the visiting readers.  Both Nathan Baliva and Kim Behrens were asked if they make mistakes when reporting and if it is embarrassing when they do make a mistake.  Both admitted to making mistakes and being embarrassed, but the great part about their jobs is that it is live on-air. The lesson to the students is that you fix your mistakes and move on.  All visitors told the students about how important reading is in their jobs and all encouraged the students to read as much as they can for whatever they want to do in the future.
This is the second year that we have invited local "celebrities" into the school to read for National Young Readers Week, and this year seemed to be even more exciting than last.  Students remembered the event last year and were really excited to see who was going to read to them this year.  Another great feature about the week is the feedback from the guest readers.  They all shared how much fun it is to visit the students and refreshing it is to see the excitement in the students.  I think sometimes as adults we get so wrapped up in our "adult world" and working with other adults and making adult decisions that we forget about the impact we can make on young people.  And the real secret is the impact they have on us.  They remind us of and give us their energy and enthusiasm for life; they reignite that curiosity we had when we were younger.  It is quite refreshing which is why I love my job as a school librarian.
So, while seemingly National Young Readers Week is about sharing and encouraging reading with our young people, it has benefits for everyone!

Internet Security

Last year at our school, the IT director and I started a series of Internet safety lessons that we teach to each different grade in the school from 6th to 12th grades. We cover topics from evaluating websites for research to Social Networking.  What is always interesting is that the students almost always know more about certain aspects and features of using the Internet than we do, but rarely do they know or even think about anything regarding securing their own personal information and identity.
This week we did a lesson with sixth grade on using Facebook and other social networking websites.  The students were familiar with the workings of Facebook and helped me browse around my own site, but by a show of hands, less than half of them who have an account (which is about 65% of them), had ever visited, to their knowledge, the security section of Facebook to set up the security parameters.  This verified for us that the topic of our lesson was needed, but this is concerning.  My hope is that when students of any age 6-12 grades open a social networking account, that not only parents and adult family visit frequently, but that they also help with talking about and setting security parameters.  However, I visited many of the students' Facebook sites as a "non-friend" to discover that many of them are wide open to view and post. Scary.
We close our presentation telling the students that social networking sites are not bad, but sometimes bad people ruin good things.  They should use Facebook, Skype, Twitter and other social networking sites when their parents allow, but they must be smart about how they use them.  We highly recommend they talk with their parents about the security of their sites and encourage them to visit the security section of whatever site they use. "Go there today!" we say.  Just like everything else in education and working with kids, we know that several will not do anything.  Maybe because they think nothing bad will happen to them, maybe because they just forget in their busy day and minds, or maybe because they are not sure they really understand.  Hopefully, the lesson will get them to think about these issues and someday they will take action to protect themselves.

A Favorite Book

"Children's literature is the most important literature of all because it has the capacity to change people, to open their eyes; it's part of the growing process."  Neil Gaiman.  Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors and his book, The Graveyard Book, is one that I frequently recommend to students in the library.  It was by far the best book I read in 2010 topping even my first reading of The Hunger Games!
While listening to NPR this evening, I discovered a segment called "NPR's Back-Seat Book Club" and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book was being discussed.  A natural choice with Halloween on Monday.  He had so many interesting things to say that I won't repeat here because I encourage you to click on this link to read the NPR story and listen to the interview.
After listening, you will want to definitely want to check out the book.  Enjoy!

Award Book Programs

Our library launched the Abraham Lincoln Award books along with the State of Illinois' Read for a Lifetime reading programs two weeks ago.  With the help of the high school English teachers (I would have little success without their support), students have been signing up to read books off these two lists. The Abe has 34 students and five teachers signed up and the Read for a Lifetime has 25 students and five teachers.  We purchased one set of the Abe books and received the LBSS grant for a complete second set.  All but 12 of those books are checked out and at least one of every title is gone.  The Read for a Lifetime books are not moving quite as quickly mostly because the titles are not as well known and I haven't been pushing them as much.
Last year the program lost some steam as time went, so this year I have and will implement some strategies to continue marketing and encouraging students to keep reading.  Next week I will book talk and use video book talks to promote the lists, especially the Read for a Lifetime.  I have created a book club that will discuss four of the award books, two from Abe and two from Read for a Lifetime.  The book club will meet once a month to discuss a different book from the lists.  The student library assistants have agreed to help with the book club discussions which will hopefully encourage other students to participate.  I have also asked the English teachers to create shelf talkers with their comments on books they like to inspire the kids to read those specific books on the lists.  Finally, like last year, I will have a big voting party in February where the students who have met the required number of books read will come to vote for their favorite.  The party includes food and punch made by the foods classes and drawings for prizes.  We had a great time with the party last year.
I am curious to know what other schools are doing to promote the Abe and Read for a Lifetime programs.

A Moment of Clarity

My mind has been at a loss of words for my fingers to type until today.  Our school lost a student to a tragic car accident and it has been a difficult time for all of us. Last night a celebration of life service was held and I was filled with inspiration to write.
The young man was well liked and made an impact on lots of people.  That was clear to me as the gymnasium was full when I arrived and it continued to fill.  Students, teachers, community members and family filled the bleachers, seats on the floor, the balcony, the space on the wall and space in and just out of the doors.  It was an amazing showing of support for a good family.
The service proceeded as many do with pictures, music, and stories.  But the crowd there to honor a life was silent as the young man's mother took the floor.  She spoke of and thanked everyone who knew her son, and taught us a lesson to hold those close to us and love each other. She thanked everyone from friends and family for raising her son.  She said she and her husband started the job of raising him and everyone else continued that job.
It was a terrific moment of clarity as I sat there thinking about how many people we touch in a day, week, year, life.  Most of the time we don't ever think about the impact we make both positive and negative on others, nor do we acknowledge the impact others have on us until, many times, it is too late.
So, we are back to school today hopefully with a renewed mission to do what we do here and in all schools across the nation.  We are back at it to learn to hone the skills in which each of us is blessed and learn to use them to better ourselves, help others, and make a positive impact on this world.