CTLS Board of Directors Pat Tuohy Executive Director Larry Ringer Chair Eileen Altmiller Vice Chair Barbara Crossno Secretary Gretchen Pruett Treasurer Larry Koeninger Jean Phipps From the Executive Director By Pat Tuohy December 2013 No. 130 CTLS Newsletter Continued on next page... IN THIS ISSUE : From the ED Page 1-2 Connect 4 Literacy Page 3 News You Can Use Pages 4 Youth News Page 5 What’s Happening Page 6 Celebrating Dr. Who in Harker Heights Page 6 CTLS Calendar & Staff Directory Page 8 Workshop Flyers Page 9 As librarians, we seldom know who we have really influenced over the course of our working lives. From time to time we get feedback from children, faithful readers, parents, and others we see both within our walls and outside of them. The celebrities that endorse libraries are usually found among entrepreneurs, media personalities, and political or social leaders. Seldom do we hear praise from punk rockers or performance artists. So it came as a surprise when we heard that the California Library Association invited former puck rocker Henry Rollins from the 80’s group Black Flag to be the keynote speaker at their annual conference in November. Below are excerpts from the website of the CLA along with direct quotes from his Mr. Rollins’ blog. Most quotation marks have been left off but almost all of the text is taken directly from these sources. Thanks to CTLS Board member Alice Nixon for sending this posting my way. “Best known as the singer for the seminal Southern California punk rock band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986, Henry Rollins has released over a dozen spoken word albums in which he shares his commentary on a host of social and political topics. He has also published fifteen books of journals, poetry, autobiography, and photography, including 1992’s Black Coffee Blues, 1994’s Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag, and most recently, 2011’s Occupants, a collection of photos from around the world paired with essays about the world condition, which wired.com called “an impressive collection built entirely out of Rollins’ de- sire to expose readers to corners of the world they may otherwise never see.” Henry hosts a weekly radio program on KCRW in Los Angeles, writes regularly for LA Weekly, has acted in the television program Sons of Anarchy and in nu- merous films, and hosted The Henry Rollins Show on IFC for two seasons. Henry is a popular speaker on social justice topics, spending more nights per year on the road than he does at home.” From Henry Rollins’ blog post of November 14, 2013……… “I went over my 10 pages of notes of what I wanted to impart to members of California's public library system. It became obsessive; I kept adding ideas, things I wanted to say: quotes from Lincoln, Johnson, parts of the Constitution, Andrew Carnegie's great philanthropy that gave America many of the public li- braries we have now. I came to the conclusion that they already knew all this stuff and it would be damn insulting to make them listen to this kind of 101, es- pecially at that hour of the morning. After a few more sessions of going over the notes, I was satisfied that I had a good plan and eagerly awaited the time to en- gage.
Transcript
CTLS Board of Directors
Pat Tuohy
Executive Director Larry Ringer Chair Eileen Altmiller Vice Chair Barbara Crossno Secretary Gretchen Pruett Treasurer Larry Koeninger Jean Phipps
From the Executive Director By Pat Tuohy
December 2013 No. 130
CTLS Newsletter
Continued on next page...
IN THIS ISSUE:
From the ED Page 1-2
Connect 4 Literacy Page 3
News You Can Use Pages 4
Youth News Page 5
What’s Happening Page 6
Celebrating Dr. Who in Harker Heights
Page 6
CTLS Calendar & Staff Directory
Page 8
Workshop Flyers Page 9
As librarians, we seldom know who we have really influenced over the course of our working lives. From time to time we get feedback from children, faithful readers, parents, and others we see both within our walls and outside of them. The celebrities that endorse libraries are usually found among entrepreneurs, media personalities, and political or social leaders. Seldom do we hear praise from punk rockers or performance artists. So it came as a surprise when we heard that the California Library Association invited former puck rocker Henry Rollins from the 80’s group Black Flag to be the keynote speaker at their annual conference in November. Below are excerpts from the website of the CLA along with direct quotes from his Mr. Rollins’ blog. Most quotation marks have been left off but almost all of the text is taken directly from these sources. Thanks to CTLS Board member Alice Nixon for sending this posting my way. “Best known as the singer for the seminal Southern California punk rock band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986, Henry Rollins has released over a dozen spoken word albums in which he shares his commentary on a host of social and political topics. He has also published fifteen books of journals, poetry, autobiography, and photography, including 1992’s Black Coffee Blues, 1994’s Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag, and most recently, 2011’s Occupants, a collection of photos from around the world paired with essays about the world condition, which wired.com called “an impressive collection built entirely out of Rollins’ de-sire to expose readers to corners of the world they may otherwise never see.” Henry hosts a weekly radio program on KCRW in Los Angeles, writes regularly for LA Weekly, has acted in the television program Sons of Anarchy and in nu-merous films, and hosted The Henry Rollins Show on IFC for two seasons. Henry is a popular speaker on social justice topics, spending more nights per year on the road than he does at home.” From Henry Rollins’ blog post of November 14, 2013……… “I went over my 10 pages of notes of what I wanted to impart to members of California's public library system. It became obsessive; I kept adding ideas, things I wanted to say: quotes from Lincoln, Johnson, parts of the Constitution, Andrew Carnegie's great philanthropy that gave America many of the public li-braries we have now. I came to the conclusion that they already knew all this stuff and it would be damn insulting to make them listen to this kind of 101, es-pecially at that hour of the morning. After a few more sessions of going over the notes, I was satisfied that I had a good plan and eagerly awaited the time to en-gage.
We love to hear from our members! Please don’t forget to let us know what is going on in your library! Brag, share photos, share success stories, and share lessons learned! With your permission, we will
always pass it along on our website, in the newsletter, or through social media.
Contact any of the staff via email or share with us on Facebook or Twitter!
Libraries and books are a big part of my life. Like a lot of inwardly drawn young people, I spent a lot of time in libraries. At my high school, I often spent my lunch breaks there. The books were an escape and the Ritalin that was pumping through my system killed my appetite. I also spent a lot of time in the library near my apartment. It was big and often quite empty. There were no parents there, no one I knew, and the solitude was a great relief. I preferred books over people. They didn't beat me up or take my bike. There was something very empowering about walking into the building, past all the adults, and realizing that I could pull down any book I wanted to and just start reading. I don't know why but it was a huge deal to me. After being introduced, I took the sum total of all the notes, the planning and the pacing in my driveway and laid it on all the bright, shiny faces. I think I did pretty well. It was a great group of people. I met many of them afterward and their stories were inspiring. The prison librarians were the most interesting. I met one who dealt with juveniles and another with adults. I commented that it must be difficult to interact with a young person who will be spending the rest of their life in prison. One of them said, "Try dealing with them when they're 40 after they have been in there for 20 years." During the speech, I said that no one goes into any library seeking to lose knowledge or leave knowing less than they did before they went in. This was mentioned back to me many times, as people told me they are trying to give people an opportunity to better themselves and, while they are severely underfunded, they wouldn't give up what they're doing for anything. The state is lucky to have these people.” Libraries change lives and give each individual the opportunity to make their life better, more productive, and more meaningful. What we, as librarians do has an impact in ways we can never fully know. Take this tribute to heart and know that you in your library make a positive difference every day.
E-Rate is Easy with CTLS
NOW is the time to get going on applying for the E-rate dis-count for your library! CTLS makes it easy for you with the help of Toby Sykes of E-Rate Solutions. Please see this page for all of
your E-rate needs and let us know if you have any questions!
Early Literacy Writing Centers in Public Libraries
In 2000, the Association for Library Service to Children
(ALSC) and the Public Library Association (PLA) responded
to research that found a significant number of children were
entering kindergarten without the skills needed to learn to
read. The Every Child Ready to Read 1st Edition was cre-
ated to assist librarians to teach parents 6 early literacy
skills to help their children to be ready to start school and
learn to read. In 2008, the Every Child Ready to Read 1st Edition was evaluated. It was rec-
ommended that less educational jargon be used to make it easier for parents to integrate early
literacy practices into their everyday life. Thus in the Every Child Ready to Read 2nd Edition,
the 6 early literacy skills became the 5 practices of Talk, Sing, Read, Write, and Play.
Some were confused by the concept of writing for children who clearly did not have the skills to
pick up a pencil to write. Writing in this sense represents the scribbling and drawing that young
children do. Children who scribble and draw practice hand-eye coordination and exercise the
muscles in their fingers and hands, giving them fine motor control to eventually hold a crayon
or pencil.
As public librarians, we can encourage the writing process in our children’s areas by providing
writing centers. I have included some ideas gathered from public librarians on the PUBYAC
listserv and from my research. Many libraries have placed magnetic boards with magnetic let-
ters, chalk boards, flannel boards and white boards in their children’s areas to encourage writ-
ing. Many have also designated permanent tables or carts that can easily be moved around
as writing centers. The ends of shelving units could also be used. Writing centers may have
lined and unlined paper, crayons, laminated sheets that can be wiped off, envelopes, stickers
to use as stamps, and more. One librarian has a cardboard mailbox and uses 1cent stamps for
pretend mailing, since they are often cheaper than stickers. Laminated word cards and tracing
activities are also popular. There are many inexpensive ideas on Pinterest and from teacher
websites to consider.
The time to create the opportunity to encourage our young pa-
trons to “write” and develop literacy skills is now. This is a
great way to engage your volunteers to come up with ideas
and to help you keep the writing center tidy. Don’t forget read-
ing and writing go together. Take a look at Rosemary Wells’
picture book, Bunny Cakes, featuring Max and Ruby, bunny
siblings, for a fun story about scribbling.
News You Can Use By Laurie Mahaffey
Don’t forget to follow CTLS, Inc.
on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!
T. R. Fehrenbach
A well-known Texas author passed away recently at the age of 88. Theo-dore Reed Fehrenbach, a native of San Benito, attended high school in Hol-lywood, CA and graduated from Princeton University. His very thick book, Lone Star: a History of Texas and Texans, is one of the definitive histories of our state. Other works by this respected author are Fire and Blood: A His-tory of Mexico; Comanches: the Destruction of a People; and Seven Keys to Texas. While another comprehensive history of Texas is in the works by Stephen Harrigan, Lone Star stands as a book well worth reading. I know; I’ve read it!
Major Reference Work Goes Online
The Dictionary of American Regional English is one of my favorite reference works. Published over many years in several volumes, the dictionary tells the reader where people say “bubbler” for “water fountain” and where “skillet” vs. “frying pan” is used. Fifty years ago, students and researchers from the University of Wisconsin went around the United States in “word wagons” with reel-to-reel tape re-corders to capture how Americans talk. The first volume was pub-lished in 1985, and the sixth and last in 2012. Harvard University Press will publish it on the Web at $150 per year and will include maps of word usage. The total for all 6 print volumes is $740. Only large libraries and word junkies should buy.
Oil Industry Book
Gregory Zuckerman has written The Frackers: the Outrageous Inside Story of The New Billionaire Wildcatters, a book about “one of the greatest energy revolutions in history.” As many of our libraries are right in the middle of the oil patch, this is a timely book. Despite gloomy predictions recently about “peak oil,” the author believes that the U. S. is on the verge of an energy boom sure to generate millions of new jobs by 2020. Zuckerman, a Wall Street Journal reporter, ad-dresses the environmental issues such as water contamination and seismic activity, but believes these can be fixed with the proper regula-tions. Favorably reviewed in Kirkus Reviews, the book was published by Penguin for $29.95.
Summer Reading Science Don’t let the summer sneak up on you. Start thinking about all the wonderful science program-ming you can do at your library. Here are a few websites with science program ideas for ele-mentary ages and teens.
Maker Camp
Free Virtual DIY Camp for Teens
Cool Projects, Epic Field Trips & Awesome Makers
The information for Maker Camp suggests participants should be 12
and up. This is a good age for the more advanced projects, but you
have the choice of a less complicated project that works well for
younger participants.
Camp is offered daily online with discussions about the projects. All instructions are posted
online, as well. You can use the instructions to complete the projects if the presentation times
do not work for you. Find the Camp activities under Events: www.makezine.com
How to Smile
The American Library Association has named Howtos-
mile.org to its Great Websites for Kids
Association for Library Service to Children recognized
Howtosmile.org as an exemplary website. It was voted one of this year’s Top 100 Educational
Websites by Homeschool.com, which has more than a million members.
http://www.howtosmile.org/
About Engineering Adventures
Engineering Adventures is a new curriculum developed by the Engineering is Elementary pro-
ject at the Museum of Science, Boston. EA is a fun, engaging, hands-on, design curriculum
created specifically for use in out-of-school-time programs. EA units challenge children (grades
3-5) to solve engineering design problems using creativity, teamwork, and critical thinking. For
more information, visit: engineeringadventures.org
Sandy Hall will be leaving Liberty Hill. We will miss her smiling face and wish her every success in the future! Angela Palmer, formerly of the Bee Cave Public Library, is Sandy’s successor.
ALA’s @ Your Library site recently did a profile on a two-year pilot pro-ject called StoryCorps @ Your Library which invites members of the public to tell personal stories. CTLS’s very own Smithville Public Library is one of ten participating libraries across the country. Check out this wonderful article featuring Smithville’s director Judith M. Bergeron talking about the program! Thank you for sharing, Smithville!
Congrats to the Temple Memorial Library in Diboll, TX on celebrating 50 years! Here's to 50 more! Check out this great local news video spot: KTRE.com | Lufkin and Nacogdoches, Texas
Celebrating 50 Years with The Doctor and Harker Heights Public Library Submitted by Lisa Youngblood
At Harker Heights we did a series of Dr. Who related programs. At Barnes and Noble we presented a “Stories Through Time” storytime. While some parents like Dr. Who, few little ones know much about it so we just pre-tended to go through time with books and songs. The kids really loved it. To tie in the Dr. Who theme, we made bowties which could be worn as ties, as lapel pins, or as hair bows. The most current Dr. Who has said that “Bowties are cool.” Afterwards we also allowed kids to make cut out Tard-ises. Barnes and noble staff made a large refrigerator box size Police Call Box as a Tardis. We also did some Dr. Who trivia.
The really interesting thing is that we had a three hour program later that afternoon at the library. We made tiny cut out Daleks (characters from the show) and hid them all around the library. We viewed three episodes from the show, had fun foods, set up a Tardis photo op, and made the very intricate Dalek cut out 3D models. We had a cos-tume contest and a trivia contest. We even made the bowties again. We had between 80 and 90 people. I cannot tell you how surprised I was at the response. The teens and adults were just as tickled to make the sort of kid crafts as the kids were. I was shocked that so many people stayed for the whole three hours. I guess it just goes to show you that if you can find any cult following or super geeky type thing, you can make a pretty neat program out of it.
Register with the above links or go to www.ctls.net
December 6, 2013 Performers Showcase Georgetown Public Library Register Here December 9, 2013 Every Child Ready to Read Workshop McAllen, TX Register Here December 24-25, 2013 Christmas Holiday CTLS Office Closed January 1, 2014 New Year Holiday CTLS Office Closed January 10, 2014 Summer Reading Program Workshop Lancaster, TX January 17, 2014 Summer Reading Program Workshop Schertz, TX January 17, 2014 CTLS Board of Directors Meeting Schertz, TX January 24, 2014 Summer Reading Program Workshop Harker Heights, TX
