The Top 10 Children’s Libraries
1. ImaginOn – Charlotte, NC
2. Tulsa City County Library – Tulsa, OK
3. Vancouver Community Library – Vancouver, WA
4. Lied Scottsbluff Public Library – Scottsbluff, NE
5. Iowa City Public Library – Iowa City, IA
6. El Paso Public Library – El Paso, TX
7. Laramie County Library – Cheyenne, WY
8. Brentwood Public Library – Brentwood, TN
9. Birmingham Public Library – Birmingham, AL
10. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County – Cincinnati, OH

To see more information about Scottsbluff’s wonderful children’s area on Livability.com, go here.

YALSA is requesting suggestions for audiobooks published in 2011 or 2012 that you believe are outstanding.  If you listen to audio books, or if your teens are enthusiastic about a title or titles, go here to complete the suggestion form.  The committee is asking for librarians to submit more suggestions for this annual list.  Any title included on the most recent list, found here, is not eligible for next year’s list.

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld will be a good picture book choice for the upcoming summer reading program.  It is a poetic look at various machinery working at a construction site.  Four pages each tell of a particular machine and its work on the building, then that it is time for sleep.  Clever illustrations show a cement truck with a blanket only covering a part of his drum, and a bulldozer snuggling into the piles of dirt that look like a bed.  Sure to be a hit at story time!

(The Nebraska Library Commission receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers.  After review, the books are distributed free, via the Regional Library Systems, to Nebraska school and public libraries.)

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities.

But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era. presspauseplay.com @presspauseplay Facebook: on.fb.me/y4gEK1

If you like the film you can support us by rating it on IMDB – imdb.to/jUqhFn. Thanks!

• World Almanac Online provides students and researchers access to authoritative, essential statistics on hundreds of topics in a searchable online format. Learn more!

• World Almanac for Kids Online expands on the contents of the World Almanac for Kids print edition, along with other award-winning reference books from World Almanac, Chelsea House, and Facts on File. A natural complement to the curriculum, each subject area provides resources for homework, reports, and projects. Kids can explore grade-appropriate topics while developing online research skills with a trusted content source. Learn more!

 Trial URL: http://online.infobaselearning.com/Direct.aspx?aid=105792&pid=WE00

Trial Dates: February 2, 2012 through March 2, 2012

Trial Access Instructions: The trial username and password were distributed via a February 3, 2012 message to the TRIAL mailing list. Nebraska librarians who didn’t receive this information or would like to have it sent to them again may contact Susan Knisely.

Description: Access Video On Demand is a streaming video service for public libraries. It offers thousands of exclusive educational videos from top producers with unlimited, simultaneous usage, 24/7. Access Video On Demand features nine streaming collections, which can be purchased individually or as a bundle. Learn more online!

Trial URL: http://online.infobaselearning.com/Direct.aspx?aid=105791&pid=WE00

Trial Access Instructions: The trial username and password were distributed via a February 3 message to the TRIAL mailing list. Nebraska librarians who didn’t receive this information or would like to have it sent to them again may contact Susan Knisely.

Lied Scottsbluff Public Library in Scottsbluff, NE has been named one of the Top 10 Children’s Libraries by Livability.com, a national website that highlights more than 500 of America’s best places to live.

Livability.com editors looked at 500 communities across the country to find the best libraries for kids. The children’s libraries selected not only look amazing, they also offer great programs and get kids excited about reading, learning and exploring. Editors consulted several nationally recognized authorities on the subject of libraries and children’s literature, including the American Library Association, to determine criteria for the ranking. Among them: the library’s responsiveness to community’s needs.

“[A library] should be responsive to its community rather than beholden to some kind of national standard,” said Roger Sutton, editor in chief of The Horn Book, which reviews and tracks children’s and young adult literature. “The best libraries pay attention to their communities and the best librarians are those who really pay attention to the child in front of them, as well as the child who is not there but should be.”

The Lied Scottsbluff Public Library was chosen for its visually appealing spaces for children, full range of programs, large collection of books, integration of new technologies and proven success in getting kids to engage. Read more about why they made the list.

Congratulations to the Lied Scottsbluff Public Library!

And if you’d like some examples of interesting grant proposals that have been funded lately, the article in the February 1 American Libraries Direct about the projects that 16 public libraries across the coutry proposed and had funded–for 1.2 million dollars–by the  Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation, provide inspiration.

Each month, we offer you an opportunity to learn a new Thing (or lesson). You have all month to complete that Thing and receive one CE credit. You may choose which Things to do based on personal interest and time availability. If the Thing of the month doesn’t interest you or if you are particularly busy that month, you can skip it.

The Thing for February is: Share Your Interests With Pinterest.

This month’s Thing is written by guest blogger Mary Sauers of the Lincoln City Libraries. “I generally don’t get on Facebook much, but I DO  browse Pinterest a LOT.  It’s a fun, EASY way to see and share recipes, fashion, decorating, crafts, people, places, animals, and things.”

If you are new to Nebraska Learns 2.0, your first assignment is to sign up to participate. This program is open to ALL Nebraska librarians, library staff, library friends, library board members and school media specialists.

We hope you’ll join your library colleagues in the fun as you learn about new and exciting technologies!

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Video (YouTube)
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AFCON announces the 2012

Academic Freedom
Video Contest

for Nebraska High School Students

DEADLINE: March 23, 2012

$1,000 in cash & prizes!

Nebraska High School Students: make your 30-second to 2-minute video on topics such as:

• Intellectual freedom in education
• Freedom of believe & expression in class
• Freedom to access information and ideas in school
• Freedom of expression in school newspapers
• Freedom of expression in school theater productions

For contest rules, entry and release forms, and for the contest flyer go to http://www.nebafcon.org/

The Nebraska Children’s Home Society  has a long history of caring for children who have been orphaned or  become wards of the state.  The Society  recently contributed images of some of their historical photographs to Nebraska Memories.  Dr. Elmer P. Quivey  founded the Nebraska Children’s Home Society in 1893 and was the State Superintendent from 1893 to 1920.   The Society  offered support and assistance to parents committed to keeping their family together, and provided foster and adoptive homes for children who could not stay with their families.  It also worked to  find homes for children  admitted to the state Home for the Friendless.    The 1904 Biennial Report of the Home for the Friendless  provides a wealth of information about the education, nutrition, health and placement of children who lived there.

In 1923 the Nebraska Children’s Home Society constructed a building at 3549 Fontenelle Boulevard in Omaha.  It was a residence  for children awaiting adoption as well  as the Society headquarters.    In this photo a  badminton game   is being played on the lawn by two boys, while other children watch.  I love the bloomer style pants one of the players is wearing! Additions were made to the building in 1948 and 1965.

These fellows are obviously having a great time as toymakers in training.   Were the toys being made for younger children at the home,  for them to play with, or perhaps to sell to support the  Home?  They were gaining skills in the shop that would have been helpful for future employment.

These girls were gaining other skills - in the domestic arts – while baking a cake.    Do you think the boys ever got to help with the cooking or the girls ever got to work in the shop?

Visit Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials.

Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, or contact Beth Goble, Government Information Services Director, or Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.

One facet of the program is BookThing. Each month we pick a single title that we feel has relevance to librarianship and/or information theory. Some of the titles will be very obviously related, while others may not seem so on the surface but there is a connection. Your assignment will be to read the book and create a blog post answering some questions about the title.

The BookThing for February is: Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room by David Weinberger.

You will earn 2 CE credits for reading this title and creating a 300 word blog post or a three minute video, that you then post to your blog.

If you are new to Nebraska Learns 2.0, your first assignment is to sign up to participate. This program is open to ALL Nebraska librarians, library staff, library friends, library board members and school media specialists.

We hope you’ll join your library colleagues in the fun as you discover new books to read!

See the Jan. 12, 2012, NCompass blog post for a short description, or visit the Internships page of the Now Hiring @ your library^© website.

• Defusing the Angry Patron, 2nd ed, by Rhea Joyce Rubin,  Z711 .R79 2011
• How to Thrive as a Solo Librarian, by Carol Smallwood & Melissa J. Clapp, Z675.S57 H69 2012
• Listening to the Customer, by Peter Hernon, Z678.85 .H475 2011
• Customer Service Basics , DVD, Library Video Network, 2010 (short online video with catalog entry)

Coming up this month is the free Big Talk from Small Libraries Conference, offered online  February 28, 2012.  It’s about big things from small libraries, such as the following programs:”Gaming and Game Collection Development”, “Community Partnerships”, and “Training the Public” This conference was organized and is hosted by Michael Sauers and Laura Johnson of the Nebraska Library Commission and is co-sponsored by the Association for Small & Rural Libraries and Library Renewal.

As always,–please contact the Information Services Team if you’d like to check out any of these titles. Thanks.

We’ve created this mini-documentary for our client Ericsson and their Networked Society campaign.

In ‘On The Brink’ we discuss the past, present and future of connectivity with a mix of  people including David Rowan, chief editor of Wired UK; Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr; and Eric Wahlforss, the co-founder of Soundcloud.

We’re a creative agency based in Stockholm, Sweden. If you want to know more about us, check out our website: houseofradon.com

Each month we’ll pick a single title that we feel has relevance to librarianship and/or information theory. Some of the titles will be very obviously related, while others may not seem so on the surface but there is a connection.

Your assignment will be to read the book and answer the following questions:

1. What did you / what can librarians learn from this book?
2. How might the focus of this book impact library service?
3. How might the focus of this book impact library users?

Each title will be assigned a variable number of CE credits based on the length of the book. To earn the CE credits, participants must either write a blog post answering those three questions (minimum of 300 words) or create a video (YouTube or other video service of your choice) of at least three minutes long answering those three questions, which is then posted to your blog.

If you’ve previously read the month’s choice, that’s great! You don’t have to re-read the book, unless you really want to. You are still welcome to participate by writing your post or creating your video about the book. You will only earn CE credit if you’ve not previously earned CE credit for that title.

BookThing was inspired by Michael Stephens.

This workshop is approved for the NLC Cataloging Certificate Program.

Audience: Library staff with some knowledge of cataloging.

Date: March 8, 2012

Time: 9 AM-4 PM (Central Time)

Location: Reinert-Alumni Library, Creighton University, Omaha

Cost: No Charge

To register: Go to the Nebraska Library Commission Training and Events Calendar.

Let’s make sure this isn’t you:

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Video (YouTube)
Links (Delicious)

ALSC Awards (Assication of Library Services for Children):

John Newbery Medal:
Award: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Honor:
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Breaking Stalin’s Nose  illustrated & written by Eugene Yelchin

Caldecott Medal:
Award: A Ball for Daisy illustrated & written by Chris Raschka
Honor:
Blackout illustrated & written by John Rocco
Grandpa Green illustrated & written by Lane Smith
Me…Jane illustrated & written by Patrick McDonnell

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award:
Award: Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Schneider
Honor:
I Broke My Trunk by Moe Willems
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
See Me Run by Paul Meisel

Robert F. Sibert Medal:
Award: Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade written & illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Honor:
Black & White: The Confrontation of Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene “Bull” Connor by Larry Dane Brimner
Drawing From Memory written & illustrated by Allen Say
The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O’Connell and Donna M. Jackson
Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster  by Rosalyn Schanzer

Mildred L. Batchelder Award (honors the publisher of a book originally published in a language other than English.)
Award: Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak
Honor: The Lily Pond by Annika Thor

Pura Belpré Award: (co-sponsored by ASLC & REFORMA) celebrates the Latino culture
Illus. Award: Diego Rivera: His World and Ours  illustrated & written by Duncan Tonatiuh
Honor:
The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha R. Vamos
Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/ Marisol McDonald no Combina  illustrated by Sara Palacios and written by Monica Brown

Author Award: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Honor:
Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller written and illustrated by Xavier Garza
Hurricane dancers: the first Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck by Margarita Engle

YALSA Awards (Young Adult Library Services Association):

Micheal L. Printz Award:
Award: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Honor:
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
The Returning by Christine Hinwood
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

YALSA Excellence for NF Award:
Award: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
Finalists:
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson & Marina Budhos
Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal
Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy
Music was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin

William C. Morris Award:
Award: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Honor:
The Girl of Fire & Thorns by Rae Carson
Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys

Margaret A. Edwards Award: (Significant and lasting contribution to Young Adult literature.)
Susan Cooper

Other ALA Awards:

Coretta Scott King Awards:
CSK Virginia Hamilton Practitioner Award: (lifetime achievement presented every 2 years for lasting …)
Ashley Bryan  (Let It Shine,  Beautiful Blackbird, and more )
He was the first African-American to both write and illustrate a children’s book.

Illustrator Award:
Award: Shane W. Evans for Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom (illustrator and author)
Honor: Kadir Nelson for Heart & Soul (illustrator and author)

Author Award:
Award: Kadir Nelson for Heart and Soul
Eloise Greenfield for The Great Migration: Journey to the North
Patricia C. McKissack for Never Forgotten

Schneider Family Book Awards:
Children – the committee chose not to select a title, no submission was deemed worthy
Middle – selected two titles for this group:
Close to Famous by Joan Bauer
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Teen – The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

Stonewall Childrens & YA lit award:
Award:  Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright
Honor:
A+ e 4ever by Ilike Merey
Money Boy by Paul Yee
Pink by Lili Wilkinson
with or without you by Brian Farrey

Andrew Carnegie Medal (excellence in video for children):
“Children Make Terrible Pets” by Peter Brown

Odyssey Award (best audio produced for children or teens) administered by ALSC & YLSA
Award: “Rotters” written by Daniel Kraus
Honor:
“Ghetto Cowboy”
“Okay for Now”
“TheScorpio Races”
“Young Fredle”

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award:
2013 lecture delivered by Michael Morpurgo

(I’m sorry, I missed the announcement of the Alex Awards while trying to log in to the streaming video.)

Let’s start with this postcard of the Omaha High School, Omaha, Neb. It is an interesting picture of the High School but I find the back to be pretty amusing. I wish I knew more about Margaret, Cheaty and Helen.

“Der Elsa: How would you like to go to this High School. It certainly is a whopper. Cheaty aught to teach here. Ha!Ha! I could go and see him real often. (Would he like it) and have Helen in my hair. Write and tell me the news.

Margaret Paisch 1041 – 1 ave. So.”

Before moving on I wanted to point out that luckily we don’t have to read the handwriting on the back of these cards. The text from the postcard can be found in the Transcript field which is located on the Item Description area.

The text on the back of the Convent of Mercy postcard is pretty short. It reminds me of a message that I’d actually send as a text message.

“Dear Sis. & Bro.

Will drop you a line to let you know Pappa & Mamma & Kruses are coming over to see you Sunday. Seems as if your papper never will come.

They will be their Sunday for dinner.

Love from all. your Sis Dora”

There are too many postcard backs I  like for me to share them word for word. Here are a few teasers and links so you can read the complete transcript if you want to know more.

•  “Say don’t you wish you could tell me something over telephone? HaHa” This card is postmarked 1911. I wonder when telephones became conman in Nebraska and Kansas.
• Here is another one that reminds me of a text message. How would you like to revive a postcard reminding you to do the dishes?
•  This next postcard is from SMD telling Isabelle that “No I haven’t got a girl yet. Honest.”
•  We know the X on the right side of this post card is where John lives.
•  (Don’t tell ma) we are here. I wonder if here is the St. Philomena Catholic Church or here is Omaha.
• Emma is mailing her shopping list. She would like them to “buy fresh yeast 15 cents worth”. She’s very persistent: “15 cents worth. don’t forget.”.
•  Would you go see Bessie after her talk of Scarlet fever?

Visit Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials.

Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, or contact Beth Goble, Government Information Services Director, or Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.