Yet another reason why I need to get to Holland

The Shifted Librarian wrote an excellent post about visiting the DOK in Delft, Holland. It sounds amazing. Read on friends..read..on..

clipped from theshiftedlibrarian.com Visiting the Most Modern Library in the World Earlier this month I had the incredible good fortune to visit DOK in Delft, Holland. Normally I would call it the Delft Public Library, but it just goes by the name “DOK” and the sign on the door says it’s a “library concept center.” The staff did this on purpose to get away from the traditional stereotypes of the public library, because the institution they’ve created is about as far away as you can get from the connotation of a 1950s building, filled with quiet people, all of them sitting alone, in a relatively dreary building, being shushed by an old lady with a bun. Instead, it is easily the most colorful and aesthetically-pleasing library I have ever seen. Granted, I’ve seen a very small percentage of the world’s libraries, but the use of a diverse palette of bright and unusual colors was a very stark contrast to every other library I have seen in person or in pictures.

Call for Assistance - Library Camp LA

Photo by jefoto.

I am interesting in setting up a LibraryCamp LA. You have probably heard of BarCamp LA and maybe some of you attended the Library Camp NYC or are going to Library Camp Kansas with David Lee King...

I would like to set one up here in L.A.

If anyone is interested and/or can give me some tips as to setting it up, please let me know. I think if would be a great experience and since we are moving to the Web 3.0 world, it would be great to hear people's thoughts and ideas and learn about what is being done out there.

Let me know! Cheers!

YA Review: "The Neddiad" by Daniel Pinkwater (rated 3 stars)

The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization

by Daniel Manus Pinkwater

Neddie, the main character, had to move to Los Angeles because his father is that kind of man. His father just spontaneously does something and this time it’s a move to L.A.

On the way there, Neddie is given a turtle. The turtle is special. The shaman, whose name at this point is Melvin, tells him to take care of it. On the way to L.A., Neddie has some mis-adventures: he misses a train, he meets an actor and his son and ends up at the Grand Canyon, more interesting adventures ensue.

I did not particularly enjoy this book. However, I do think it is a good boy book for a 6th – 7th grader. There a lot of little anecdotes about Los Angeles history, an introduction to a Native American creation tale, trains, bullies and saving the world. It is fun and a lot of our students enjoyed it and for this one, I would take their word over my own.

See more about The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization

What is the Buzz about?

I was reading RWW and they posted this article on Yahoo Buzz. Does anyone out there know what this is? Do you use Digg? Would you switch? I kind of like the little bit that I am seeing of it. But I need more info so if you know...let me know. It's in Beta testing but the statistics are interesting - serious increase in hits and probably ad revenue. Thoughts?

clipped from www.readwriteweb.com Yahoo Buzz is a Game Changer for Social Media; And Spells Trouble for Digg! Yahoo Buzz is a social media experiment by Yahoo! that is currently in a closed beta. We found out today what kind of boost Buzz is giving the current selected blogs and news sources - Muhammad Saleem wrote that it is giving publishers huge bumps in both traffic and comments. Muhammad, you'll recall, wrote on ReadWriteWeb just about the only positive review of Yahoo Buzz when it first launched. In case you missed it, let's revisit the reasons why Buzz is a game changer. And why Digg is in big trouble... Muhammad explained in his earlier post: "Imagine if Digg had 10 times the incoming traffic, and got a percentage of ad-revenue from each of the sites that were promoted to the front page. Yahoo! Buzz does essentially that." Wait, What's Yahoo Buzz Again?

Wonder

My friend, Amanda, shared this with me on my Google Reader. It is a great photograph and I love the person that drew this space ship. There is always inspiration if you are willing to look for it.

Catalogers like Shepard Fairey

I saw this on Aaron Schmidt's flickr stream.

Ranganathan is one of the founders of cataloging and also wrote 5 laws of library science. Maybe you have already heard about him or studied him in library school. I did because I trained as a cataloger.

I am not really sure if I find this humourous or ironic or maybe a little too hipster. Can I be on the fence about a sticker based on the Shepard Fairey Andre the Giant stickers? He made them to be subversive, to make people question their environment, what is this derivation doing? I feel I am missing the point. Is there a point? Was it just to be fun? Just because?

I like Shepard Fairey. I like Ranganathan. I like cataloging. Maybe the answer is right there...

YA Review: "Martha Graham: a dancer's life" by Russell Freedman (rated 5 stars)

Martha Graham: A Dancer's Life

by Russell Freedman

“This is my letter to the World/That never wrote to Me.” – Emily Dickinson from Martha Graham’s “Letter To the World”

I have written about Martha Graham before in another blog I have and I have to say she is one of the most amazing artists I have ever been lucky enough to learn about in American Studies at UCSC. My professor, John Dizikes, would show different clips of her dances, one of them was “Medea.” Ever since than I have been intrigued by her.

Russell Freedman writes a warm glowing biography of her life. In 175 pages, he takes the reader on a journey from when Graham first started dancing to her rise to fame to her heartbreak and then her painful retirement. She was and is a dancer and that was all she loved. She seems to have sacrificed a lot of her personal life for her art and in that she created her own movement.

It is a wonderful biography filled with photographs and commentaries from her dancers and friends. If you do not know about her, this is an excellent place to start. Freedman weaves between the dances she created and Graham’s personal life so you can see how her personal and professional are all intertwined. Highly recommended.

See more about Martha Graham: A Dancer's Life

It's grading time again...

It's that time of year again - grades and comment writing. You would think that it would get easier but students change so much over the past 3 or 4 months from when you first met them. I tend to have a really difficult time writing comments. It is not that I do not have anything to say about my students like at the beginning of the year when I first met them but it is just difficult for me to describe students in the space available. However, this is the time, where I feel more comfortable with the kids and they feel more comfortable with me so their personalities change - they are more confident, more relaxed and a little more open with their true personalities. It is this time of year, where their comments are a bit more personal. I just wish it did not stress me out so much but at least this time I am much more on top of things and have already finished 3 out of the 15.

Link from Rohdesign - Sketchnotes from SXSW Interactive 2008

MisterJT twittered this and I wanted to pass it along. How excellent are these? Sketchnotes! I love it!

clipped from www.rohdesign.com SXSW Interactive 2008 Sketchnotes March 12, 2008 SXSW Interactive 2008 Sketchnotes are up! I've just completed scanning, tuning and uploading 34 pages of sketchnotes I captured in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook at SXSW Interactive earlier this week.

My New Desktop!

Thanks for the link MisterJT! It's BRILLIANT!

Wow! NYPL! That's incredible!

Do you believe that? Stephen A. Schwarzman is donated a gazillion dollars to NYPL! That's so incredible. I wonder what the staff thinks.

clipped from www.nytimes.com A $100 Million Donation to the N.Y. Public Library The New York Public Library’s venerable lion-guarded building on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street is to be renamed for the Wall Street financier Stephen A. Schwarzman, who has agreed to jump-start a $1 billion expansion of the library system with a guaranteed $100 million of his own. The project, to be announced on Tuesday, aims to transform the Central Library into a destination for book borrowing as well as research. The Mid-Manhattan branch, on the east side of Fifth Avenue at 40th Street, will be sold and its circulating collection absorbed into the new space.

Cesspool of germs - school environs

I love working at a school. The students are hilarious. They inspire me every day. I learn so much from my colleagues. There are so many pluses I cannot even write them down!

However, there are those moments, a couple times during the school year where the vicious flu virus or some strange mutated illness attacks the faculty.

This is one of those times. For the past 2 weeks, a number of my friends and colleagues have been going down because of the "flu." I am not even sure it is the flu but this one packs a punch - body aches, headaches, sore throat, stuffy/runny nose (look at that picture above! it's disgusting) and a person just cannot do anything.

I was talking to Felicious last night and she told me that I need to vibrate like the germ to battle it. I have no idea what that means because when I do visualize what I think that means, I just start cracking up.

Anyway, so, just as a warning to all you healthy people, do not get this strain of the flu and if you do go to the doctor right away. I have been sending panicked fear mongering emails to my friends because I care and I want them to feel better.

We have connection problems

At one of my jobs, we have a serious bandwidth use issue. This is perfect for those of us who complain about how slow it is.

Thoughts on chaperoning: Northrop Grumman Symphonies For Schools

With the recent news coverage of Northrop Grumman and the military contract they recently won, I thought I would write about the other side of Northrop Grumman as sponsor for the education department of the LA Phil.

On February 28, I had the pleasure of chaperoning the middle school trip to see the LA Phil conducted by Joana Carneiro perform Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "New World Symphony." The middle school symphony is amazing. We have one student who is a prodigy. I am not just saying this either. He's also one of the nicest and most focused and well-mannered students on campus but this goes for most of the students in symphony. I am pretty lucky in that I am asked to attend these things even though I have no real knowledge of classical music.

The performance of "New World Symphony" also coincided with a dramatic performance of Dvorak's contributions to American classical music /African-American History month. That was a little unexpected but it broke up the different parts of the symphony nicely (especially since the audience was made up of hundreds of L.A. middle schoolers). I learned about how Dvorak came to the United States to help create a style of classical music that was "America" and based it on folk music, African American spirituals and other American musical styles. The actors were interesting and one of them had the most amazing voice that just filled the concert hall. If I were a singer, I would want to sing in the concert hall. The acoustics are absolutely incredible.

I have only heard 1 part of the "New World Symphony" and it was just amazing listening to it live and in all it's 3 part glory. Also, one of the actors pointed out the influences of a section and it was great knowing where a beat or progression came from. We also had incredible seats where we had an excellent view of Joana Carniero. She is absolutely fascinating to watch. One student pointed out that she conducts ahead of the beat, which kind of blew my mind. She also uses every bit of her body to conduct. I have never seen anyone conduct with so much style and mannerisms. I was in awe of her.

Another great moment was listening to the pieces composed by 6 middle/high school students. 2 of the students are from the school. They were asked to represent America in the pieces they created. These are 14 - 18 year olds! Another mind blowing inspirational moment. If you let kids take off and nurture certain talents they can go so far.

My worst nightmare (I am probably over-reacting)

Today, I began a lesson about copyright, public domain and fair use. It was going well until I told them to open up Flickr's copyright symbols page. Instead, being students and the temptation of searching for me is way too hard to pass up, one of them typed in my name.

One of my students, raises his hand (smart, I thought he was going to make a comment about copyright) and goes, "Ms. Martino, are you Miss Martini?"

My eyes popped out of my head!!!

And low and behold, there I was! But it was actually a picture from my friends' pages.

Then came the bombardment of questions and the accusation that I'm a liar because my profile says I lived in another city. I mean, it was all in good fun and they are just curious but oy. I knew this would happen. Thank goodness for the privacy settings.

I am not sure how I am feeling. I think, it's because I'm a little more human now. Do you remember when you were in school and teachers always seemed not from this planet? I mean, I never knew where the teachers' lounge was or if they had lives outside of school. Now, if you have an online presence, well, you have some of your life just out there in the open and people do not seem as inaccessible as they once were.

I am not sure what will happen now. It will be interesting I guess. They will probably find this blog as well. Well, all I can say is, "Welcome."

YA Review: Cecil Castellucci's "The Plain Janes" (rated 4 stars)

The Plain Janes

by Cecil Castellucci

“There was a pop and then nothing,” Jane states on the first page of this graphic novel. The next panel is black with the text “I didn’t know what was happening.”

Cecil Castellucci’s “The Plain Janes” follows Jane after she has moved to the suburban town of Kent Waters. Before she leaves Metro City, she cuts off her hair and dyes it black. She changes her outward appearance to reflect the changes in her after that day – the day of the bomb explosion.

Jane is a reluctant loner. She wants friends but not the kinds of friends she had before. She is drawn to the nerds, benchwarmers, theater kids and the outsiders. In this short graphic novel, the reader follows Jane as she copes with what happened in the city, her relationship with “John Doe”, her move to the suburbs and the fear the engulfs her family through art and humour and a little help from her new friends, who all happen to be named “Jane.”

Fast-paced, humourous, inspiring, empowering – this is definitely a great book to give to that girl or boy who just fits a little bit outside the “norm.” It is a great g.n. and highly recommended.

See more about The Plain Janes

Links to:
Cecil Castellucci's Webpage
Cecil's Crush Library blog
Jim Rugg, illustrator

Online Images - Facebook & copyright

I am teaching a unit on images and their use for the classroom. I found this really interesting post about how Facebook hijacks your rights to your images without people really knowing it.

Now, I really hate Facebook.

clipped from www.jmg-galleries.com Facebook’s Rights Grab: How Far Does It Go? Jim posted in Copyright, Photography, Links & Articles on February 27th, 2008 What I found is that unknowingly people using applications that reference photos are in fact indirectly posting photos to Facebook subjecting them to the excessively far-reaching terms specified in their Terms of Use. It’s not very obvious but many applications that you’d think would reference images from their source location (say a blog for example via Flog Blog) are in fact duplicating images and hosting them on Facebook. The net result being images hosted on Facebook as though you had manually uploaded them. The distinction legally is identical, but is far from obvious for the end user.