Volume 30, Number 1-2 / 2013 of Education for Information is now available on the iospress.metapress.com website at http://iospress.metapress.com/content/wh6615445r17. This issue contains:
“The impact on education for librarianship and information studies of the Bologna Process and related European Commission programmes — and some outstanding issues in Europe and beyond.” By Ian M. Johnson. DOI: 10.3233/EFI-130933
October is International School Library Month.
Please visit the event site http://www.iasl-online.org/events/islm/ to download the poster, bookmarks and a host of other resources that have been prepared to help you celebrate this year’s event.
It’s still not too late to register for the Bookmark Exchange Project or to register for a Skype exchange. You can find details on how to do this on the ISLM website.
Don’t forget to share how you celebrated ISLM 2013. A description and photos can be sent to the secretariat at this address: iasl@mlahq.org
Take a look at what people did in 2012 if you’d like some ideas. http://www.iasl-online.org/events/islm/2012a.htm
Help spread the word. If you know of colleagues or other schools that don’t celebrate ISLM, direct them to the IASL website and encourage them to participate. It’s free!
On October 18, 2013, in New York City, authors and illustrators will be honored with Jane Addams Children’s book Awards. This year the ceremony also celebrates the publication of The Jane Addams Children’s Book Award: Honoring Children’s Literature for Peace and Social Justice since 1953 (Scarecrow Press, 2013), a book about the Addams Award written for teachers, librarians and scholars. For additional information about the Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards and a complete list of books honored since 1953, see www.janeaddamspeace.org For more information about the Award event, contact JAPA Executive Director Linda B. Belle, 777 United Nations Plaza, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017-3521; 212-682-8830; japa@igc.org.
First Winners of Library of Congress Literacy Award Winners Announced Reach Out and Read, 826 National and PlanetRead Receive Prizes.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has chosen the winners of the 2013 Library of Congress Literacy Awards, a new program originated and sponsored by philanthropist David M. Rubenstein. The recipients are:
David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000): Reach Out and Read, Boston, Mass.
Reach Out and Read encourages early-childhood literacy by capitalizing on the relationship between parents and their children’s pediatricians. By integrating basic literacy awareness into regular office visits, children are exposed to books and
reading at the earliest age, well before they start school. Free books are distributed during the visit as well. Reach Out and Read achieves sustainability because it has integrated literacy education into a widely practiced experience (the well-baby
visit). Today, 12,000 medical providers serve 4 million annually in 5,000 clinics in all 50 states.
The American Prize ($50,000): 826 National, San Francisco, Calif.826 National uses unique storefront offices in eight cities nationwide as bases for addressing community problems of both literacy and aliteracy. One-on-one tutoring for at-risk K-12 students is offered along with a range of free core programs, including storytelling, bookmaking, in-school writing workshops and publishing projects. 826 has offices in San Francisco,
New York City, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor/Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C., serving more than 31,000 students and publishing more than 1,000 student books annually.
The International Prize ($50,000): PlanetRead, Mumbai, India
PlanetRead in India is an innovative program that reinforces literacy skills, primarily through subtitles for popular musical television programming. SLS (Same Language Subtitling) was developed in India based on solid research. It is simple to
implement and easy to replicate, reaching 200 million low-literacy TV viewers in India. SLS is notable as a highly motivational approach for getting low-literacy adults to read, particularly where access to books is difficult.
The Library of Congress Literacy Awards were announced in January 2013 as a program to help support organizations working to alleviate the problems of illiteracy and aliteracy (a lack of interest in reading) both in the United States and
worldwide. The awards seek to reward those organizations that have been doing exemplary, innovative and easily replicable work over a sustained period of time and to encourage new groups, organizations and individuals to become involved.
“The generosity of David Rubenstein in instituting this literacy awards program will have a profound impact not just on the winners and their programs, but also on literacy programs everywhere that can benefit by replicating some of the best Literacy Award
practices of those who applied for an award,” said Billington. He noted that the Library is producing a publication that highlights the best practices in a number of categories as exemplified by the top applicants. “Literacy opens doors to life’s great opportunities,” said Rubenstein, a co-founder of The Carlyle Group and a major donor to the Library of Congress National Book Festival. “I am pleased to support the work of these outstanding literacy organizations that are making a profound difference in the lives of so many individuals.”
The Literacy Awards Advisory Board, which comprises a broad range of experts in the field of literacy and reading promotion, provided recommendations to Billington, who made the final selections. The award-winning organizations best exemplified the intent of the awards:
• The David M. Rubenstein Prize, for a groundbreaking or sustained record of advancement of literacy by any individual or entity worldwide
• The American Prize, for a project developed and implemented successfully during the past decade for combating illiteracy and/or aliteracy
• The International Prize, for the work of an individual, nation or nongovernmental organization working in a specific country or region
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress administers the awards, and John Y. Cole, the center’s director, also serves as the chair of the Literacy Awards program.
Since its creation by Congress in 1977 to “stimulate public interest in books and reading,” the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress (www.Read.gov/cfb/) has become a major national force for reading and literacy promotion. A publicprivate
partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages, nationally and internationally. The center provides leadership for affiliated state centers for the book (including the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and nonprofit reading-promotion partners and plays a key role in the Library’s annual National Book Festival. It also oversees the Library’s www.Read.gov website and administers the Library’s Young Readers Center and the Poetry and Literature Center. The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Many of the Library’s rich resources and treasures may be accessed through the Library’s website, www.loc.gov.
English text:
A judge in Sweden has decreed that a school in Sweden may not store data in Google Cloud
Sweden’s Data Inspection Board (Datainspektionen) has told a Stockholm school that they must either discontinue using a Google cloud service or sign an agreement with Google in which the US firm promises to adhere to the Personal Data Act (in Sweden) and comply with the Swedish guidelines on privacy. The school in question is the Rudbeck school in Sollentuna in northern Stockholm. It is an upper secondary school (gymnasium) with approximately 2,000 students which uses various Google services; all teachers and students at the school are required to open a Google Account..
“It is especially important in a school environment, where there is sensitive private personal data relating to children and young people, that those responsible really make sure that personal data is handled in a legal manner,” said Ingela Alverfors at the Data Inspection Board in a statement.
The Data Inspection Board has established that the school lacks an agreement with the US firm to cover the protection and management of personal information. The agreement would cover instructions and stipulate limits for handling data. The privacy watchdog demands a contract in which these matters are properly regulated. The school has therefore been instructed to sign a contract with Google which ensures the privacy and integrity of the students in its care. If the school declines to do so then they have been told to stop using the service.
Do any of you know of similar statements or regulations in your own countries? If so, would you please forward this information to Helen Boelens at boelen1@attglobal.net
The first ever Global STEMx Education Conference starts this Thursday, and it’s going to be AWESOME. We have 178 accepted practitioner sessions on science, technology, engineering, math, and more; as well as sixteen terrific keynotes; all starting 24 hours a day at 11am US Pacific Time Thursday. Don’t miss out–all sessions are free, and all are being recorded as well for free viewing indefinitely afterwards. Sign up for information and the schedule at http://www.STEMxCon.com (and check out the very cool page that lets you see all the conference events in your own time zone!). Dr. Lesley Farmer will be presenting on family activities, noting libraries.
NEXT: The dust won’t long have settled on STEMxCon when we’ll be finalizing all the details on the Library 2.013 Conference. This is the third year of our also virtual and also free worldwide conference on the present and future of libraries, librarians, and librarianship–with a bonus half-day special event this year on “Connected K12 Librarians” (more information soon!). We’ve already accepted 92 presentations for this two-day (24-hour-a-day event) and they are GREAT presentations, plus we hope you will consider adding a proposal as well! The deadline for session proposals is Monday, September 30th (end of day). The focus of this conference is also on practitioner presentations, so be brave and tell us how you can showcase something valuable or contribute to the audience. Sign up at htt://www.Library2013.com and then look for the link “Call for Presentation Proposals” on the left side or in the main drop-down conference menu.
There is a very special lineup for you with the Library 2.013 conference keynote speakers: Doris Samanez Alzamora (Director Biblioteca Nacionel de Peru); Dr Jocelyn Cranefield (Senior Lecturer School of Information Management, University of Wellington); Dr. Sandra Hirsh (Director of the School of Library and Information Science San José State University); Buhle Mbambo-Thata (Executive Director of Library Services University of South Africa-UNISA); Peter Morville (President, Semantic Studios); Neil Pakenham-Walsh (Coordinator, Healthcare For All By 2015 and Co-Director, Global Healthcare Information Network); Lee Rainie (Director, Pew Reasearch Center’s Internet & American Life Project); Barbara Stripling (President, ALA and Assistant Professor of Practice Syracuse University); Roy Tennant (Senior Program Officer, OCLC Research); and Gene Tan (Director, National Library of Singapore). We also have several keynote speakers from previous Library 2.0 conferences returning as “Distinguished Speakers:” Susan Hildreth, R. David Lankes, Laura Malita, Joe Murphy, Michael Stephens, Ellen Tise, David Weinberger, and Jianzhong Wu.
Really, where else are you going to get this caliber of a speaker lineup, plus a huge number of peer presentations, all for free and all from your desk or the comfort of your favorite chair? Do mark October 18-19 on your calendar!
Eager for even more participation? Join the Library 2.013 advisory board HERE or sign up to be a volunteer session moderator HERE. Non-profit groups can sign up for free to be conference “partners,” and for-profit group can email steve@hargadon.com for help in making this all come to pass.