Library of Congress Photos

The Library of Congress has made available a large collection of its photos using Flickr.  You can browse or search within the collection.  Be aware that there are two search boxes, one for all of Flickr and one for the LOC collection.   Each image includes fairly detailed information, or whatever is known about the image, as well as rights information.   [URLs:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/]

Celebrating Left-Handers

August 13^th is a special day.  It’s Left Handers Day 2008.   Celebrate those you love who are left handed.  And learn about famous left-handers throughout history.  Take the quiz and see how much you know.  There are even product suggestions for the left-handed person or persons in your life.  [URLs:  http://www.lefthandersday.com/]

This Week’s Reports

The National Literacy Trust in the U.K. has issued Interesting Choice: the (relative) importance of choice and interest in reader engagement.  “For choice to be effective and empowering, it therefore needs to be informed and meaningful.”  And interest is as important.  It can be motivational and increase comprehension, according to the study’s authors.

The NCES has issued its annual survey, Parent and Family Involvement in Education: 2006-07 School Year.  “Topics covered include parent reports of their involvement in activities at school, their involvement with homework, school communication practices, schools' provision of information on select topics, parent satisfaction with various school characteristics, expectations for their children's educational attainment, and family plans to help pay for postsecondary education.”

The Horatio Alger Association has released 2008 State of Our Nation’s Youth.  According to the survey, “There has been a steep drop-off in the number of students feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future of the country, falling from 75% in 2003 to just 53% today, a 22% decline in optimism over the past five years.”  But young people are still very positive about their own future, “with 88% describing themselves as confident and 66% saying they feel optimistic about their own futures.”   [URLs:  http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/research/Interesting%20_choice_Final.pdf, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008050.pdf, http://www.horatioalger.com/pdfs/0708SONY.pdf]

Newsworthy

According to USA Today, Video search engines help users sort through clips.  Text searching on the Web is easy.  Finding video is more problematic.  Of course, Google is in the thick of the quest for the best search tool.  Others include Blinkx and Everyzing.

Tampa Bay Online carried a story called Libraries’ new literacy stations are kids play.  Libraries in the area have created ‘early literacy stations’ for young customers including “computers with programs that can help children 2-8 years old learn or improve their skills in reading, vocabulary, math, science and pursue creative endeavors.” 

[URLs:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080730/tc_usatoday/videosearchengineshelpuserssortthroughclips;_ylt=AvhB52JzrWDfX1XJVt1nBYdaCGYD, http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2008/jul/31/la-libraries-new-literacy-stations-are-kids-play/]

Blogging for Children’s Literature

While we were doing research for a customer, we came across Kid-lit bloggers to watch.  This list from Horn Book identifies some of the librarians, teachers, booksellers, etc., posting their thoughts and ideas on their blogs.  [URLs:  http://www.hbook.com/resources/librarians/blogs.asp]

History Books

Will Fitzhugh is the founder and president of the Concord Review and he has something to say about reading History Books.  He’s not happy.  “Somehow a consensus has emerged that high school students do not need to be assigned complete nonfiction books and that the History or Social Studies Departments may confine their homework to short readings and readings in a textbook. Have we decided, for some odd reason, that the work of historians is perhaps too difficult for our high school students?”    [URLs:  http://ednews.org/articles/27851/1/HISTORY-BOOKS/Page1.html]

Dancing Matt

We heard about our last item several weeks ago.  We thought it was just another silly Internet video that was getting hyped for no particular reason.  But then we decided to check it out.  And if this doesn’t bring a smile to your face, there may be something seriously wrong with you.  It’s Where the hell is Matt?  Matthew Harding, dancing fool!  Enjoy.   [URLs:  http://www.vimeo.com/1211060]