More Economic Woes @ Your Library

I'm sorry to say that our high school library is certainly not immune to the financial situation in our country. Due to cutbacks in state and district spending, within just one week I've heard of three losses to our library services:

1. NetTrekker: This educational search engine was provided through state funding and is no longer available as of today, July 1. This was not only a valuable tool to our students, but a wonderful professional development tool for myself and other teachers looking for quality, educational resources.
2. POWER Library Databases: Also effective today, POWER Library has lost four, extremely valuable databases:

• Consumer Health Complete (including Salud en Espanol and Lexi-PALS Drug Guide)
• History Reference Center
• Book Source: Non-fiction
• Professional Development Collection
• Pearl's Picks

I've used Professional Development Collection many times to find some great resources for my principal, our teachers and for my own professional development. I often recommended History Reference Center and Book Source to students as an option for finding quality, print sources for their research. And Consumer Health Complete was an awesome resource for our health and science classes.

3. Support Staff: At last week's school board meeting, members voted to cut all support staff's to 7 hours. This is most unfortunate news since it will mean that our library assistant, Mrs. McLaughlin will now be working until 4:00pm, forcing us to close the library a half hour earlier than our usual closing time of 4:30pm. Many students will be quite disappointed since our library was often used right up until Mrs. McLaughlin closed the doors at 4:30.

My worry is that, with our state budget still under negotiation, more cuts may still be coming. It's vital for legislators and voters to know the impact that these cuts will have on our students. Our students are becoming very savvy researchers and are coming to realize the importance of using authentic, quality resources in contrast to something they may find by Googling it. Can we really afford to cut something so vital in our students' 21st century education?

Heard enough to convince you that this is a real issue for our students? Then please contact your legislators TODAY and let them know that we need these valuable library resources. Our Bucks County Library system makes this very easy for their residents. They have set up a survey through Survey Monkey which allows you to voice your opinion. Within just 2 minutes, your voice can be heard. PLEASE DO IT NOW!

The Bucks County Library website also has this interesting video clip of NBC's TODAY show on the value of public libraries. Although the focus is on public libraries, the same issues can be said for our high school library: most every morning before school has begun, as well as in the afternoon when school is over, the library is absolutely full of students using the services which they might not have available at home. As Matt Lauer so effectively concludes, Libraries are an important part of our lives!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Silver Linings Playbook

Last night I finished a book which many of our students enjoyed, The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. AP Literature teacher, Drew Giorgi, arranged for Quick's visit back in May. I was most impressed with what Quick had to say, and blogged about it soon afterwards.

Straight out of a mental institution, 35 year-old Pat Peoples has a lot of baggage to overcome. While dealing with the fact that he can't remember for how long and why he was hospitalized, he wants nothing more than to be reunited with his wife, Niki. He realizes that "apart time" is something which they had agreed upon, but is determined that someday their marriage will be back to normal, as will his mental stability. Now living with his parents, he has a supportive and loving mother who is trying her best to help Pat get better. But his father has no patience for Pat's insecurities and has volatile mood swings which coincide with the Philadelphia Eagles winning record. Readers will like Pat for his honesty, tenderness and positive attitude and will be routing for him to find that silver lining in his life.Philadelphia fans will recognize the passion for the Eagles and all there is to love about the Philadelphia area. E-A-G-L-E-S...EAGLES!

New Moon Poster Released

Fans of the Twilight series will be happy to see this newly released poster for the movie, New Moon. I know many students in our school are counting down the days until November 20.

48 Hour Book Challenge Complete

Although I barely got in 12 hours this weekend with the 48 Hour Book Challenge, it is a success in my mind since a) I did get a lot of good reading done and b) I saw a lot of great blogs and connected with some terrific people. I also rediscovered why I like audio books so much. Just today I cut the grass, got a lot of weeding done, did a load of wash or two AND got nearly 4 hours of a book "read".

Though I'm only 1/4 of the way into Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, I already have some boys at school who I'll be recommending it to. The YA novel is about a boy who finds himself under the careful scrutiny of the government after a terrorist attack on San Francisco. Their suspicions stem from his extensive knowledge and use of computer hacking, but their actions are over-the-top and quite alarming. This book would be a great one to start a discussion about the Patriot act.

Paper Towns Completed (Regrettably)

Paper Towns is one of those books you just don't want to end. I've discovered that John Green knows exactly how to write about young adults in a fresh, honest and humorous way. (Shame on me for not yet reading Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines yet! No worries...I have this summer.)

Quentin is the sensible, like-able, "good" guy with parents who are both therapists and, therefore, are constantly providing loving support in everything he does. In fact, they even like it when he curses in front of them since that only proves that he feels the utmost comfort with them. Margo is Quentin's next-door neighbor whom he was friends with when they were young. However, now in their senior year, Margo's among the popular crowd and Quentin (although he is not in Band) is happy with his group of Band friends whom are very knowingly not part of the popular crowd. When Margo decides that she needs more from her life than the imagined "paper girl" which she feels she has become, Quentin finds himself following her trail and discovers himself along the way. Green does wonderful things with metaphors which gives this coming-of-age story style and poignancy.

Green's inclusion of the paper town of Agloe, NY is interesting. The term "paper town" refers to something cartographers started doing in the early 20th century to deter copyright infringement. They included the fictional town of Agloe so that they could track any other cartographer's attempt to copy their map: if another map included Agloe, they would know that it was copied from their own map. Interestingly, an Algoe General Store was even built to acknowledge this fictitious place, thus turning fiction into reality. Green's use of the paper town works well in his novel since Margo has grown up fantasizing that she was someone she wasn't among an imagined place with imagined friends.

Sunday update thus far: 1.5 hours reading, 1 hour blogging and networking.

I'm off to start The Silver Linings Playbook by Quick, but am thinking I may also start the audiobook of Little Brother by Doctorow so I can get chores done in-between hammock rests. :-)

48 Hour Book Challenge - Sunday Update

Progress Update:

Hours reading = 9

Hours networking = 2

Well, I'm certainly not going to be a winner in this challenge, but I'm having fun and my PLN is growing in wonderful ways nonetheless. The plan today is to finish listening to Paper Towns and then crack open The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. Matt Quick came to visit our school this week and I was so impressed by his own story and very intrigued about his first novel.

It's a beautiful day here in New Hope, PA and I plan to take full advantage of it. Reading in the hammock followed by a bike ride with my husband to the Stockton Day Fair. Somewhere in between I'll get the wash done and do some yard work!

Paper Towns Update

Taking a break from listening to Paper Towns to go for a run. While I did debate listening to it while running, I really need my music to keep me motivated for runs. I have a bout 2 hours left of audio book and I'm anxious to see if Q and the gang eventually find Margo in the paper town in NY.