ALA's red headed stepchild once again

Open letter to Lenonard Kniffel, Editor of ALA's American Libraries (americanlibraries@ala.org):

Dear Mr. Kniffel:

 Once again ALA has demonstrated that school libraries are truly the red-headed stepchild of the library world.

I appreciate your re-working of American Libraries to acknowledge that there is actually a digital world where libraries play a part. Adding columns by a few librarians who are under 110 years old  is a good start. (Andrew Pace and Merideth Farkas are refreshing)

But it really grinds my gears reading an article like "Mattering the Blogosphere" without even the token school library blogger being mentioned. I can just hear Alice Yucht asking, "What are we, chopped liver?"

Let me list a few of the vibrant school library voices writing blogs:

• Alice Yucht: Alice in Infoland http://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/ 
• Rob Darrow: California Dreamin' http://robdarrow.wordpress.com/ 
• Diane Chen: Deep Thinking http://deepthinking.blogsome.com/ 
• Sara Kelly Johns (AASL president-elect) From the Inside Out http://fromtheinsideout.squarespace.com/blog/ 
• Frances Harris Gargoyles Loose in the Library http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/library/blog/index.html 
•  Chris Harris Infomancy http://schoolof.info/infomancy/
• Mary J Johnson The Primary Source Librarian http://maryjjohnson.com/primarysourcelibrarian/ 
• Joyce Valenza's TheNeverendingSearch  http://joycevalenza.edublogs.org/
• Jacquie Henry's Wanderings http://nlcommunities.com/communities/wanderings/default.aspx 

 I hope you print this in your Letters to the Editor section. But you know it doesn't really matter since it is also out in the school library blogosphere - which I would wager has more school librariansas  readers than does American Libraries.

For a more inclusive editorial policy,

Doug Johnson
The Blue Skunk Blog http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/

Controlling student online postings

One of our most thoughtful library/tech leaders here in Minnesota posted this question to a state listserv this morning (used here with permission):

A teacher in the _______ Project has been targeted on a Facebook site. The offending student deleted the page, using his cell phone, while a school administrator was speaking to the class. The teacher is quite upset and contacted me for information in how to proceed.

I am aware of 1st Amendment issues, etc. and of the controversy surrounding what schools can and cannot control, but am wondering what policies folks have in place and how these situations are being resolved.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Do we need additional policies for the read/write web?

I've just been doing a little digging into our standing AUP to see if it covers most Web 2.0-related issues for an article I am writing, and my conclusion is that we do not need additional policies to cover these newer  applications and resources. Our policy already states (bold is mine):

• Users will not use the school district system to transmit or receive obscene, abusive, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, threatening, disrespectful, or sexually explicit language.
• Users will not use the school district system to access, review, upload, download, store, print, post, or distribute materials that use language or images that are inappropriate to the educational setting or disruptive to the educational process and will not post information or materials that could cause damage or danger of disruption.
• Users will not use the school district system to access, review, upload, download, store, print, post, or distribute materials that use language or images that advocate violence or discrimination toward other people (hate literature) or that may constitute harassment or discrimination.
  

But this does NOT cover student off-site behaviors. I do remember from Dangerously Irrelevant Scott McLeod's session at the November 2006 TIES tech conference that schools have lost most cases when they have tried to discipline students for off-site speech issues, no matter how egregious.

There is also a Point/Counterpoint column in this (March) issue of ISTE's Leading & Learning magazine that asks "Should Schools Regulate Offsite Online Behavior?" Nancy Willard argues for schools responding to cyberbulling (but not teacher bashing). Lynn Wietecha asks what can schools "reasonably" do.

My sense is there would need to a strong case made for the "disruptive to the educational process" just like any other student free-speech issue before a district would/should/could step in. A teacher's hurt feelings probably wouldn't qualify (and, yes,  I know that sounds callous.) Remember that I am not a lawyer although I sometimes pretend to be one on the Internet. Sometimes free speech is painful.

Does your district attempt to regulate off-site student speech? And how? 

Tips requested!

I’m writing an article for LMC on managing digital resources in school libraries. My premise is that we need to follow the same steps we do with print materials:

• Needs assessment/Collection development
• Selection
• Acquisition
• Promotion and display
• Circulation and control
• Inventory
• Evaluation

but that digital resources present some unique challenges. While I have more than a few ideas about this, I would love to hear of any effective strategies you have used in any of these management areas that would be helpful to other SLMS! I will fully credit your contribution should I use it in the article.

Thanks!