28 Days of Advocacy

Over at the YALSA blog, they have been doing a full months worth of sharing ideas on how we can all be better advocates for teens:
Topics on the advocacy schedule for this month include:

• ALA advocacy tools
• Why advocacy is important
• Everyday advocacy in the school library
• Why advocacy should be part of a teen librarian’s job description
• Creating Partnerships
• And more

We hope these posts will help readers to become better advocates in their own libraries and also help to spread the word about why advocating for teens and libraries is important.

Much of this you may already know, but there are lots of great fresh little ideas there to check out, too!

Audiobooks are hot!

The Audio Publishers Association released the results of their 2008 consumer survey, and the results are pretty exciting:

28% of adults responding to survey listened to an audiobook last year.
53% of teens have listened to an audiobook.
52% of people aged 18-24 listen to audiobooks.
63% of children listen to audiobooks.

I'm a little skeptical of the reach of this survey, but as a long time audiobook fan (I depend on them for my commute!) I believe they are getting more popular...especially since you can now easily download them to portable players.

What are some of your favorite recent listens?

I've really enjoyed these recordings for teens:

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Terrier: Beka Cooper by Tamora Pierce

And for adults:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
The Deportees & Other Stories by Roddy Doyle
The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

The 2009 Rainbow List

From the ALSC blog:

"The Rainbow Project announced the 2009 Rainbow List, a joint undertaking of the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table and Social Responsibilities Round Table. Featuring well-written and/or well-illustrated titles with authentic and significant gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered/queer/questioning (glbtq) content for youth from birth through age 18, this year’s bibliography presents 34 outstanding titles, published in the last eighteen months and representing a broad range of glbtq experience...

Four titles stood out to the selection committee as especially deserving of recognition for their characters, stories, and quality of writing and/or illustration:

1. Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole (first novel)


2. 10,000 Dresses written by Marcus Ewert and illustrated by Rex Ray (first picture book)


3. Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon


4. Skim by Mariko Tamaki (text) and Jillian Tamaki (artwork)

"

Read the whole list here.

Facebook tips for Parents?

What a great idea for a class this is:

Stanford class to help parents be better Facebook friends with their kids
Eric Eldon | February 2nd, 2009

In the class, parents will learn how to talk with their kids about practical aspects of using the site, like the long-term risks of publishing embarrasing photos (college admissions counselors might see them one day), or the benefits of letting friends comment on drafts of class essays.

What a great way for parents to get comfortable with technology, understand what they need to know to guide their kids, and really connect with them better. I love it!

Anyone want to teach it at Sno-Isle?