As news of The Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (or SKILLs) Act filters down to the southern hemisphere, concerned proactive advocates for Teacher Librarianship in Australia are given a small glimmer of hope that their own efforts may eventually bear fruit.

The Act not only ensures sufficient funding is available for resources across all schools in all states, but also that appropropriately credentialed professional staff are engaged.

Senator Thad Cochran (MI) in supporting the legislation noted that “School librarians play an important role in the lives of students of all ages. The ability to foster confidence in a student to research a topic about which he or she wants to learn is a unique gift."

Meanwhile in Australia, school library advocates are considering the most appropriate way to bring the American initiative to the attention of their own politicians. The stapling of copies to the foreheads of their own decision makers has not been completely ruled out ...

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Following yet another wanton act of vandalism, an unnamed information professional who wishes to remain anonymous at this stage appealed to colleagues for urgent assistance.

A series of similar incidents have plagued numerous libraries for some time, but for reasons unknown none of the professional associations are collecting statistics on this disturbing trend.

After many meetings, a strategy was formulated for the development and implementation of a complex system (part only pictured above). This process thankfully proved its value when a colleague in another library faxed a copy of the missing page that had been torn out of the book ...

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"We did The Fourth of July. We did the Dalai Lama's birthday. We did World Population Day. We did the French National Day. We did Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon. We're going to do the anniversary of the USA Senate approval of the UN Charter. We're going to do the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. We're going to do International Youth Day. And that's all within a 30 day period. Quite frankly, we're all pretty much displayed out here."

"We've pre-ordered one copy of the book, and will get another copy from a chain store when the price comes down. We put up the poster that we had to wheedle out of the distibutors. We had one screening of one of the earlier movies, and it took us two days to clean up the mess from pop-corn and candy. We' won't be in a hurry to do that again."

"We've got copies of the earlier HP books, the latest one is not high on our priorities for Elementary students." "We're only buying one copy. The kids that are really big Potter fans will get their own copies anyway."

Seems like many library professionals are Over It ...

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Lonnie D. Harvel, Vice President for Educational Technology, Georgia Gwinnett College bravely - or perhaps inadvisedly - presented a session at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Southeast Regional Conference entitled, "From Distraction to Interaction: Incorporating Cell Phones into the Learning Environment".

At the time of writing, action is still awaited from ALA, ALIA, or possibly AAA to have access to the offensive vodcast removed, in the interests of preventing possible acts of violence in libraries.

Early reports are unclear, but it does appear that no Front Line Librarians were amongst the audience at the seminar, which was not widely advertised ...

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Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., writing in the Global Politician (which describes itself as "an independent magazine providing objective in depth analysis of events in the world today") clearly supports libraries, except for bits of his article where he doesn't.

"The lending of e-books to patrons appears to be a natural extension of the classical role of libraries: physical book lending. Libraries sought also to extend their archival functions to e-books. But librarians failed to grasp the essential and substantive differences between the two formats."

"But, there is an underlying, fundamental incompatibility between the Internet and the library. They are competitors." "Progress" may yet consist of the assimilation of hi-tech gadgets by lo-tech libraries. It may turn out to be convergence at its best, as librarians become computer savvy - and computer types create knowledge and disseminate it." Etc.

Thank you Dr Vaknin for the feedback. Library professionals always welcome advice from folk without any credentials in Information Science. Goodness knows, we're used to it ...

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WLW fans that are cheeky enough to 'drop by' when new editions are being drafted will know that I use place holding text that reads "change this change this change this change this change this change this change this change this change this change this change this".

In an epiphanic moment, I have just realised that given the current state of affairs, perhaps I should just leave the text to read "change this" throughout each and every article in each and every edition. Hmmm ...

For those who absolutely have to have some Harry Potter activity, or interactivity, Dargis and Scott of the New York Times offer a series of video clip commentaries in which they contrast the themes of the first five Harry Potter Books.

With a little imagination, this can be adapted for instructional use by the creation of a series of boring black and white worksheets followed in particular cases by the often required meaningless assessment task. By golly, if we try hard enough, we can even take the pleasure out of Harry Potter ...

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Simple politicians can't read long, complicated documents. They need it clear and concise. If you can't say it in 5 words sung to the tune of a popular song from the 1960's, they probably won't read it at all. A minion will get back to you and "thank you" for your efforts. They may even say they are putting "one of their best people" on it ... who will be some intellectual whacker that is capable of both reading and analysing, but is completely disillusioned with the whole system - and doesn't have the power to do anything anyway.

WLW Political Advisor.

More quotes >>>

... While it is obviously the Minister's responsibility to investigate and address those issues, I had hoped that in your capacity as the Shadow Minister for Education and Training, you would have had at least assumed a 'watching brief' to ensure that meaningful changes were enactioned.

I had hoped that you would have considered the detrimental effect of the current situation on the educational outcomes of the 740,000 students enrolled in the Public Education System and the expectations of their voting parents, the 60,000-odd teachers who provide quality educational opportunities for those students, and the 2,400 Teacher Librarians who support teaching and learning by those teachers and for the students ...

Read the entire letter in context >>>>