ALA | Caldecott Medal announced

ALA | Caldecott Medal
The 2007 Caldecott Medal winner is Flotsam by David Wiesner (Clarion)
Flotsam is a cinematic unfolding of discovery. A vintage camera washed up on the beach provides a young boy with a surprising view of fantastical images from the bottom of the sea. From fish-eye to lens-eye, readers see a frame-by-frame narrative of lush marinescapes ebbing and flowing from the real to the surreal.

Click on link above to read more about the winner and all past winners.

ALA | Newbery Medal

ALA | Newbery Medal
The 2007 Newbery Medal winner is The Higher Power of Lucky written by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan, published by Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson.

Click on link above to find out more about the winner and the honor books selected for 2007, as well as all past winners.

Training sessions in Thief River Falls and Barrett

Thanks to MINITEX Reference, we had Carla Pfahl this week presenting two workshops in the NLLN region relating to MnLINK, Minnesota Digital Library, WebJunction Minnestoa, and MINITEX Reference Services.

At Northwest Service Coop in Thief River Falls, Alice Hofstad put together her annual workshop for school media center staff, and invited staff from Northwest Regional Library as well. The workshop was intense but good, attended by 35 people!  Charlie Lindberg, Kittson Central High School, Alice Hoftstad, NWSC, and Ruth Solie also presented at this workshop on January 17.

The following day, in Barrett, at West Central Area High School we did another workshop for school and public library staff that was very well received. This workshop covered many of the same topics as the previous day, but focused more on Library 2.0 tools, using MnLINK “Get it” button, working with the regional library system, and exploring the beautiful media center at WCA high school. Pat Hanson hosted the event, and Nancy Alsop, Viking Library System, did a presentation on using the Viking catalog and delivery services.

Photos from these 2 days are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlln/

Become a del.icio.us Power User | David Brunelle: Geek for Life

Become a del.icio.us Power User | David Brunelle: Geek for Life

If you haven’t started using Del.icio.us, (http://del.icio.us) take a few moments to go to the Del.icio.us website, set up an account, play with it for a bit, and then read this article by David Brunelle. Del.icio.us is a wonderful tool for keeping all you bookmarks, favorites, websites, articles, research in one useful place. It’s also a great way to track “tags” that others are using.  Tagging allows you to categorize  items in ways that are useful to YOU — and you can put as many tags as you like on any of your del.icio.us entries. Give it a try !  I think you’ll like it — I do.

21st Century Tools in Your Library

http://nlln.org/CE1-18-07.html

Join us in the West Central Area High School Media Center for a day of exploring 21st Century Library tools. NLLN, in partnership with MINITEX, will conduct this workshop from 9:30-3:00 at the West Central Area High School in Barrett, MN — on Highway 59, south of Fergus Falls . No matter what type of library you work in, there will be lots to learn, explore, and have fun with!

Learn about MnLINK, blogs, MINITEX reference services, ELM4you, WebJunction resources, Library 2.0 tools and much more. 

Online registration is available, there is no fee, and everyone is welcome!

Stephen Abrams’ New Year Article

Article from SirsiDynix  Sirsi-Dynix vice-president and frequent visitor to Minnesota has  some great thoughts about libraries and the year 2007.  This really makes you excited about the possibilities for libraries in the year ahead — it’s great!