March News "Media Matters" from MAME

Media Matters! March 2011

In this Issue

From the President

From MAME Headquarters

Gov't Relations Chair: Michael Pehote

MAME Membership Drive

Region Corner

App of the Month!

Cheers & Tears

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Spring Conference

Call for Media Spectrum Articles

Fall Conference - MAME 38

Recommended Resources

Upcoming Events

Our Sponsors

Media Matters Archives

From the President

Happy March Is Reading Month!

We're getting excited about our planned activities in my district and I hope each of you are having fun times reading!

March also brings two other important events:

First, MAME's Spring Leadership Day will be focused on "Framing MAME's Future". We will be hosted at DeWitt High School on March 26. SB-CEU's will be available and registration information is available on our website: www.mimame.org. The day will be dedicated to looking at MAME's future. We will be setting goals for the organization and updating MAME's strategic plan. We will also be looking at our partnerships with other organizations. This includes hearing from some of these partners on the benefits available to MAME members. We hope you'll join us for a day that focuses on important goals and quality conversations.

Second, for those of you who are ALA/AASL members ballots will open for annual elections. One of the simplest and most important ways we can let our school library voices be heard is to vote for those who represent us. Ballots will open on March 16 and remain open until April 22. Election information including candidate bios and statements can be found at: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/alaelection/index.cfm

Please let your voice be heard.

If you are looking for even more input, consider joining an AASL committee. Carl Harvey, AASL President is currently actively seeking members to fill several committee positions. Here is his step by step guide for signing up:

Go to the AASL website and check out the list committees. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aboutaasl/aaslgovernance/aaslcommittees/committees.cfm
Consider which ones you think you would like to be involved. Realize, too, that there are some committees everyone wants to be a part of, so make sure to have more than one on your list.
Go online and fill out the AASL volunteer form. (You will need to login into the ALA website for the form to work!) http://www.ala.org/cfapps/committee/volunteerform
Fill out the form. Make sure to choose several committees you would like to be involved.

Rachel Markel, MAME President

From MAME Headquarters

Tim Staal

In the February 27, 2011 issue of Newsweek, there is a very thought-provoking article about information overload. Here's a link to the online article: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/27/i-can-t-think.html .

The article deals with the effects of too much information on decision-making.

Think about these quotes:

"The research should give pause to anyone addicted to incoming texts and tweets. The booming science of decision making has shown that more information can lead to objectively poorer choices, and to choices that people come to regret."
" It isn't only the quantity of information that knocks the brain for a loop; it's the rate. The ceaseless influx trains us to respond instantly, sacrificing accuracy and thoughtfulness to the false god of immediacy." "We're being trained to prefer an immediate decision even if it's bad to a later decision that's better," says psychologist Clifford Nass of Stanford University."

I encourage you to read this article and stop and think about some of it's implications. Think about how you cope with information glut and how you might do so more effectively in the future. One of the major thrusts of the article is the need to slow down, determine appropriate amounts and qualities of information and to make good careful decisions based on information. Sounds to me like what we do as school librarians doesn't it?

Share the article with your colleagues, school administrators, and decision makers. Remind them of the need for information guides (we school librarians are information specialists and we love to find, use, and apply information) who can help our students. Remind them of the need to slow down and think things through. To me one of the great advantages of being a MAME member (see other good reasons elsewhere in this newsletter !) is the opportunities it gives to see the big picture and to sort out, with the help of our colleagues, the important stuff from all the info glut we get. My hope is that things will start to turn around as people realize that we as a society need to change the way we make decisions about important, long term issues like schools and libraries.

Tim Staal, Executive Director

Gov't Relations Chair: Michael Pehote

Greetings, my name is Michael Pehote and I am proud to serve as the new Government Relations chair for MAME. I am the librarian at Carlson High School in Gibraltar. I have served in that position since September of 2004; previously, I was a Language Arts Teacher at Carlson High School. I am a graduate of Wayne State's College of Library and Information Science. I look forward to working for all members of MAME.

I am sure many of you have heard Governor Rick Snyder's budget proposals for the state of Michigan. Public schools are in line for what could be an enormous financial hit. These upcoming months will be an important time for MAME members to contact their representatives in Lansing. Tim Stall and I are working on an official letter from MAME to send to Lansing; however, you can do you part and contact your representatives as well. Lansing needs to be reminded of the value of school libraries and certified school librarians working in schools across Michigan.

I have already contacted my local representative and heard back within the week. His response was basically that it was still early, and he had not had enough time to read through the entire budget proposal to make any comment. I look forward to speaking with him in person during one of his local office hours in the district.

Here is a link you can use to find your state representative: http://www.house.michigan.gov/find_a_rep.asp

and here is a link to find your state senator: http://www.senate.michigan.gov/fysenator/fysenator.htm

In January's Media Matters, Marsha Lambert provided some great hints for contacting elected officials. You can check them out here: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs026/1101805232480/archive/1104144323431.html#LETTER.BLOCK36

Members are welcome to contact me with any questions or concerns at mpehote@comcast.net.

MAME Membership Drive

Encourage your colleagues and friends who are not MAME members to join MAME!! Please share with them the following Reasons to Join MAME and give them a copy of the MAME Membership form which you can find here. (Offer to mail in the application for them!) You can also invite them to the March Leadership Conference on Saturday, March 26th at Dewitt High School and send them to this link to register.

Five Good Reasons to Join MAME

Connections and Networking

-get connected with other School Librarians across the state (as Doug Johnson puts it: "inter-species communication") through:

MAME Listserv
Conferences (see Professional Development below)
Regional Divisions and Special Interest Groups

Advocacy

-MAME has been advocating at the state and national level and connecting with other groups to provide a stronger presence for our profession

The more members - the stronger our voice! We need you!
Get support from MAME for local advocacy. You need MAME!

Professional Development

-MAME provides professional development relevant to the school library profession and provides SB-CEUs that can be used toward teaching certificate renewal at the:

Annual Fall Conference
Spring Leadership Conference
Summer Workshop

Making a Difference for Libraries

-MAME actively promotes and supports members with:

Intellectual Freedom and Challenges
Advancing Standards and Criteria for Quality School Libraries

SL21
AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner & Learning4Life

Recognizing excellence in School Libraries with the MAME Award Program

Staying Current

-MAME publications provide members with timely and profession-specific information

Media Spectrum - an award-winning professional journal
Media Matters - a monthly email-delivered newsletter

Region Corner

Upcoming Region Events

Region 17 (Oakland) will be hosting Laura Cummings speaking on 21 Things & More, on April 13th at 4pm at Mercy High School. The meeting is open to all MAME members. For further information, please contact Diana at diana.mccall@gmail.com.

Wanted: Region Representatives

Here's your chance to become more active in MAME and shape our organization. We're looking for representatives to lead in their region, and serve on the MAME Board of Directors. Each region receives a budget based on regional membership that can be used to hold workshops or professional development events, or to sponsor members from the region in attending workshops. We're looking for leaders in regions 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10,15, 20, 21, & 22. Being a region rep looks good on your resume, and it's a great way to connect with and support the librarians in your area. If it sounds interesting, email me at

gmarchesano@mimame.org

Gwenn Marchesano

VP Regions & SIGS

App of the Month!

App of Month If you own a smart phone, whether Android, iPhone or Blackberry, you have access to and the ability to use a panoply of applications or apps. Each month Media Matters will feature a smart phone app. Many apps will work on more than one operating system but not always. So, when an app is presented there will be an indication as to which operating systems it works on.

Apps presented will hopefully be useful to you; but, if you find an app is not useful, you delete it from your phone after trying it out. Also, if you would like to suggest an app please email your idea to judy.hauser@oakland.k12.mi.us. Any app will be considered whether it is for productivity, utility or fun! Who knows, if several good suggestions come in we may feature more than one per month!

Quickmark QR Code Reader
Android, iPhone
Free
The Quickmark QR Code Reader lets you read QR (quick response) codes from the camera built in your smart phone.

Dictionary.com
Android, iPhone, Blackberry
Free
The Dictionary.com app lets you quickly look up words on your smart phone. There is also a voice feature if you want to speak the word into the phone and a feature that speaks the word to you so that you may hear the pronunciation.

Cheers & Tears

Karen Alberts is in the fortunate position of being librarian for a brand new girls Catholic school being established in Wixom, St. Catherine Academy. Currently, there are only 10 freshman girls in a temporary building, but the smart folks at St. Catherine Academy knew the importance of having a librarian on premises! The new building is under construction and will be ready for students in the fall. Karen has been in discussion with the architect regarding the plans for the library media center -- what an opportunity! She was also recently awarded a grant from the Michigan Chapter of Catholic Libraries Association to purchase new fiction. Karen had been a librarian in a K-8 school for 11 years, so writes that this is a great new challenge for her.

Colleen Driscoll

Colleen Driscoll of Breitung Township Schools in Kingsford wrote a chapter for the recently published book The Frugal Librarian edited by Carol Smallwood and published by the American Library Association. Colleen wrote the "small school library" chapter.

If you know of an event in a MAME member's life (marriage, birth, death, change in job, award, etc.) that you would like to have included in a future Cheers & Tears section, please forward the information to the Media Matters Editors at:

mediamatters.mame@gmail.com

Media Matters! Editors

Kathy Lester and Michelle Levy

mediamatters.mame@gmail.com

MAME Executive Director

Tim Staal tstaal@gmail.com

Database Manager

Liz Lewis lizabeth.lewis@gmail.com

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
May all our libraries find a wee bit o' the gold at the end of the rainbow!

Spring Conference
Please Join Us!!

MAME Spring Leadership Conference:

Framing MAME's Future

Saturday, March 26th: DeWitt High School Library

13601 Panther Dr

DeWitt, MI 48820

Saturday, March 26th, is the date of our upcoming MAME Leadership Conference: Framing MAME's Future. Come and share in this opportunity to collaborate, strategize, and set the direction for our organization!

Participants will have opportunities to learn about strategic planning techniques and engaging group activities that work equally well with students in teaching situations or with teachers as professional development tools. Participants will also hear from a variety of guest speakers and presenters, who will talk about the importance of forming partnerships and alliances with other organizations - specifically MACUL, ISTE, the Library of Michigan, and the University of Michigan International Institute. Most importantly, participants will have time to brainstorm, reflect, collaborate, and to evaluate where MAME is as an organization, where we want to be, and how we're going to get there.

Participants will come away with practical strategies and ideas they can take back and implement in their schools along with support materials and contact information to share with students and teachers. Participants will also have the opportunity to receive .5 SBCEU ($10 additional fee), and maybe even take home a door prize or two!

Come join us at DeWitt High School (DeWitt is just north of Lansing, and the high school is easily accessible off major expressways). Find a map here. The day will start at 9:00 and end at 4:00. Lunch is included.

And, while we're on the subject, we should probably acknowledge that there's no such thing as a free lunch. The registration fee is $75.00. As always, we're very aware that district funds to cover conference registrations and travel costs are pretty much a thing of the past. That's why we've done everything possible to minimize expenses for our members: we've gone to a one-day format, we've chosen a central location, we're using a school library venue to cut down on site and rental fees, and we're exploiting the good nature of colleagues and members who have agreed to present, and share their expertise with us. All things considered, $75 is a great deal - especially when you compare our one-day rate for .5 SBCEUs to other state organization offerings - which usually range in the $250 to $400 price range.

So please, plan to join us on the 26^th! We need you! We need your voice, we need your opinions, and we need your experience! We need your input to ensure that MAME is headed in the right direction. Register now at the MAME website:

www.mimame.org .

Most importantly, now more than ever, we need your leadership. See you in DeWitt!

Click here to register

or go to the MAME Website.

Call for Articles for
Media Spectrum

Aspiring Authors!
Share your expertise with your colleagues by writing for Media Spectrum.

Technology Issue
Deadline - October 1st

Guidelines available at the MAME Website.
www.mimame.org

Fall Conference
MAME 38

We hope that you can join MAME in Lansing for the

MAME 38 Fall Conference! Mark your calendars for

November 2-4!

MAME 38 -

Libraries@Future.Now

Radisson Hotel Lansing

111 N. Grand Avenue

Lansing Michigan 48933

Reservations: 1-800-395-7046

Telephone: (517) 482-0188

Fax: (517) 487-6646

Room Rates:

King/Sofabed: $109.00

Double: $109.00

Use the MAME Promotional Code to secure these rates: MAME11

FREE Valet Parking!

Recommended
Resources

MDE

Teacher Evaluations

New laws in Michigan require that School Districts conduct annual educator evaluations that include student growth as a significant factor. These laws will effect certified School Librarians as well as classroom teachers. The Michigan Department of Education web page on Educator Evaluation Systems is a resource to learn more about this. Take a look at the PowerPoint Presentation: Michigan Educator Evaluations Overview Presentation.

College Readiness

On February 22nd, MDE released data indicating the percent of students who are ready for college based on ACT scores. Read a Detroit Free Press article about this here. What is the College Readiness percentage for your district's high school? You can find the data from MDE here.

Upcoming Events

March 6-12, 2011

Teen Tech Week