President's Column
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For spring vacation, my highlight was traveling to beautiful downtown Lansing and attending the Library of Michigan Board meeting and meeting their newest board member our own Judy Hauser. I presented on the accomplishments of MAME in the face of budget crises across the state. Surprisingly, the Deputy Superintendent of Michigan, Carol Wolenberg, asked me if I knew how many school librarians were working in Michigan school libraries. I had to tell her that we did not have accurate numbers of that, but that we can extrapolate how many have been lost to budget cuts based upon what has happened to our membership since 2000. Interesting that even the State has less information on this than we do.
A major highlight of this meeting was the presentation and approval for the new SL21 standards. The board approved the new standards unanimously with 2 MAME members who worked on the renewal, Jeanne Walker and Judy Hauser, present.
It was also gratifying to see Mike Flanagan and Carol Wolenberg present for at least half of the meeting. And for those who live in Michigan Senate District 9, your senator Steve Bieda was present for the whole meeting asking questions and actively participating. And not in the way that my senator would have been, but actually asking constructive questions and taking notes. At one point, he even wrote down an idea for a new law that he may propose as a result of the Board member from Grand Valley State sharing what some other states do.
This weekend, April 26-27, Kathy Lester and I will attending the AASL Region 3 board meeting in Indianapolis. We will be discussing regional business as well as proposing commendations for state/school programs that support libraries and literacy, and we will also be writing concerns that we feel AASL and ALA need to consider over the following months.
I hope everyone is staying dry and that we will be seeing some warmer weather soon.
--
Thomas M. Stream
Elementary School Librarian
Grand Haven Area Public Schools
Grand Haven, MI
President - 2013
Michigan Association for Media in Education
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Gigi Lincoln in School Library Monthly
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The Battle Creek Art Center is featured in the April issue of School Library Monthly. Our very own, Gigi Lincoln, contributed an article, "A Cultural Heritage Exhibit with 21st Century Technology," describing how QR codes were used to supplement informational cards in the Judaic section of the exhibit which was on display last spring. Gigi's knowledge and expertise with the displays stems from her help in the curating of the exhibit.
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MAME 40 Additional Speakers Announced!
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In the previous newsletter, the MAME 40 Conference Committee announced the following speakers for our 40th annual Fall Conference to be held at the Kalamazoo Radisson Plaza Hotel on November 21st and November 22nd (with pre-conference sessions on November 20th):
- Opening Keynote Speaker: Barbara Stripling, ALA President-Elect
- Annual Membership Meeting Speaker: Nancy Robertson, State Librarian
- Author Breakfast Speakers: David Small (2013 Caldecott Honor Illustrator) and his wife, Sarah Stewart
- Closing Keynote Speaker: Tim Shanahan, Literacy and Common Core expert
The committee is pleased to announce the additional featured speakers:
 - Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan: authors of Bookends Blog for Booklist Online
- Travis Jonker: 100 Scope Notes blogger for School Library Journal.
Cindy and Lynn will be book talking the best new fiction books for secondary while Travis will be doing the same for new elementary books. They will both have second sessions to book talk non-fiction and graphic novels.
It should be a great conference! Check the conference website for updates and don't forget to reserve the dates: November 20-22, 2013 on your calendar. In the mean time, if you have any questions or ideas, please contact conference chair, Kathy Lester at kathyL@mimame.org.
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MAME Award 2013 - Nominations open
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 MAME welcomes Lisa Brakel as the new awards and citations chairperson!
It's that time of year when we begin to reflect on what has been accomplished during this school year. As you reflect, if someone comes to mind who has excelled or made a noteworthy contribution to the library media profession, consider nominating them for one of the MAME annual awards. Please find listed below more information.
MAME has a wide variety of honors that the organization would love to give out, but many are never awarded because nominations are never written! If you have someone you feel is worthy of recognition, please take the time to write a nomination.
Nominations for annual awards are accepted from January - May 31st. Recipients are acknowledged and presented their award at the annual MAME conference which will be held this year November 20 -22 in Kalamazoo, MI.
Send your nominations to: Lisa Brakel @ brakels@bex.net
MAME Annual Awards: - District Library Director of the Year
- MAME Mentor Award
- Margaret Grazier Award for Contribution to the Profession
- Mary Ann Paulin Award for Reading Advocacy
- Outstanding Board of Education Award
- Outstanding Government Official Award
- Pat Slocum Award for Outstanding Meritorious Award
- Promotion of School Library Media Programs Award
- Roger Ashley Freedom to Read Award
- Ruby Brown Award for Individual Excellence
- School Librarian of the Year
- School Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award
- School Library Media Program of the Year
- Service Award for Adult Volunteers
For a complete award list and guidelines please visit the MAME website http://www.mimame.org/mame-awards.html) |
MAME 40 Needs You!
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MAME40: School Librarians @ the CORE! is this year's theme, and we are accepting proposals now! T
his is the opportunity to share your experiences, collaborations, ideas, innovations, and programs with other library professionals. You can share your expertise individually or with a partner or panel. You can be a seasoned veteran or a library school student. You can be from the academic world or the school media world or that of a public library. Matters not-you have knowledge we crave!
All it takes is a brief description to let us know the essence of your proposal (with a few other details, of course!). Consider what you'd want your cohorts to know about technologies in libraries, making things work in tough economic times, collaborating for the good of all or new strategies that worked!
We are looking forward to your ideas to make the MAME40 Conference in Kalamazoo, Michigan the best it can be! The application form is on the website now, and we are waiting to hear from you! Presenter Application
Questions??? We can be reached at mame40programs@mimame.org Karen Becknell
Julie Harris
MAME Programs Co-Chairs
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Lesson Swap
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Karen Becknell sends an activity for teaching students to locate books on the shelf. This activity works for grades 3 through 8 and engages students in understanding how books are shelved and how to actually find them in the library. Click the link for the full lesson description. Locating a Book Lesson |
Advocacy Article
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The AASL Legislative Committee chaired by Connie Hamner Williams has develop a new infographic depicting the value of school librarians and school libra ries. The AASL infographic Strong School Libraries Build Strong Students along with other resources is available here: http://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/resources.
You can make this infographic available to all of your stakeholders - students, parents, staff, administrators, etc.
In additional the National Center for Literacy Education has published a new report Remodeling Literacy Learning. This report "reveals that school librarians are highly involved leaders playing a critical role in their schools through consistent and sustained collaboration with other educators." You can find a link to the report as well as an infographic summarizing key school librarian findings from the report at the AASL website here: http://www.ala.org/aasl/research/ncle-infographic.
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Lessons Learned from a Library Director
|  Angela Semifero, library director at Marshall District Library, shares some inspiration and insight which she has learned from her five years of serving on Michigan Library Association's Spring Institute Committee. "In the five years I worked with this group, I learned more about project management, leadership, vision, and organizational change than I can possibly convey. Here, however, are a sample of lessons learned from committee work: - Start Small.
- Every piece of the puzzle matters.
- Mentor ship has a natural progression.
- Cooperation develops specialization.
- Nothing exists in a vacuum.
- Resources are limited.
- Things will go wrong. Roll with it.
- You can't make everyone happy.
- Working to create a comfortable, welcoming environment can cause the most magical accidents.
- Forging connections helps everybody.
Read the full article and other posts by Angela on the Library Lost & Found blog.
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4Ever MAME Get's Outta Town
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The 4Ever retirees invite ALL MAME retired members to attend our (nearly) annual WE'RE OUTTA TOWN event!
Wednesday, September 4th to Friday the 6th on the Beach in Frankfort, Michigan
Harbor Lights complex: 2 bedroom condos to share, sleep 3+, cost to be divided among roommates. Completely furnished.
Walking distance to shops, restaurants, beach out in front of each unit!
http://www.harborlightsresort.net/
We plan to celebrate retirees new and seasoned, toast sunset on the deck every night, go on an exploring trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Chery Republic HQ for tastings and shopping in Glen Lake, visiting Gwen Frostic's studio and shop, hit Beulah (poor Beulah!), Trick Dog is a must!, a boat excursion and tour out to Manitou Islands from Frankfort and lounging about, just catching up! There may be adult beverages involved!
Along with the bon vivante camaraderie, we will be plotting our Amtrak party train car to the MAME conference in Kalamazoo, our fundraising choices and scholarship offerings to MAME members, plus our annual Garage Sale and 'From Our Hands to Yours' drawing at the conference.
If desired, carpooling will be arranged closer to date from points all over the mitten.
All interested members should contact Annette Haley annettehaley@att.net asap to get on the list! If you have roomies already picked out, let Annette know. Questions? Ideas? email them to me! A deposit will be required by June.
Your fun should always be planned for the first week Not Back To School!
Annette Haley and Teri Belcher, MAME 4Ever co-chairs
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| Cheers & Tears | |
Retiree, Maureen Booth, recently returned from a 2 1/2 month cruise, which circumnavigated South America and cruised along Antarctica. Highlights of her trip include: Antarctica, the Panama Canal, the Falkland Islands, Devil's Island, and a week's cruise of the Amazon River. Welcome back Maureen!
Congratulations Lynn Rutan! She won a seat on the West Ottawa School Board on Nov. 6. It was very close - only 32 votes but she squeaked in and will begin serving a 4 year term in January. Library issues are high on her list as you can imagine ;-)
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Region & SIGS Corner
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There are still vacancies for several MAME region representatives. You can check out the details at the MAME website Region page here.
Contact Gwenn Marchesano, VP Regions & SIGs, at gmarchesano@mimame.org if you are interested in any of the Region vacancies or if you need additional information.
Thank you!
Gwenn Marchesano
VP Regions & SIGs ______________________________________
 Join MACUL SIGMS!
SIGMS, MACUL's special interest group for school librarians and other educators interested in information literacy, technology and school libraries, has already had a banner inaugural year! Our preconference at the MACUL annual conference was one of the first and few precons to sell out.
Our membership just prior to the MACUL conference was over 200 and growing fast, making us one of the largest MACUL SIGs. Keep up the great work in recruiting members. Membership in MACUL and all SIGs is now free. MACUL members can join SIGMS at any time by visiting http://membership.macul.org/account/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f.
SIGMS is also planning our first annual membership meeting for Thursday, March 21st, 5:15-6:00 pm, room O2-36 at Cobo Center in Detroit. Please plan on joining us to learn more about SIGMS, meet the SIGMS officers and other members, and help us plan for next year.
As MAME members, the new SIGMS officers look forward to collaborating between MACUL and MAME to strengthen the school library media community in Michigan, and we need the support of the MAME membership. Thanks to all of you who have helped get SIGMS off the ground! If you haven't already done so, please join SIGMS today, recruit other members, and join us in Detroit to support school libraries in Michigan,
Erik Drake, MACUL SIGMS Director Cynthia Kleinheksel, MACUL SIGMS Assistant Director
Erica Trowbridge, MACUL SIGMS Communications Officer. |
Send Your News!
Tell us about your successes, your struggles, your amazing discoveries.
Email your newsletter editor, Shannon Clark with stories that should be shared.
We'd love to hear from you!
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We need YOU!
It is not too late! The MAME Conference Committee is still looking for additional members. Specifically, the Conference Committee is looking for people to help with registration and the silent auction. If you are interested in getting more involved in MAME, please contact Kathy Lester (kathyL@mimame.org), Conference Chair.
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MAME Membership
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IT'S TIME TO JOIN MAME OR RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP! If you weren't able to attend the fabulous MAME 39 conference, we missed you!
But please don't allow your MAME membership to expire...stay connected to other school librarians across the state.
MAME needs your support now more than ever and YOU need the support provided by MAME through its advocacy on the state and national levels.
So please take a few minutes to
complete the online membership form at:
http://www.mimame.org/join-mame.html
You can pay for your membership by check or by using the PayPal option. You do not need a PayPal account to use your credit card. If you wish to add SIG membership(s), please read the instructions carefully and check your shopping cart before completing the form.
Karen Becknell
MAME Database Manager
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| Save the date ~ MAME 40 is Nov. 20 - 22 |
MAME's Annual Fall Conference (MAME 40) will be held this year at the Kalamazoo Radisson Plaza Hotel on November 20, 21, and 22. The theme of the conference is "School Librarians @ the Core." The new site this year, the Kalamazoo Radisson Plaza, has been recently renovated and is a beautiful site with plenty of great space for our sessions. The conference committee is working on putting together a great program. Watch for future announcements; but, in the mean time, please reserve the dates of November 20, 21, and 22 on your calendar!
If you have questions, please contact Conference Chair, Kathy Lester (kathyl@mimame.org) for more details!
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| Upcoming Events |
April, 2013
School Library Month
Communities matter @ your library
April 18, 2013 Poem in Your Pocket Day Poets.org
Houghton-Portage Township HS Houghton, MI 49931MAME Headquarters, Lansing
May 8, 2013
National Library Legislative Day
ALA Advocacy
Washington DC May 13-19, 2013 Children's Book Week [free poster by Brian Selznick, bookmark by Grace Lin]
June 27 - July 2, 2013 ALA 2012 Annual Conference Chicago, Illinois
June 24-27, 2012
iste 2013
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio Convention Center
Open registration begins
October 1, 2012
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What's on
Your Mind? |
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What great things are going on in your media center?
Has a journal article or book recently inspired you?
Found a shortcut, great website, new and improved techie tool?
...Or just have a funny story to share?
We love to hear from our readers! | |
Send your newsletter contributions to
Shannon Clark @
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