Library & Literary Miscellany

Here’s what caught my eye on the Web this week…

Library

• Discovery Skills Versus Evaluation Skills by Librarians Matter: discusses whether we are focusing too much on teaching discovery of information resources to the detriment of providing instruction on strategies for evaluating said resources
• ALSC’s Kids @ Your Library Public Awareness Campaign: see especially the tool kit which includes sample materials and activity suggestions
• Recent Library Presentations compiled by iLibrarian: provides links to myriad recent presentations from notable presenters such as Steven Abram, Sarah Houghton-Jan, David Lee King, and more
• Reference Question of the Week by Swiss Army Librarian is not actually a reference question from the week like it usually is; instead, it’s a compilation of links pointing to other places where reference questions are archived

Literary

• Booklist Online: Top 10 Biographies for Youth
• Futuristic, Speculative, Science Fiction and Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults over at Jen Robinson’s Book Page is a thorough list to which many contributed, making it diverse list with a lot of substance
• June carnival of Children’s Literature - Fathers in Children’s books: from Susan Taylor Brown at Susan Writes offers a meaty overview of contributors’ posts discussing, well, fathers in children’s books
• June edition of the Edge of the Forest (after June, you’ll want to check the archives to view this edition; you may want to check the archives anyway to view past editions); as per usual, it is full of interesting interviews and reviews making it a sound destination for maintaining current awareness of kidlit world happenings
• Times Online: Critics choose their most-loathed book (thanks to Fuse #8 for the link)
• Summer Books Season at Worth Reading includes links to a plethora of booklists (USA Today, the Telegraph, Library Journal, Wall Street Journal, Salon, etc.) for your summer reading pleasure (the USA Interactive is particularly fun if you’re looking for an interactive means of choosing adult fiction or nonfiction for your summer reading)
• Last week I pointed to Fuse 8 Production’s Newbery/Caldecott predictions. A couple more I found this week (although they aren’t from this week) are from Literate Lives: Newbery/Caldecott Short Lists and Anokaberry: Anokaberry 2009 Short List
• Still More Booklists over at Semicolon provides links to a variety of timely summer booklists that provide reading suggestions for fiction, nonfiction, writers of faith, etc.

Miscellany

• 101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Minutes by Deke McClelland (thanks to Digital Inspiration for the link); if not perhaps useful in the sense that much of it is likely to be retained, it’s entertaining nonetheless
• Library Thing: Member Home Pages: Tim Spalding writes, “The basic idea was to give members a ‘center’ from which to visit the rest of the site.” Library Thing just keeps getting better and better!
• Tech’s 15 Turning Points by Neil McAllister at InfoWorld (not technically from this week either, but it was in American Libraries Direct this week)

And to all those who are fortunate to be at ALA this week, have a blast!

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