Cool Tool: typoGenerator

Are you trying to create a cool, Photoshop-ish badge or logo image for your website, blog, or wiki?  Check out this cool new tool I found courtesy of Joyce Valenza:  typoGenerator.  You simply type in your text, click a button, and this magical web 2.0 tool will create a beautiful and striking image for you!  If you don’t like what it generates, you can keep repeating the “try again” button until you get something you like.  Here are some samples I created for our new 23Things@TheUnquietLibrary project.

 

2007 National Book Award Winners Announced!

The winners of the 2007 National Book Awards are:

• Fiction: Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke(FSG)
• Nonfiction: Tim Weiner: Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Doubleday)
• Poetry: Robert Hass, Time and Materials(Ecco/HarperCollins)
• Young People’s Literature: Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown).

The winners were November 14, at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. The annual awards are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize achievements in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. The night’s ceremonies included the presentation of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to essayist Joan Didion and the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Terry Gross, host and executive producer of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air.

The winner in the “Young People’s Literature” category was Seattle resident Sherman Alexie for his semiautobiographical The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the story of a determined, geeky cartoonist growing up on a Spokane reservation and dreaming of escaping his impoverished situation. Although this is his first book specifically for teens, Alexie has also written numerous other novels dealing with the Native American experience, including Flight (2007) and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (2005).  Based on the author’s own experiences, this heartbreaking yet funny story chronicles the adolescence of one contemporary Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he seems destined to live.  An award-winning author, poet, and filmmaker, Sherman Alexie was named one of GRANTA’s Best Young American Novelists and has been lauded by the Boston Globe as “an important voice in American literature.”

• Go here for an interview with Sherman Alexie.

• The author’s official website at http://www.fallsapart.com/

Reading and Poetry Club November 28 Meeting Notes

Reading and Poetry Club Meeting Agenda
Wednesday, 11/28/07 

>Both clubs:  Report to the library when your club is called for club photos on Thursday, 11/29/07.

> Both clubs:  Volunteering for book fair:  you may volunteer during lunch, before school, or after school.  We need “greeters” and individuals to “float around” during your volunteer time.  Come by the library to sign up for this “job”!

>Both clubs:  We need reliable volunteers to take the “loose change” jars to English teachers every morning by 8:15.  Come by the library to sign up for this “job”!

>Both clubs:  We need reliable volunteers to help count the “loose change” money each day after school.  Come by the library to sign up for this “job”!

>Reading Club:  If you haven’t looked at our club “Library Thing”, surf over and put a review on there.  See Mrs. Fleet for user name and password info! >Reading Club:  Be thinking about a book choice for after the holidays>Poetry Club—do you still want to try to do a poetry reading/Coffeehouse Friday? We had no participation from club members last time.

Three Days Until the Book Fair….

Will “Kindle” Spark More Interest in Reading?

From our new issue of  Newsweek that just arrived in our library (Nov 26th)  The Future of Reading: 

“Though the Kindle is at heart a reading machine made by a bookseller—and works most impressively when you are buying a book or reading it—it is also something more: a perpetually connected Internet device. A few twitches of the fingers and that zoned-in connection between your mind and an author’s machinations can be interrupted—or enhanced—by an avalanche of data. Therein lies the disruptive nature of the Amazon Kindle. It’s the first “always-on” book.”

Hmmm… like iTunes and iPods, it will be interesting to watch where this development goes!  What do you think?   Would you use this new tool regularly?  Read more about Kindle at http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983/page/1.  You can also view a 2 minute video demonstrating how Kindle works by clicking here!

Tis the Season To Read: The Winter 2007 Scholastic Book Fair Is Coming!

The Unquiet Library will host its Winter 2007  Book Fair December 3-7in the media center!  This year’s fair will feature YA favorites Stephenie Meyer, Alex Horowitz, Alice Hoffman, Caroline Cooney, and more!  Mystery, manga, historical fiction, thrillers—we will have all these genres next week at our book fair! 

All profits from our book fair will be donated to New Orleans school libraries as they are still struggling to rebuild their collections as they still recover from Hurricane Katrina.  Our participation in the One for Books program will not only benefit libraries, but it will also help non-profit organizations that strive to help families and children—Scholastic will match our money raised dollar for dollar!  We will be sponsoring a “loose change” drive competition between our English classes here at Creekview.  Students in individual classes are asked to bring the following on these days:

• Monday, 12/3:  Pennies
• Tuesday, 12/4:  Nickels
• Wednesday, 12/5:  Dimes
• Thursday, 12/6:  Quarters
• Friday, 12/7:  Any coins or dollar contribution!

The winning class period will be treated to a pizza party by The Unquiet Library!  In addition, students, parents, and teachers may make a $1 contribution next week when they check out a book or purchase a book from the book fair!  All donors can fill out a slip and go on our “Hall of Fame” as we work hard to raise money for New Orleans public school libraries!

Visit our official book fair website at:  http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/theunquietlibrary  .  To see the featured books in our book fair, go to http://scholastic.com/bookfairs/books/ms_best.asp .  You can browse the various categories by using the menu on the left side of your screen.

We still need parent volunteers, so please contact us via our book fair website if you can help out!  Thanks!

Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Fleet

Mandatory Meeting for Reading and Poetry Club Members, Wednesday, November 28

There will be a mandatory meeting for all Reading Club and Poetry Club members this Wednesday, November 28.  You may attend the 8AM meeting or 3:25 PM meeting.  Members of the Blatant Bibliophiles and The Live Poet Society will meet briefly for about 15 minutes to discuss your involvement in next week’s book fair.  We look forward to seeing you!

Mrs.  Hamilton and Mrs. Fleet

Happy Thanksgiving from The Unquiet Library

The Unquiet Library would like to wish all of its patrons and friends a joyful and bountiful Thanksgiving holiday! Below is our top ten list of things that we are thankful for at The Unquiet Library!

1. Blogging and blogs
2. Wonderful books that you just can’t put down
3. Research databases
4. Our wonderful patrons who visit our library each week
5. GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library
6. “Old” and “new” Web 2.0 technologies
7.  Our wonderful network of colleagues within our district and across the state of Georgia
8.  All of the wonderful technology that keeps our library humming
9.  Our new Destiny circulation software
10.  Our wonderful collection of print and digital materials

On a personal note, I would like to say I am especially thankful to have Mrs. Fleet and Mrs. Beasley on our staff this year—their service, knowledge, and wisdom are invaluable!  I am thankful that our students and I have the privilege of working with these two fabulous women every day!  Finally, I am thankful to be a librarian—how lucky am I to do what I love every day?!?!  It is truly an exciting time to be in our profession.

To learn more about the history of Thanksgiving, check out these great resources!

• The History Channel:  The History of Thanksgiving
• Search our GALE Virtual Reference Library—lots of great articles here!  You will need to use our GALE password to access the database.
• ABC-CLIO American History (password required)
• Greenwood Daily Life Online (password required)
• EBSCOhost History Reference Center via GALILEO (GALILEO password required)
• U.S. Census Interesting and Cool Facts About Thanksgiving Day 2007!  Fun and entertaining!

What services are you thankful for from The Unquiet Library? Share your thoughts here!

Mrs. Hamilton

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

This Day in History: Lincoln Delivers The Gettysburg Address

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave one of the most memorable speeches in American history:  The Gettysburg Address.   Some 3,577 Union soldiers—half of them unknown—from 18 states are buried in Gettysburg’s Soldiers’ National Cemetery.  Dedication of the cemetery, adjacent to the local cemetery where some of the fighting had taken place, occurred on November 19, 1863.  In just a few minutes and 272 words, Lincoln described his vision for “a new birth of freedom” for America. It was what many consider the best summation in the nation’s history of the meaning and price of freedom.

Check out these great resources to learn more about this speech and why it is considered not only a milestone in American history but also a great work of American literature:

• History Channel:  This Day in History
• Mrs. Hamilton’s Favorite Del.icio.us Links:  The Gettysburg Address
• Primary Documents in American History (Library of Congress):  Web Guides to The Gettysburg Address
• Our Documents.gov:  The Gettysburg Address
• USA Today (November 15, 2007) story about the possible discovery of a photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg

Below is the full text of this historic speech:

FOURSCORE and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

School Library Journal Names The Best Books of 2007

School Library Journal has announced its top fiction and nonfiction picks for 2007!  Trev Jones, Book Review Editor for School Library Journal, says this about the choices for best books:

In looking over the list, we realized that 2007 saw some of the best and most powerful historical fiction titles in memory, putting human faces on perplexing and painful periods of the past that still resonate today.

The golden age of fantasy continues to flourish and we selected 10 titles that have fresh twists, unusual settings, and deliciously wicked villains. Several of the novels will make your readers laugh out loud, and a couple may break their hearts and provide plenty of fodder for reflection and discussion.

War and poverty and their resultant change in lifestyles also show up in a number of the books. Picture books for the very young were particularly appealing this year, but you’ll also find enough to keep a wide audience of early readers happily engaged and informed. A few of the selections cross genres or simply defy pigeonholing in terms of their styles, content, or prospective audiences. We think you’ll find plenty of beautiful, thoughtful, and perhaps provocative choices among these fiction and nonfiction selections.

You can view the list of top choices at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6504067.html !