Newsletter

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Notices and Requests

To Parents and Teachers

Can you guess how many books are published each year?  You might be surprised at the sheer volume. According to Bowker’s, just in the year 2000, in the U.S., over 122,000 books were published. So how does even the very best teacher or parent sort through all that is available in the time they have?  Frankly, even if you are fortunate to have a moment of leisure on your hands, isn’t there just too much information to go through, in addition to too much new information coming at all of us in increasing amounts on a daily basis? Let’s help ease the information overload by sharing our best finds and experiences with each other. As we develop the different areas of the interactive library and work to add depth, we invite participation, cooperation, advice, criticism, suggestions, and lessons learned.

Invitation to Librarians

During our conversations with librarians in Central Texas, we heard a common need - the need to make “how to use the library” more comprehensible to patrons.  So we’d like to invite your input in developing a general orientation to the library, that makes explicit some of the things you find yourself explaining again and again. A few of the things we are talking about now are providing information about the Dewey Decimal System and other basic information on conducting searches for books.  We’d also like to hear about your favorite science and nature titles.  We have lots of ideas but we’d love to include yours.

Bookstore Grand Opening

Even though the interactive library is not officially ready for the public, we couldn’t wait any longer to share some of our favorite books from Central Texas Libraries. We put the ones that are still in print in the Onebranch online bookstore. Check them out and let us know what you think. And if you already have these titles in your own library, consider buying a few of them to donate to your neighborhood library or community center. Good books can add enormous value to a child’s learning, and each of us can participate in improving the quality of their experience.

Help decorate the Art and Music Room

Share student art work from your Knowledge Integration Project. The theme we will be starting with is “Birds in the Neighborhood.” Send your scans or digital photographs, with your name to Shaun Venish

Out-of-Print Youth Titles

We found many Youth Science and Nature Titles that are now, sadly, out-of-print. Some of them are just too good to miss. So we are planning on showcasing those out-of-print titles upstairs in the reading loft of the interactive library.  Here are just two of these wonderful titles written back in the 1960’s that have stood the test of time:

1. Pioneer Astronomers by Navin Sullivan, published in 1964.
2. Rocks, Rivers and the changing Earth - A First Book About Geology, by Herman and Nina Schneider, published in 1967.

Look for these out-of-print treasures in your school or neighborhood library.