I’d like to be counting down days to the end of the year, but there’s too much to do to get a library shut down! Collecting, cleaning, organizing and preparing the facility for next year are much easier said than done. Students need to know about the public library’s summer reading program, final reports must be written and teachers are still using book sets and equipment. Items need to be sent for final repair and a last book order will insure that there are good books to get students excited about reading next year. With a 1:1 netbook adoption in my school next year, I’m trying to prepare the media center’s webpage so that it can become my online presence. The catalog is being stocked with ebooks and I’m planning to spend the summer adding to my tool belt. Just in case I do return.

So much to do this summer! I’m planning my trip to Mississippi. You may remember that last year I followed some of my dad’s footsteps through France? Well, this year it’s my mom. Her hometown is about 40 miles from the town I’ll be visiting, so I hope to spend some time adding to the family history I’ve been compiling.  I’ve also got several books to read about the Delta before I go. There’s a flood back in 1927 (a year before my mom was born), Emmett Till, James Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer. The blues and the food, o! The food!

I’m wondering what the oil spill will effect. I was on the gulf with my son before he left those pristine white beaches to be station in New Mexico. I hate to think what’s happening down there.

I’ve been trying to clean up my Google Reader. Right now, I subscribe to posts from about 50 blogs. Can you imagine how those posts add up in just one day??!!  I spent some time this morning deleting blogs that really don’t match my interest in YA books for teens of color and/or librarianship or that haven’t posted in a while. I did keep my favorite food blog because it’s about so much more than food and Afrobella, for my inner diva. I just went back to GR to check something and every blog I thought I deleted earlier is still there. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Needless to say, I’ve been collection information online this week, too!

Tarie, thanks so much for being persistant with the Last Airbender mess! This act of movie whitewashing really should be getting more coverage. When I mention it to someone outside my blog network, they know nothing about it!

The ALA is currently offering $250 for the best online video that promotes library advocacy.

If you’re a Black librarian in Indiana, please don’t miss our Spring Meeting on 22 May at the IN State Library.

The Children’s Book Committee of the Bank Street College of Education released its book list of the best books of the year and I’ve got to say it has to be one of the most diverse lists I’ve seen. Special Congratulations:

Walter Dean Myers for Dopestick; Riot

Margarita Engle for Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba

Ann E. Burg for All the Broken Pieces

Rita Williams-Garcia for Jumped

Francisco Stork for Marcelo in the Real World

Lyn Miller Lachman for Gringolandia

Justin Laralestier for Liar

Chrisina Kessler Trouble in Timbuktu

Mitali Perkins for Secret Keeper (and belated Happy Birthday!)

Melindo Lo for Ash

Moribito II:Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi, ill. by Yuko Shimizu (I’m reading this now!)

Donna Jo Napoli for Alligator Bayou

Beverley Naidoo for Burn My Heart

Bethany Hegedus for Between Us Baxters

Tanita Davis for Mare’s War

Afua Cooper for My Name is Phillis Wheatley:  A Story of Slavery and Freedom

Kim Ablon Whitney for The Other Half of Life

Congratulations on being honored for such well written books!