Friday, April 24, 2009

Victory for Kids, Librarians and Authors, too.


Librarians Basic to Education

For the first time in history Teacher-Librarians will be included in "Basic Education" in Washington State. What? Haven't librarians always been basic to education? You would think so. Only now, it's written into state law.


That means the state must pay for a Teacher-Librarian in every school, instead of each district scrambling to pass levies and come up with the money on its own.


Of course, in this time of billion dollar state budget cuts, kids won’t see this change immediately. But progress is progress.


The rest of the good news—this boost for libraries sprang from the bottom up. Three moms started a petition drive 18-months ago and spurred a grassroots movement that resulted in this change. Details, plus photos have been written up in the current issue of School Library Journal.


Thank you, Lisa, Susan and Denette! Your hard work and dedication to our children’s education shows all of us how to step up and make a difference.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Jane Austen - A Literary Lion

After attending the Jane Austen panel discussion at this year's Get Lit! I came home and found this:


--cross-posted to Under the Covers by Mari