SCL News June 2009: Newsletter of the IFLA Libraries for Children and Young Adult Section

Here's the latest issue of the SCL News (Jun 09), the newsletter of the IFLA Libraries for Children and Young Adult Section.

PDF (1.05 MB) | Link to all issues

CONTENTS

• The Chair Speaks - p1.
• Editor’s Note - p2.
• Teens: “What I’d Like The World to Read” p3-4.
• Relocation of the French National Centre for Children’s Literature - p5.
• Announcement: Sister Libraries project - p6.
• New literary prize: "Insula Europea" - p6.
• Minutes: SC Mid-year meeting, March 2009 - p7-9.
• Read and Reap: Harvests of Reading - p10-11.
• Give a Bath of Reading to the babies! - p12.
• Standing Committee Contacts - p13-14.
• Winner of the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award - p15.

BTW, this would be the last time I'm editing the newsletter. My four-year term with the Section is up. I'll be relinquishing the membership to another colleague. I'll save the reminiscing for another post :)

Do check out the newsletter.

June 2008 issue of SCL News

Latest issue of the Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section is out. The PDF file (1.9MB) can be downloaded, here.

I feel there are a few articles worth reading.

Two articles from Denmark, on the library service's future, and new competencies and staff roles.

An article about an English Children's library in Xiamen, People's Republic of China (the first-ever article featuring a library from the PRC, if I'm not mistaken).

Oh yeah, do read the one about the Teen Chat event between teens in Singapore and Germany.

Countries featured in this issue:

• DENMARK (p.3 - The library service’s future in Denmark)
• PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (p.4 - "... first English Children’s library in Mainland China").
• SINGAPORE (p.6 - Teen Online Chat: Singapore & Germany)
• NETHERLANDS (p.9 - "The Library of 100 Talents")
• UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (p.11 - Summer Reading Programme & Mascot)

Other content:

• The Chair Speaks
• Editor's Note
• New Competencies, Roles, and Staff for Children’s Libraries: Denmark
• Reading aloud in VMBO: Netherlands
• Website Reviews
  
• Highlights of Minutes: Mid-year meeting

SCL News, Dec 2007 issue: Newsletter of the IFLA Libraries for Children & Young Adults Section

Just sent this out to the CHILD-YA mailing list:

The Libraries for Children & Young Adults Section is pleased to present issue no. 67 - Dec 2007:

Download the 1.8MB PDF document, here.

Countries highlighted in this issue:
Australia, Malaysia, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Singapore, South Africa


Contents
* The Chair Speaks - p1 - p2
* Editor's Note - p2
* Early literacy programs in Australian libraries p3 - p4
* “Every Baby a Book” programme p-5
* Country Highlights: Japan - p6 - p7
* Country Highlights: UK - p8 - p9
* Country Highlights: France - p10 - p11
* Country Highlights: Singapore - p12 - p13
* Highlights of Pretoria Pre-Conference, South Africa - p14
* Call for papers - p15
* Alexandra Children’s Library, Johannesburg,South Africa - p16 - 17
* Words from incoming & outgoing SC members - p18
* SCL Standing Committee Members’Status - p19
* Contact the Section - p20

On behalf of the Standing Committee,
Thank you and best regards.

Ivan Chew
Information Coordinator,
Libraries for Children & Young Adults Section, IFLA

BTW the section started a wiki, as part of our revision of the Young Adults Guidelines.

On page 2 of the newsletter, I elaborated on how the Standing Committee arrived at the decision to start the wiki.

June 2007 issue - IFLA Libraries for Children & Young Adults Section Newsletter

This post is long overdue.

The June 2007 issue of SCL News was out about a month back. You can download the PDF copy (1.3MB) from the IFLANET Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section webpage.


Hmm... this would be the fourth time I've put the newsletter together. For the record, here's the third attempt, the second (I didn't blog about), and here's the first. I still remember the pain from the very first attempt. It's less painful now, but still lots of work. Now I know why people pay good money for good layout designers and printers.

The 73rd IFLA conference meets in Durban, South Africa this year. I'll have the privilege of attending the conference again, since I sit in one of the technical committee (i.e. the Standing Committee for the Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section).

This would be my third IFLA conference (previous one, here), and second time visiting South Africa. And... and (dare I say it?) first time winning the Best IFLA newsletter?

LOL.

Winning would be great, but I was really just trying to find a suitable "1st". I'm glad to be given the chance to put the newsletter together. In truth, the real prize is in receiving Thank You notes from my IFLA colleagues, and the occasional emails from readers of SCL News (yay, some people DO read the newsletter!)

As I wrote in the latest issue:

My two-year appointment as Information Coordinator would be up. My Section Chair, Ivanka, emailed me: “Would you like to continue as Information Coordinator for Section?”

Let’s see…

I have lines upon lines of emails yet unread in my mailbox. Nearer the newsletter publication deadline, I’m always worried there’s not enough articles for the newsletter. Then the articles come in and I find I’m spending way too much time fighting with the word processing software, struggling within the limits of my amateur design skills, trying to get the layout right. It doesn’t help when I’m both a procrastinator and a perfectionist. And when the newsletter is finally published, I wonder if anyone reads it.

But then I recall this recent email:
Congratulations on this wonderful newsletter… …As a former chair of the Section and a member for many years, I really enjoyed the information and how much more international you have become. I'm now retired from being on the faculty teaching in the children's services area… …Glad to see that a friend, Kathy East, is still on the Standing Committee. Good luck in all you very important endeavors, and I agree with the Information Coordinator that the most important aspect of your work is networking and sharing of the many success stories in our various countries. Problems and solutions are also helped by the many Guidelines that you contribute. Dr. Shirley Fitzgibbons.

So my reply to Ivanka was: “Yes, I’d be happy to continue as the Information Coordinator, if the SC members would have me.”

In my heart, I was saying, “You bet I want to continue!”

As always, we’d love to hear from you. See you soon in Durban, South Africa. ✾

P.S. And thank you, Dr. Fitzgibbons!

Oh, our Section has started a mailing list. You may wish to sign up at this page.

Dec 2006 issue - IFLA Libraries for Children & Young Adults Section Newsletter

The December 2006 issue (1.73MB PDF document) of the IFLA Libraries for Children & Young Adults Section newsletter is now available at IFLANET. Countries highlighted in this issue includes: Egypt, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, USA, Denmark, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

Contents

• The Chair Speaks - p1
• Editor's Note - p2
• Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Children's Library p3 - 5
• Campaign highlights what libraries offer children p-6
• Country Highlights: Japan - p7
• The happiest people in the world? The Danes seem to be! - p8
• Announcement: Nowon Digital PL is seeking a Sister Library - p8
• Report on our IFLA visit to Seocho District Children's Library - p9
• Engaging the Teens: The September Project at the Singapore Public Libraries - p10
• The National Library of Ukraine for Children - p11 - 13
• Country highlights: United Kingdom - p13 - 14
• Highlights of combined Minutes from SC Meetings, Seoul 2006 - p14 - 16
• IFLA/ IBBY/ IRA Memorandum of Understanding - p16 - 17
• Calls for papers: WLIC 2007 - p18 - 20
• SCL Standing Committee Members' Contacts - p21 - 22

Click here for the newsletter.

I'm the current Information Coordinator (hence, editor of the newsletter). Here's what I wrote for the Editor's Note (page 2):

Someone asked me, “What does your Section do?”

That was after my first ever IFLA conference in 2004, the same year I was inducted into this Section’s Standing Committee (SC). Admittedly, I wasn’t able to give comprehensive answer then. Looking at the Section’s webpage at IFLANET, one gets the impression that much of the work has to do with Guidelines and its translations.

But with almost a full year behind me, I now have a better sense of the work done by our SC. I’ve since learnt that our Section’s work is a lot more than that. I’m sure you’ll get an idea of the current and proposed projects from the Chair’s message (in this issue and past) and the minutes of meetings (even as highlights, they stretch to three pages this issue!).

Let’s take the conference sessions for one. The presentations, visits and related conference activities do not get organised by themselves. I’m stating the obvious, of course. But what’s not obvious would be the work done by the people responsible for putting the Section’s conference programmes and activities together. The SC members involved in organising them have a tremendous part to play (I’ve not been involved in organising one so far; kudos to my colleagues who have).

If someone were to pose to me that same question again, I’ll also add that for a group comprising of international members – living and working in different time-zones, all volunteers with our regular jobs, with no common first language -- producing something as seemingly (and arguably) mundane as a guideline is no simple feat. And the SC does more than that.

In my humble opinion, perhaps the most important role our Section can play is to facilitate dialogue and the exchange of ideas. I hope SCL News can extend that sort of exchange a little further.

Oh, by the way, I should humbly mention that SCL News was awarded Runner-Up for Best IFLA Newsletter 2006 -- we must be doing something right. SCL News is a group effort. There would be no SCL News without the articles from SC members and contributors.

As always, we’d love to hear from you. ✾

Ivan Chew
Information Coordinator, IFLA Section: CHILD
Singapore

The SCL News is published twice a year, in June and December. Issues are available primarily via IFLANET. Requests for materials via normal mail would be entertained on a case-by-case basis.

We welcome suggestions for stories and articles that promote international cooperation, as well as exchange of ideas and experience, in the fields of library services to children and young adults.

Please contact the Section’s Chair and/ or Information Coordinator for enquiries (see the SCL Standing Committee Members’ Contacts pages).

December 2005 issue of SCL News finally out

Finally! The newsletter for IFLA Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section (of which I'm the editor) is out on the IFLA page (click here to access the PDF file -- in low resolution; 874KB).

Took me a damn long time to get it published and printed. I learnt several new things in the process:

• Open Office is a pretty good alternative to MSOffice (see this previous post)
• Now I know why people pay good money to outsource the page design & layout
• Editing is hard work ('enuff said)
• Now I understand why publications work with very tight schedules -- seems that there's always something to be corrected up to the last minute the copy is due for printing
• Backup your files frequently. And always assume that the computer you're working on will crash and die on you (mine did!) so backup on portable drives
• "Saddle-stitch" means staples in the middle, booklet style
• When planning the number of pages for A4 double-sided pages, plan in this sequence: Pages 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 etc (basically it's one A3 page stapled in the middle)

The technicalities of printing and desktop publishing aside, I've also learnt what's happening in other countries wrt library services for Children and Young People. There are good ideas on pages 9 to 15 (Country Highlights from UK, France, Germany, Japan, USA, Singapore, Republic of Korea).

Some favourites of mine: "Bookstart" & "Sharing at Bedtime" programmes from UK, "Reading Ladder for Children" project from Germany, "Reading as Corrective Community Service" from USA, "Beautiful Granny project" from South Korea, the Asian Children's Festival and September 11 "Live Chat" event from Singapore.

Printed copies of the newsletter is made available to IFLA members. If you wish for the higher resolution PDF file, I'd be happy to share it with you. Drop me a comment or email.

Tag: IFLA

Adapting to change: Putting together the SCL News

I've been busy (both on and off work) putting together the Dec 2005 issue of the IFLA Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section newsletter, or SCL News for short. It's part of the Information Coordinator's duty.

My first time putting together a newsletter. It's a one-person operation with the editing, design and layout. Am learning lots about desktop publishing in a hurry. The biggest problem has been the desktop publishing software, or the lack of a dedicated one. It's not for lack of planning, but some things I guess I could only learn it the hard way.

Here's what happened:

After asking some colleagues familiar with desktop publishing, I settled with using MS Office, because (1) I was only familiar with MS Office, (2) buying a dedicated desktop publishing software was out of the question, and (3) it was what was available on hand.

MS Office proved more than adequate for the 20-page newsletter, once I discovered about customising templates (also learnt where to download free MS Office clip art). Then another problem appeared.

I needed to convert the finished MS Word document to a PDF format. I only had OpenOffice on hand (export the MS Word file as PDF) which worked fine in my initial test with a small MS Word file. But when I exported the 12MB MS Word document, the alignment in the converted file was haywire.

At that stage, I did a reality-check:

• IFLA will not take my 12MB MS Word file to be uploaded on IFLAnet
• I had to convert it to PDF but exported file isn't acceptable
• Couldn't try other freeware PDF converters 'cos I'm using office computers and there are installation restrictions
• No one else can do this for me (even if I wanted to pay somebody, there wasn't time)
• Basically the only logical choice is to start over using OpenOffice
• But I've never used before (given my relative familiarity with MS Word, it already took me days to put together everything together)

Finally, after 5 minutes of denial, I took the only logical choice and started to learn OpenOffice. It's funny how everything gets focused once a decision has been made.

After a 4-hour self-discovery trial-and-error crash course in OpenOffice, I mastered enough to be confident that I could pull it off. Another saving grace was that much of the thinking behind the design and layout had been done with the previous document.

As of this blog post, I only finished page 4 of the 20-page newsletter. But at least there's an end in mind, a light at the end of the tunnel. What's needed is some slick time management to pull it off.

Plus, it's all a blessing in disguise. Rather than think of having wasted my time with the first attempt, I have now learnt much more about MS Word and OpenOffice compared to when I first started with the newsletter.

That already counts for something.