We are in the hotel room, resting up after a day of meetings and exhibit hall hopping. I’d like to share some of the information we received at the AASL Affiliate Assembly today – much of which will be of interest to you. I will give you the highlights and Amanda LeBlanc, President – Elect, will be writing in a bit more detail in another post.
*We learned about a great project through Verizon called Thinkfinity. Basically, it is what used to to be Marco Polo. Check it out!
*Stephanie Vance, the Advocacy Guru, gave a wonderful presentation about advocacy to legislators. I’ve been to many advocacy sessions and I have to say this one was one of the best.
*Deb Logan talked to us about a couple of new toolkits AASL and ALA are rolling out about advocacy. These are for you to use at the local level.
*Save the date for a Virtual Library Literacy Summitt on April 7, 1pm – 4pm. Details at www.buildliteracy.org
*AASL National Conference in Charlotte, November 5-8. Registration is open, however, if you can’t afford to attend this conference, note that Doug Johnson is attending AASL National Conference AND our own SCASL Conference in March!
*AASL has launched Learning 4 Life, which was created to increase awareness and understanding of the learning standards and to creat ea committed group of stakeholders with a shared voice. www.ala.org/aasl/learning4life
*There has been lots of talk about CPSIA . Here is what is suggested you do to help:
Please call the Acting Commissioner, Nancy Nord, at (301) 504-7901. When you call this number, wait for the automated directory to give you directions to reach Nancy Nord’s office. Explain to the Commission that it is simply impossible for libraries to remove all children’s books from the shelves and/or ban children under 12 from the library and still provide the level of service that is needed.
As always, thank you for all that you do. The only way we will be successful in ensuring that children will have access to safe books is with a strong grassroots effort. Your comments to the CPSC need to be submitted as soon as possible, so please tell all your friends and family – we need as many people as possible to communicate that this oversight could have lasting ramifications on our children and our communities.
- The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 has been interpreted to include books as a product that must be tested for lead. While it is understandable that the CPSC must protect children from toxic materials, publishers have already tested the book components and found that the lead levels are lower than the regulations require three years from now. Additionally, all book recalls in the last two decades have been because of toys attached to the books that posed a choking hazard, not the books themselves.
- Making these testing regulations retroactive would require both school and public libraries to take drastic steps to come into compliance. They either would have to ban children from their libraries or pull every book intended for children under the age of 12 from their bookshelves at the time children are fostering a lifelong love of learning and reading.
- In order to allow children and families to continue accessing critical library materials, please either exempt books from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, accept the component tests that have already been done, or exempt all books currently in school and public libraries. This will ensure that our children continue to have access to safe and educational library materials.
Tomorrow is the Youth Media Awards announcements. I got to see these live last year and it was such an exciting experience, I am really looking forward to it. I will post an email to the listserv with the list of winners. Be on the lookout for the announcement of the 2009-2010 South Carolina Book Award Nominees tomorrow as well!
Valerie Byrd Fort,
SCASL President
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