First Voices - Gunhild Litwin

A major interest for me at the Wellington Forum was an initiative entitled 'First Voices'. I intend to launch this project at Whangarei Libraries.

Here's what has to be done.
1. Find all local children whose first language isn't English (through schools and library).
2. Have a one day photo shoot and display children's photos along with the name of the language they speak.
3. Find mentors for each language (preferably not a parent of the child).
4. Select a topic. For example, 'My story as a new immigrant'.
5. Organise a day. Group kids according to the language they speak. Each group is assigned an adult mentor.Kids write a rough draft of their story in their own language helped where necessary by their mentor.
6. Kids take away their story and do a NEAT copy in their own language.
7. Each child can illustrate their own story if they want.
8. Publish stories in book form.
9. Each child gets a copy.
10. Hold copies in library for other children and adults to access.

Spending my award

Some of you may be aware that I'm a manic bird-watcher. My binoculars died last week. How timely to receive the $100 award from the council. The money has now been well spent toward a new pair. I'm off now to view the exotic wildlife that abounds in Wellington Botanical Gardens. More later...

National Forum on Public Libraries and Diversity in Welling

Here I am in 'not so windy' Wellington, the weather has been sunny and warm since I arrived. The Forum was brilliant on lots of levels. The speakers Hajar Ali, Samson Sahele, Abubaka Mohammed and Shamim Homayun, who spoke about their book, 'Earthless Trees' shocked the senses with snippets of their life stories. If you want to know more buy their book and have an awesome read.

After that Gunhild Litwin, spoke of her initiative, 'First Voices'. This is a must for me to run at Whangarei. I'll give it a post of its own when I return.

The forum was packed with exciting information and I had much to contribute. My 'Bilingual Funtimes' project attracted much interest. I could probably have been a speaker on this topic. I've made lots of contacts with various people.

Look out for more posts on these topics.

Book reviews that may interest you!

YouTube - I'm addicted

I have been a YouTube addict for some time now. Personally I think it's the best thing since... the wheel. Links to YouTube can be educational, informative as well as entertaining. I see many possibilities for links to Youtube in the library. Check out my YouTube posting above.

The Voca People - Brilliant

Experience the real Eddie Izzard - Death Star Canteen

Zoho Writer - templates

Zoho Writer is worth visit if only to view its templates. There is one for almost everything imaginable. These templates would be very useful both in work and private life. Zoho Writer is a free service, user friendly and fast to navigate through. Templates are just a minute part of what Zoho Writer has to offer. I recommend anyone check it out and you will undoubtedly find something useful. 

Wiki - Library writers ink

About a year ago I began a 'protected wiki' for young writers. The idea was that young library members, if invited by me, could share writing in order to get feedback and learn skills from reading the work of others. This didn't take off at the time but since then I ran the 'Juicy Writing' workshop during which I encouraged kids to publish their work on the wiki. So far membership and postings are growing slowly and I'm encouraging more use of this facility. If you'd like to make a wiki of your own  go to

 http://www.wikispaces.com/ or click on the link on the left side of this page.

If you'd like to be invited to join the 'library writers ink' wiki leave your 

email address as a comment on this posting.

Eddie Izzard- Death Star Canteen - A sense of humor is vital for children's librarians

Monty Python - burglar or encyclopaedia salesman?

Facebook

I think it was very unfair that Social Networking was slotted into the middle of the Web 2.0 tutorial :) I have been totally absorbed with setting up a Facebook account to the detriment of completing the tutorial. In the initial stages I found Facebook was overwhelming with friends avalanching out of the dim dark past as well as the present. Seriously... I loved every moment of reunion with friends through Facebook. This site is extremely user friendly. I am resigned to addiction. In my opinion, social networking with Facebook gets top marks ( I can't speak for other networking sites).

Comment on the Web 2.0 Awards site

I really liked the layout of the  Web 2.o Awards site accessed by the following URL  http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0 . It was great to be able to search by categories. The award winners were very clearly marked. The chart was helpful as it gave an overview. I found the site very easy to browse. You will see I have linked to three sites I found of interest. Go to this site if you'd like to Nominate a winner for 2009.