The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded Dr. Sandra Hughes-Hassell a $99,074 National Leadership grant to plan a summit addressing literacy in young African-American males. The summit, to be hosted jointly by the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) and the School of Library and Information Science at North Carolina Central University, will be titled "Building a Bridge to Literacy for African-American Male Youth: A Call to Action for the Library Community."

According to the IMLS Web site, "The summit will unite national stakeholders, including members of the library and education community, researchers, educational policy makers, national organizations focused on the needs of African-American youth, publishers and young black males, to focus on the role of school and public libraries in closing the literacy achievement gap of African-American male youth."

The two and a half-day summit will focus on three areas related to the central theme: research pertaining to the development and needs of literacy in African-American male youth, what programs and services currently support their literacy needs and what gaps need to be filled, and the kind of resources that are needed to enable school and public libraries to address literacy development and needs.

Interactivity and expanded dialogue will characterize the output of the summit. In addition to preparing a white paper, summit organizers will create a Web site with information created during the summit and a prominent blog feature, allowing visitors to participate in the conversation. The project team will also lead a national webinar based on the summit's findings.

"The summit will provide a forum for a diverse group of stakeholders from across the country to explore the complex processes and issues involved in closing the achievement gap for African American male youth," said Dr. Sandra Hughes Hassell, SILS professor. "Including the voices of Black youth themselves will be critical to our conversation, so a portion of the funding will be used to bring not only researchers and practitioners who have partnered with Black male youth in their research and programming efforts, but to also invite a group of teens from local schools to participate. We believe their experiences will better inform our efforts."

More details about the summit will be shared as they become available.

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Wanda Monroe
Director of Communications
School of Information and Library Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
100 Manning Hall, CB 3360
Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3360
Phone: 919-843-8337
Web: sils.unc.edu
Follow us on Twitter at: UNC SILS

Gina Webster, media specialist at Walkertown Middle School, posted this on the NCSLMA listserv back in November, but it is very timely and worth revisiting, considering the impending budget cuts.

I've been feeling a sense of urgency and a call to action lately. I'm generally focused more on solutions than problems, so I thought I'd share a few ideas that may be worth considering as we consider our emerging and evolving place in education.

1. Develop a student focus group to get feedback & fresh ideas to connect w/ what they need/want from their library.

2. Create a space on the library/media center's website that showcases collaborative work with teachers & students.

3. Find at least 5 other School Librarians who have a positive attitude about growth/change.


4. Develop an online request system to solicit ideas for future purchases.


5. Weed.


6. Invite someone from the Board of Education to participate in a lesson, program, or special event.


7. Realize that books may change in format and such but READING isn't going anywhere.
Focus on reading and literacy and you won't go wrong.


8. Try a new techy tool and shamelessly show it off to anyone who'll listen.


9. Use a social network to build a professional support group, think tank, sounding board, and cheering section for yourself.


10. Find a reason to make parent phone calls every week. Solicit volunteers, reinforce student accomplishments/learning, whatever you can do to remind parents of your role in their child's education.



Lots of library love to you all,
Gina

Posted by Ms. Dee at 7:41 PM