Tales from a Loud Librarian

I am very proud that this year's president of Bookmarked (the high school book group), Destiny Burnett, is both a big reader and big writer. This summer she applied to be a guest teen blogger on the YALSA blog, The Hub , during Teen Read Week in October. We knew a while ago that she was selected as one of the bloggers, but just a few days ago ALA made it official. Open here to read all about it . I also want to share Destiny's book review blog . She doesn't post on a regular basis, but I find her book reviews extremely well thought out and insightful.

For Teacher Appreciation Week in May, our principal gave all the teachers at PFTSTA an iPad Mini. Very cool huh? I thought so. On Saturday, I head to San Antonio for ISTE. This will be my first conference with the Mini. I think that it is very freeing not to tote around a laptop, especially through the airport. Also, I have felt like a dinosaur with my bulky laptop and everyone else with an iPad in their hands. I would like to blog from the conference. I know that technology does not always cooperate, so I thought that I needed to try it out before leaving town. I think that it is working, though my fingers are getting tired typing on the mini keyboard. 

I have been writing forever, but I wasn't  a very good writer in high school and struggled to put every word on the page. To look back on it now, I never would have dreamed that some day I would be posting text on a blog for the world to see because I use to be so self-conscious about every word that I wrote.  One of the members of Bookmarked, the high school library book group, is an amazing writer. I am in awe of how well she organizes her thoughts and how beautifully she puts her words together. I sure hope that she can use this to her advantage when she selects a career. She recently submitted a blog post to The Hub , sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of ALA. Click here to open and read her post on school vs. recreational reading . 

open here to read The Hub A couple of months ago, one of the members of Bookmarked, the high school book group, asked me if there were some places besides SLJ Teen where she could submit book reviews. I thought about it and decided to contact the manager of The Hub . The Hub is one of YALSA's blogs and the focus of this blog is young adult literature. There are a number of librarians who blog regularly for The Hub , and I thought Kayla's writing would be a great addition. Gretchen Kolderup , the manager, agreed when she read a sample. Today Kayla's first post was published. Click here to read what Kayla had to say .

I have been blogging for awhile. I have had four separate and very different kinds of blogs. There was a particular impetus for creating each one of them. However, each time I had a purpose and goal in mind. The blogs evolved over time, especially this one, but I always knew the kind of message that  I wanted to impart.  I began blogging in 2005 when I returned to New Orleans after being in exile for 6 weeks due to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Our friend, Christian Crumlish  (aka mediajunkie ), had recently started a web magazine and encouraged us to blog about our experiences. Blogging was still new. My husband and I felt that we had a lot to say. Everyone returning home from their exile had a distinctive experience, and the world was watching.  We were lucky because our house was located in the sliver by the river, so we experienced no flooding. There was some minimal exterior damage to our home, and the gutters had to be replaced. Our home was...