From: "PUBYAC: PUBlic librarians serving Young Adults & Children" <pubyac@prairienet.org>

To: "PUBYAC: PUBlic librarians serving Young Adults & Children" <pubyac@prairienet.org>

Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 01:14:00 CDT

Subject: PUBYAC digest 173

PUBYAC Digest 173

Topics covered in this issue include:

1) Re: Funniest Reference Question

by "Tammy Daubner" <tlvdinoh@hotmail.com>

2) stumper

by Judy Stewart <stewartj@clpgh.org>

3) Filtering Amendment Pending in Senate

by "Don Wood" <dwood@ala.org>

4) Filtering Amendment Pending in Senate

by "Don Wood" <dwood@ala.org>

5) Re: Funniest reference question/answer

by "Fredda Williams" <freddawilliams@hotmail.com>

6) RE: Challenge to Matilda who told such dreadful lies

by Susan Lempke <slempke@nileslibrary.org>

7) ALA

by Sara Jane Boyers <sjzb@earthlink.net>

8) funniest reference question

by Amy Stultz <AStultz@ci.leesburg.fl.us>

9) Funniest Reference Question Request

by Heather Norquist <NORQUISTH@santacruzpl.org>

10) Re: summer reading and a stumper

by "Elizabeth Buono" <ebuono73@hotmail.com>

11) Re: summer reading

by HFL_LISA@stls.org

12) stair gate

by "Kristin Hawksworth" <khawksworth@roselle.lib.il.us>

13) RE: Harry Potter face painting

by Andrea Johnson <ajohnson@cooklib.org>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Tammy Daubner" <tlvdinoh@hotmail.com>

To: pubyac@prairienet.org

Subject: Re: Funniest Reference Question

Mime-Version: 1.0

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Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 14:17:38 CDT

An adult male once asked for the Zip Code for Pennsylvania. When I asked

which city in PA, he seemed insulted and said "the whole state!". Sigh...

Another time a woman came in for her aging father. He had asked for the book

"Prince Matchabelli". After a few frustrating minutes searching the

catalog, I asked her if she knew anything about the plot, or the author. She

said "It's kind of about a long-ago prince taking over the government."

Finally the light bulb came on - she wanted The Prince, by Machiavelli. I

felt silly for not having seen that one sooner!

Tammy Dauber

YA Librarian/ Reference

________________________________________________________________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

------------------------------

From: Judy Stewart <stewartj@clpgh.org>

To: pubyac@prairienet.org

Subject: stumper

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 15:24:27 CDT

Probably many of you know this but my mind drew a blank - what is the book

about Professor Herman who has wonderful adventures when he sets out to cross

the Pacific in a balloon. All I can think of is Phileas Fogg.

Please reply to: stewartj@clpgh.org

TIA

Judy Stewart

Community LIbrary of Allegheny Valley

------------------------------

From: "Don Wood" <dwood@ala.org>

Subject: Filtering Amendment Pending in Senate

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Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 16:27:16 CDT

ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline

Volume 9, Number 56

June 23, 2000

In this issue:

Filtering Amendment Pending in Senate

Urgent Action Needed before Monday afternoon, June 26:

Library supporters should call their Senators and urge them to

oppose McCain's filtering amendment (No. 3610) to the Labor-HHS-

Education appropriations bill (H.R. 4577) before Monday afternoon,

June 26.

Background:

Late on Thursday, June 22, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced as

an amendment to the Labor, Health & Human Service and Education

appropriations bill (H.R. 4577) a provision very similar to his

freestanding filtering bill (S. 97). His amendment, which also

goes by the name Children's Internet Protection Act, would require

libraries receiving E-rate discounts to install on all computers a

technology that blocks or filters child pornography, obscenity and

"any other material that the library determines to be

inappropriate for minors." It also requires libraries and schools

to certify to the Federal Communications Commission that they are

enforcing a policy that ensures the use of such technology when a

child uses the computer. There are very similar provisions for

schools receiving E-rate discounts.

The Senate has adjourned for the weekend, but will be back in

session on Monday. The Labor-HHS-Education bill is likely to be

taken up again around 3:00 p.m. It is unclear in what order

amendments will be taken.

Many of the amendments that are pending on this bill will face a

tough battle to even be considered because they may not be

considered germane or relevant to this spending measure.

Unfortunately, because the House has already included a filtering

amendment in the bill, McCain's amendment is automatically

considered germane and will require only a simple majority to be

included in the bill.

ALA is seeking an alternative measure that would protect the First

Amendment rights of library patrons and the decision-making

ability of local libraries. As soon as we are able to supply

library supporters with details and an amendment number so they

may ask for support, an additional ALAWON will be posted.

Talking Points:

The following are ideas to use in talking with Senate offices

about objections to the McCain amendment. Please also share

information about how your local library has confronted and

handled the issue of child safety on the Internet.

* The amendment tramples on the local decision making

responsibilities and capabilities of local libraries and library

boards.

* It does not allow for any other means (including family

education and future technological advances) to ensure that

children have safe, positive experiences on the Internet.

* Filters are not able to make true decisions at all, much less

decisions based on community standards which are the basis for

obscenity definitions.

* McCain's amendment will have the most profound effect on those

libraries who need E-rate discounts the most. Low-income, poverty

stricken libraries will not have the resources to implement

filtering and comply with the certification requirement.

* Filtering provides a false since of security. No filter is able

to block all materials that all communities may deem inappropriate

for minors.

******

ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the

American Library Association Washington Office. All materials

subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be

reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with

appropriate credits.

To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo

[your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to

http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send

the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON

archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon.

ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403,

Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478

toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web

site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily

Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley,

Director; Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and

Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick

Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell and Saundra

Shirley.

------------------------------

From: "Don Wood" <dwood@ala.org>

Subject: Filtering Amendment Pending in Senate

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Content-Disposition: inline

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 17:23:26 CDT

ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline

Volume 9, Number 56

June 23, 2000

In this issue:

Filtering Amendment Pending in Senate

Urgent Action Needed before Monday afternoon, June 26:

Library supporters should call their Senators and urge them to

oppose McCain's filtering amendment (No. 3610) to the Labor-HHS-

Education appropriations bill (H.R. 4577) before Monday afternoon,

June 26.

Background:

Late on Thursday, June 22, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced as

an amendment to the Labor, Health & Human Service and Education

appropriations bill (H.R. 4577) a provision very similar to his

freestanding filtering bill (S. 97). His amendment, which also

goes by the name Children's Internet Protection Act, would require

libraries receiving E-rate discounts to install on all computers a

technology that blocks or filters child pornography, obscenity and

"any other material that the library determines to be

inappropriate for minors." It also requires libraries and schools

to certify to the Federal Communications Commission that they are

enforcing a policy that ensures the use of such technology when a

child uses the computer. There are very similar provisions for

schools receiving E-rate discounts.

The Senate has adjourned for the weekend, but will be back in

session on Monday. The Labor-HHS-Education bill is likely to be

taken up again around 3:00 p.m. It is unclear in what order

amendments will be taken.

Many of the amendments that are pending on this bill will face a

tough battle to even be considered because they may not be

considered germane or relevant to this spending measure.

Unfortunately, because the House has already included a filtering

amendment in the bill, McCain's amendment is automatically

considered germane and will require only a simple majority to be

included in the bill.

ALA is seeking an alternative measure that would protect the First

Amendment rights of library patrons and the decision-making

ability of local libraries. As soon as we are able to supply

library supporters with details and an amendment number so they

may ask for support, an additional ALAWON will be posted.

Talking Points:

The following are ideas to use in talking with Senate offices

about objections to the McCain amendment. Please also share

information about how your local library has confronted and

handled the issue of child safety on the Internet.

* The amendment tramples on the local decision making

responsibilities and capabilities of local libraries and library

boards.

* It does not allow for any other means (including family

education and future technological advances) to ensure that

children have safe, positive experiences on the Internet.

* Filters are not able to make true decisions at all, much less

decisions based on community standards which are the basis for

obscenity definitions.

* McCain's amendment will have the most profound effect on those

libraries who need E-rate discounts the most. Low-income, poverty

stricken libraries will not have the resources to implement

filtering and comply with the certification requirement.

* Filtering provides a false since of security. No filter is able

to block all materials that all communities may deem inappropriate

for minors.

******

ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the

American Library Association Washington Office. All materials

subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be

reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with

appropriate credits.

To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo

[your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to

http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send

the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON

archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon.

ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403,

Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478

toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web

site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily

Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley,

Director; Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and

Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick

Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell and Saundra

Shirley.

------------------------------

From: "Fredda Williams" <freddawilliams@hotmail.com>

To: pubyac@prairienet.org

Subject: Re: Funniest reference question/answer

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 18:10:47 CDT

This reminds me of something that happened to me a few years ago as I

approached my 40th birthday. A little girl was checking out "Pollyanna" and

I mentioned that I had read the book when I was a girl. She looked at the

book in awe and said, "You mean it's THAT OLD?"

Fredda

>A few weeks ago, a girl came in and asked me "When was the war of Bunker

>Hill?". She explained that when asked about her birthday, her teacher said

>that she was born on the same day as Bunker Hill. I knew that the Battle

>of

>Bunker Hill took place during the Revolutionary War, so I grabbed the

>encyclopedia and looked it up. I told her, "The Battle of Bunker Hill was

>on June 17, 1775". The girl replies, in all seriousness, "My God, my

>teacher's really old!" :0)

Fredda Williams

Children's Services Manager

Knox County Public Library System

freddawilliams@hotmail.com

________________________________________________________________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

------------------------------

From: Susan Lempke <slempke@nileslibrary.org>

To: "'pubyac@prairienet.org'" <pubyac@prairienet.org>

Subject: RE: Challenge to Matilda who told such dreadful lies

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain;

charset="iso-8859-1"

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 18:57:32 CDT

You will probably want to draw the comparison to The Little Boy Who Cried

Wolf, since they are so much the same but Matilda is much less well known.

I know it very well, since it's a long family tradition to read it aloud

melodramatically at our family cabin out of an old book of story poems.

Good luck!

--Susan Dove Lempke <slempke@nileslibrary.org>

-----Original Message-----

From: Tanya DiMaggio [mailto:tanya@mail.sttammany.lib.la.us]

Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 7:36 PM

To: PUBYAC@prairienet.org

Subject: Challenge to Matilda who told such dreadful lies

We've had a patron challenge the 1992 Knopf reprint of Hilaire Belloc's

Matilda who told such dreadful lies. Has anyone had to defend the book? I

would very much appreciate anyone's experience. We are of course gathering

reviews. Our committee meets July 13. The patron's concern is that the

book is "too violent". This is the first time I've sat on a challenged

book committee. Please respond to me directly. Thank you for your

assistance. Tanya

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tanya DiMaggio

Children's Librarian

Slidell Branch

St. Tammany Parish Library

555 Robert Blvd.

Slidell,LA 70458-1600

504-646-6470 x17

504-645-3553 fax

tanya@mail.sttammany.lib.la.us

------------------------------

From: Sara Jane Boyers <sjzb@earthlink.net>

To: PUBYAC@prairienet.org

Subject: ALA

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 19:45:05 CDT

Hi - I'm resubscribing to PUBYAC for a moment as I have a favor/question to

ask of all of you. ALA is coming right up and I'm speaking as follows:

"SAVE THE DATE! SAVE THE TIME!! NOTE THE PLACE!!!

On Monday, July 10, 1:00-4:00 p.m., during the American Library Association

Annual Conference in Chicago, the AASL/ALSC/YALSA Joint Youth Legislative

Committee will present GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Youth Library Advocates - An

Untapped Resource. The program will deal with techniques for coaching

students and youth library users to become positive advocates for the

improvement of library services in their school and public libraries. The

program will be held at McCormick Place (convention center) in Room E272b

- Lakeside Center, Level 2.

Lou Ann Jacobs, Legislative Advocate for the Illinois School Library Media

Association will discuss successes in Illinois in working with teachers'

unions, public librarians, and the legislature on preventing filtering on

school library computers.

Author Sara Jane Boyers, whose new book, Teen Power Politics - Make

Yourself Heard (Millbrook, 2000) an issue-oriented book which deals with

teens becoming involved in community and political activism will discuss

activating teens through the issues that concern them and how libraries can

make themselves invaluable to this large and powerful population and turn

them into activists for their own school and public libraries.

Sandy Schuckett, Chair, AASL Legislation Committee will present tips that

librarians can share with students and Teen Advisory Council members as

they mentor them in becoming strong advocates for their school and public

libraries. This will include basic "how-to's" - the 'nuts-and-bolts' of

writing letters, visiting legislators, participating in legislative days,

etc.

Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions and share their

successes."

I have my speech pretty well outlined and a few examples but... I would

love any experiences any of you have had with your Teen Advisory Boards or

activism issues where you have aided your teen clientele (through guidance

and/or reference advice) identify and work through either one of their

issues/activism projects (everything from skateboards to juvenile justice),

provided space (and some guidance) as they discuss issues concering them

and/or have used that clientele to advocate for library issues from

internet censorship, to library hours to book purchases, new librarians or

other useful and necessary funding. I've heard some stories of teens out

with signs supporting a new library bill, speaking at city Hall etc,. but I

would love some details and stories to use at ALA!

And, if any of you are in the Chicago area and have any teens and yourself

with a story available, perhaps we could incorporate you, the teens and the

story into the program!

Thanks so much. I look forward to hearing from some of you!

Sara Jane Boyers

sjzb@earthlink.net

"Teen Power Politics: Make Yourself Heard"

A Millbrook Press/Twenty-First Century Book, Summer 2000

"Life Doesn't Frighten Me" Stewart, Tabori & Chang

A Publisher's Weekly "Best Book" of the Year, NYPL "Best Books for

Teens", ALA "Book for Reluctant Readers", AIGA "50 Best Designed

Books"

"O Beautiful For Spacious Skies" Chronicle Books

------------------------------

From: Amy Stultz <AStultz@ci.leesburg.fl.us>

To: pubyac@prairienet.org

Subject: funniest reference question

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Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 20:31:33 CDT

When I was a GA at library school I used to help quite a few underclassmen

from the education department. One day a senior barged into the library

quite frantic and begging for help. She was being forced to take a

humanities class with a bunch of freshman (something about core

requirements) and now "they" were making her do a research paper. Her

topic? She needed everything about the Homeric Wars. After a 20 minute

reference interview I discovered that she wanted information about Apollo's

role in the Trojan War. Then I wished her luck.

Amy Stultz, Children's Librarian

Leesburg Public Library

AStultz@ci.leesburg.fl.us <mailto:AStultz@ci.leesburg.fl.us>

------------------------------

From: Heather Norquist <NORQUISTH@santacruzpl.org>

To: "'pubyac@prairienet.org'" <pubyac@prairienet.org>

Subject: Funniest Reference Question Request

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain;

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Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 21:19:20 CDT

This just happened yesterday. A four-year old boy came to the desk with his

mom and asked if we had "The Wonderful Time book."

This title didn't ring a bell, so I asked him what it was about, thinking

maybe it was a book on how to tell time. He just kept on saying "The

Wonderful Time Book". Finally my inner voice (mother of a former 4 year old

boy) took over and I asked if it was about dinosaurs, if it was a video.

Sure enough, what the boy was looking for was The Land Before Time video!

Heather Norquist

Youth Services Librarian

Santa Cruz Public Libraries

------------------------------

From: "Elizabeth Buono" <ebuono73@hotmail.com>

To: pubyac@prairienet.org

Subject: Re: summer reading and a stumper

Mime-Version: 1.0

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Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 22:06:11 CDT

Hi Ruth--

We have a teen summer reading program, in addition to our children's

program. They have similar themes, but different prizes and a separate

party at the end of the summer. It is open to anyone entering middle

school, and high school, so that means here, 6th grade and up. This year

our theme is "Reading--the Pastime of Champions." It goes along with the

overall sports theme we used for the younger kids' program--"Reading Makes

Champions." We've had a pretty good registration so far (one week), now we

just have to see the rate of finishers.

Elizabeth Buono

Children's Librarian

The Ferguson Library

1 Public Library Plaza

Stamford, CT 06904

<ebuono73@hotmail.com>

________________________________________________________________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

------------------------------

From: HFL_LISA@stls.org

To: pubyac@prairienet.org

Subject: Re: summer reading

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 22:53:11 CDT

The note from the Niagra Falls Library said..."Once registered and paid-

an initial $2.00 charge...." Do you actually charge children to join

the SRC? I couldn't imagine asking for money-I would be afraid of

embarrassing a family who does not have it etc. Do you charge per

child or family...how does it work? In many larger areas or rural

areas we serve a poplulation that really would not have $2 for something

like SRC-it would be a hardship. Do you put the $ back into the SRC?

------------------------------

From: "Kristin Hawksworth" <khawksworth@roselle.lib.il.us>

To: <pubyac@prairienet.org>

Subject: stair gate

MIME-Version: 1.0

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charset="iso-8859-1"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 23:39:33 CDT

We recently received a request in our suggestion box for us to install a

gate at the top of our stairs. (Our department is located on the second

floor.) The stairs are not central to the department, if that makes sense,

meaning that a child would have to wander significantly away from mom to

take a tumble. (Yes, I know that kids are really fast...) My question is,

how would you/how do you deal with stairs in your children's department?

Would a gate be useful/safer? I'm thinking it would be against fire code,

or may cause more falls than it prevents. Is there an alternative that

anyone is using for parents who want to confine an infant or toddler while

they are browsing? Thanks for your input.

Kristin Hawksworth

Head of Youth Services

Roselle Public Library

Roselle, IL

------------------------------

From: Andrea Johnson <ajohnson@cooklib.org>

To: "'pubyac@prairienet.org'" <pubyac@prairienet.org>

Subject: RE: Harry Potter face painting

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain

Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 00:26:45 CDT

You could do like we did and paint a lightning-bolt shaped scar.

Andrea Johnson ajohnson@cooklib.org

Children's Librarian * Cook Memorial Library * 413 N. Milwaukee *

Libertyville, IL 60048

------------------------------

End of PUBYAC Digest 173

************************