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Summer vacation is just around the corner and teachers and librarians are freaking out. It has nothing to do with lost books or late report cards. It has everything to do with reading. After spending months working to get students into the habit of reading, myself and many of my colleagues are concerned that much of that hard work (on both sides) will be undone by two months of (much needed) summer distractions. To help students keep reading in the summer, I've been showcasing several websites with my K-6 students to encourage to keep those reading skills sharp. Below is a list of five of the best websites to help kids keep up their reading this summer.

Good to keep track of when someone asks what you want for a gift!

Advocacy: How can you support your school library? Make sure your school has a state-certified school librarian. Some schools have replaced librarians with aides to keep the school library doors open, diminishing the level and quality of instruction and projects afforded to students. Make sure to be involved in the budget process of the school. Ensure that school board members and school administrators know that school libraries and school librarians are a critical part of the school ecosytem.

The Battle Commander and the Commentator read furiously throughout 2011, reread, looked at what others were admiring, read more, argued, reread, agreed, disagreed, read some more, and by early December (in order to give time for our SLJ man-behind-the-curtain to begin recruiting judges) came up with our contenders. Then we had to keep it a secret from all of you for weeks and weeks!  So here we are mighty chuffed (using last year's winner's lovely term) at last to be announcing this year's list. (The brackets can be viewed here with a downloadable version available here.)

Wonderful article on libraries! GO Nancy Sullivan!

This is from the website's About page: "The world is now more social. We share, we like, we tweet, retweet, link and generally exchange information on the social web. But how do you keep track of the things you like? Trunk.ly takes care of that for you. By connecting into your social networks, Trunk.ly monitors and collects the links that you find interesting across the social web. More importantly, it indexes the web pages these links point to and builds a personal search engine, so you never have to tag or describe a link again, you just search and Trunk.ly will find it again for you."

What this tool can do for you: Help you better understand how to determine the "fairness" of a use under the U.S. Copyright Code.

I just used this to determine if I was violating Fair Use with the book trailer videos I'm posting onto Destiny. My "conclusion" showed that I was within Fair Use guidelines. I have printed the document and will keep it - hopefully I won't ever need it! Although not legally binding, this site is a very helpful tool in providing clear criteria to the Fair Use decision.