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The Book Review has occasionally in the past, asked young authors about their biggest influences. For their 125th anniversary, they put the question to a new generation. A simple challenge was put to a group of writers under 40: Name the writer or writers who have most influenced your work and explain how. In the past, many of the US-based "authors contacted were just beginning their careers and they later became some of the most widely read and respected artists of their generation." As part of their 125th-anniversary celebration, the same question to writers of today. They are: Megha Majumdar, Tommy Orange, Alyssa Cole, Emma Cline, Yaa Gyasi, Ottessa Moshfegh, Gabriel Bump

This post presents Dr Many Lupton's analysis of the Australian Curriculum v6.0. Inquiry skills and information literacy are embedded in the Australian Curriculum in the subject areas Science, History, Geography, Economics and Business (draft), Civics and Citizenship (draft, and in the general capabilities Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) .

Easy to use random name generator. Great for school use.

Discussion about four great resources to help you learn and teach students about copyright. These resources are provided by the Copyright Advisory Network and are basically web tools designed to provide users particularly librarians with general guidelines and tips on a variety of issues related to copyright. These resources are: The Copyright Genie, Fair Use Evaluator, Section 108 Spinner and xceptions for Instructors eTool

A public library perspective but an interesting discussion on libraries generally which should be heeded by all in the industry

A good post in which Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) discusses the ways education can utilise the interest in, and strengths of, the maker movement. "A new generation of inventors is surfing the tide of the Maker movement. These classrooms emphasize making, inventing, and creativity. Let's look at the terminology and trends that will help educators understand the Maker movement."

"Are you interested in learning more about your patrons' usage of and satisfaction with your library, and their demographics? Here are 3 sample survey templates of different lengths to be used "as is" or adapted to your organization's specific research needs. The short survey template focuses on customer satisfaction, the medium and long survey templates add questions about library usage, and the long survey template also includes a demographics section. Before using the templates, it is important to read them carefully to ensure that all of the questions pertain to your library and to your information needs. Each template is formatted as a Microsoft Word document in order that you may delete, add, or modify questions as necessary. Each of these survey templates is intended to be very general to offer the richest opportunity for follow-up. For example, if you learned from the surveys that your patrons were less than satisfied with your library's facilities, you might then create a follow-up survey or plan interviews or focus groups to explore that issue at greater length."

"Quozio turns meaningful words into beautiful images in seconds. Then share 'em on Facebook, Pinterest, email and more!"

SimilarSiteSearch.com helps you find similar, related, or alternative websites. Their goal is to generate the most relevant results for users.

"... turns any ordinary quotes texts into beautiful quotes picture for Facebook, Twitter header, Google Plus, E-Cards, Wallpapers, Pinterest, Posters and other print design."

"Searching and citing usable images is easy once students learn the basics Teaching students to respect the intellectual property of others is important in this digital "cut and paste" world we live in. One great project to share with students that can better help them understand how and when they may use images created by others is the Creative Commons project. Creative Commons is designed to span the gap between full copyright and the public domain. The Creative Commons project provides content creators the opportunity to state ahead of time how their images may (or may not) be used."

Finland is planning to phase out handwriting classes in favour of keyboard skills, a recognition that this generation will never write a letter, birthday card or love letter. Instead, they'll text, tap and tweet. Is the answer that easy.?

Well-reasoned piece giving a good explanation as to why YA books have a general appeal beyond the intended target.

This ALA site offers some great advice and links to further information about book clubs and reading groups. "Many libraries provide meeting space for book clubs or administer one or more book discussion group.  This page provides general information about book groups, starting with "one book" programs, some resources for guiding book groups, references for specific types of book groups, and an anonymously contributed guide to establishing and running a book discussion group. "

The library now also has reading lounge areas with comfortable modular seating, as well as tables with chairs and stools that students are free to move around; two music studios; a HackerSpace (with high-tech equipment such as a microscope, 3D printer, gaming hardware and software, and a green screen for filming) and a Maker Space that also houses a 3D printer and serves as a "hands-on" craft room where old technology can be disassembled and re-configured with other materials. In short, the Monticello Library Media Center has become a "Learning Commons."

"A good chart featuring some important tips to help your students be smart learners. You can use this chart in your class with your students as a motivator to boost their learning moral or as a checklist for assessing their learning habits. While some of these tips are straightforward such as tip 6, 9, 11, other tips are a bit generic (tip 23, 25,26). Overall, these suggested tips cover several skills students need to work on to be better learners. These skills include sensory-motor skills, communicational skills, emotional skills, inter and intrapersonal skills, and critical thinking skills. They also touch on key areas integral to effective learning including: introspection, creativity, confidence, imagination, networking, passion, sharp observation, experimentation among many others."

"People may sniff, but the best of these Generation Y re-tellings bring the writing of the past back to vivid life" Some interesting reflections on new approaches to a few classics, with links to five of the best.

"The familiar narrative of teens and technology is one of natural proficiency - that young people just get technology in a way that older generations don't. But research suggests that just because children feel at home using smartphones, it doesn't mean they're more aware of the nuances of how the web works. In a new report published by the UK's telecoms watchdog Ofcom, researchers found that only a third of young people aged 12 to 15 knew which search results on Google were adverts, while this figure was even lower - less than one in five - for children aged 8 to 11"

"ytCropper lets you share just a portion of a YouTube video by specifying the start time and end time of the video that you want others to see. To do this simply go to the ytCropper site then paste in the URL of the YouTube video that you want to share. Once you have done that you can specify the start and end time of the portion of the video that you want people to watch. ytCropper will generate a link to the cropped version of the video. Share that link to have people watch your specified portion of the video."