Age article about the current situation of TL's in schools. Interviews with Di Ruffles and Cindy Tschernitz of SLAV and author Alison Lester

"It is essential that all of our students have a wide range of skills that develop the ability to function within a rapidly changing society - skills different from the 20th century. The essential 21st Century Fluencies are not about hardware. They are about critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, innovation, and so much more. These aren't just for the students, though. The 21st Century Fluencies are process skills that we all need, and there is as much benefit in cultivating them within yourself as within your classroom."

The post identifies some of the ways in which students could possible use Twitter for research.

Slideshow with a lot of tools that could be useful in school libraries.

This is a large, curated selection of images, books, audio and film. You can choose to browse the content either by medium ( images, books, film, audio),by time ( from pre-16th t 20th century), by tag or by source. For each of the material you find you will be provided with directions to help you download and save it.

"The Australia Library and Information Association (ALIA) said there is a positive outlook on employment prospects for library and information professionals over the next five years, but the job market will remain tight. This is one of the conclusions in a new report ALIA LIS Education and Employment Trend Report 2014 today (18 Sept 2014) launched in Melbourne by ALIA President Damian Lodge at the Association's National Conference."

$ points that offer a nice summary

National Poetry Month: Exemplars from EDSITEment: Poetry for the Common Core. EDSITEmentput together multimedia resources for students of all ages. For each of the following poetry exemplars students and teachers will find a link to the poem, commentary about the poem, and a host of multimedia resources to assist teachers in unpacking the poem with students. These resources include EDSITEment lessons as well as EDSITEment-reviewed websites that discuss the poem, the poet, and its context.

"ITSL, in collaboration with the Centre of Program Evaluation at the University of Melbourne are conducting a three-year process and impact evaluation of the implementation of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The purpose of the Evaluation is to assess the usefulness, effectiveness and impact of the Standards on improving teacher quality. Over 6,002 respondents including teachers, school leaders, pre-service teachers and teacher educators participated in the 2013 National Survey. Initial analysis from the survey highlights the key findings below."

"This is a repository of educational apps for teachers and students. Below is a document created using Google Docs and in which is featured a variety of platforms and web resources where teachers and educators can find educational apps.

A good post from Common Sense Media about where teens are with social media today. The questions "Are teens totally over Facebook? Or are they using it even more than ever? are asked and an answer is attempted. From reports it is evident that there are many and varied social media being used by young people. Teenagers are dividing their attention between a sizeable number of apps and tools. These all allow them to write, share, video-chat, and even shop for the latest trends. The advice is:"You don't need to know the ins and outs of every app and site that's "hot" right now (and frankly, if you did, they wouldn't be trendy anymore). But knowing the basics -- what they are, why they're popular, and what problems can crop up when they're not used responsibly -- can make the difference between a positive and a negative experience for your kid." A few of these media are discussed in light of this.

"A new project is printing Braille picture books for visually impaired children. Each page turns the pictures from the original book into raised 3D shapes alongside traditional Braille text. "The advantage of 3D-printing is really about making one-of-a-kind objects,' says Tom Yeh, who heads up the Tactile Picture Books Project at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later this year, Yeh's group will work with the National Braille Press in Boston to offer children a copy of Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin that has a page customised with the child's name in Braille."

This is about gathering data/information about readers - What you might want and how you go about it. It also links to other resources that might help.

"Florida's Polytechnic University is entirely digital and has no print books at all. This enormous facility promises to make 'many more books available for the students' in digital form."

The photos and drawings are sourced from more than 600 million library book pages scanned in by the Internet Archive organisation. These images have been difficult to access until now. Internet Archive Book Images Visitors to the site are free to copy and make use of the pictures without charge. Most of the images that are in the books are not in any of the art galleries of the world - the original copies have long ago been lost. The pictures range from 1500 to 1922, when copyright restrictions kick in. "

"Give kids the experience of a learning community, as well as the skills to create one, sets them up well for the future demands of college and career, and helps them develop the academic mindsets they need to succeed."