Although videocassettes and DVD's are popular and easy to watch at home, there is still something special about going out to see a film in a theatre, loaded down with huge cups of soda and buttered popcorn and surrounded by other moviegoers on all sides. Many young viewers assume that movies were always made in a multitude of colors, filled with conversation and sound effects, and shown on huge screens.

"Silents" Please

Two recent picture books take elementary readers back to the days when a brand new industry produced stories shot in black and white which had no sound and introduced a new era: that of silent films.

Avi's Silent Movie. Ill. by C. B. Mordan. An Anne Schwartz Book, Atheneum, 2003, unp. 0-689-84145-0
Avi's Silent Movie depicts an example of this popular genre. The black pages with white print show scenes with occasional words of explanation beneath as an immigrant family comes to New York at different times and cannot locate each other because of language difficulties. The boy and his mother struggle to find money and food, until a movie director offers him a chance to appear in his film at $1 a day, the amount his mother earns for a whole week of sewing. The father, still searching for the family, sees his son on the screen, and they are reunited. As the pages turn, the reader feels a part of the film. Notes from the author and illustrator help explain the birth of the movies. (Gr. 1-3)

Brown, Don. Mack Made Movies. Roaring Brook Press, 2003, unp. ill. 0-7613-1538-1
As Mack Made Movies reveals, Mack Sennett, one of the top directors during this era of silent films, began in vaudeville playing the rear end of a horse, learned slapstick to make people laugh, and, looking for success, turned to the movies. After getting his training doing all kinds of tasks, he struck out for Hollywood, built Keystone Pictures, and, calling himself the King of Comedy, made hundreds of funny films, inventing the Keystone Kops and hiring Charlie Chaplin among others. Don Brown, author and illustrator, does a great job with this simple biography. The predominance of brown tones in his illustrations evokes the look of silent movies. An Author's note tells more about Sennett's life. (Gr. 2-4)

Use these titles to introduce the early days of the movies, adding background music to give students the right atmosphere (see CinemaWeb.com for 23 three-minute clips in Midi format and Ragtime Press for an index of live Midi performances of ragtime pianist Sue Keller) and offering popcorn as a finale. Plan ahead, asking everyone to wear black and white to set the scene. Suggest that different groups decide on a theme for a silent movie and then act it out for the rest of the class to guess what they are portraying. (Lisa's Silent Movie Page has examples of slides such as "Ladies! Kindly remove your hats" and great links to other sites.)

On Screen

The "talkies" appear in the plots of several fiction titles at various levels for students who enjoy reading about movies.

Conford, Ellen. Annabel the Actress Starring in Just a Little Extra. Ill. by Renee W. Andriani. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2002, 2000, 63 p. 0-689-84886-2
Annabel's dream is to become an actress in this series by Ellen Conford, and she is very excited when a movie company plans to film The Day After Doom in her neighborhood. After practicing screaming all evening in anticipation of getting a part, she "dresses young," feeling she has a better chance at gaining sympathy. She meets the star of the film, her idol Winona McCall, who encourages her and talks the director into giving Annabel a tryout. After eight takes, she is exhausted and, when her slippers fall off as she runs, she fears she has ruined the film. However, when the finished product appears on television as she and her whole family watches, Annabel realizes that she has had her first big break. (Gr. 2-4)

Heyes, Eileen. O'Dwyer & Grady Starring in Acting Innocent. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2002, 118 p. 0-689-84911-7
The year is 1932, the place, New York City, the hero, child movie star Billy O'Dwyer, liked by everyone, even though Maureen, his cruel manager, beats him. Billy is friendly with Roscoe Muldoon, a famous actor with whom he works. When Roscoe is accused of murder, Billy and Virginia Grady, his new co-star in the Rusty and Fred series, do some undercover investigating to try to solve the mystery. Readers will get a good picture of that era including how movies were made and the effects of Prohibition. (Gr. 4-6)

Living the Fantasy

DeLaCroix, Alice. The Hero of Third Grade. Ill. by Cynthia Fisher. Holiday House, 2002, 72 p. 0-8234-1745-X
In The Hero of Third Grade, Randall is having a tough time getting used to his new school, making friends, and avoiding Gordo who is somewhat of a bully. But an old movie that he and his mom see on television one night gives him an idea. He will be brave and cool, like the Scarlet Pimpernel who secretly helped people and sent them notes signed with a red flower. Carrying a red stamp pad and rubber stamp in his pocket, he emulates this movie character and becomes a hero. (Gr. 2-4)

Nelson, Theresa. Ruby Electric. A Richard Jackson Book, Atheneum, 2003, 261 p. 0-689-83852-2
Theresa Nelson's heroine, Ruby Miller, her mother, and her little brother Pete all love the movies, going to the bargain matinee weekly. In between she uses her wild imagination to write movie scripts where everything comes out fine, very different from her real life. Her dad left six years ago, and she keeps waiting for his return. Pete is grieving for his favorite toy, a woolly mammoth puppet accidentally lost, and it's Ruby's fault. Worse yet, she becomes involved with two boys in her middle school class who have painted graffiti on the riverbank, and with whom she must do community service. A serious crisis and a monument dedication show Ruby that good things can happen in real life just as in the scripts she still imagines in her head. (Gr. 5-8)

Have your students think about why they enjoy going to the movies, and what types of films they like best. List their comments and subjects on an easel pad. Discuss how movies have changed over the years, the fact that ratings now have a large impact on what they can see, and the difference between a movie adapted from a book, such as the Harry Potter films, or one in which scriptwriters begin with an original idea.

School librarianship is being besieged by opposing forces. On the one hand, there is a growing shortage of library media specialists. On the other, many schools are eliminating positions and even closing media centers. Can this happen to you? Will your job be terminated? If you leave, will you be replaced? Is there anything you can do?

Everyone has heard of successful library media specialists who have experienced staff cuts, and tight budget are causing districts to make unpopular decisions. However, in general, positions are being cut where the program is not seen as making a significant contribution to the educational program.

Attitude Check

If you don't want to be another unfortunate statistic, assess yourself honestly as to what you project and how you are perceived. In other words, be sure you know what your attitude is and whether it is working to help or hurt you.

Do you think of yourself as a teacher -- or do you see the faculty as part of your daily problems? Many library media specialists complain regularly about the behavior of other staff members. Whether or not the criticisms are justified, if you do so, you are placing yourself on the outside. Don't join in when others snipe or make negative comments. Focus on the positives.

Are you a team player or a whiner? When an administrator proposes a project or wants to make a change in programs, do you launch into all the reasons why it cannot work? No matter how accurate you are in your analysis, your attitude will cost you in the long run. You will do far better if you join an implementation committee and suggest alternatives to make the project be successful. In the process, you may have a chance to give voice to your concerns, but it will from the prospective of contributing not criticizing.

Always Reaching Out

Some excellent library media specialists go unnoticed by most of the staff. They are willing and able to do whatever a teacher requests and are wonderful at helping any student who asks. Yet the majority of teachers are unfamiliar with how you can contribute to their instruction. The job of showing them how collaboration benefits everyone is up to you. You need to first entice them, then excite them, and finally delight them.

It may be an overworked idea, but having a stash of food in the media center will bring teachers in and give you an opportunity to establish friendly relations on your turf. Giving away books you are weeding is another lure. Once they are accustomed to dropping in, be sure to show them some of your latest acquisitions that would be just perfect for a project with their students. When you ultimately get to work collaboratively with a teacher, carry more than half the load, put your colleague in the limelight by informing the administrator or supervisor of the creative project, and, if possible, display students' work in the media center.

Partnerships Pay Off

Make connections with everyone. Teachers, administrators, parents, visitors, anyone who comes into your media center is worth your attention. Have a brief sentence that you can intersperse easily into conversations, such as, "we have an incredibly active library media program" or "our students are successfully integrating print and online materials." (For non-educators, change "integrating" to "using both.")

When circumstances cause boards of education and administrators to consider eliminating media center staff, you want protests to erupt from a broad segment of the school population. If you have made your program a vital part of students' and teachers' lives and parents and others are aware of your contributions, they will be standing by you. If you have proven yourself to administrators, the issue may never arise.

Sometimes it seems as though the Internet is devoted to spreading hoaxes, mostly in the form of e-mail. For April Fool's Day focus on your continuing efforts to teach students to view anything they find on the Net with a high degree of skepticism, alerting them to the many pranks, deceptions and fraud that circulate in cyberspace.

Best on the Web

Direct students to check out any questionable e-mails they receive by going to www.urbanlegends.about.com. Urban legends is the umbrella term for all the wild and crazy stories that surface dating back to that classic legend of alligators in New York City sewers. David Emery, who keeps the site up-to-date, probably deserves a medal for all the digging he does. Each day he features the latest additions to these false missives that seem to never die but continually evolve as names and places are changed.

Emery's website categorizes these modern tall tales from Accidents through Weird Stories. He offers a ten-step guide to spotting hoaxes, an explanation of what an urban legend is, and a list of the top twenty-five. Best of all, his analysis of each includes any smidgeon of truth that may be included. It is the best first stop for validating questionable e-mail, and a lot of fun to check out.

More Sites

Truth about Computer Security Hysteria at www.vmyths.com covers hoaxes A-Z, dividing them into Hot News, Hoaxes, Resources, Rantings (a column by Rob Rosenberger) and Absurd which features the comic strip Kevin & Kell. The site is most concerned with virus hoaxes which often have innocent people deleting key files from their computers. (The sidebar frames include How to Spot a Virus Hoax.

Medical hoaxes are so prevalent that the Centers for Disease Control has a page just to lay these deceptions to rest at www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm. Anti-virus companies such as McAfee and Norton also are working to combat these false alerts which can cause as much harm as a real virus.

Historical Hoaxes and Innocent Mistakes

While the Internet has expanded the number and variety of hoaxes, the practice is far from new. The Museum of Hoaxes explores classic examples from history starting with the Donation of Constantine in 750 and lists six perpetrated by Benjamin Franklin. The most recent include ten from 2000 and a beginning list for 2001. Not all of these came from e-mail. One is an advertising campaign while another is a false posting on an Internet portal.

The urge to deceive seems to be a human trait that is apt to trip up even the experts. A non-virus virus that surfaces every so often is the innocent idea of some elementary or middle school teacher who wants students to engage in a geography lesson that will capture their attention. The class sends out an e-mail announcing a project which will track the location of anyone responding to their request. As recipients send the message on to everyone in their address book, the number of e-mails sent to the class proliferates. The school's Internet provider often shuts down service for several weeks to prevent its crashing from the overload. In essence, the teacher has accidentally created a virus.

The same non-virus virus results from e-mail chain letters to institutions or companies. Sitting alone at a computer it is hard to envision the hundreds of thousands of messages that result when people respond. Teach your students how not to be a part of hoaxes that can cause inadvertent harm. Continue to raise their awareness to the misinformation on the Internet, and perhaps, as they laugh at others' gullibility, they won't become victims themselves.

Around the country, states are taking a hard look at education. Expectations for students are being formalized into standards; testing is increasing (as are the debates about it); and schools, administrators and teachers are being held ever more accountable.

Our 23rd annual survey looks at the impact of these issues on you and your library media program. Are the national standards on Information Literacy (Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning) having an effect on your teaching? Is all the intense scrutiny being focused on the classroom while you are being ignored? Are administrators and others aware of what you are doing? To what extent are you able to assess the success of your program?

Please complete the survey in the printed edition of School Librarian's Workshop, complete the online version on this web site, or write down your answers and fax them to (973) 635-2614.

Additional comments and lengthier responses are always welcome. We encourage you to either write on the back of the survey or add pages. (If you respond by fax, a black pen is the most legible.)

Next September, we will report on the survey results in the School Librarian's Workshop and use them as a source for articles.

Our theme for 2003-2004 is "Criteria for Success: Standards and Assessments." Watch for ways to improve your media center, connect with national and state standards, and evaluate your program to make it even better in each issue of next year's Workshop.

A difficult task in research is to identify the most important ideas, so it helps if the basic level of this skill can be learned in the elementary grades. Students tend to accumulate any fact remotely connected with a topic, causing them to struggle as they try to bring them all together in a single report. Even graduate students prefer telling the professor all the information rather than stating the essentials.

Organizing the Project

Getting to the heart of the matter may be a challenge, but with an unusual graphic organizer and a tie to Valentine's Day, you can help students in grades three through six learn how to focus their research. Start with a simple theme, such as mammals. Make a list so that each student in the class has one animal. Check your collection as a selection guide. Although encyclopedias will have most of the information, you will need a resource with good pictures.

Write each animal on a slip of paper, placing the slips in a box for students to choose. Gather relevant books on a cart to speed the initial research. Prepare an Information Sheet with categories you want students to explore or use this one. Also, cut out oval or rectangular shapes for each category as well as pink hearts.

Students Get to Work

When the class arrives, tell students they will be doing mammal reports and have them choose one from the box. Distribute the Information Sheets and ask students where they will go to locate the needed facts. Add any resources they fail to mention, illustrating them with what is on the cart. Model the process using a reptile or bird.

While some begin working, help a few students search for pictures of their animal. In addition to www.ditto.com and www.images.google.com, also check www.enchantedlearning.com/coloring which has great outline illustrations of animals with instructions on what colors to use. Once they have printed their drawing they can start their research while other students do the online search.

The Heart of the Matter

After everyone has completed both the Information Sheet and the animal drawing, give them some time to color it and paste it onto oaktag. Have students now write a one-sentence description for each category. Determining the most important aspects to include will require some thinking.

Distribute the ovals or rectangles you made and have students fill in their sentences. Let them attach these to their animal drawings, being sure to leave the chest area open. For the ultimate challenge, ask them to write a single sentence that best characterizes their animal and put it on the pink heart.

Display students' animal drawings with the results of their research. While animal reports are common in elementary grades, for this one they have learned an essential skill - getting to the heart of the matter.

Whether you are looking for an appropriate title to mark Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday or just want to give second through fourth graders an opportunity to see a loving family dealing with a disease with which many of them are familiar, this recent heartwarming tale by Linda Jacobs Altman will easily open discussions.

Altman, Linda Jacobs. Singing with Momma Lou. Ill. by Larry Johnson. Lee & Low, 2002, unp. 1-58430-040-X Weekly visits to Momma Lou seem useless to 9-year-old Tamika. Her grandmother has Alzheimer's disease and doesn't always recognize her but keeps singing to herself. Momma Lou says she listened to Martin Luther King, Jr. give a speech the other day, even though he died a long time ago. Tamika can't wait to leave. At home, her father shows her Momma Lou's scrapbooks as she sang with bands, marched in Civil Rights demonstrations, and was jailed with other protestors. The final pictures are of Tamika and her grandmother. Resolving to give Momma Lou some of her memories back, Tamika brings a photo of the two of them. It seems to work as her grandmother sings a lullaby, and they have a special time together. Each week Tamika takes something else to the nursing home, learning its story so she can share it. As months pass, Momma Lou's memory worsens, and Tamika searches to find something to pierce a clouded mind, choosing the clipping of her grandmother's arrest. At the home, Momma Lou laughs at the picture and begins to sing "We Shall Overcome." Tamika joins her as others add their voices. When the song ends, her grandmother asks her to not "let this get lost," returning the photo. Tamika, knows she doesn't mean the newspaper article but rather her life. After that day, Momma Lou never remembers again. Saddened but holding the memories, Tamika creates a scrapbook of things she shared with her grandmother and on difficult days closes her eyes and sings "We Shall Overcome," making the world seem much better. Linda Jacobs Altman gives a brief description of Alzheimer's disease and three sources for more information on the final page.

Activities

1. Grandparents
   • What is the best thing about having grandparents?
   • On a map, show where the grandparents of everyone in the class live.
   • How many grandparents live close to where you do?
   • Momma Lou taught Tamika many things. What have you been taught by your grandmother or grandfather?
   • Read other books about grandparents and talk about how they are the same and different from yours.
2. Civil Rights
   • Learn the words to "We Shall Overcome" and sing it.
   • Make a chart showing the important events in Martin Luther King's life.
   • Momma Lou is not a real person, but Rosa Parks was a woman who was involved in the Civil Rights movement. Read about her and prepare a skit showing what she did.
3. Scrapbooks
   • What would you put into a scrapbook about your life?
   • Start a scrapbook showing the important events that have happened in your class this year.
4. Elderly people
   • How can you tell when someone is really old?
   • A number of elderly people get Alzheimer's disease. Find out more about it.
   • Make pictures that can be brought to a nursing home.

Online subscriptions is the term generally used for the databases and other Internet products for which you must pay an annual charge to gain access. While accurate, the phrase doesn't provide an adequate context to explain its functions and importance to students --- or administrators. You need to begin referring to the "e-reference collection" as you plan your units or try to get funds to purchase additional resources.

For many of you, the e-reference collection is exceedingly limited. Some of you have no titles or only what your State Department of Education provides for free. Others have a limited number because of the grade levels you serve or the budget impact or both. What electronic resources do you need? How can you afford to get them? What is the cost if you don't?

Building the Core Collection

The first resources you should have are general ones --- whether you are in an elementary or a high school. The subscriptions provided free by a state or consortium are frequently periodical databases. Whether you get the EBSCO, ProQuest or SIRS family of products with interfaces and magazines geared for different levels, you have a good start.

As with your regular reference collection, an encyclopedia is a must. The electronic versions of World Book, Grolier products, Britannica and others are frankly superior to the print editions in that they offer numerous extras. Most large entries have related websites selected by the editors. Some offer newspaper and magazine articles and research support.

The next addition is a product that provides curriculum-related websites selected for quality and appropriateness. Consider C.ER.F. (Curriculum and Education Resource Finder), INET Library (both discussed in Dec. '00, pp. 4-5), Nettrekker, and Web Feet (K-8 and high school versions are available). As these offer trial subscriptions, you can take time to look at them, compare pricing, quality, page design, relevance to curriculum, remote dial-up availability, and any other factors you consider important.

Expanding the Core

Once the basics are in place, you will want to purchase additional titles. Getting a second of each type described above is very helpful. You would never have just one print encyclopedia; the same is true for the e-reference collection. While the periodical databases seem to overlap at times, there are differences. Students and faculty will prefer one interface and the way articles are presented. Offering a choice tends to lead to better research practices. The same is true for the curriculum-related products.

You should also explore subject area resources. Middle and high schools will want more of these than elementary schools. Just as their print reference resources are larger, so should their electronic collection be. A sizeable number of literature, history, and science databases are available. Look for them at your state conferences, scan the junk mail advertising you receive, and talk to colleagues for suggestions. Then get trial subscriptions, timing them to correspond with a class assignment.

Show Me the Money

Other than the fountain of money that came with E.S.E.A. Title II funding in the early 1970s, it is difficult to find a time when library budgets were not a problem. While many of you complain that funds for technology have reduced what you have for books, the limited size of e-reference collections suggests the money isn't going there either.

The best approach is to acquire these resources outside your regular library budget. Once you and the other library media specialists in your district have identified the core titles you want to acquire, contact the vendors and see what district pricing breaks they are willing to give. Have them send you advertising material along with price quotes.

Next, try to meet with your technology director and/or the administrator responsible for curriculum. Have a folder with advertising packets for each product. Include a prioritized list of these along with the costs and the district discounts. Explain how these e-reference resources connect with state standards. Suggest that the technology budget include software so that all students at the same building level in the district have access to the same resources, allowing for articulated instruction.

The Cost to Students

In your discussion to get district funds, you need to remind everyone that not having these products may save money but there will be a cost. Students must acquire skills using quality e-reference materials in the same way as they have always needed to learn how to use the print collection. By not having access to these resources from the upper primary grades, they are deprived of a logical, sequential development of research strategies critical for success in today's world.

As a final note, you should also remind administrators that without these resources, students will use their own devices to locate information on the Internet. Not only is this approach more difficult, requiring them to do the sifting of websites, but they are far more apt to use non-relevant, low-quality, and even erroneous information in their research. With a solid e-reference collection, library media specialists and teachers can require students to access these sites first, providing a baseline of worthwhile material before they explore what is on the Web.

Book clubs have spread around the country in the past few years, the Harry Potter phenomenon has turned many students into avid readers, and those who have always enjoyed reading and talking about books no longer have to hide their enthusiasm. Imagine the excitement that comes when a high school chooses a title, with complementary ones for its feeder K-8 students, and parents, teachers, and others read and join in the discussions.

Starting at the High School

Several people at the James River High School in Midlothian, Virginia (whose media center won the American Association of School Librarians' 2002 National School Library Media Program of the Year Award) had heard a National Public Radio report on such a program in Rochester, NY. World Language teacher Susan Cox brought the idea to James River media specialists Ann M. Martin and Ann M. Reinke, with all of them thinking it might be worth looking into for the 2001-02 school year. The two discussed it with James River's principal, John B. Titus, who had also heard the NPR broadcast, was anxious to try something similar, and immediately gave his support. The faculty, alerted by the leadership team who brought the idea to their departments, also agreed to try it.

Ms. Martin and Ms. Reinke then contacted Dr. Billy K. Cannaday, Jr., Superintendent of the Chesterfield County Public Schools. (James River is one of its 11 high schools.) Dr. Cannaday enthusiastically agreed, saying that people are "more likely to learn about someone different when they are engaged." The two media specialists "sparked an interest, preparing ahead step by step, starting small but planning for thousands, and turning the project into a big regional activity" added the superintendent. The activity was voluntary; there were no grades given; it was set up just for the love of learning.

Although there were risks, the way the program was introduced made it work very well. Dr. Cannaday found $15,000 to buy books for every student and staff (1,775 for the high school and 1,175 for the middle schools), saying it was "the best investment in the world".

The book chosen for the high school was Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying. The companion novel to be read by middle school students was Christopher Paul Curtis' Newbery Honor book, The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963. The plan was for high school students to go into the elementary schools and read and discuss Robert Coles' The Story of Ruby Bridges with younger grades. An editorial by Laurel Maughan in the student newspaper The James River Current in October 2001 discussing the project says that while the Gaines book addresses the issue of "racial prejudice through the unfair conviction of a black man . . . it goes beyond that theme to discuss the value of human dignity." She lists some of the district's core values which appear in the book - "respect, responsibility and accountability," mentioning "the opportunity [the plan] provides for bringing the community together."

Success Brings Expansion

The year-long event was a huge success. Curriculum connections were established, teachers planned discussions and lessons pertaining to the book, students enjoyed lunchtime activities, the younger grades were enthralled as their high school visitors read and discussed The Story of Ruby Bridges, and the whole community profited. A Power Point presentation showing the involvement of students, teachers, and other community members is available at this link (click on Library on the left and choose "A Lesson Before Dying" on the right-hand side).

The reading program has spread still farther, to the greater Richmond community covering four school divisions in the fall of 2002. Expanding beyond libraries and schools, it has encouraged participation by a variety of additional community organizations -- social service agencies, churches, senior centers, theatres, the media, and retail stores as well as groups serving youth.

Now entitled Go Read! (complete with a mission and goals and a logo, see this link for all the details), the organizers selected A Lesson Before Dying to be read and discussed over a two-month period from early September (Literacy Day) until mid-November (Children's Book Week), ending with a visit from its author Ernest J. Gaines in December. Using the above URL, click on About A Lesson Before Dying to find links to A Toolkit for Teachers (prepared by the James River library media specialists) and A Reading Group Toolbox suitable for other groups. The organizers hope that this will be the first of a three-year venture into community reading.

Think about the possibility of beginning such a movement in your district and the area in which you live. This is an ambitious project to undertake, with lots of work involved, but one that can reap many benefits. Join the move to return reading and discussion about books to their once respected place in the community.

Music is a popular subject with students of all ages since many play an instrument or like to listen to their favorite groups. Here are some titles at various levels for your 700s and biography sections.

Classical Music

The Story of the Orchestra lets readers join classical music expert Orchestra Bob on a tour of itscomposers, instruments and conductor, complete with a CD containing 41 selections to which they can listen as they read. Attractive and welcoming, the layout offers interesting and useful information in colored rectangles and ovals that break up the pages which also contain relevant quotes and illustrations. The book is divided into three parts. The first deals with composers from the Baroque (Vivaldi and Bach) on to the Classical Era (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven), the Romantic Era (a mix including Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Mahler) and ending with the Modern Era (Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein). Part II discusses the instruments including photographs, their descriptions, and diagrams showing where people sit as they play. Also included are those which have no "official" place in an orchestra but often appear as guests -- organ, piano, and harpsichord. The third short section is dedicated to the conductor. A list of selections is given at the end. (Gr. 3-8 and music dept.)

Another title demystifying opera, Bravo!Brava! A Night at the Opera, subtitled Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew, explains these "stories told in music" which began in the 1600s. It discusses who is responsible for the words and music, has a 2-page map showing where various operas took place, talks about which people are on stage and what their vocal ranges are as well as what is going on behind the curtain. Costumes get a big play, as do wig masters and makeup artists, with different examples pictured. Illustrations throughout help lighten up the pages. Summaries of 27 "favorite opera plots"(including Porgy and Bess, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Marriage of Figaro, and Hansel and Gretel), a glossary, bibliography and index round out this informative introduction to a "theatrical spectacle". (Gr. 4-8)

American Composers

This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie. Folk singer and song writer Woody Guthrie's life was comparatively short (1912 to 1967), covering the Depression as well as the civil rights movement. He had a sad and terrible childhood marked by fires and loss, his mother ended up in an insane asylum, and he left Oklahoma at an early age, supporting himself by drawing cartoons as the economy crashed. He began writing and singing songs that were a commentary on the times, married three times, regularly picking up and going off from his wives and children, finally succumbing to the incurable Huntington's disease, yet leaving a legacy of songs including This Land is Your Land. An excellent, lengthy, and gripping "warts and all" biography by Elizabeth Partridge includes photographs, source notes for the many interviews, a bibliography and index and is appropriate for upper-level students. (Gr. 8 and up).

Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People. A picture book biography by Bonnie Christensen with powerful illustrations reminiscent of woodcuts and words to some of his songs introduces Woody Guthrie to younger students and includes a time line of important events. This is an excellent way for elementary readers to learn about a historical figure in folk music as well as a time of trouble in our land. (Gr. 2-5)

What Charlie Heard. Composer Charles Ives (1874 - 1954) did not achieve success with his music until very late in life. A picture book biography by Mordicai Gerstein, whose illustrations are a wonderful complement to the story,portrays this musical innovator, "born with his ears wide open" and influenced by his father, a music teacher who played the trumpet and led the town band. Charlie loved to listen to all kinds of sounds (be they a bat hitting a ball or two bands playing different tunes), trying to imitate them on the piano and drum and writing down the music. Even after his father died and he got married, Charlie kept writing, but for a long time, people didn't like what they called the "horrible noise", and his Second Symphony was not played in Carnegie Hall until 1951, only three years before he died. A biographical note at the end suggests several pieces to which readers should listen to become familiar with his music. (Gr. 2-5)

A magnificent new picture book, When Marian Sang, introduces Marian Anderson (1897-1993), singer extraordinaire, who began her career traveling around the United States singing but was often unable to get ahotel room because she was black. After being cheered all over Europe she came home triumphant, but when booked to perform in 1939 she was not allowed to sing in Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall because of her color. The concert finally took place outdoors on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where 75,000 peoplecame to hear her. The book opens on an empty stage and ends with her 1955 Metropolitan Opera debut. Explanatory notes. (Gr. 2-6)

Christensen, Bonnie. Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People. Knopf, 2001, unp. ill. 0-375-81113-3

Gerstein, Mordicai. What Charlie Heard. Frances Foster Books, Farrar, 2002, unp. ill. 0- 374-38292-1

Levine, Robert. The Story of the Orchestra. Ill. by Meredith Hamilton. Black Dog & Leventhal, 2001, 96 p. 1-57912-148-9

Partridge, Elizabeth. This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie. Viking, 2002, 217 p. ill. 0-670-03535-1

Ryan, Pam Munoz. When Marian Sang. Ill. by Brian Selznick. Scholastic, 2002, unp. 0-439-26967-9

Siberell, Anne. Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera. Introduction by Frederica von Stade. Oxford, 2001, 64 p. ill. 0-19-513966-6

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September 2002: Working With Teachers: A Focused Orientation

Research is an integral part of the Geophysics Synergistic lab at Morristown High School in Morristown, NJ. With that in mind, the teachers of the course block in time in the media center so that their ninth grade students learn some basic strategies that will get them started quickly even though they will be having a more general orientation as part of their English classes.

In advance of the scheduled visits, the library media specialist pulls reference and circulating material on all aspects of earth science and space exploration and places them on a cart. She also puts the vital facts on an easel pad so that all the classes will get the same core information.

Beginning with Print

When students arrive, they are greeted by a list with the heading "Numbers to Know." In a very brief discussion, they are reminded that all libraries arrange books by subject, and that the Dewey system, which uses numbers for the categories, is the method employed by school and public libraries. They are then instructed to copy the subdivisions of 500 from 520 through 560. For 600, only 620 Engineering is listed along with 629.4. These classifications will help them become efficient browsers.

The library media specialist then highlights some of the titles, showing how the different formats make the information highly accessible and frequently more focused than what can be found on the Internet. She then asks students the difference between reference and circulating materials. Usually someone responds that reference books stay in the media center. While acknowledging this is generally true, she encourages them to go beyond this elementary level truism to a more adult understanding, challenging them to explain why a title is put in one place rather than another. Eventually, they see that reference usually provides broad overviews or covers a multitude of subtopics, while circulating material tends to be more specific.

Guiding Online Research

The next sheet, "Places to Go" guides students' Internet research. They are first informed about the available electronic subscriptions, the media center's "e-reference" collection. For this course they are directed to SIRS, C.ER.F., and INET Library (the first is part of most high school collections and the latter two were featured in the December 2000 issue of the SCHOOL LIBRARIAN'S WORKSHOP, pp. 4-5). In addition, they are told about Facts on File which has diagrams they can use for their reports.

Although most students have favorite search engines by the time they reach high school, they are not always aware of which work best for different information needs. The first on the list is www.scirus.com, a science and math search engine. Next is www.northernlight.com. Formerly known for academic searches, it now is fee based but its new "special collections" allow students (once the media center has set up an account) to instantly retrieve journal and other hard-to-find articles at a minimal cost ($2- $5 per article).

Three top web crawlers, Google, All the Web, and AltaVista are then reviewed with their individual strengths. Students are encouraged to search by category when using Yahoo and other directories. Since they will also need pictures, they are given www.ditto.com and www.images.google.com as outstanding sites. Finally, they are directed to www.kidsclick.com, created by the Ramapo-Catskill (NY) librarians. Not only does this have excellent choices of Web sites, it also has a launch to four picture search engines.

With the talk concluded, the groups start working on their project. Because the quality of the print collection, particularly reference, is so high, most students select material from the cart before going to the Internet. They are now prepared for the upcoming semester.