Today was the first day in a very long time that I entered my school library. I needed to spend some time away from the place, as much as I love being a teacher-librarian. Upon my return, I had to embark on a killing spree with my son. Before you report me to the OPP or RCMP, let me explain. My office was swarming with ants. Big, black ants. At first, I thought I'd just sweep them away with the broom I keep in my workspace. Turns out that there were just too many of them, and it didn't help that they crawled out of the garbage can to return to their home. I found out why they were so happy to be wandering in there - I had a bag of old Halloween candy stashed in my office that I totally forgot I had in there. (My garbage can hadn't been emptied since June either, which I'm sure didn't help matters.) So, I allowed my son to be an "ant bully" and stomp on any ants he found in the library. Now I know why a) they make rules about no food in the library (which I probably should extend to "no food in the library office"), and b) why my caretaking staff at school do not list me as one of their favourite teachers (it might also have to do with the time I drew on the carpet with chalk for a library activity, but that's another story).

My apologies to the five people that occasionally read this blog. I've had such a full two weeks that I haven't updated the blog. Please allow me to "Twitter-size" my reflections on each of the incredible events I've attended.

Twi-Con: The organization left much to be desired with oodles of oppressively long lines and delays (they could learn a thing or two from OLA's Supercon, a well-oiled machine) but my priority for going was to meet my dear friends from across the continent and to present on Twilight and education, so it was a success. Check out www.teachingtwilight.wordpress.com for the results of the workshop. Twi-Con 2010 will be in Las Vegas AND Toronto. You know where I will be in 12 months' time!

August is turning out to be a busy month in my household. On Thursday, I leave for a conference in Dallas, Texas. This isn't going to be like the usual conferences I attend; this is Twi-Con, based on the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer. I will a guest on a panel on Teaching Twilight, which should be a lot of fun. Unlike the library conferences I attend, there will be a ball - I bought my first ball gown for this event.

I'm taking my second-last course for my Masters of Education degree through the Teacher-Librarianship via Distance Learning program with the University of Alberta this summer. It's on Educational Research. I'll admit - I was dreading this course. Relaxing on a beach with some children's literature, I could see, but getting comfy with a textbook explaining the differences between quantitative and qualitative research didn't sound like a leisurely summer pursuit.

My spouse is a quasi-professional blogger, and as part of his blog (Grognardia), he conducts and posts interviews with key people in the early history of D&D. He printed out for me an exchange he had with Liz Danforth, who was influntial in the early days of the hobby. Other than the fact that my husband obviously enjoyed corresponding with her, what I find exciting is her invovlement with gaming and libraries.

I'm getting ready for Library Camp. Nope, it's not the mosquito-avoiding type with tents and campfire singalongs. It's CampOTF, sponsored by the Ontario Teachers Federation. It will be August 5-7 at the University of Toronto. The organizers are using a wiki to set up the three days, (as well as a wiki for the participants - if you're enrolled and haven't heard anything yet, don't fret; I haven't sent out the information email yet) and it looks like it will be an entertaining and educational one.

It's just one week left until summer vacation for school-based library staff. Thank goodness! However, there's no rest for the wicked. I have my second-last MEd course to take, on "Educational Research" to do in July, as well as a mini course on ethics. I've also joined a couple of new forum groups, one of which is hoping to establish a Canadian school library think tank, similar to the Treasure Mountain concept in the U.S.

(Why do most of my blog posts talk about where I've gone and where I'm going?)
This week I attended two media functions. One advantage of doing the things I do mean that I get invitations to some of these events. The first was the press conference held by People For Education to announce the release of their annual report on Ontario's Public Schools for 2009. I was really pleased to see the attention they gave to school libraries, although neither pleased nor surprised to hear about their findings. Their four subheadings on pages 12-13 speak volumes: Acces to libraries is uneven among schools and across the province / reading enjoyment [is] on the decline / teacher-librarians make a difference / books and materials for libraries [helped but not perfect]. My favourite fact is that kids at schools with TLs enjoy reading more than kids at schools without TLs. P4E recommends "the Ministry of Education develop policy and vision for students that includes supported, functioning school libraries, accessible throughout the school day and staffed by trained teacher-librarians and library staff".

I'm back from Montreal and the Canadian Library Association conference. I was a speaker at a very interesting workshop - the organizer (Terri Tomchyshyn) borrowed the concept from the Canadian Law Libraries. Here's the sitch: bring together representatives from all different kinds of libraries (school, public, university, business libraries) and have each person talk for a maximum of 15 minutes on a unifying question (in this case, "what makes your library cool?"). What astonished me was how much these diverse work places had in common - a concern for their users' needs/desires and a willingness to change were key. It was also obvious that the speakers really enjoy their jobs. I'd love to be a student at two of the universities profiled, because they have interactive maps that can either tell you where available computers in the library are located, or what specific shelf your book can be located. I'd love to visit one of the public libraries, that had innovative teen programming like a "Zombie" event and a "Wii Will Rock You" gaming night, provocative seniors book groups that tackle hefty titles like Vanity Fair, or a "living library" where you can borrow a person to talk to for half an hour and have sensitive discussions. I'd love to teach with some of the teacher-librarians that spoke and invited parents to come in and tell stories in their own languages. The 15 minute time limit was tricky as a presenter but delightful as an audience member - if left you hungering for more if you liked the talk, and was bearable if they presentation was dull - surprisingly, none of them were!

Has it really been two weeks since my last post? Blogging has taken a back seat to all the other activities going on. If I could just hook up a USB cord to my brain, the thoughts of "what I would have written had I had the time" would be uploaded promptly.

Acronym #1 = TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival)
The festival was a huge success. Having it co-sponsored by the TPL (Toronto Public Library, for those who want me to clarify all the acronyms I'm spewing out) was a good move. The hail we had Saturday morning did not put a damper on the event. My daughter and I went on Sunday (yes, Mother's Day) and worked in the Kids area. Kudos to Naseem and Scott for their fantastic organization. There was so much to do and see, and it was all FREE! My girl (who I was going to get write up this part, but it's past midnight and she's in bed)loved listening to the guests they had, such as the French creator of the Sardine comics, the duo behind Ninja, Cowboy, Bear, and the author of Frankie Pickle. I wasn't able to see these artists because I was working at the electronic comic creator table, where kids could use Comic Life to create comics of their own. 15 comics were created in the span of one afternoon. I'll send the ones that don't feature actual children in them to Scott's blog for you to see (and to direct some online traffic his way). I'll post the URL later.