Weekly Reader

ACRL 2013 Conference Proposals Due May 11
"Friday May 11 is the deadline for ACRL 2013 Conference contributed paper, panel session, preconference and workshop proposals.  Do you have questions about the submission process?  Get the ACRL staff scoop below!" -- Margot Conahan, ACRL Insider, 4/26/12

New TED-Ed Site Turns YouTube Videos Into "Flipped Lessons"
"YouTube holds a rich trove of videos that could be used in the classroom, but it’s challenging to transform videos into a truly interactive part of a lesson. So the nonprofit group TED has unveiled a new Web site that it hopes will solve this problem—by organizing educational videos and letting professors “flip” them to enhance their lectures." -- Nick DeSantis, The Wired Campus, 4/25/12

Professional Discretion
"Recently I served on an important committee at my university. Frankly, I’m not sure how a faculty member as junior as I am landed on the committee. Without going into too much detail, it was a committee that decides a prestigious award at my university, an award that is only given out to an outstanding academic unit every two years. And, despite the griping and moaning that we frequently hear about service work like serving on an awards committee, it was a great experience." -- Nate Kreuter, Tyro Tracts, 4/23/12

We'll Miss Libraries When Google Takes Over the World
"The sun rose gloriously over the hill. A few wisps of fog floated down by the creek and there was just the tiniest bit of fog on the tulips. What a good day, I thought, to consider Google. I don't know for certain that Google is now evil, but I bet that if it isn't, it soon will be. No one has ever survived possession of that much power without slipping over to the dark side.Actually, the discussion of Google had come up a few days earlier, when a colleague mentioned the eternal topic of school kids doing research for term papers. Her daughter had been assigned a comprehensive paper and had little time to gather information and write it." -- Dennis Powell, Athen News, 4/22/12

What Hath Harry Wrought?
"Just to get a sense of historical perspective, when I last spoke at this festival, there was no euro, no iPods, no Wikipedia, no Facebook; Pluto was still a planet; and I was still drinking. More to the point—today’s point—is that Harry Potter had yet to appear on our side of the pond. That would happen in the fall of 1998. Harry Potter revealed a lot about children’s reading and changed how children’s books were published. I’d like to examine just how the world of books for children and young adults has changed since the last time I was here." -- Roger Sutton, The Horn Book, 4/20/12