In a new Lens feature in The New York Times, Matt McCann introduces the photography collection entitled, “Expired,”  in which photographer Kerry Mansfield,

“. . . brings the lens in close, showing worn edges and torn covers and photographing the ephemera of the library experience: the check-out cards and the paper pockets they went into, for example.”

I do read e-books myself (sometimes) and I continue to wonder and learn about the potential that digital reading holds for kids and libraries.  But Ms. Mansfield’s collection captures what I often attempt to convey when I’m asked about the future of books– that there’s something important and lasting about print books, especially the “loved” and worn (but not worn-out) library books that this collection features.

Many of the books in my personal collection came from flea markets, used book stores, and thrift shops.  If I say the words, “Oh, someone wrote in this,” it’s almost always a good thing.  I like reading birthday or graduation wishes written by some unknown, well-intentioned relative, and I appreciate the ownership and meaning associated with writing one’s name in a Golden Book.  And like the photographer in the story, I’m thrilled to see the word “withdrawn” from some library, somewhere, stamped in a book that finds its way onto my shelves.

Be sure to check out the slides in the article, and see if you notice some familiar tomes, like I did.  I know I have a Grimms’ Fairy Tale book that looks a lot like the The Family Treasury of Christmas Stories in Slide 1, and I bet you’ll recognize biography series from which Daniel Boone hails.

Hat tip to Librarian Patricia Sarles, for sharing this link on the AASL Forum.  Thank you!

Image: old book, by Thalita Carvalho on Flickr. Used with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

–Rebecca Morris

A few weeks ago, I was in Houston and made a casual reference to Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer, which extols authentic reading and extensive classroom collections. Miller is a Texan, and I was in Texas, but her work was new to many folks I talked with.

Then I remembered that a long, long, long time ago, I asked one of my school library management students if I could share her take on The Book Whisperer on this blog. And I never had.

So, without further ado (because, for heaven’s sakes, there have already been eons of ado), here’s Holly’s take on The Book Whisperer, a la Prezi.

Nobody can write so authentically and respectfully about our nation’s poor than Jonathan Kozol, and his new book, Fire in the Ashes, revisits many of the families we first met in his earlier book Rachel and Her Children .

PLEASE read this as you go into a new school year. Remind yourself of the struggles of America’s children, the wonder of those that thrive, and the important responsibility we have to shepherd them.

And there’s good news … Kozol will be the AASL President’s Program speaker at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago in 2013. We need his voice.