Today, we feature a guest post by School Library Monthly Advisory Board member and AASL President Carl Harvey.

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On Jan. 4, 2012, I posted a petition on the White House website requesting support and recognition by including school libraries in the new reauthorization of the Elementary Secondary Education Act.

Ensure that every child in America has access to an effective school library program.

Every child in America deserves access to an effective school library program. We ask that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provide dedicated funding to help support effective school library programs. Such action will ensure more students have access to the resources and tools that constitute a 21st century learning environment. Reductions in school library programs are creating an ‘access gap’ between schools in wealthier communities versus those where there are high levels of poverty. All students should have an equal opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to learn, to participate, and to compete in today’s world.

We now have until Feb. 4, 2012, to get 25,000 signatures. This is where I need your help. I want to challenge you to find those 5 people and get them to sign the petition. I challenge you to get at least 5 people to sign the petition. The numbers will quickly multiple and we’ll surpass the 25,000 in no time.

The link to the petition is here:

http://wh.gov/Wgd

You will need to create an account in order to sign the petition. Some folks who have troubled have suggested trying different browsers, different computers, or even coming back a few days later.

We need more than the school library community to sign this petition. Anyone over the age of 13 is qualified to sign the petition. Teachers, parents, students, community members are all encouraged to sign the petition. Contact your family and friends and ask them to sign as well. This is a perfect opportunity to spread the word about school libraries by asking them to sign the petition.

We can’t wait or assume someone else is going to do this for us. We have to take action for our programs and for the needs of our students. This petition will help raise awareness to the White House that our country values school library programs.

After you have signed, then please begin to share it with others. Post it online, on blogs, on Twitter, and Facebook. Email it out to your friends and colleagues. Please use all your communication methods to help get the word out.
Thank you for your support of the petition!

Carl A. Harvey II

I love this note from Netflix that hit my inbox yesterday. A bonus DVD for the holidays? You bet! Sign me up.

Even though the cynic in me wonders if this gift was motivated at all by the Netflix/Qwikster missteps earlier this fall, I’m in.

What can we do to send our students into winter break with a similar sense of celebration and abundance?

Being that my name is FONTichiaro and that my university email address is FONT [at] umich [dot] edu, it’s probably no surprise that I am a big fan of fonts. And one of the pieces of advice I got in library school that served me well came from Dian Walster. She said that we should choose a font that we used for all of our signs, PR items, bookmarks, and more.

You want to pick a font that is easy to read and looks good in small print (like on a bookmark) and big print (on a banner). You might even consider creating oversized spine labels with this font. I used to print out Gill Sans MT, size 18 bold, and put the spine labels sideways on the books. Boy, did having that bigger font help my aging eyes!

So instead of a two-line spine label like this:

FIC
SPI

the label would be FIC SPI (all one line, with three spaces between FIC and SPI). And

398.2
KIM

became 398.2 KIM.

Anyhoo, let’s get to the fun stuff. Let’s explore some sets of free fonts that can spark up your signage and documents this fall:

Here is a sampling of 42 free fonts to consider, courtesy of YoutheDesigner.com:

42 High Quality Free Fonts For Graphic Designers via kwout

One of the 42 that is probably impractical for libraries but awesome for creating a typographic portrait of Poe is Absinthe:

Absinthe Typeface - Free Font on the Behance Network via kwout

Ten more high-interest, no-cost fonts come courtesy of WebDesignFact.com. Some samples:

WDF: 10 Free Fonts to Grab Visitors Attention via kwout

For special occasions, consider peppering your brand with these calligraphic fonts. Here’s a sample of the 46 freebies available:

46 Free & Elegant Calligraphic Fonts | PSDFan via kwout

If those 96 fonts aren’t enough, try searching these eight font libraries. You’ll find tons of additional resources, but you’ll also wade through some very odd stuff!

8 Free Font Resources! Add A Unique Text Look To Your Video Projects! | Premiumbeat.com via kwout

Now if you work in a school in which you have little customization opportunity, you may not be able to download some of those fonts. If that’s the case, try picking a font that’s already installed but not commonly used in your building. If everybody is using Comic Sans, try Gill Sans MT. If you’re an Office 2007 building and Calibri is running rampant, try Palatino.

Have fun!