NFL’s Joe Staley has created a 30-second PSA about the importance of libraries in his own academic career (having a mom who is a school librarian didn’t hurt!). Check it out via the link below.

It’s a great example of advocacy: a non-librarian talking about how librarians and libraries have been beneficial to a patron.

Versions for embedding on social networking sites are forthcoming.

ASK WHY? - Certified School Librarians - MAME via kwout

Here’s an intriguing project that lets you create stories by linking together Twitter posts, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and more. It’s currently in beta format.

This makes my head explode as I think about how a product like this impacts how students look at authenticity of sources, among other things …

Storify demo from Burt Herman on Vimeo.

I have been a fan of the Storycorps projects for many years and wrote about how to adapt their oral history recordings in schools for Podcasting at School. Setting up podcasting stations outside of the library’s Book Fair and watching parents and students share stories was a real highlight of my time at Beverly School, especially as back-to-school creeps up on me and I remind myself I won’t be there this fall.

The New York Times reports on a project to animate StoryCorps interviews and insert them into episodes of P.O.V. on PBS.

Here’s a preview:

Q&A from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

As you plan for back-to-school open houses and think ahead a few months to parent-teacher conferences, I highly recommend creating StoryCorps-style stations as your contribution to the event. It is so richly satisfying for everyone.

PS - The P.O.V./Storycorps shorts premiere August 17.