I was so very very fortunate to be elected as the Texas Library Association (TLA) President for 2002-2003. The opportunities afforded me through that experience opened up many new experiences in what could be accomplished with technology in Libraries. Ultimately, my presidency lead me to be invited to the first School Library Journal (SLJ) Summit [...]

My mentor and friend, Dorothy Baetge, saw something in me and asked for me to apply to be the Library Supervisor for the district in which I worked. She was the Library Director. I applied and was hired. We and the third member of our tem, Ann Parker, continued to push the envelope of technology [...]

    I stumbled into teaching and then stumbled into School Librarianship. My first courses were in the summer of 1978. I learned a lot of philosophy about the organization of all the knowledge of the universe and then how to serve it to patrons. To my University program (University of Texas in Austin) I [...]

It appears that much of the movement forward with web 2.0 tools in a district rely on cooperation with the technology department, particularly the ones that run the network, firewall, filter, etc. This post has some good ideas about YouTube and then some links at the bottom about the whole issue. Hopefully it will help [...]

The Texas Association of School Library Administrators (TASLA) had there annual June meeting with great success. Mary Woodard from Mesquite ISD (of Top Shelf fame) planned the program. Mary Christmas from Corpus Christi ISD chaired the event. As always, this event is more than worth the time. Below are the blog postings from many attendees: [...]

TASLA is the Texas Association for School Library Administrators. We meet each June for 2 and half days in Austin. This year we have almost 120 attendees. The first session was a very exciting one provided to us by Kim Cofino of Always Learning Blog. She presented to us over Skype. Her presentation, 21st Century [...]

The Texas Library Association (TLA) Annual Conference held in Houston, March 31-April 3 was another success. In addition to some good hall networking, I was able to learn from these sessions:   The Google-ization of the Universe – there was some information about how Google and the State databases work together. Gaming for Instruction – [...]

The 5th annual Strong Libraries, Strong Scores mini conference for School Administrators occurred as part of the Texas Library Association Annual conference held in Houston March 31-April 3.   We had over 85 school administrators attend. We have already received 2 e-mails unsolicited from administrators that were going to increase the Library budget or rethink [...]

Barry Bishop, director, Spring Branch ISD and Mary Woodard, director, Mesquite ISD presented 23 Things: New Technologies Training sponsored by Texas Association of School Librarians on the opening day of the Texas Library Association Annual conference held in Houston March 31-April 3.   We had a packed crown of over 250 standing room only Librarians. [...]

Abilene Christian University gave each incoming freshman an iPod Touch or an iPhone in the Fall Semester of 2008. The ConnectED Summit was to detail their implementation and to bring together educators who wanted to discuss mobile technology. There were 412 attendees from 144 organizations, representing 64 colleges and universities, 29 K-12 school districts. More [...]