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Dear Farmville, I am angry with you. You knew I was weak with  the boredom of a kid on bed rest and my favorite laptop off getting fixed. Yet you didn’t care. You lured me in with your promise of a pixel perfect life. You offered me shiny apples and adorable little animals. As our [...]

Yeah, I wish that’s where I was. Maybe if our Make A Wish comes through in time for Halloween I will be trick or treating on the beach You all know I have a lot going on and now I have to send my computer in for 2 weeks of work. Yes, we have 7 [...]

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer. Here? Not so much! Between the oldest one taking Honors Bio in summer school and the younger one not being allowed to get out of bed, summer is just kinda sucky. I’m bored, Carts bored, Bob and Con are overloaded. So we have been playing with [...]

Once upon a time I wrote an article on how to host a blog giveaway. But with all the blog changes I have going on I began doing some research on blog giveaways and realized it is just not something I am comfortable with anymore. Lots of blogs are writing about the subject and I [...]

I recently redid most of my media kits after attending the EVO Conference Before and After: Sales & Monetization. I learned a lot from listening to Stephanie Schwab discuss the elements that make a media kit successful so I would like to pass some of that advice on to you. Here is a media kit [...]

Lots of times people approach me and say “I don’t know how you do it” and my answer is always “I don’t know how I don’t”. Having trials and tribulations is a part of life. Recently my friend Lisa suggested a new author to me, Echo Bodine. I am really enjoying her words of wisdom [...]

I have a full conference pass up for sale on Ebay with proceeds going to Make A Wish Foundation. I had a great time at BlogHer ’09 and I am so bummed to miss out this year. But I am really happy to be able to use the ticket to help MAW! I am also [...]

I have been a painfully lazy blogger lately. Life is happening and I just haven’t had time to process it all. I had a rough couple weeks a while ago: letting go, changing directions, remembering what is most important. I think we all need those reality checks now and again. Then I fell down the [...]

Today the latest Twilight movie opens yet it was apparently way better to share the news that my butt is still out of shape. Thanks USA Today! Cause today wasn’t weird enough. I needed my butt to be the cover story.  The least you could have done is linked to me since you found me [...]

Jenny, the Bloggess, has officially saved me from a life of drugs and for that we must all thank her! I was catching up on my feeds and since she is one of my favorites I actually went to look and see what I missed last week from her. Thank god I did. She had [...]

PBS tonight airs the long-awaited “Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House” at 8 p.m. EDT, with an encore showing at 9:30.

It’s an all-star concert that features music from McCartney himself and Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Jonas Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dave Grohl, Faith Hill, Emmylou Harris, Lang Lang and Jack White, with remarks by Jerry Seinfeld.

The Library announced in May that Sir Paul was to be the third recipient of the Gershwin Prize, which celebrates a lifetime of creative output in the realm of popular music.  President Barack Obama conferred the Prize on the legendary rocker last month at the White House during the taping of the performance that airs tonight.

To whet your palate, enjoy a couple of videos.  The first is a backstage look at the Jonas Brothers and their White House performance of “Drive My Car.”  The second is White Stripes frontman Jack White’s rendition of the hauntingly beautiful “Mother Nature’s Son.”

You can read a little more about it on the Music Division’s blog, “In the Muse.”

Looking for ideas on how to incorporate manuscript materials into classroom activities? There is a new page for teachers on the Manuscript Division website. The page includes links to resources on the Teacher’s Page, suggestions on where to look for manuscript collections on the Library’s website, and a highlighted document from the Library’s manuscript collections. Currently featured are George Washington’s School Copy Books.

Students in grades K-5 and 6-8 are invited to draw or paint a design depicting the wonder of reading and books, in the Borders 2010 National Book Festival Bookmark Contest. The top prizewinners’ designs will be displayed at their local Borders store and the grand-prize winner’s design will be printed on bookmarks to be distributed at the 2010 National Book Festival. Download an entry form at http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_bookmarkcontest?cmpid=SA_20100625
or see your local Borders store for specific contest entry details.

During the International Society for Technology in Education Conference (ISTE) in Denver, Colorado on June 29th, Library of Congress staff presented information on its professional development programs for teachers. A special highlight of the session was the introduction of the Library’s fifth online self paced module, "Finding Primary Sources." This hour long self-paced session provides users shortcuts to finding primary sources, tips for planning a search and information to learn more about searching the Library’s website.

Are you coming to the American Library Association conference? Come to the Library of Congress on June 25th between the hours of 2-5pm. Several reading rooms will be hosting open houses where you can meet the staff and access the collections. Also from 5-7pm the Library will host tours of the Jefferson Building and the Main Reading Room.

Plus during the conference (June 24-29) the Library’s Sales shop will offer a 20% discount to attending the conference. Just make sure to say “LCALA” when you are checking out.

Those of you interested in our education programming you will have the opportunity to meet Elizabeth Ridgway, the director of the Educational Outreach program, during the Office of Strategic Initiatives open house in the National Digital Library Learning Center between 3-5pm.

The Library of Congress is the focus of a one-hour special, “The Real National Treasure,” on the HISTORY channel’s longest-running series, “Modern Marvels,” airing on Thursday, June 10 at 9 p.m. ET. More than 50 staff of the Library and the Architect of the Capitol tell the Library’s story and show the audience the vast array of daily activities of acquisition, copyright, cataloging, security, preservation and serving readers.

You can learn more about HISTORY's Modern Marvels television program at http://www.history.com/shows/modern-marvels

And you can learn more about the Library's Hidden Treasures at http://myloc.gov/CuratorMultimedia/HiddenTreasures.aspx

Need to find primary sources from a specific time period? Use the American Memory timeline to locate resources from the collections. Click on the time period and find an overview of the events from that period. Then click on specific topics within the time period and get an overview of the topic and then links to primary sources of the period.

Concerned about copyright in your classroom? Try this new online professional development module from the Library of Congress. You'll discover how to evaluate primary sources from the Library's collections so you're comfortable using them in your teaching. Plus, you'll learn about Fair Use, several low-worry ways of using primary sources, and eavesdrop on teachers as they think about copyright.

Be among the middle or high schools selected to have students help capture and archive today’s primary source materials on the Web.

There is a growing awareness of the importance of preserving the often transitory digital cultural artifacts distributed over the Web. But so far, the vast majority of decisions about what Web sites will live into the future have been made by adults, and reflect adults’ sensibilities. In order to broaden this perspective, the Internet Archive and the Library of Congress launched the K-12 Web Archiving Program.

For a complete program description and application questions, go to <http://www.loc.gov/teachers/newsevents/events/archive_the_internet/>
Applications must be in by July 2, 2010.

Voices from Afghanistan highlights letters sent by citizens of Afghanistan to Radio Azadi, the Afghan branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. These letters capture the concerns and hopes of ordinary citizens in Afghanistan living under the extraordinarily difficult conditions of conflict and war. Included are letters from a school boy who complains about the broken window in his school and how the cold keeps him from learning and a school teacher wanting to make sure his students receive instruction from trained teachers. Also included are poems, artworks and stories that highlight the creativity of the Afghan community