School Libraries

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is currently engaging in planning for use of our federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) ESSER III funds. As part of that planning, we are scheduling feedback meetings to provide a space and opportunity for different Wisconsin voices to provide input and feedback. One of the most critical voices is that of the students we serve. We’d like your help in identifying students to participate in an opportunity to share their experiences, thoughts, and ideas about education in Wisconsin. The DPI will be holding two virtual meetings (60 minutes each) for youth to offer input and feedback on Wisconsin’s use of ARPA and ESSER III funds. Please share this opportunity and encourage the youth you work with or know to participate--it is open to ALL youth in Wisconsin.

Please feel free to share this invitation with others in your network who may be connected to youth willing to participate. The dates and times of the two sessions follow with the Zoom link at the end of this message:

July 14, 2021; 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

July 15, 20201; 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Interested youth should RSVP with their preferred date and time here so we can plan accordingly.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please contact Latoya Holiday at latoya.holiday@dpi.wi.gov or 608-266-8009.

Thank you for all you do to support Wisconsin’s students.

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Many of us can probably identify with the desire to “break-out” - especially during 2020, a year full of quarantines and restrictions we could not escape. One of the Public Library School Library Subaward recipients from 2020 overcame challenges to successfully do just that!

The S. Verna Fowler Academic Library, Menominee Public Library, Keshena Primary School, and the Menominee Indian Middle School worked together to create a series of escape games for elementary and middle school age children using STEM skills with a cultural focus on maple sugar, sturgeon, and wild-rice. In escape games, teams use inquiry, problem-solving, and knowledge to solve puzzles with the purpose of answering an overarching quest in a set period of time. Although the original intention was for all the games to be played in physical environments using BreakoutEDU, the team shifted their work, creating some of the games to be played in a digital environment, which made them more accessible during the pandemic. The work was truly a community effort, enlisting the help of librarians, teachers, and students to create an engaging way to learn.

The focus of this grant opportunity, provided by the DPI Library Services team with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), was to honor and encourage collaborative work between schools and public libraries. The DPI Library Services Team celebrates the amazing accomplishments of this collaborative group, which have also been recognized in the Menominee Nation News. The games created through this project have also been published on the BreakoutEDU website, making them accessible to millions of students.

Project leader Laura Robinson, Youth Services Librarian for the Menominee County Public Library found this project strengthened connections between the school and public library and has had many positive outcomes. She hopes other educators, especially those in districts serving native students and families, will be able to use these resources. The games can be found on the BreakoutEDU website.

As a long-standing partner with DPI, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) is a foundational resource for Wisconsin educators and librarians. Recently on the blog, we’ve highlighted CCBC Choices 2021 and the new CCBC website with enhanced searching.

The CCBC librarians have created a video tutorial (14 min, includes transcript) walking through ways to use the enhanced search features, including how to search by diversity subjects such as “Gender Nonconformity,” “Muslim,” or “Cognitive/Neurological Disability/Condition.” The creation and expansion of inclusive libraries and classrooms with authentic, engaging literature has never been more critical.

The CCBC recommends a wide range of books for children and teens from birth through high-school age, most of which have been selected for various editions of their annual best-of-the-year list, CCBC Choices. Explore books they have recommended using resources such as: Recommended Books Search, Booklists, CCBC Choices, and the Charlotte Zolotow Award.

Database development for the enhanced CCBC book searches was made possible with the support of DPI through Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Written by Tessa Michaelson Schmidt (Library Services Team), with details provided by Megan Schliesman (CCBC)

See also:
The Cooperative Children's Book Center Releases CCBC Choices 2021 from March 17, 2021
New CCBC Website with Enhanced Search Features from August 27, 2020

This article originally appeared in the March 16, 2021, issue of DPI-ConnectEd.

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a part of UW Madison - School of Education and partially supported by the Department of Public Instruction, recently released their CCBC Choices best-of-the-year list in a virtual format this year. Librarians of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center are recommending 257 books published in 2020, out of the nearly 3,000 books they received.

The CCBC is a non-circulating research library for anyone interested in children’s and young adult literature. The CCBC receives almost every children’s and young adult book from the publishing industry in the United States each year. CCBC librarians have read, cataloged, and written the recommendations for the best-of-the-best books since 1980. The CCBC has also been documenting books by and about Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) it has received since 1994 and is an authoritative national source on tracking diversity in children's and young adult literature.

CCBC Choices 2021 is organized by several themes and genres and provides efficiently detailed descriptions of what makes each book stellar. Their recommendations also offer an age range for each book. The librarians include their observations in the publishing industry, noting, among several other items in their introduction:

The most welcome thing we noticed in 2020 was the number of outstanding books that speak to the many-faceted lives and experiences of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), from those that are directly and intentionally affirming (e.g., Black Is a Rainbow Color, Brown Baby Lullaby, I Am Every Good Thing) to those that affirm through the simple yet profound importance of authentic visibility (e.g., Bedtime Bonnet, Evelyn Del Ray Is Moving Away, Me & Mama, The Most Beautiful Thing, The Range Eternal) (2021).

Physical copies of last year’s CCBC Choices are still available upon request, and past editions can be found in PDF format online.

Books recommended in CCBC Choices are included in the searchable CCBC- Recommended Books Database.

References: CCBC. (2021). “Observations on Publishing in 2020.” Accessed March 2, 2021. https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/observations-on-publishing-in-2020/.