NEWSLETTER ELECTIVE

Ls521wmc

Iva Martin

04/16/02

The two subscriptions that I have found to be most beneficial are the Library HOT5 from Classroom Connect, subscriptions@listserv.classroom.com and Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Children’s Literature Resources newsletter, c-smith@texas.net.

The Library HOT5 arrives about every other week with timely library related topics linked to websites. For example, one topic centered around National Library Week. Links connected to the ALA websites. Another topic dealt with website evaluation and linked to at least 10 sites that included lessons to teach students how to evaluate websites. HOT5 is archived so that the reader may go back to find previous topics. The following link will take you there. http://www.classroom.com/community/email/archives.jhtml?A0=HOT5 This newsletter is very basic and specialized to the topic of the day/week. However, it is an excellent resource. I would recommend the HOT5 for any media specialist. In my experience, Classroom Connect has top quality information. It was easy to subscribe, and I will continue my subscription.

Cynthia Leitich Smith’s newsletter is a delight. The only complaint that I have is that it is not published often enough. It is only published quarterly, but you can peruse previous newsletters. Some of the links that you will find are 2002 Summer Reading Lists, the 2002 Read-In, author biographies, bibliographies, Childhood favorites, Writing for Children, Cat-themed Picture Books, book awards including the new Newbery and Caldecott winners. Leitich Smith is an author herself so; consequently, she really has expertise on the topic of literature. Her website is very easy to maneuver. The side bar allows you to jump quickly to a topic of special interest. The main body of the site is extremely extensive with minimal graphics. I subscribed to the Cynthia Leitich Smith Children's Literature Resources and Cynthia Leitich Smith Children's Literature Resources Announcements. In addition to being informative and current, this newsletter includes links to related topics. It was easy to subscribe, and it is one that I will continue. I would recommend this newsletter for any teachers and/or librarians. Parents would also benefit from the bibliographies.

In my travels I also subscribed to the two following websites. Abcteach has a newsletter which would be very helpful for preschool and primary teachers. It offers activities and themes and may be found at http://abcteach.com. Secondary teachers would be interested in a publication from OCLC, maintained by Julia Myers. It offers links to websites on specific topics, mostly social studies related. The themes appeared to be secondary oriented, e.g. the Holocaust. This subscription is called NETFIRST and may be found at LISTSERV@OCLC.ORG.