My Beauty Best Teacher

School Library Journal had an article yesterday on how Overdrive now is compatible with the Kindle. Overdrive is a popular ebook "check out" service used by many public and some progressive school libraries. As I checked the prices, I found that a license for a US school of up to a certain size is around $4,000 and it includes $2,000 towards 150-200 ebooks a year to add to your collection and you can add more. (This is only available for US schools presently.)

The fascinating thing is that you can have a 24/7 online library for students to check out with a customized book collection set up for just your students.

Rock, Paper, Ebook
Cavemen wrote on rocks in caves. Then, with Egyptian papyrus, paper was born. Now, with Kindles, Ipads and the like, electronic paper is in its infancy.

There are things not perfect about ebooks right now. Earlier this year, Overdrive received quite a bit of negative press for their "use limit" for some books. (Read the Librarian in Black for more information.) The bottom line is that publishers have no idea how the pricing will look for this new model and librarians aren't happy and perhaps cannot afford to pay for each person who reads a title if that is a model that moves ahead.

Many ebooks are check one out only. For example, if you check out a book, you don't return it. It expires and is returned to the library and then next person can check it out. The person who checked it can recheck it if it is available in the library. You can buy multiple copies of a book and let multiple copies be checked out. Textbooks are currently not available through this program from what I'm reading. 

But there is room for progressive authors and publishers who want to open up new markets to create "unlimited" check out books, so that possibility exists.

Are there other ways paper is better?
In fact, I had this conversation with my teenage daughter who has my old Kindle (which I gave up unhappily as I do prefer reading on it to my ipad but she does love it.) I asked her why she didn't want all of her novels on Kindle and her answer was,

The Skiff ebook reader was announced at CES 2010 and looks more like paper.

"Mom, when I have a book and the teacher has me underline and take notes, it is just a lot easier to take those notes and make those underlines in the book so I can have it to study for easily. I keep it on a shelf so when I'm a senior it will be easier to review for AP Literature."

OK, valid point. Since we had that discussion, I'm finding this to be true.

A Lesson from Cell Phone Days
I remember when cell phones first came out and I got in the business in 1992. Everyone said,

"NO one is going to use cell phones, they are too big and bulky and we will never want to have a bag on our hip."

Yes, they were right. Cell phones as they WERE didn't have mass market appeal. (Anyone remember "bag phones" and "brick phones?")

The problem was that people didn't see the cell phone as what it would become.

The same with ebooks.

Do you realize that we are sitting upon the biggest innovation in the MEDIA upon which we read since Egyptian papyrus. Sure, Guttenberg's printing press made a big difference in the mass scalability of paper. Take a look at the youtube video from Cairo showing the making of papyrus paper in 4,000 BC.



But paper was paper.

We are literally evolving: Rock, Paper, eBook

There are librarians digging in to defend their media. They think they are about paper. Really, a good library isn't about paper: it is about learning. Whether a student reads on a rock, paper, or ebook, I don't think a librarian should really care as long as that student is reading.

I'm not a librarian (obviously) but have a tremendous amount of respect for librarians. (See Librarians Teach us to Swim; Social media Builds Islands and Bandwidth is the Library Card of the Modern Age.)

In the ebook model we still need librarians as curators. Instead of teaching the card catalog system or electronic look up system, you'll teach people how to navigate a website. Instead of teaching students how to find it on a shelf, we'll teach them how to find it on a website and download it into their ebook reader.

Tired and Retire?
You have an opportunity, librarian. Some of you are close to retirement and you might choose to say:

"This is too much, I'm just going to go how it is for now and let the next person worry about this."

Well, they aren't building any more libraries in the physical world but in the online world, they are just beginning. You have a legacy. Your legacy is built in a generation of learners who came to you for advice that you have helped. You've poured your life into these walls and these learners. Open the walls and reach new learners.

Look at the chairs that surround you now. Think of the hundreds and maybe even thousands that have sat in those chairs studying or taking wild adventures that took them beyond the world in which they live. You've been opening a frontier to these students for your entire life.

If your heart is still beating and you still have a desk in your current library, you have the opportunity to make a difference and leave a legacy. Others are looking at you and if you decide that you're going to learn something new and try it, then you are setting the stage for everyone younger than you. They can say:

"If Mrs. Librarian-Close-To-Retirement can do it. So can I."

In fact, your behavior is setting the stage for the new person who will replace you. It is hard for new people to innovate because they aren't trusted (yet) and they don't have the asking power. You do. You know that you can ask for the money for an ebook lending system (I'm sure there are some besides Overdrive out there) and you could get it.

Why put off for someone else to do what is clearly your opportunity to do?

The question is: are you willing to learn so you can leave a legacy of learning?

Picture this: the library chairs are no longer chairs in your library but beds, floors, recliners, couches, car seats and even the fields around the world. Wherever your students are, you can be too.

There are obvious benefits:

• check in is automated, 
• students can find and download what they want, 
• no heavy backpacks
• wear and tear on books,
• eventually you can perhaps even see how many pages they read and how they interacted with the book - things we can't even imagine yet. 

There are drawbacks:

• something new to learn, 
• publishers bumbling through the process of trying to make this happen,
• you can't write in the book (is that really a drawback for libraries?), 
• can you save the notes even when you don't have the book?

The point is that this evolution is happening. Some will always like paper and no one is making you get rid of your  paper books. No one is asking anyone to read on something that they don't want to read upon.

The only thing that is being asked is by students and people like me who want the opportunity to be able to read in the media that we prefer: the ebook.

I get 10-15 books to review a month. NONE of the publishers will send it to me via ebook. How crazy is that? Publishers don't want this to happen - at least those who have warehouses full of printing presses, paper, and personnell who do nothing but print books.

Remember all of those people who used to stamp CD's? Albums? They just aren't there because people wanted to download music.

Change
Change happens whether we like it or not. Change can be done by us to or us. We have a choice. With your many years of experience, the future library will be better if our most seasoned veterans are involved. I think we should look at libraries like the King County Library System (which won the busiest and Best Library of the Year.)

We need our veteran librarians more than ever
I'm just reaching out and asking the heroes among us to continue to be our heroes. We need our librarian leaders to help us move into the next evolution of paper. And with Kindle now on Overdrive, the evolution of books and libraries has just moved into overdrive. Expect major disruption to happen to the publishing industry - it has begun and now libraries are feeling the nudge along the path to our electronic future.

Remember your noble calling, librarian. Same to you, parent and teacher. We've got a new generation to reach and teach. Let's get started.


When we launched Kindle Kids Corner with Stephen Windwalker and I saw just how our students love the ebook format, I realized that it was time. Let's move ahead.

Last week I wrote in my post Lessons from Economic Recessions- Introduction and Great Depression:

History teaches lessons- it allows those of us in the present to see how results in the past worked. Economic recessions are a great teaching tool for policy makers and average citizens, because they teach us how the recession may have happened and how to emerge from the recession and therefore inform us as to the policy actions that we must take and those that we as citizens must support.

In that post, I talked about the lessons from the Great Depression. The lessons that I drew from the Great Depression are based though not on just data from that event, but from other recessions that our nation has entered and exited. Most liberals simply say 'government spending got us out of the Great Depression', but when I ask them about all of the other recessions that the United States entered, they have a blank look, as they do not have any knowledge of other recessions or how we emerged from them as a nation.

One of my friends in the media should try this sometime- ask a liberal policy maker- President Barack Obama, or Nancy Pelosi, or Carl Levin, or Debbie Stabenow, or Gary Peters- ask them what lessons they have personally learned from the Great Depression. I am sure they will roll off some long-winded answer that sounds educated and learned but basically boils down to 'spend more money.' Follow-up that question with a question on what lessons they learned from the Depression of 1920-21, or The Panic of 1907, or the Long Depression of 1873–79, and you'll be sure to get blank looks from these policy makers, as they don't have any knowledge about those recessions and have learned no lessons from them. They might even snap back some response to you about how unimportant it is to learn about other recessions- but they are wrong, because if you only draw your lessons on economic policy from one recession, the Great Depression, and your lessons are wrong at that, than you are sure to be wrong about very big and important policy decisions that have real effects on our nation.

Of course, my blog should not be the source for your education- I would advise you to spend some real time studying some real economists- but at least the knowledge that I display here and the lessons that I draw here are likely more educated than those of the above policy-makers, including our Harvard-trained President of the United States. So let's discuss today the The Forgotten Depression of 1920.

The Depression of 1920–21, which was an extremely sharp deflationary recession in the United States that lasted from January 1920 to July 1921, which at 18 months in duration is longer than any of the recessions after WWII, and which saw a GDP decrease of anywhere from 3% to 7%. The recession of 1920–21 was characterized by extreme deflation- anywhere from 13% to 18% — the largest one-year percentage decline in around 140 years of data. Unemployment jumped anywhere from 4 to 6% in one year, the AT&T Index of Industrial Productivity showed a decline of 29.4%, and stocks fell dramatically during the recession. It was a very bad recession that led many in society to question the stability and future of the American system of capitalism.

At the time, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover — later President Hoover- urged President Harding to consider an array of interventions to turn the economy around. Hoover, as we all know now, was a progressive Republican who believed that active government response by government officials who were smarter than the rest of us could shorten a recession and led to economic growth. Hoover advocated the same policy responses in 1920 that he implemented in 1929- increased spending by the government, increased taxes especially on the evil rich, increased regulation of businesses, bailouts for banks and 'too big to fail' companies, continued support to labor unions, and more government agencies and boards to organize and improve our existing economic system.

As you can see, the responses that Hoover advocated in 1920 and implemented in 1929 are very nearly the same policies that President Obama implemented in 2009. The results of these policies are seen today and were seen in 1929- but not in 1920 because President Warren Harding ignored Hoover and did the exact opposite as what he recommended. Whereas Hoover pushed for more government spending, Harding decreased it; when Hoover wanted more regulation, Harding put in place less; for every board of smart elites that Hoover proposed to control human action, Harding cut boards and agencies so that the common man could be more free; and Harding ignored demands to raise taxes and instead slashed taxes.

The result of Harding's more conservative approach to the severe recession of 1920-1921? The recession ended quickly and ushered in an amazing period of robust economic activity the continued throughout the 1920's as Harding and Coolidge continued conservative policies. It is no surprise that the limited government, balanced budget, low taxes, low regulation, and unleashing of human freedom led to the Roaring Twenties, an amazing period in American history of social, artistic, and economic dynamism, while the active government, increased taxes, massive government spending, and more regulation of the progressive Hoover and liberal Roosevelt led to the Great Depression.

Thomas E. Woods (author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, and Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse) recently wrote a great post on this subject called The Forgotten Recession- I advise you to read the whole article, but here are several important pieces of it:

...It is hardly necessary to point out that Harding's counsel — delivered in the context of a speech to a political convention, no less — is the opposite of what the alleged experts urge upon us today. Inflation, increased government spending, and assaults on private savings combined with calls for consumer profligacy: such is the program for "recovery" in the 21st century.

Not surprisingly, many modern economists who have studied the depression of 1920–1921 have been unable to explain how the recovery could have been so swift and sweeping even though the federal government and the Federal Reserve refrained from employing any of the macroeconomic tools — public works spending, government deficits, and inflationary monetary policy — that conventional wisdom now recommends as the solution to economic slowdowns. The Keynesian economist Robert A. Gordon admitted that "government policy to moderate the depression and speed recovery was minimal. The Federal Reserve authorities were largely passive.… Despite the absence of a stimulative government policy, however, recovery was not long delayed."...

...There was nothing at all unusual about the pattern of American wealth in the 1920s. Far greater disparities have existed in countless times and places without any resulting disruption.

In fact, the Great Depression actually came in the midst of a dramatic upward trend in the share of national income devoted to wages and salaries in the United States — and a downward trend in the share going to interest, dividends, and entrepreneurial income. We do not in fact need the violent expropriation of any American in order to achieve prosperity, thank goodness...

...Harding's inchoate understanding of what was happening to the economy and why grandiose interventionist plans would only delay recovery is an extreme rarity among 20th-century American presidents. That he has been the subject of ceaseless ridicule at the hands of historians, to the point that anyone speaking a word in his favor would be dismissed out of hand, speaks volumes about our historians' capabilities outside of their own discipline.

The experience of 1920–1921 reinforces the contention of genuine free-market economists that government intervention is a hindrance to economic recovery. It is not in spite of the absence of fiscal and monetary stimulus that the economy recovered from the 1920–1921 depression. It is because those things were avoided that recovery came. The next time we are solemnly warned to recall the lessons of history lest our economy deteriorate still further, we ought to refer to this episode — and observe how hastily our interrogators try to change the subject....

Read the whole article- the logic, the understanding, the theories, and the explanation are all in there, and go into economic terms and theories that I am only beginning to gain an understanding of.

The lessons that I drew regarding the Great Depression are supported by the lessons that one can learn from the Recession of 1920-1921- that economic recessions are worsened and lengthened by a government that takes away human liberty, treats people as numbers to manage, takes wealth and property from those who have earned it, and that in every other way violates the Founding Principles of our nation (limited government, federalism, and separation of power). It is up to policy makers to learn those lessons and to vote accordingly on future legislation facing our nation.

Keep reading my blog regularly for future posts on this subject, and I continue becoming educated and drawing lessons from other past economic recessions that our nation faced and overcome.

Jo McLeay shared a touching letter in her comments on a post I wrote this past week  about 5 Stories to Inspire Teachers to Never Let Anyone Steal Your Joy where I commented about a "secret student" who is stealing things off my desk in my room this year.

So many veteran teachers have reached out on the blog, Twitter and via email to say, YES! You have tough times as a teacher. Jo is one of those veteran teachers and a personal encouragement to me on this blog from day one.

I think this look inside the mind of a difficult student will give you hope. May we all be so fortunate as to get a letter one day like this.

A Letter From a Difficult Student

Hi Vicki, I know that what you have said is true; a few weeks ago I got this message from an ex student -

"I know it's been ages and everything, but I was thinking before how
horrible and annoying I was in high school and in your class, it was
completely immature and selfish of me to of acted that way. I know
this is no excuse there really is no excuse for being a rude, disruption
when your trying to do your job and students are trying to learn, but I
was going through a fair bit off stuff at that time. Yea so I
realize this is really random but just wanted to say sorry, and that you
were a really caring and dedicated teacher and students are lucky to
have you."

High school students in Australia are from 12 to 18 and she was in the younger range when she was in my class 6 to 8 years ago. She was one of the most difficult students I had in my career. I can't begin to tell you what it meant to me. You too may get this sort of message from the very student who is now plaguing you. Hang in there.
Jo McLeay

Thank you Jo. And to all of you out there, hang in there! 

President Barack Obama said something pretty darn surprising in a speech recently. He said "(?) have been the labor force of our farmers and agricultural producers for generations. So even if it was possible, a program of mass (?) would disrupt our economy and communities in ways that most Americans would find intolerable."

I wonder- what sort of people was he describing that are the labor force of our farmers and agricultural producers, a sort of people who are underpaid, treated poorly, and often times not given their full rights? These people might work very hard to produce cotton or something. Now let's suppose that we wanted to do something about these people, something to fix the situation, something that would make things lawful and right, but to do so would disrupt our economy and communities in a way that many, perhaps in the South, would find intolerable. I wonder- what would you do?

So, do you think that President Obama was arguing in favor of slavery or in favor of illegal immigration? Go ahead- replace the first question mark with 'slaves' or 'migrant workers - mostly here illegally' and replace the second question mark with 'emancipation' or 'mass deportations'- and you'll see that the argument is very similar.

People used to argue that slaves were important because of their work producing agricultural products and to get rid of slavery would be disruptive. Today people argue that migrant workers (mostly illegal immigrants) are important because of their work producing agricultural products and to change the situation would be disruptive.

Something needs to be done with those people who came to our country illegally, who disobeyed and disregarded the laws of our nation, and who snuck into our country under the cover of darkness and deceit. I don't know what, but I do know that simply saying 'okay, you're all citizens now' is not the right approach and is an approach that demands no courage and is an approach that will invite further lawbreaking and illegal immigration. I know that 'disruption to the economy' is important, but deporting illegal immigrants who broke the law will be no more disruptive to our economy than the healthcare bill that was recently passed or the cap and tax bill that Obama wants passed, so Obama is disingenuous and selective using this argument. And illegal immigrants haven't been in in the labor force for generations- if they have any kids, they're citizens, so they are no longer illegal immigrants and demand minimum wage and full rights and so likely won't be 'migrant workers'- so making an argument that they have been here for generations is a bad argument too.

You go ahead and read Obama's speech if you want, and you tell me- is he Abraham Lincoln or Stephen Douglas, or some local nobody that couldn't match wits with either?

There will be a rally against Government Motors on Monday, January 11th, to make a peaceful yet clear statement against Government takeover of America. Sorry about the late notice on this, but if you live in the Detroit area and would like to make your views known about all of the endless and unaccountable government bailouts, you have a chance to by showing up on Monday and peacefully protesting.

Since December of 2008, the private company General Motors has so far taken $52.9 billion in taxpayer dollars. The intended purpose of this funding was “to prevent a significant disruption of the American automotive industry,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). GM used this money to go bankrupt and shed billions in debt- by that, I mean that banks and investors were forced to take a bath and thousands of people were laid off and hundreds of dealers were forced out of business. This unprecedented distribution of wealth also has resulted in the government owning 61% of GM equity and the labor unions owning a good chunk more.

Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat leaders (possible even President Obama) are coming to Detroit to check on their investment on Monday, and this is a chance for us to tell them what we think of the US government nationalizing private businesses.

The rally is Monday, January 11, 2010, from 9:30am - 12:00pm, at the Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. Meet in the lobby of the Marriott at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and look for the Michigan Tea Party Banner. Someone will be there to greet you. From there we will head over to Cobo hall for a Tea Party Rally. You can park in one of the many lots downtown or at the Cobo Hall lot which is close to the Renaissance Center. Dress warm!

The sense of desperation and frustration and impending doom is hanging in the air. The election of Obama did indeed bring radical change to our nation, a change that it may never recover from. It isn't just the crushing and mind-numbing debt load, the nationalization of key industries like the auto industry and the banking industry, the attempt to implement drastic energy control and tax laws, the utter and total disregard for the Constitution, and the daily drama and crisis. It is the attempt to do more and more, including taking over the healthcare industry.

At each step, freedom loving patriots attended tea parties, rallies, marches and town hall meetings in order to peacefully express our unwillingness to be exploited by the power-grabbers in the federal government. Letter-writing and phone calls were made. On radio and television, the case is made to combat each enlargement of the state in our lives.

And at every step, we were derided and ignored. Our thoughts and beliefs were not listened to and plans were not adjusted accordingly- instead, under the most divisive and partisan President in our history, leading the most divisive and partisan and bitter party in the history of party politics, our country has sprinted to tyranny and change.

And many out there are getting close to the breaking point. The 2010 elections can't come fast enough, even though we all know that when the time comes, election fraud will be rampant and the reality that we are living in a nation of men who rule based on corruption and vote-buying will be sadly revealed to us. We hope beyond hope, and all the while grow more and more scared and depressed.

I was reading an interesting blog today called Thought You'd Never Ask, and the author wrote:

Now perhaps it is time for dissenters to move into the second phase of the tea parties--where the tea actually gets dumped into the drink. Perhaps it is time to make ourselves not be so easily dismissed. Perhaps it is time to become more of a force to be dealt with.

Some are saying they will end withholding on their federal income taxes--creating an immediate drop in tax revenues that, if enough citizens participate in, cannot be ignored. Some are saying it is time to emulate the left's street-theater tactics: becoming a law enforcement (and hence a time- and money-consuming) problem by obstructing roads, being chained to railings, clogging the jails and the courts in Washington D.C., and what not. I am certainly not expert on such things, having never cared to study the methods of civil disruption as Bill Ayers and his ilk have. I have always considered such things to be beneath my notice as a good citizen. But perhaps the time has come to study the principles and tactics of civil disobedience and even adopt them as the last resort of self defense and achieving true justice.

Perhaps some people should break into Acorn buildings. Or spray-paint "Government Theft" on anything the federal government pays for that is clearly an unConstitutional or boondoggling use of taxpayer funds. I know there are a lot of people out there more clever than I am who can do something productive.

After all, it seems that most dissent against the government is about to be outlawed anyway. That is the leftist plan: make so many laws and vague, obscure, poorly-written regulations against regular citizens that they cannot live as law-abiding citizens anymore, even if they wanted to. And so it becomes a civil war to preserve our rights and our country that even little old suburban "soccer moms" like me have to eventually enlist in.

I keep hoping to wake up from this appalling nightmare, but it seems the ghouls in Washington are real. Our fellow Americans, sent to Washington to represent and protect our best interests, really do want to rob, impoverish, and enslave us and bankrupt our country.

The revolution is brewing, ladies and gentlemen.