I’d like to provide a quick update on our plans for supporting the changes introduced in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.). Based on what we have learned from MLA, we have decided not to make any updates in NoodleBib yet to support the new formatting. MLA has specifically recommended that “undergraduate and high school students should continue to follow guidelines in the sixth edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers until the seventh edition is released in spring 2009.”

We are pleased to (officially) announce that Chicago/Turabian bibliography-notes formatting will be available in NoodleBib starting September 1st. All subscribing users will automatically have access to the new formatting option, and it will also be available as part of the free NoodleBib Express tool (which allows you to create individual citations).

There are two “bibles” of Chicago style — Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (7th ed.) and The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.). There are a few differences between the two guides (most significantly, the noticeable lack of coverage of online sources in the Chicago Manual of Style). We decided to stick with Turabian’s Manual for Writers (which is written more with a student in mind) as our “primary” guide for the new feature. In the same way, we use the MLA Handbook as our primary guide for MLA formatting (written for secondary school and college students), rather than the MLA Style Manual (written for graduate students and scholarly authors).

We look forward to working with you all again this school year!

Debbie will be presenting at IASL in Berkeley today (Sunday, Aug. 3) from 1-4 PM.

Seeding the Oyster: Leadership Through Dialogue
Marilyn Kimura and Debbie Abilock, Room 104
You’ll recognize the names of these discussion groups: Socratic seminar, Literary Club, Harkness Table, deliberative dialogue, professional study group. Yet few librarians have used them as advocacy tools to build learning communities in support of literacy and collaboration. We will provide an opportunity for you to experience several types of inquiry discussions using provocative texts, photographs and film clips. As you learn discussion, reflection, and facilitation skills, you will see how nurturing inquiry and intellectual dispositions can seed your leadership in the school community.