Library & Digital Resources

This is one of those newsletters that you may want to keep as a reference.

• 2021 Kids' Book Choice Awards Finalists Announced
• IdentAEA New Single Sign-On
• 2020 Iowa Census Data
  
• Spreading the Word about Ebooks
• Article about Ebooks, Publishers, and Lawyers
  
• Digital Citizenship Week
• Free DVD Cases
• Iowa School Library Survey Archives
  

Direct link to the newsletter: https://www.smore.com/ap4yeh

Launched in 2008 by the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, the awards are the only national book awards voted on solely by kids and teens and provide young readers with an opportunity to voice their opinions about the books being written for them. Young readers are invited to cast their votes here from now until November 14. The 2021 winners will be announced in early December.

15 Categories:

• Best Picture Book Duo
  
• Best Picture Book Page
  
• Favorite Early Reader Series
• Favorite Illustrated Character
• Best Book of the Year: K-2nd Grade
  
• Best Book of Facts
• Best Graphic Novel
• Favorite Author
• Best Book of the Year: 3rd-4th Grade
• Best Book of the Year: 5th-6th Grade
• Best Book Creator Digital Presence
• Best Fantasy World Builder
• Favorite Book Cover
• Favorite True Story
• Best Book of the Year: Teen

Image from https://everychildareader.net/choice/

AEA Professional Learning Online is working with a new provider to develop a more secure single sign-on authentication for teachers and students. IdentAEA is the new SSO--or IDentity Provider (IDP). It's being rolled out in stages and you'll start seeing it more in...

• AEA Scout

• AEA Professional Learning Registration
• Creative Services Online
• and other statewide systems

Students

Right now you may have noticed IdentAEA as the new front-end login for AEA Scout. Students can use their school Google or Microsoft login. As mentioned earlier, IdentAEA is being rolled out in stages, so (for the immediate future) the first time a student logs in to AEA Scout, they will be asked to create a profile and choose K-12 student, their district and school, and the first-time student will be prompted for the je school code. Call or email the Heartland AEA library if you need that code. In the very near future, that je school code won't be needed.

OR

IdentAEA is still being developed this fall and some minor changes might appear in this login sequence. Depending on when the student logs in for the first time, they may have quicker access because they are logging in with an approved email domain. This means when a student creates an account in IdentAEA and uses their school email address, IdentAEA will recognize that email as a member of a district. So, the student will not have to add the district password or je school code.

Teachers

Teachers can log in to IdentAEA with school Google or Microsoft email, or the email they use for registering for classes. It should be a smooth authentication process with IdentAEA as IdentAEA pulls teacher email from the training system.

If the teacher happens to get a "role" code error message, here is the fix.

Go to https://training.aealearningonline.org / log in / click Profile / click Employment Info / Scroll down a little and click/choose the Teacher box/ save.

If a teacher sees a “Null” error message when trying to authenticate through IdentAEA, that means that the teacher account is not associated with a district in the AEA training system. Here is the fix.

Go to https://training.aealearningonline.org / log in / click Profile / click Employment Info / click the Yes radio button that you are a district or AEA employee / enter the district password (ask your admin office AND the password section will no longer be required late fall 2021) / scroll down and choose district / scroll down and complete the profile (be sure to click the Teacher box in the “positions” section) / Save. You might need to clear cache and cookies and re-login.

We will have more details on the IdentAEA authentication system at www.iowaea.org in the next few days.

The State Data Center has received the 2020 Census information from the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2020 statistics provide the first look at population changes and include information on Hispanic origin, race, housing occupancy, as well as statistics on where people were living as of April 1, 2020 in Iowa towns, cities, and counties. Here are some quick facts from the State Data Center Coordinator, Gary Krob.:

Iowa 2020 Census Quick Facts

• Iowa’s population is 3,207,031

• The largest county is Polk County with 492,401 population

• Adams County comes in as the smallest county with 3,704 population

• The largest incorporated municipality in the state is Des Moines with 214,133 residents; while Le Roy in Decatur County claims the smallest municipality, with a population of 11

• Overall, 99.9 percent of Iowa’s households were enumerated for the 24th decennial census, with 71.5 percent of households self-responding and 28.4 percent requiring follow-up from Census workers to be counted.

Here’s a spreadsheet of the ebooks and audiobooks purchased last year and last month. You are welcome to make a copy of the spreadsheet and create your own recommended lists for teachers and students.

The PO number is helpful in case you’d like to download the MARC records to your circ system. Go http://www.mackin.com/aea and scroll down to MARC records.

This September 23 article from Publishers Weekly is about a congressional request to large ebook publishers asking about their practices, business models, and pricing.

“Ebooks play a critical role in ensuring that libraries can fulfill their mission of providing broad and equitable access to information for all Americans, and it is imperative that libraries can continue their traditional lending functions as technology advances,” the letter states.

We thought this might be of professional interest to teacher librarians.

This Digital Citizenship Week, help students reflect on how their digital lives impact their social and emotional well-being with these new resources from Common Sense Education.

• Daily activities and creation projects

• Professional development to kick-start your school’s digital citizenship implementation

• An awareness kit to promote digital well-being in your community

Digital Citizenship Week falls on October 18-22 this year, so it's the perfect time to start planning how your school will celebrate.

The Heartland AEA library has DVD cases to give away. Can your school use them for makerspace activities, art projects, or actually using them as a DVD/CD case? See photo.

Send your request to info@heartlandaea.org. First come, first serve. We can deliver them to your school.

Quantity available:

Item A: Black DVD case -- 920

Item B: White DVD case – 360

Item E: Clear DVD case 2/ plastic sleeve -- 240

Item F: Black case for 2 DVDs – 16

Item G: Thick black case for 2 DVDs -- 6

Item H: Black case w/ plastic sleeve for 3 DVDs – 10

Item K: Square clear plastic -- 20

Item L: Thin/smaller clear plastic -- 22

Reports since 2016 are available on the Iowa AEA website.

Click here for the index to earlier issues.