Font Choice in a Digital World

This week a member of my writing group got me thinking about typeface and professional behavior. For a long time New Times Roman has been a default of style and professionalism. It is the default typeface in most word processing programs. It is the font considered to be the professional choice to use when submitting work that matters.

I have to question whether this is really in our best interests in a digital world. Years ago a favorite professor of mine stated that she would appreciate it if work submitted to her digitally used a non-serifed font. Her choice was Verdana. The reason – non-serif font is easier to read from a computer screen. For someone who does a great deal of work reading online submissions this is a critical issue. From that moment forward, I have used a non-serif font on my digital submissions when I deemed it appropriate. Over the years, I have found that it does, indeed, make a difference to me. That is why I have chosen to use Verdana as the typeface on my blogs.

Dear Reader, know it or not, I care about your eyes.

I also wonder about how the default affects children who are growing up online. Adults who are not aware, default to a serifed font. This is not as easy a transition as one might think for the emerging reader.  The letter “a” in particular, causes children distress.

After thinking about these things I have changed my way of selecting font:

1.    For my own digital creations I use a non-serifed font. You will find this on my blogs, in my course materials, and in many of the more personal submissions I make.

2.    For formal submissions, I follow the guidelines. If there are no guidelines, I usually submit in Times New Roman as that is considered the standard professional font.

3.    For students I use a non-serifed simple font giving particular attention to the lower case “a”. This is for any computer generated materials including the materials children may be accessing digitally as well as the materials which I produce digitally to print and hand out.

4.    Love letters, I write by hand.

I’d love to hear what people have to say about font choice in a digital context. Have you thought about it? How do different fonts make you feel? Do you always go with the default or are you a font manipulator? Do you think that the default font will change as we are increasingly a digital society?

Picture This!

I missed the boat when it came to responding to THE article published by the New York Times which pointed to the demise of the picture book. The article, Picture Books No Longer a Staple,  created outrage in circle I run in – librarians, writers and children were flummoxed by the assertions. Bloggers wrote rebuttals, listservs buzzed, the first thing said when I met other librarians was “Did you see the article?”

Frankly, I had trouble keeping up with the pace of the responses. I sometimes have the tendency to wait until I’m up to date reading the comments of others before making my own response. I don’t want to say what someone has already said, usually with more panache than I would. This has been a recurring theme for me this year. One I hope to correct in 2011.

Not only that, I’m still trying to process what I heard and learned at the MSLA annual conference in October. There I heard the visionary Stephen Abrams speak about how technology is speeding up and how changing format will drive how our libraries look in the near future. I found myself wandering around in fog over the next few days trying to make sense of what I had heard and how I felt it might all play out in children’s services. Specifically, if the change in format means a real shift from book as a physical artifact to a digital resource, what will that mean for picture books? What about the future of the Caldecott Medal in a digital world? I had not resolved these questions in my mind when the New York Times article appeared. Stephen Abrams had warned us that the changes facing us will be many and of rapid succession. The luxury of understanding one thing before facing the next will be just that, luxury. Those who can quickly respond in clear, concise language their thoughts will certainly be ahead of the rest of us who are left standing in shock trying to catch up. It occurs to me that the skill of responding quickly to new information might be a very important skill to instill in our students.  I need to practice the skill so that I can model it.

This morning I came across the CBS article Expert: Picture Books Do Still Work for Kids. 

While I could have wished for a title with more positive spin, the article is quite solid in outlining how children benefit from picture books. It also encourages parents to add books to the holiday bounty. More than anything, the tone of the article is a calming force. Rather than voicing outrage, the article is reassuring and soothing like a story before bed. Make mine a picture book.

Mock Caldecott Kick Off

Today I hosted my Mock Caldecott Kick Off. The Mock Caldecott is being run as a focus group for members of my school and community. We have a nice cross section of our school represented and a school/public library connection. I was hoping that we could mimic the actual committee as much as possible and so I aimed for 15 participants. I selected myself as chair and sent out an email to all the staff of my building. I'll blog about how it came to be another time. For now, it's all about today.

I prepared folders for each participant with the materials I thought they would need. This included a copy of my Power Point slideshow for taking notes, contact list for all participants, evaluation sheets, a list of titles to start looking at and a bookmark with all the Caldecott Medalists up to 2005 which I had bought from CBC back in the day. To add to the festive nature of the day I put a gold medal sticker on the cover of each and wrote a name on each one.

I served refreshments. After a full day of teaching people need to unwind a bit. We had tea and soft drinks available. I wanted something Caldecott theme oriented, so I baked some brownies, frosted them and placed circles of white chocolate which was tinted yellow in the middle of what I thought would be each brownie. I thought when I cut them apart they would look like books with gold medals. Well, it was a nice fantasy, but really I think I'd better leave the themed baking up to two of my favorite bloggers - Grace Lin and Jamma Rattigan. Those are two ladies who know how to do it right. On the contrary, when you try to cut fudge brownies with a table knife they don't cut evenly. In fact, they kind of form balls. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't choose fudge style brownies and I would  bake them until dry. At least they would look good. The rollos and peanut butter cups which were both wrapped in round gold foil held up the theme of gold medals a bit more successfully.

Although most of us work in the same building, we don't really all know each other. Our member from the public library needed to have a way to meet us as well. So I asked everyone to wear a name tag and tell about a picture book that they love. Any picture book they love. I was not foolish enough to ask for a "favorite". I couldn't have answered that - my "favorite" changes from moment to moment. It was really interesting to me, who knows everyone, what books they chose.

We turned to the power point in which I outlined some of the background of the Caldecott Medal, an overview of the criteria, the format of our meetings, some background on picture book evaluation and some resource information.

From tomorrow, people will start coming to the library to read and review the books. In conjunction with our public library, I have ordered a selection which I will keep behind my desk. Members are welcome to help themselves any time. They are also given a list so they can order them through ILL and see them at their leisure at home.

This all took about one hour. I looked about me and was really excited. It is a very lively group of people with very different perspectives. Hosting a group like this will be a real learning experience. I have no doubt that debate about the various merits of the books will be hotly contested at times. I look forward to this challenge. It will certainly stretch my abilities and my vision.

It was a good day.

Teens Discuss Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk with two middle school students who had just seen Percy Jackson and the Olympians – The Lightning Thief. Both of these students were enthusiasts of the books. They have both read all the books in the series and the supplementary books. Multiple times. I have heard their fervor in looking forward to the movie. The level of anticipation for this event was extreme. Their attitude after watching it was… how do I say it nicely? Not so enthusiastic.


For a period of time which lasted for longer than the duration of the movie in question, these two intelligent teens deconstructed the film. They quoted specific parts of the book and how the movie reinterpreted the scenes. Well, they did not use those words. They did not always use words I can put in print. The changes in plot, age, hair color, scenery, character, personality and technological advances were all roundly abused. They were especially disparaging of Grover’s lack of Rasta hat and that there was no mention of enchiladas. I played the devil’s advocate and asked why they thought the film makers made the decisions they made. I posed questions of audience, economic considerations, and time factors. They rallied with their own opinions about why certain decisions were made, made assessments about whether the decision could be tolerated or not and ventured to suggest alternative solutions to the problem.

It was bound to happen. When you love a series of books as much as they do you are bound to have issues with any interpretation.

What struck me was how well they were able to perform the tasks outlined in our state standards for ELA (English Language Arts) particularly General Strand 26 – Analysis of Media. (see page 95 of the frameworks) They were doing a thorough job of analyzing media, plot, characterization, visual literacy and numerous other things I haven’t thought of. Too bad their teachers couldn’t hear them in action covering standards which they sometimes fail to come up to on standardized tests.

We are preparing our students with 21st Century Skills to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Standards for the 21st Century Learner were designed to address this. So many of the very things we want our students to accomplish were played out in front of me. I found myself feeling confident that our youth can navigate these waters. In many cases they can do it better than we can, if we will only step out of their way and let them achieve. On their own terms. Which is what we are preparing them for anyway. Let’s face it. We are openly acknowledging that we are preparing today’s students for a world which is changing so rapidly that it does not exist yet. We are preparing them for careers which have not have been thought of yet. That’s what P21 is all about. So they need that independence of mind and the ability to make connections. The challenge is to guide in ways which encourage this type of conversation. I have not mastered this. Not yet. But I have taken up the quest.

When I asked them whether they want to see the next movie in the series, as they assured me there would be one, they both gave an emphatic “Yes”. They are eager to begin the act of analysis and curious to see how the film makers will tackle the challenges they have presented themselves by messing with the story as outlined in the books. Do I have confidence in these youth? A resounding yes and I am just as interested in seeing how they navigate the challenges of their story which will be messed with by the advances in technology which will surely come.