Hi Heyam,
I'm a teacher librarian & recently started a community based blog for getting boys to read - http://GettingBoysToRead.com. Please send me a friend request if you'd like to network, share ideas, and learn more about getting boys to read.

Sincerely,
Mike McQueen

LET'S NETWORK HERE TOO (request me as a friend):
My FACEBOOK Profile
My TWITTER Profile

I have been pursuing this idea vigorously over the past few days, so things are progressing. As I now want to brief you on the detail of how it is progressing, I will send you an e-mail from my work mail rather than fill you in here. So don't forget to check your work mail in a little while!
Ed

I think we can develop the idea of our kids and your kids collaborating on the book discussion blog. If all the kids could read the same book or short story and then write their own summary and their 'point of view' (as your kids have been doing) on the blog. And discuss each others summaries and views on the blog also. We would have to agree on what book or short story to read. That too would depend on the book or short story being available in the participating libraries. That might work, do you think?
I will discuss this project with a number of our library staff on Monday and Tuesday. And we will hopefully get one of our children's book clubs to participate. (aged 12-13 years, is that the age of your children?) Hopefully I will have some good news by Wednesday or Thursday.

What a good idea to do a video and put it on Youtube and include it on the blog! It will be exciting for the kids to see each other on video, they then become more than just names on a page.

I like the idea of collaborating on a wiki, but I need to think it through some more. I will revisit the idea when I get a chance. Soon I hope.

Eddie

(I have been very busy this past week, forgive me if I am moving slowly)

I guess some books, like Cinderella, never grow old.
Morgan Mandel

Hi, thank's for the invitation.
Concerning blog comments. It takes a little time to get your blog known. You have already got many advises how to spread information. I have been blogging for quite a time and still get few comments. Many people just want to read and don't comment. For some people that is a step letting others know what you think so public.

Heyam,
don't stop writing, and don't give up. Maybe we have to engage the old tools a little in order to get people using the new tools! I mean e-mail, letter post, word of mouth, a phone call or two. It could be that the Arab librarians you are trying to engage with are not in this 'space' yet. If you can get their e-mail addresses or th e-mails of the various Arab libraries, you could send them a message and tell them about your blog and how it might benefit them to use it. Use the personal touch with Arab librarians you might know or have met. Challenge them a little with posts on topics that might raise emotions if not tempers. About what we do, about our relevance, for example. Write posts that encourage and invite them to share their knowledge with their arab colleagues across the middle east. Something that might enthuse them. I cannot read arabic I'm sorry to say, maybe you are doing these things already. Forgive me if you are, I can guess from your writing here that you know what you are doing and are very motivated in doing it. Does lose heart.
Cheers, Ed

p.s.
My experience with colleagues is equally frustrating, they are reluctant to use new technologies. It is only about four years ago that I spent a lot of time getting them to standardise on e-mail as the primary tool for internal communication! But I realise that one of the most important battls to win is to show that library 2.0 is relevant, indeed essential. Easy for the converted to say, but we are in the minority stil I think.