Blind Date Valentine’s Day

Sign

Bennington Free Library found a hot idea on Pinterest, currently amusing borrowers and staff alike. Offer pre-wrapped books for adults and children (different displays) to take home and “date.” Not sure how the front desk will shoot the barcode– but what a fun idea for Valentine’s Day!

Book display at Bennington Free Library

Text on the sign reads “Celebrate your love of reading by choosing any book from this display. (No peeking.) We’ll check it out to you still wrapped, so you won’t know what you have until you get home!”

The adult titles have handwritten notes on the paper: “TAKE ME HOME! I’m a short story collection by a famous English author.”

Banned Books Week 2012

Banned Books Week is coming up fast, September 30 to October 6. There is still time to buy some DANGER/CAUTION tape and pull a quick program together. The Hartland Public Library is holding a Banned Books storytime in the evening for all ages– And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson will be one of the featured titles.

The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum is hosting Alan Gilbert, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Gilbert will present a discussion of Privacy in the Digital Age on Wednesday, September 12 at 7 PM in Athenaeum Hall.

The Joslin Memorial Library in Waitsfield is holding a “Banned Book Coffee Klatsch” September 29th at 2. They are inviting people of all ages to come in and read from and discuss banned books, or to pick from some on hand. With coffee!

David Clark at the Ilsley Library, in cooperation with ACLU-VT, has mailed free BBW posters to Greensboro Free Library, Fairfax Community Library, People’s Academy (Morrisville), Warren School Library, Thetford Academy, U-32 School Library, Burr and Burton Academy (Manchester), Putney School Library, St. Johnsbury School District, and Concord School. Libraries, schools and booksellers are wonderful partners for this celebration.

For the official scoop, visit ALA. Lots of good ideas there– host YouTube videos from the Virtual Read Out on the library webpage?

Tech Gadgets and Classics

The Rochester Public Library has an inventive use for the Kindle: the librarian loads it up with classics (free from Project Gutenberg and other sources). Handy substitute for an interlibrary loan and saves shelf space for books which may not circulate as much. Libraries will still need to purchase new translations or remarkable editions, depending on demand.

Several librarians have passed along the news that eReaders sit on the shelf once people have tested them and made a decision about whether to purchase. The classics solution gets a little more mileage and perhaps encourages readers to try a device. Great for lesser known Conrad, Bronte, Austen and L. Frank Baum. (Yes, many of the Oz books are at Project Gutenberg.)

Do add cataloging to the library database for every title on the eReader.

Get ready for The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games movie will be released March 23, 2012. Join the fervor with a YA book club , as Amity DeAngelis did at the Weatherfield Proctor Library. Her idea of pairing survival training for teens with the the Suzanne Collins trilogy is genius!

For the book clubs I chose a popular series and had three meetings. For two of the book clubs (Percy Jackson and Twilight) I did related crafts at the first two meetings and then did pizza and a trip to the movies to see the film version at the last meeting. This did require some planning ahead to make sure that the movie was going to be released at the time we would be having the third meeting. The library paid for the pizza but the attendees were responsible for their movie ticket. For the other book club (The Hunger Games) I partnered with the Precision Valley Fish & Game Association to set up survival training for each meeting. Each meeting covered a different topic: archery, emergency shelter building, and fire making.

One World Library Project

Bristol is hosting the One World Library Project, a growing collection of personally recommended books, films and other media about world cultures. Nice elaboration of the 2011 summer reading program theme, One World Many Stories.

The Project is located in a special kiosk on the main floor of the Lawrence Memorial Library in Bristol. In addition to the collection, monthly evening programs are offered around a variety of themes related to world cultures.

Website for Bristol’s project, including explanation and slideshow: https://sites.google.com/site/oneworldlibrary/

Library Page for eAudio and eBooks

Seen in a recent library newsletter: the link to a page with information for library users on eAudiobooks and eBooks. Check out Brooks Memorial Library’s link for inspiration.

Geek the Library: local focus

Listen to NPR to hear Lisa Miser in Proctor and Paula Baker in Rutland talk about Geek the Library. Both Vermont librarians were quoted in a story by VPR reporter Lindsey Keck. The national campaign uses individual faces with the phrase I geek “a subject” at the library.

Check out the Rutland Free Library website to see local faces and what they geek– myth, hula hoops, and railroads. The Library is also using their Facebook site to stoke interest in the new campaign and encourage high school students to get involved.

Geek the Library is a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation effort. Read more about the campaign at Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning.

New Baby Bibliography

Creating a bibliography on a specific topic is an excellent way to promote the library collection while helping patrons locate books on a specific subject. Here is a bibliography for families expecting a new baby with resources for both siblings and parents created by Amanda Webster-Perry from the Winooski Memorial Library:

View this document on Scribd

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People 50 and up

The Cobleigh Public Library has a modest webpage called The Plus Side of Libre for People 50 and Up. Here’s the text inviting viewers to travel on:

The years after the children are grown and the job is done are years, for some, of finding a new life span where there is still health. Most mature people are healthier than ever before and people in general are living longer, healthier lives. Some, with time on their hands, are finding new careers, new businesses, time to travel, civic engagement, volunteering, raising grand children or some still must work to make ends meet. Vibrant people living a life far from over are engaging in the growth of a new human dimension or life span. What does this mean in your life?

These pages are devoted to you and there is hope they would inspire you. If you have anything you want the library to think about adding that you would feel useful to others on this plus side of life, please speak up and contact Cindy at 626-5475 or cindyk”at”cobleighlibrary.org. Links follow for books, business, fun, health and resources.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Party

The Morristown Centennial Library recently held a Diary of a Wimpy Kid party, and it was a hit, drawing kids and families to the library on a Saturday morning.  Rachel Funk, the Youth Services Librarian, found good ideas at: 
htttp://www.wimpykid.com/Book4EventKitWeb.pdf.

The kit included on this site is for Dog Days, but can be applied to any Wimpy Kid party.  They played two games listed in the kit, read the first “diary entry” of The Ugly Truth, and had cake.  Rachel also created bookmark-shaped list of “If you like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you might like…” and listed some of the books that are part of the library collection