Grant Opportunity - Coming Up Taller Award

The New York State Library urges libraries that provide after school, out-of-school, or summer arts and humanities programs for under-served children and youth to self-nominate or seek nomination within your community for the Coming Up Taller award. Not many applications have been received at IMLS from libraries. IMLS wants to encourage libraries to apply and has let us know that they are aware libraries offer wonderful programs for this population. Last year's winner was a teen program from a library in Arizona.

Complete details can be found here http://www.pcah.gov/cut/2010CUTNominationApplication.pdf. The deadline to apply is January 29, 2010.

Webinar - 21st Century Reference Collections

Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Place: Online https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/695319699
Cost: Free

Reference collections are changing, driven by technology and new patterns of use. Join Booklist's Mary Ellen Quinn, Editor of Reference Books Bulletin, and a group of library and publishing experts as they talk about how the traditional reference collection is being transformed. Panelists include David A. Tyckoson, Associate Dean, California State University Henry Madden Library; and representatives from Encyclopaedia Britannica, M. E. Sharpe, World Book, and ABC-CLIO.

Register at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/695319699

Arthur Slade Virtual Author Visit

A guest post from Sue!

Back in September, I was trolling emails on my favorite listserv discussion source of teen books, Adbooks (you too can sign up here) when I saw this email from author Arthur Slade: Arthur Slade will be giving free "Hunchback Assignments", half hour visits using Skype or iChat. These visits include a presentation on the series, discussion of Victorian history, how to write, and time for Q&A and prizes for the winning classrooms.

Prizes? Author visit? I hit reply, and within 20 minutes I’d heard from my new best friend Art that I’d won. Joy oh bliss. Of course, MVLS doesn’t have a local kid audience available, so I asked member library teen core staff if anyone would be interested in receiving our prize. Two replied immediately, I checked with Art, and he graciously said he’d conduct two virtual visits for us.

Not only that, but he also explained how our libraries could take part in virtual visits using Skype.

Our First Assignment on the Hunchback Worldwide Virtual Tour (his Stop #3) was in Canajoharie. Leah LaFera, intrepid librarian, arranged for the Canajoharie School’s 5th grade class to have the Arthur Slade Virtual Chat on Friday, November 20 (read the news here). Leah reported “Our students were excited and looking forward to Arthur's visit. The students were thrilled to meet such a cool author and they got to be on video (a big deal for them.) Many students had prepared questions ahead of time and Art enthusiastically answered all of them with equal attention.“ Afterward, Art reported on the event on his blog.

Assignment Number Two brought the Hunchback Worldwide Virtual Tour to the Woodlawn School in Schenectady December 7, 2 p.m., through the efforts of Kaela Wallman, librarian at the Woodlawn Branch of the Schenectady County Public Library. Kaela said “The 6th graders were prepared with great questions and even some brave students came up with questions on the spot. I was impressed with their behavior, interest and insight.” The temperature was 30 degrees in Schenectady, it was 40 degree below zero in Saskatchewan. Did it matter?? No, because Art and all the students were warmly situated in front of webcams in their separate countries, on different sides of the North American continent.

Thank you Art! for making author visits possible through our public libraries. Thank you Leah and Kaela! for pioneering virtual author chats in your libraries. Now that the ground is broken and I’m an expert, let’s bring more authors to kids this way. As I find opportunities, I’ll be (virtually) knocking at your doors.

Grant Opportunity - Mighty Cause/Read Kiddo Read Teen Program

Here's an opportunity for a teen librarian to win $2,500 for your library by showing off what you do to make kids passionate about reading. Sponsored by Asset Based Thinking for Teens and James Patterson’s James Patterson’s Read Kiddo Read, the program will donate $2,500 to a library for creating a program that sparks the passion for reading in teens.

1) Teen librarians are invited to submit a program plan by Dec. 31, 2009.
2) The top ten programs will be selected by a panel of judges. Each library will receive a Kodak Vid Camera to document the program.
3) One grand prize winner will be selected to win $2,500.

For more specifics, click here.

NYLA YSS Spring Conference Scholarship

This scholarship is awarded to encourage continuing education in the field of youth services by funding participation in the annual YSS Spring Conference. In addition to having the full registration fee of the conference paid, the recipient will receive a reimbursement for lodging and meals allowance in an amount up to $250. The 2010 YSS Spring Conference will be held on April 9th at the Holiday Inn at Wolf Rd. in Albany. Application deadline for this opportunity is December 15. A complete description of the award and application materials are available on the YSS web site.

New in the Professional Collection

Building a Buzz : Libraries & Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Peggy Barber and Linda Wallace

Amazer Wall Units

You saw them at our Story Skills workshop, and now we've got them for your libraries!

Through a $3000 grant from the GE Elfun Society, MVLS has purchased twelve Amazer Wall Units in three sizes to be placed in twelve member libraries and/or branches. These Amazer wall units to be placed on the wall or shelf stack at toddler/preschool height, will offer educational and interactive play experiences for toddlers and preschool aged children. They are easy to clean with no loose parts and meet infection control standards. Importantly, they are space-saving products for even the smallest of areas. The Amazer wall units offer open ended play for your smallest patrons; the children influence direction and speed while playing, and gravity vectors, and momentum are playing partners. This initiative, offered to our member public libraries, will increase public awareness – particularly among parents, families and children – of the value and importance of science literacy for their smallest children’s future, and the value of learning science for science’s sake, by allowing children to practice science and math standards as fun activities at a very young age in the library.

If your library would like a unit, please let Sue know by December 16 (355-2010, ext 226 or srokos@mvls.info) the unit size, preferred color (if the full size), and your ability to install the unit (units are screw-mounted - for full installation instructions, contact Sue). If more libraries desire the units than number we have available this year, we will hold a lottery. Units will arrive mid-December.

There are three sizes of units:
- 5 Amazer Full size units sized: 23"w x 2"d / 19 lbs
(2 Purple on Speckletone, 1 Purple on Maple, 1 Blue on Red, 1 Yellow on Blue)
- 5 Junior Amazer units sized: 18"w x 2"d / 12 lbs
- 2 Mini Mazer units sized: 16"w x 2"d / 6 lbs

The Elfun Society is providing small donation plaques to attach next to them.

Each library receiving a unit will be responsible for completing a short followup questionnaire in Spring 2010, for comments about your experiences with the Amazer units; what you learned, how it was used, and why it was valuable. If successful, we will request more units in 2010 for our other member libraries and branches, if desired.

Let Sue know if you have any questions!

New in the Professional Collection

The PLA Reader for Public Library Directors and Managers
Edited by Kathleen Hughes for the PLA

Librarians as Community Partners : an Outreach Handbook
Edited by Carol Smallwood

Implementing for Results
Sandra Nelson for the PLA

Bite-Sized Marketing : Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian
Nancy Dowd, Mary Evangeliste and Jonathan Silberman

The Library PR Handbook : High-Impact Communications
Edited by Mark Gould

Twenty-First Century Kids, Twenty-First Century Librarians
Virginia Walter

Tune Up To Literacy : Original Songs and Activities for Kids
Al Balkin

The Early Literacy Kit
Betsy Diamant-Cohen