Summer 2003 Update: Read! Think! Create! @ your library:

Everyone should have received their materials (logs, posters, bookmarks, certificates) through delivery. Summer Reading Program participants will be receiving a new Bright Ideas for Summer Reading newsletter along with the statewide coupon discount sheets. Included in the newsletter will be reminders of how to access the password protected clip art section, Big E information, and a call for submissions for 2004!

Please mark on your calendar the upcoming special Summer Reading Program workshops and register at http://www.nmrls.org/ce/ceform.shtml.

Read! Think! Create! @ your Library Visits the Wenham Museum
4/29/03 -- 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM -- Wenham Museum, Wenham

The Wenham Museum, a museum of social history, explores how we have lived, worked, dressed and played from the 17th century to today. Join colleagues and view Souls on Fire: The Abolitionists exhibit. We will also be examining the Museum's International Doll Collection and the Miss Columbia Program. Try your hand at making a cute clothespin doll, a possible craft project you may like to offer your patrons. This will be in conjunction with the Museum's summer exhibit Blue Ribbon Winners: The Gems of the Doll World. Carolyn Simmonds of the Wenham Museum will be the speaker.

Read! Think! Create! @ your Library Visits the American Textile History Museum
5/6/03 -- 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM -- American Textile History Museum, Lowell

The magic of spinning and weaving comes to life in the American Textile History Museum in exhibits ranging from the interior of an 18th century Pennsylvania weaver's log cabin to a working 1870s woolen mill. Visitors can explore the sights and sounds of America's premier manufacturing industry from colonial times to the present.

Join colleagues as American Textile History Museum Outreach Teacher Sue Bunker demonstrates two of the Traveling Textile programs: "Goat in the Rug" and "Mothers (and Fathers) of Inventions". Goat in the Rug, designed for students in grades K-3, provides an opportunity to learn about the tradition of Navajo handweaving through the story of Geraldine, a goat whose mohair in transformed into a rug. Mothers (and Fathers) of Inventions allows students in grades 6-8 to experience the discovery process known to the early inventors.

Summer Reading Program Roundtable
5/27/03 -- 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM -- NMRLS, Danvers

By now your plans for Summer have taken real form but need more ideas for your Summer Reading Program? Share your ideas on Read! Think! Create! @ your library and grab a few from this roundtable. Bring samples, photos, etc. Let's create a masterpiece on summer programs! Facilitated by NMRLS Youth Services Consultant Susan Babb.

*The Ellison Letter machine will be available for use following the program: bring your paper and your dies!

YSLead Institute 2003 Update:

The 2003 Winter/Spring IDYLS Workshops are being held across the state. These programs address individual leadership skills including advocacy for youth, program evaluation, collaboration, and creating a culture of leadership. The presenters of these workshops attended the 2002 YSLead Institute last summer. In the Northeast, they worked very hard to put together an excellent program on cooperation, communication, and collaboration between public and school libraries, held on April 9 at the Essex Agricultural and Technical High School. Special special thanks to Lorraine Barry, Kate Belcyzk, Jennifer Brown, Valerie Diggs, Beth Gallaway, Beth Kerrigan, Donna Maturi, Kathy Moran-Wallace, Debra Murphy, and Mary Puleo.

Work has already begun on the YSLead Massachusetts Institute for this summer. Participants have been chosen as well as the mentors for each region. It should be as exciting and stimulating, as it was last summer!

Free Comic Book Day (Saturday, May 3):

This event is a perfect tie-in with our "ARTS" theme 2003 Massachusetts Regional Library Systems upcoming Statewide Summer Reading Program. On May 3, a host of comic book distributors will be handing out free comic books at libraries and bookstores. Librarians may contact Diamond Comic Distributors Library Sales Coordinator, Allan Greenberg -gallan@diamondcomics.com- for free comics to celebrate this special day. Additional information on this event is at the Free Comic Books Day website at http://www.freecomicbookday.com/.

School Library Federal grant application now available:

The Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Program released its grant application on Friday March 7th. You can access it and complete information about the grant at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/LSL/. Grant applications are due by April 28th. There is the same amount of funding available as last year: $12.5 million to be distributed in 75-100 grant awards.