News about Staff and Libraries in the Region

Heidi Wakeman is the LMS for North Beverly Elementary School.

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The Pesky Library at The Governor's Academy in Byfield submitted a picture for The LibraryThing contest and got a Runner-up award! Please view their prize winning photo at http://www.librarything.com/blog/.

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Amanda Hogue is the new Children's Librarian Assistant at the M.G. Parker Memorial Library in Dracut. She is also working on her MLS!

James O'Connor is the new LMS at the Robert Frost Elementary School in Lawrence. He was formerly the LMS at the Emily G. Wetherbee School in Lawrence.

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Lyn Holian is the LMS at Tower School in Marblehead. She was formerly with Village School in Marblehead.

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Sara Potapenko has joined the Nevins Memorial Library staff in Methuen as a Reference Librarian. Sara is in her final semester at Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Services.

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This is a photo of members of PLA's Readers' Advisory Committee (including me) with Publisher's Weekly Narrator of the Year, Scott Brick. PW's review of his 2006 reading of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood said, "Brick's surefooted performance is nothing short of stunning. This facile audio actor delivers an award-worthy erformance."

PLA's Readers' Advisory Committee met during Midwinter Meeting in Seattle to work on a preconference for PLA's 2008 Annual Conference in Minneapolis, MN. The program, which will feature Brick, is tentatively titled "Where Books Go, Readers Follow: the Future of the Audio Book for Public Libraries."

Nanci Milone Hill, Head of Reference, Nevins Memorial Library, Methuen

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2007 Newburyport Literary Festival

On April 27th, 28th and 29th, all of Newburyport will be swept up in the excitement of our city's second annual literary festival, which will feature some 60 authors and draw an anticipated crowd of four to five thousand. Featured authors include novelist Jon Clinch, Julia Glass, L.A. Meyer, local novelist Andre Dubus III, poets Sydney Lea and Juan Matos and several members of the Powow River Poets. Children's authors and illustrators Ed Emberley and Grace Lin will lead book-illustration sessions for young people.

This year's festival will honor acclaimed author Peter Guralnick of West Newbury, Massachusetts, author of the prize-winning two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love, and, most recently, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke. Details are available on the festival website, http://www.newburyportliteraryfestival.org. The festival is free to the public, with the exception of the Friday night gala. All events are handicap accessible.

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The Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, is pleased to announce that Carol Bender has joined the staff as the new Children's Librarian. Carol is originally from Portland, Oregon, but has lived in Cambridge and on Cape Ann for the past 18 years and now considers this home. She attended Harvard Extension School, Lesley University, and Simmons Library School while working at Harvard, and now is eager to combine her love of public libraries and children in the Children's Room in Peabody. Previously, Carol was a Library Assistant in the Children's Room at the Sawyer Free Library in Gloucester. Books, cats, cooking, crafting and spending time outdoors are just a few of her favorite things. Carol takes over the position from Kelley Rae Unger, who is now a Reference Librarian at Peabody's busy Information Desk.

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Marian Court College, in Swampscott, has two new Associate Librarians, sharing one position: Pam Burch and Barbara Ball. Kate Leppanen held the position previously.

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The Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, has selected Sidney E. Berger, a nationally recognized library scholar and administrator, to direct the Phillips Library; and thanks to the generosity of Charles W. Pingree and his family, Mr. Berger will fill a newly endowed directorship of the Phillips Library named in honor of the memory of Ann C. Pingree. For more information about this appointment, please visit http://www.pem.org/press/.

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Susan MacDonald, Children's Librarian, has recently been informed that she is the recipient of the Phyllis Allen Smith North Shore Council's annual Celebrate Literacy Award for the year 2007. According to the award letter, Susan MacDonald was selected for her dedication to literacy, for her tireless work over many years at the Wilmington Memorial Library, for the excellence of her programs for children, and for encouraging children to read and love literature, and for her deep understanding and knowledge of books and children. As a recipient of the Celebrate Literacy Award for the North Shore Council, Susan will also be a candidate for the Massachusetts Reading Association's State-Wide Literacy Award.

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Winthrop Public Library Trustee Jim Matarazzo, Professor Emeritus at Simmons College GSLIS has written an article for the February 1st issue of Library Journal, entitled "Corporate Score." Jim wrote the article jointly with Toby Pearlstein who is Director of Global Information Services at Bain & Company.