4th Annual Meet the Author and Illustrator
The 4th Annual Meet the Author program was held at the Essex Agricultural and Technical High School in Hathorne on Monday, October 20. The participants enjoyed an afternoon of literary delight and refreshment with the panel of authors and illustrators. Jeannine Atkins, (Becoming Little Women), Carolyn Coman (What Jamie Saw), Todd Mack (Princess Penelope), and Peter H. Reynolds, (Judy Moody illustrator) and (The Dot) shared their passion for writing and illustrating and answered questions from the audience. Visit http://www.nmrls.org/youth/services/author.shtml for the history of the program.

Time Management
Ellen Rainville facilitated Brown Bag participants in a discussion of effective time management on October 7, at J.V. Fletcher Library, Westford. Ellen and Assistant Director India Nolen presented tips and tools to manage daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks more efficiently. We were also treated to tours of their very organized office spaces! Thank you to Ellen and India for sharing their time with the group.

Difficult Patrons
Plan to attend our November 17 Brown Bag discussion on handling difficult patrons situations. This will take place at North Shore Community College Learning Resource Center, 1 Ferncroft Road, Danvers. A tour of the new library facility will follow. Register for one or both sessions at: http://www.nmrls.org/ce/ceform.shtml.

Assistant Directors' Forum
The Assistant Directors' group met on November 6, at the Burlington Public Library. Topics for discussion included training and supervising pages, library staff professional development, managing video and DVD collections, custodial help in the library, and library parking. Many thanks to Susanne Sullivan for hosting the group. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 5, 2004, from noon - 2 PM, at Memorial Hall Library, Andover