Library & Literary Miscellany

The Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) chose Catch the Reading Bug (kids) and Metamorphosis@Your Library (teens) as the 2008 theme, and it’s now in full-swing (it almost being July after all). A couple of recent posts I particularly enjoyed relating to the CSLP are By the Cover: June Bugs at Proper Noun (which also links to a longer insects booklist at Mindy’s Book Lists wiki) and Speaking of Crafts and Bugs at Library Voice (includes multiple images of some really fun looking bug crafts and displays).

A few sites offering related resources include:

• A to Z Kids Stuff: Bugs–songs, crafts, snack ideas mainly for bees, ladybugs, and caterpillars/butterflies
• Librarian’s Internet Index–Insects and Arachnids links
• LibraryPalooza–this is the site that I was led to the link to download the 2008 theme song that you hear in the videos by Billy Gorilly
• NetState.com’s Official State Insects list
• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s 2008 SLP Training Workshop–includes display ideas , myriad downloadable breakout session handouts, and more

So you can see that there’s a plethora of buggy fun and/or information out there, but I thought I’d add a couple of 30 second promotional videos in case anyone needs any more ideas. I created them using Animoto just like my previous Mysteries at Your library video.

Animoto’s simple and it’s fun, although the Animoto shorts don’t allow for quite as many pictures as I’d like. But for the cost of free, it’s a great resource to spark creativity and create content for a variety of purposes.

Enjoy and feel free to remix, embed, or create your own (Video Production: Animoto; Songs: Billy Gorilly). Also feel free to leave comments if you have any feedback and/or resources to share relating to enticing people of all ages towards libraries and summer reading. Without further ado, here are the video shorts for kids and teens respectively (you’ll notice that I chose the instrumental version for the teens video : ))…

Catching the Reading Bug

Metamorphosis @ Your Library

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In honor of the forthcoming National Library Week (number 50, it’s a biggie), this post highlights “Coming Soon” book days of April:

• World Book and Copyright Day on April 23
• National Library Week from April 13-19
• Poetry Month April 1-30

World Book and Copyright Day

Since 1995, April 23 has been designated as World Book and Copyright Day. The date commemorates the births and/or deaths of many famous authors–from Cervantes (death), Shakespeare (birth and death), and more. Read the Wikipedia article about World Book and Copyright Day to find out more about its origins and about how it is recognized in various locales around the world.

National Library Week

Yes, it’s the 50th! This year National Library Week 2008 runs from April 13-19, and the theme is “Join the circle of knowledge @ your library.” In honor of this day the American Library Association (ALA) has been publishing promotional videos.

Videos include:

• National Library Week: Introduction
• National Library Week: Reference Desk
• National Library Week: Game On
• National Library Week: Super Sized
• National Library Week: Vending Machine
• National Library Week: Go Fish
• National Library Week: People Magazine
• National Library Week: Monkey Wars

While they’re all entertaining, my favorite is the one at the reference desk. A particularly clever feature of all of these videos is that while the credits are playing, numerous popular and not-as-popular books are providing the background images (subtle reader’s advisory, I’m lovin it (see Super Sized for more McDonald’s spinoff humor…)).

The National Library Week fact sheet also specifically marks Tuesday as National Library Worker’s Day: “National Library Workers Day, celebrated the Tuesday of National Library Week (April 15, 2008), is a day for library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.” Sounds good to me . In addition, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has designated the month of April as School Library Media Month.

National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month has been around since 1996 (it has a ways to go to hit 50). Read the Wikipedia article about the history and purpose of National Poetry Month.

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I decided to embed this video on my blog on behalf of my 23 Things efforts. It is not made by me, but it is one of my YouTube favorites. It is available for download on YouTube and on the Stanford Cyberlaw website. The video was created by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University as a means to humorously review Copyright Law and Fair Use principles. These principles are delivered (ironically enough) through the use of Disney imagery. This fair and apt summation of copyright principles is worth a few minutes of your time, particularly since it must have taken many, many hours to piece together!

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At your library, you’ll find mysteries for all ages. Whether you’re in need of a picture book, chapter book, or full-length novel, there’s a mystery just waiting for you to discover it. This video flashes just a few of your choices before your eyes.

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