A Balancing Act

I can hardly believe it's November--actually December and there's not a snowflake in the air. (Knock on wood and the computer screen). Does it still feel like a cool summer too you? Ok, I'm delusional. But at least you can admit that it certainly isn't the dark days of winter, although the days are definitely shorter. I'm still not getting used to running out to my car in the dark at 4:30 p.m. Forgive me if you think this is a complaint but it's really not. I'm ecstatic that I can go out and not yet have to scrape the frost of my car window before heading home OR to work. In fact, I was extremely ecstatic that the temperature was warm enough for us to rally the gang of middle school students outside with Todd Brodeur to participate in final viewing of invited performers during our Annual Performer's Showcase the other week. I was also in amazement that Mr. Brodeur had enough Frisbees to lend to EVERY willing student who wanted to learn a new frisbee trick. I was impressed! And I was even more impressed with many of our acts who were able to adapt to performing in front of lower and upper middle school students when the nearby elementary school couldn't participate at the last minute. While a few performers were nervous, others broke out in wide smiles and wanted to roll with the punches along with me. What's an artist to do? If there ever was a time to put on a happy face--this was it! So while certain acts were "suited for younger audiences", our invited guests offered performances that erased the age appropriate line. If you weren't there, you would have missed those kids who rapped right along AND added sound effects with a presenter who only offered elementary aged stories. Or you would not have seen kids signing along a story about a whale and its travels. Yes, these were sixth AND eight graders enjoying the show. Which goes to show, that good stories capture the imagination and interest of willing participants.

Speaking of participation, I look forward in working with those librarians who offered to help facilitate the next showcase. You know who you are I will be calling upon on. And others who decide to volunteer later next year,you know how to reach me. I could certainly use a hand in this making our showcase an exciting adventure for everyone involved. All it takes is a willingness to juggle the precarious and ever evolving musical acts....

Been There, Done That and we even have the T-Shirt

Now that school has started, summer has officially ended it's time to switch gears and start all up again in the fall--which is now. It was definitely a wild ride this summer with unofficial reports indicating that summer participation and registration were off the charts. But didn't we know that that would happen? As seasoned librarians we always see the numbers go up in a fluctuating economy. And veteran librarians attempt to prepare for the influx of new and the 'haven't been at the library since grade school' user. Whatever side of the information highway track they reside, we as usual, embrace our prodigal sons and daughters with open arms. *smile* Sometimes our visitors leave with renewed love for their town library by returning or either telling their friends about the experience they had. Others we won't physically see again until another distressed economy.

If your visitors left words or demonstrated their show of support of their library this past summer, record that moment in your summer reading evaluations. Believe it not such stories are passed along to House Committee Chairs, Senators and even the Governor during Budget Hearings. Its very rare for citizens to physically join us across the state to help speak out in order to protect our state budgets each year but your pictures, emails or letters demonstrate that librarians are not the only voice crying out in the wilderness.

So as we move into the fall, let's not forget to tie up loose ends of summer by completing those summer evaluations if you haven't already. Remember it's not just your voice but those of your patrons that count.

P.S. You're invited to 'lift your voice' about your summer reading program experience or festivities in our Summer Reading Wrap-Up Roundtable on Tuesday, October 21st. To register, click here.

Great....one last (almost) thing to think about.

I know many of you are finishing up the last traces of your Summer Reading Program but for those of you who finished running your program or perhaps it was your program running you, you can at least start filling out our summer reading evaluation form. It isn't due until September 12 2008, just shy of a month from now but I'm sure this will give you sometime to fill it out. It be posted on our SEMLS homepage for you to find until the deadline but you will receive another reminder about in the days to come. And speaking of the days to come, in a few more months we'll start sending out the order forms once we finalize plans for our Starship Adventure & Find Out What's Out There 2009 summer reading programs. We're going to try to keep the ordering schedule in October but I have to tell you it may be November folks. Either way, the order form will be made available in plenty of time to receive your 2009 orders for next year. In the meantime, you can see both manuals, children or teens that we will be using to celebrate our space and personal exploration themes. The state of Tennessee did an EXCELLENT job in compiling really cool activities, games and lists. You can start downloading any of their materials now if you'd like. We are going to have SO much fun next year during the International Year of Astronomy!

Big-E Tickets are ready for the asking!

For those of you who are looking for a prize without entering a contest, you may be in luck. 8-) Each year, my colleague Janet Eckert from the Western Region lassos complimentary tickets from the statewide Country Fair otherwise known as the BIG E for summer reading participating libraries. The West Springfield event held each fall in September brings in famous country, pop and rock musicians to present along with the year-round agricultural related events, i.e. traditional horse and dog shows, cooking and photography competitions, and wine testings.

If you're interested in receive a pair of $15 complimentary tickets to offset the price of you or your patron's trip to the Big E during the week of September 12-18 2008, please respond via email to me at vbeenebeaversATsemls.org or by phone at 508.923.3531 by Friday, August 8th. Since I only have 20 pairs, it's a first come first serve basis. Get 'em while their available!

And the Best Dressed Children's Room winner is.....

First runner up is the Norfolk Public Library...but

Seekonk Public Library is the winner!
We'll drop the donated Blockbuster size Spiderman window/wall display off to you tomorrow.

Norfolk we have something for you but it's just not as dramatic. But we think you'll be pleased.

Thanks to all who submitted the photos. We hope it was fun for you as it was for us.

Got a Kick-off Event Planned?

If you have any SRP Kick-Off Events planned within the next few days or weeks, Celeste Bruno, MBLC Communication Specialist would like to hear about them. She'll be writing an article for the MBLC Notes newsletter featuring kickoff events around state. Perhaps she'll include yours. *smile* To send her your Kick-Off event schedule and photos, send your email to celeste.bruno AT state.ma.us

And the Best Dressed Children's Room Award goes to...

If you think your library has the coolest, wildest, safariest *smile* looking space this year, email me your best (3) photos by Friday, July 11th for a chance to win a self-adhesive 4 x6 ft. Spiderman window display. Enter for your chance to win this Blockbuster-size superhero for either your library or as a prize for your summer reading participants.

In your email, please include your phone and name of your library. If your space isn't in the children's area, please describe where your photo was taken. Judges will be members of SEMLS office staff who will notify the contest winner by Wednesday, July 23rd at 1:00 p.m. To view pictures of submitted photos, you may visit flickr at http://tinyurl.com/5w8yqc.


Note: Picture shown is actually smaller than the object appears. No lie!

A Librarian Friendly Press Toolkit is here!

Just in case you haven't finished your school visits, we do have some materials to bring with you to the classroom to help announce the summer reading program. If you click here, you'll find a colorful flier to pass along to faculty and even parents.

So go ahead and make copies! I'm sure your teachers could use a letter filled with great talking points to get their students to read over the summer.

Have you changed your template today?

Woo hoo! Today was the unveiling of the new Wild Reads Themed ReadsinMa.org page! And with that unveiling comes the announcement of what plans the MBLC has in promoting our summer reading 2008 campaign.

This summer our ads will appear online in six of our major newspapers--The Berkshire Eagle, The Boston Globe, Cape Cod Times, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Springfield Republican & The Worcester Telegram. At this very moment, two radio stations are running a 30 second ad on Bostons' KISS 108 AM and Berkshires' WBRK 1340 AM. To listen to the recordings, visit our summer reading wiki.

Thanks goes out to both Celeste Bruno (our MBLC PR guru) & Buyer Advertising for such colorful imagery.

P.S. This might be a good time for one to change their templates to reflect the 2008 themes as seen in the Brookline example. To find out how to change your template(s), sign up for a upcoming workshop OR you can subscribe to our ReadsinMa.org listserv for assistance. Here you'll find handy instructions like this offered by the Seekonk Public Library a ReadsinMa.org participant on managing your program.

How Many Pandas Does it Take to Run A Wild Reads Program?

In a few more days, everyone will be in full swing with their summer reading program. Yikes! If you are still deciding on what activities you will be using to engage kids and parents, here's an idea. Why not pose a fact-finding question that will send families on a safari or scavenger hunt? How might you ask? One of our librarian-friendly Cambridge-based organizations, TERC--an educational research and development non-profit designed some really cool 11x17 inch posters to generate a little buzz in your library. These "Can You Guess?" series posters are free to download from the TERC website but you can get these along with the answers if you like by join the Mixing in Math listserv. These 10 free animal facts posters will go perfect in any program! Why not kick off your raffle or information scavenger hunt by having your kids guess the answer? Or why not use the poster in your next library display as you celebrate the theme?

You can visit the Mixing in Math series to explore what other fun program ideas you can use for your program. And if you're feeling really creative, you can even contribute an idea to TERC. They are just dying to hear your ideas. In fact, the Mixing in Math series is designed to promote the M-word *smile* for kids in an informal afterschool setting. Fun is the theme every year with Mixing in Math activities! And the fun is just beginning because thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation, TERC is not only able to hear your ideas but can help to produce such useful printed materials for programs that you have in mind. Just imagine...your fun M-word idea/activity can be a part of a NSF funded grant project. (I don't know about you but I will most certainly take part in this opportunity once summer is over. Details of a fall program will be forthcoming).

However, if you have ideas now that you would like to share write them down and get them ready for a future swap and share program. Or if you are currently hog-tied and can't offer any suggestions feel free to use what TERC currently offers. Just be sure to share your success with others at your next Summer Reading roundtable. Or if you can't wait until then, you can always leave a message here on our blog. *-)

Who to give credit too....

My word! I forgot to provide the wording on how to thank our sponsors:

Wild Reads at Your Library and X-pect the Un-X-pected is sponsored by your local library, the Massachusetts Regional Library Systems and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

or if space is a premium on your brochure or flier, you can use our standard graphic instead:




(To download this graphic just right click on it and save a copy to your desktop).

And let's thank Janet Eckert Western Region's Youth Consultant who created our wonderful librarian & public coupon page. You'll also find examples of such collaboration across the region on our statewide wiki. We are looking for a few good children & teen bibliographies and teen craft ideas to supplement our manual. If you have any or bibs or craft ideas, feel free to post them. Please contact your regional consultants for the username and password.

Our coupons are ready!

Prepare to stuff your patron's bags or refer your patrons to our statewide coupon page. As with last year, we created a public site that is viewable at http://www.wmrls.org/sum/coupon08.html. Here patrons will be able to view the coupons that are available as prizes for the Massachusetts Summer Reading Program. New this year to the SEMLS fold are Water Wizz in Wareham and The Edward Gorey Museum in Yarmouth Port. With the inclusion of the New Bedford's Buttonwood Park Zoo, we are now up to the three attractions. Yeah! For those of you who are using the online summer reading product to promote your services, we are requesting that you provide the public coupon web address listed above within your program links. Our sponsors like to be promoted and we want them to know that we support them as much as they support us. It's one of the ways that we thank them for their participation.

As with last year, in order for you to print out the coupons you'll receive the confidential password to download the variety of family fun coupons. Please do not share this password beyond your library staff. Our sponsors look for the stamped coupons to ensure that our summer readers did their part in receiving this reward. As usual thanks for your cooperation and let's get our coupon-cutting on!

A Sharp(ened) Eye

So a few of you have commented on the blurriness of our most popular black and white image--the Wild Reads at Your Library Eye. It looks absolutely gorgeous online but when you print it out on a flier, the image is not as clear. In fact, it's downright blurry. *sigh* To resolve the blurriness of the logo-wild reads picture, here's a tip to rectify the problem.

1. Find the image logo-wild-reads.jpg.
2. Double click to open. It will open in Microsoft Photo Editor.
3. Go to the EFFECTS menu tab and select-SHARPEN.
4. Slide the cursor to your liking toward the Strong category.
5. Do a Save As and rename your clearer wild-reads-logo.

You can do this for any other image where the animals seems to be 'alive with movement'. This tip should capture the moving beasts. 8-)

Swap-o-rama

While orders are still coming in from Janway and items are checked against the packing slips, it's possible that you have a surplus or even a deficit. If the later is the case, please feel free to call Janway. Or you may place your request to swap with others. *-) I'll begin by offering what we have to give in case you would prefer more of any ordered item:

In the SEMLS warehouse, (closet actually) we have:
350 Posters
40 pks. Bookmarks
28 pks. Blank Reading Logs
19 pks. Timed Reading Logs
60 pks. Lined Reading Logs
8 pks. Certificates
7 pks. YA Cards

You are more than welcome to ask for what you need.

Summer Reading Orders Are Being Prepared for Shipment

Woo hoo! Janway is preparing our SRP shipment and are hoping to mail out a few hundred orders sometime next week. In it will be both the paper goods AND incentives that you have ordered. While the paper orders have been paid for by your regions, please keep in mind that you will, as usual pay for your branch's incentives along with its shipping costs. I have no clue who will receive what when but all orders should arrive by April 14th.

My, this certainly is Un-x-pected!

Read for a Cause

In case you missed the information-filled workshop lead by our charitable summer reading program veterans, N. Denman, D. Grimett and J. Southworth, you are now able to listen to the audio. Welcome to SEMLS' debut of our Continuing Education Podcast Workshop series! Here you will be able to take advantage of select program offerings of timely topics and discussions. Our How To Catch A Beluga Whale This Summer workshop offering advice and tips on running a growingly popular philanthropic-themed program premieres today.


Listen & Be Inspired!



P.S. To subscribe to future SEMLS CE podcasts, click here.

Slight Delay in Arrival of SRP Materials

Hello to all Un-X-pectedly Wild Youth Services Librarians!

I'm sorry to inform you that our Summer Reading Orders will arrive just a few weeks behind schedule. Your materials will be shipped during the week of April 7^th rather than next week. My apologies for the late notice but we just received an official word of the new date this week. If you should have any questions, please contact me. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Accu-cut, Paper, Scissors!

Hmmm...I'm seeing the early birds coming in to use the Accu-cut Machine in preparation for their Summer Reading activities. Kudos to you! You my dear have a head start over many of your colleagues before the mad rush begins. *stroking of barbershop mustache* For those of you who are wondering what we have in stock, you can always visit our List of Dies found under the RESOURCE SHELF-Collections link of SEMLS' page. If you would like the Accu-cut Machine & Dies sent to you via delivery, go to the FORM CENTER at the top right side of our SEMLS page to make the online request.

Or just click here.

Downloading Instructions for online Summer Reading 2008 Manual & Clipart

(Internet Explorer Users only)

Instructions for Downloading the Clipart CD file/jpeg images:

1. Go to the http://www.janway.com/ReadPrograms/2008/MRLS-Wildreads/mass08-clipart.asp

Or http://www.janway.com/ReadPrograms/2008/MRLS-Wildreads/mass08-manual.clipart.asp

2. Select "Download Clipart”

3. Don’t be alarmed when a WinZip dialog box opens. Please wait for the Select “Use Evaluation Version” button to appear then click on USE EVALUATION VERSION. (Note: Your wait could be seconds or minutes. It all depends on how long it’s been since your Winzip software was updated. In either circumstance just wait until if finishes.

4. This will open a box that lists all of the “Wild Reads” clip art/jpeg images.

5. SAVE your folder unto your drive and then click OPEN.

6. When you select the first clip art file/jpeg image, you will be prompted for the confidential password.

7. When you enter “OK” the clipart that you selected will open and you are ready to view the remaining images.

********** ********** ********** ********** *********

(Mozilla Users Only)

1. Click on Download the JPEG clip art.

2. You’ll then be asked the password. Enter it and then look at the left side of your screen for the EXTRACT ALL FILES section. (This is located under the Folder Tasks section of Windows 2000 & higher).

3. Once you click on this EXTRACT ALL FILES, another window will be displayed prompting you to click NEXT.

4. Click NEXT for another screen (Here I would highly recommend that you create a file folder where you can easily find the clip art).

5. Select BROWSE.

6. Then select MAKE A NEW FOLDER and give it a name.

7. Click OK. (You may have to enter the password one more time for the extracting to begin.

I just finished looking over the book "The Puzzle of the Platypus and Other Explorations of Science in Action" by Jack Myers and I think it is a very good book for children. It explains some fun facts about animals clearly and simply without being wordy. There are lots of color pictures that support the ideas and explanations of how the scientists proved the facts to be true. I liked this book for late elementary school to early middle school age children.

I also looked over "Black Stars in a White Night Sky" by Jon Arno Lawson and I found it interesting. It is filled with thought provoking poems. Some of the poems are cute or funny and some just make you stop and think for a moment. The pictures accent the poems without ruining the meaning of them. When you start to read this book it's hard not to read just one more page. It seems appropriate for middle school children or young adults.

Online Clipart & Manual Are Available for Download!

For those of you who need to submit Wild Reads or X-pect the Un-X-pected images to your local newspapers to promote our 2008 Summer Reading Campaign, the clipart images are available--likewise the manual. I have to admit that the manual is not as 'beefy' in summers past but you will find some fun activities and ideas to use. Besides with such creative folk in our region (and across the state) I'm sure you have ideas of your own to try. And if not, you can always dust off the manuals of years ago to 'borrow' some creativity.

You'll need to contact the SEMLS office to retrieve the password. And just a reminder about the use of the copyrighted material:

The clip art & manual are to be used exclusively for the Massachusetts Regional Library Systems (MRLS) 2008 Summer Reading Program. Therefore, it is not to be used for programming, flyers, websites or other promotional materials that are not related to the Summer Reading Program. If you are reproducing or copying the artwork outside of the promotional materials that were provided to you via Janway or SEMLS, please consult your regional youth consultant to discuss permissions.

Thanks for your cooperation!