Archive for Community Events and Updates

The Library of Congress will honor seven new “Living Legends” as part of its public celebration on Saturday, April 12, 2008, to mark the opening of the “Library of Congress Experience,” which offers visitors the opportunity to explore rare historical and cultural treasures through interactive technology and a companion website. Detailed information can be found at www.loc.gov/experience.

Established during the Library’s Bicentennial celebration in 2000, the “Living Legend” award honors artists, writers, activists, filmmakers, physicians, entertainers, sports figures and public servants who have made significant contributions to America’s diverse cultural, scientific and social heritage. Saturday’s honorees will include Mario Andretti, Julian Bond, Herbie Hancock, David McCullough, Cokie Roberts, Frank Robinson, and Bob Schieffer.

Pilgrim Tours, in conjunction with Shepherd University in West Virginia, is offering a tour of Costa Rica from July 26-August 9 that will include the International Reading Association's 22nd World Congress on Reading, which will be held July 28-31 just outside San Jose, Costa Rica. The tour leaders are longtime IRA member Larry Kenney and Virginia Hicks.

Up to three credit hours of undergraduate or graduate credit may be earned at a cost of $35 per credit hour. For details, visit the Shepherd University website.

For further information about the tour, visit the Pilgrim Tours website. Please note that reservations and an initial $300 per person deposit are due April 15, 2008.

As libraries throughout the United States continue to expand their collections for diverse communities, thousands will celebrate El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day) on April 30, 2008. Thousands of libraries will host celebrations with family programs, including bilingual story hours, book giveaways, and other literacy events.

Also known as Día, this national celebration brings together children, books, languages, and cultures. It is an annual celebration of the joys and wonders of childhood and the importance of literacy in the lives of families. Día spreads "bookjoy" by linking children from all languages and cultures with books; honors children, their languages and culture; encourages reading and literacy; and promotes library collections and programs that reflect the country's changing populations.

Día is sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, and is an enhancement of Children's Day, which began in 1925. Children's Day was designated as a day to bring attention to the importance and well-being of children. Call your local library or visit the El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day) webpage for book lists and more information.

From Doris Lessing to Kiran Desai, six women writers who build bridges between different parts of the world express their concerns in the UNESCO Courier, published on the occasion of March 8, International Women’s Day.

British writer Doris Lessing returns to her country of birth, Zimbabwe, and denounces our jaded world. Franco-Ivorian author Véronique Tadjo explains how travels can morph into exile. Spôjmaï Zariâb tells the story of war torn Afghanistan, from her Paris vantage point. Michal Govrin, from Israel, reveals the impassioned dimension of an unending conflict. In the United States, Indian author Kiran Desai questions the fate of belonging to two cultures. Argentine poet María Medrano builds a bridge between the free world and incarceration. All are women between two shores. Read more.

The 2008 U.S. National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held on Saturday, September 27, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The festival will feature more than 70 award-winning authors, poets, and illustrators in the following pavilions: History & Biography, Children, Teens & Children, Fiction & Fantasy, Mysteries & Thrillers, Home & Family, and Poetry.

"We are pleased to present the Library's book festival for the eighth year," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "Last year, more than 120,000 people joined us on the Mall to celebrate books and reading. No matter your age, no matter your interests--you'll find books and authors to fascinate you."

For further information, visit the festival's website.

The 5th annual WE LEARN (Net) Working Gathering and Conference on Women and Literacy, to be held March 7 and 8, 2008, in New York City, will revolve around the theme "Building Alliances." The Women Expanding--Literacy Education Action Resource Network (WE LEARN) promotes women's literacy as a tool for personal growth and social change.

For further information about the organization or the conference, visit the WE LEARN website.

Local celebrities in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, will flex their mental muscles at Read to Succeed’s 2007 Rebecca Jones Celebrity Spelling Bee Saturday, November 27, in the Patterson Park Community Center Theater. “All of this is about encouraging our young people to read and enjoy reading …” Rutherford County Mayor and celebrity speller Ernest Burgess said. “If these folks are willing to publicly spell, (then) literacy must be important,” Ronni Shaw, Read to Succeed executive director, said. Spellers, like Burgess, are relieved to know words start out at an easy third-grade level and advance up to an eighth-grade level. Also, celebrities will be asked to spell words related to their chosen field, as in, Burgess may be asked to spell, “Rutherford.” Read about the bee in The Murfreesboro Post.

Throughout October, the International Reading Association is joining other leading education, literacy, and publishing organizations in marking the sixth anniversary of Children’s Magazine Month. This year’s observance involves mobilizing teachers, librarians, and school children worldwide to organize KinderHarvest magazine recycling projects to collect millions of magazines for new readers.

“The KinderHarvest program collects wonderful magazines and puts them into the hands, homes, and hearts of children and families who want to learn and love to read,” notes John Mennell, founding director of MagazineLiteracy.org and co-manager of Children’s Magazine Month. “It’s like food gleaning, where humanitarians gather crops in the field to feed the hungry. Except, this harvest gleans magazines to feed children and families hungry to read and succeed, recycling the magazines we all love to meet local literacy needs.”

Find out more in a press release issued by the supporting organizations.

Winterthur Museum & Country Estate, located outside of Wilmington, Delaware, is hosting several events relating to literacy in the coming months. “K is for Kids,” a family-friendly exhibition that explores intriguing objects in the Winterthur collection and studies early methods of reading education, opens on September 15. In addition, “K is for Kids: A Family Day,” will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on September 29, while “Family Literacy Day” takes place on October 12. For more information, visit Winterthur’s family programs website.

An all-night reading at a local Krispy Kreme of American author John Steinbeck’s 1939 classic The Grapes of Wrath—literature amid chocolate iced glazed crullers—may not rival an afternoon at your local library for quiet. But even as Dana Gioia, the National Endowment for the Arts’ chairman, announces 117 new cities chosen to participate in the agency’s “Big Read” program this year, that’s what you hear: Quiet. Read more about the NEA’s community-level literature program in this article from CNN.com

The 2007 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush, will be held on Saturday, September 29, 2007, on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The event, now in its seventh year, will feature more than 70 award-winning authors, poets, and illustrators. Watch for further information on the festival's website.

A monthlong celebration of the joy of reading kicks off February 1 in Toronto, Canada.

All Torontonians are invited to attend special events throughout February hosted by the Toronto Public Library, including:
•Vino, Vin, Vino: Explore the love and language of wine with authors and product specialists.
•Altered Books, Artists Reinvent the Book: Discover the phenomenon of altered books—transforming ordinary books into art.
•Inventory: Writers tracking war and conflict.

More event information is available at www.keeptorontoreading.ca.

ABC CANADA Family Literacy Day is a national initiative celebrated January 27 that promotes the importance of reading and learning together as a family. Families and communities across Canada will celebrate this special day at literacy-themed events coordinated by literacy organizations, schools and libraries. Created by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation in 1999, ABC CANADA Family Literacy Day is supported by companies such as Honda Canada, the founding sponsor. To learn more about activities planned, which range from teddy bear picnics to readathons, visit the group’s website.

The College of Education at the University of Dubai will host an international conference on “School Reforms: Challenges and Aspirations” April 17–19, 2007. For information, contact Prof. Abdullateef Haidar, Dean, College of Education, United Arab Emirates University, via e-mail (A.Haidar@uaeu.ac.ae), phone (9713 7677270), or fax (9713 7671294).

The New England Reading Association Journal (NERAJ) has issued a call for manuscripts for two upcoming issues. This peer-reviewed journal is seeking manuscripts of interest to educators on a broad array of topics related to literacy and classroom practice and welcomes submissions in a variety of writing formats such as articles, interviews, essays, and research reports. The theme for the Spring 2007 issue is “New Literacies of the Internet and Other Information and Communication Technologies.” The deadline for submission is February 15, 2007. The Fall 2007 issue will focus on critical literacy; the deadline for this issue is September 15, 2007. For more information please contact Dr. Julia Kara-Soteriou via e-mail at karaiou@ccsu.edu.