The Wallace Foundation is donating $6 million to New York City’s three public library systems, specifically for programs to help libraries serve as learning places for school-age children during non-school hours. Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library, and the Queens Borough Public Library (with 212 branches among them) will each receive $2 million in a three-year grant. Another $897,000 is going to the Urban Libraries Council to help improve coordination among the three library systems. Read more about the gift and the goals of the program in this press release on the Wallace Foundation site.
Mock Turtle
Male reading mentors help close the literacy gender gap
This story from the Canada.com network reports on father-son book clubs and mentoring/intervention projects that bring average Joes into the classroom to read aloud and lead discussions. Assessment of boys who have participated in these programs indicate that male reading mentors can be an important factor in closing the growing literacy gap between boys and girls. Heather Richmond, a literacy expert at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, says that boys need men to confirm the “guy rules of engagement” with a book.
Harvard’s library bridge set for demolition
The architectural conversation piece that has connected Harvard University’s Widener and Houghton libraries for over 60 years will be torn down in spring 2004.
The covered bridge was constructed in 1942, in compliance with a 1912 stipulation by Widener Library’s benefactor that no “additions or alterations” could be made to the facade of the building. Thus, in order to connect Widener to Houghton, the bridge had to be constructed through a preexisting window in the stacks.
Aside from feeling the loss of a sentimental landmark, librarians say they will miss the protection the bridge provided against the Cambridge winter as they passed between the buildings.
Read more about the Widener-Houghton bridge and its history at The Harvard Crimson Online.
Lord of the Rings essay contest to net school libraries cash
Here’s a literary (by Hollywood standards) twist on the usual blockbuster movie tie-in:
Ramping up to the Dec. 17 release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, New Line Cinema invites students at selected middle and high schools in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, DC to enter an essay contest on the theme of Gandalf’s statement, “All you have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to you.”
A grand-prize winner from each city will receive a package of movie-related gear and a private screening, and New Line will award each city a $10,000 grant toward the purchase of books for public school libraries.
Ibiblio profiled in Wired News
Wired News has a nice write-up on ibiblio, one of the Web’s oldest and largest digital libraries. The article features an interview with ibiblio director Paul Jones, who has been with the project from its early days, first as SunSITE (1992), later as MetaLab (1997).
Says Jones, “We’d like to demonstrate that the best way to protect and preserve so-called intellectual property is to share it freely with everyone. Shared information is enhanced and improved, so its value can only increase. Hoarded knowledge just stagnates.”
Branch closings look imminent for Erie public library
Now that Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell has slashed state funding for libraries in half, the Erie County Council plans to adopt a budget on November 18 that will result in the closing of five out of the county’s six library branches. At least one, and maybe both, of the two bookmobiles will also be eliminated. GoErie.com tells the sad (and by now, all too familiar) story.
He’s got a library jones
Read Joel McNally’s latest column in The Capital Times (out of Madison, WI), in which he confesses the dark secret of his lifelong addiction:
“Stop me before I read again.
I can’t help myself. Sometimes I can stay clean for days at a time. But then the fever overtakes me.
I make some excuse to get out of the house. I tell my parents I am going to meet my friends and score some drugs. But then I head straight for the library. …”
“Eat me!”: Book challenge confusion in Florida
Fang-Face calls our attention to a report about challenges to Eat Me and A Stone in My Hand.
An Oct. 29 article in the Ocala [FL] Star Banner highlights the likely ramifications from the Marion County Library system’s poorly written book challenge review policy.
Part of the internal controversy (among the library staff) centers on the exact meaning of one of the two shortest words in the English language.
P. Diddy drops $1 million on NYC school libraries
High-profile hip-hop phenomenon Sean “P. Diddy” Combs has donated half of the $2 million he raised in running the recent New York City Marathon to the city’s public schools, specifically to support school libraries and technology. The New York Post has the scoop.
Middle schoolers in the public library: Collaboration pays off
The Baltimore Sun tells about the success of a recent collaboration between Deep Creek Middle School and Essex Library, both in Baltimore County. The first collaboration between the school system and the library system to include a curriculum component, this program is paying off in the quality of the students’ projects. Read more about it at SunSpot.net.
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