Marlboro Library

I bet there are lots of libraries doing some fun summer reading video projects this year. Those little Flip video cams seem to be everywhere!

Do you have some video to share with others? We’re just starting to see some video coming in and setting up a page on the summer reading site to spotlight the videos.

All we need is MORE VIDEOS PLEASE!! :-)  Photos too. And any other sort of fun digital media that you’ve been creating.

Leave a comment below with a link back to your videos. We’ll add some to the video page and link back to your web site, video or photo account.

Thanks! And hope you’re all having a fun summer.

A shorter list of reviews appears in a Google Reader widget on the Teen Reading & Writing page.

You can also grab the list or the widget for your own web site. Get the code from the Content for Your Web Site page.

The full news feed for all of the reviews sources is available on a public Google Reader page.

If you have other review feeds that we can add to this service, please leave a comment below. Thank you!!!

Want to show off your great summer reading website and share all the fun you’re having with your colleagues? Leave a comment here so we can highlight your site on the NYS Summer Reading site.  And we’ll add a list on the sidebar of the blog too.

(photo image by larlie66)

“The library in summer is the most wonderful thing because there you get books on any subject and read them each for only as long as they hold your interest, abandoning any that don’t, halfway or a quarter of the way through if you like, and store up all that knowledge in the happy corners of your mind for your own self and not to show off how much you know or spit it back at your teacher on a test paper.” My One Hundred Adventures (p. 7) by Polly Horvath

Recently, a lot of attention has been focused on summer reading and summer learning. Some great suggestions and ideas have been expressed by people like Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Ron Fairchild of the John Hopkins Summer Learning Center. Recognizing the value of reading over the summer months is great. However, I feel that reading, as part of the public library program, focuses less on testing and evaluating and more on just reading and enjoying. I hope that will not change with this added national focus on “reducing the slide.”

Any thoughts?

If you could go on a fantasy road trip with a character (or characters!) from your favorite series, where would you go? What would you do along the way? How would you travel? Create a video and show us!

Enter the contest for teens age 13-18 at  Random House Listening Library. Or use this idea for your own local event.

Coveting one of those cute flip video cameras?
Here’s your chance! This one is down to $49.99 on Amazon — Amazon bargain - $49,99!  $100 off, and free super-saver shipping!

These are the 30 minute cameras. A great price if you want to try video recording with your kids and teens this summer. Or as an extra if you already have one of the fancier cameras. Or maybe just a treat for yourself?

The logos and information for creating links can be found in the Planners section of the NYS Summer Reading Program website.

Jeffrey W. Cannell, Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Education, New York State Education Department, is the featured speaker and will announce this year’s summer reading themes. Immediately following the launch ceremonies, Academy-award winning filmmaker Frank Mouris and his partner and wife, Caroline Mouris will show how they created the 2009 Summer Reading Program’s animated public service announcement, “Be Creative at Your Library.” The highly celebrated Mouris team has created in their signature collage style works seen on Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, HBO, MTV, and many others.

Their independent film work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Film Registry, and others. This event, a New York State Library presentation, is part of the New York State Museum series of family programs, and marks the statewide launch of the annual summer reading program sponsored by the New York State Library, which is offered in more than 1,100 locations across the state and serves more than one and a half million school-age children ranging from kindergarten through high school.

For more information, please visit www.summerreadingnys.org