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Apr 21st, 2008 by pollyalida
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New York Statewide Summer Reading Program
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There are 38 Posts and 19 Comments so far.
A couple of years ago, as I wandered around my local library wondering what to read, I came upon the idea of reading all of the Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction dating back to 1917. I have read 67 of the 81 (soon to be 82) books, and it has been the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever undertaken. Part of the challenge is finding the older, long-forgotten books. The biggest pleasure is reading something that is just as good as those on the NY Times Bestseller list.
Great idea Andrea!
In order to create excitement and make the community aware (about 2000 people) we decided to Bug Prattsburgh. The area merchants, doctors and the town have been great about putting our Bugs on prominent display in their lobbies, on their counters and in their windows along with posters about the Summer Reading Program and Catching the Reading Bug at out Library. We have bookworms, bees (Bee a Reader), Firefly (light up your life with books), spider (crawl into a good book) also caterpillars, lady bugs, centipedes, etc. The local bank has a miniture library made from a shoe box with bugs reading. It has been fun and we have gotten quite a few new patrons, donations and sign ups for our programs.
Thanks for spreading great info. StoryTubes 2009 is here -
StoryTubes 2009 -The Library Sponsored Streaming Video Book Review Project Grows
Get ready to grab gigabytes - mark your calendar to get involved in the project that fosters creativity and generates interest in reading and technology.
“Oh hello, I was just reading one of my favorite books, “Your Chickens: A Guide to Raising and Showing,” is a video that has been viewed over 7,300 times since being uploaded to YouTube in April of 2008. “My favorite book,” “I love this story,” and “You have to read this” are phrases that are used many times in the 2-minute or shorter video contest featuring students and their favorite books created by public libraries.
Olivia Collins of South Portland, Maine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9P17eYfp4E) skips around her back yard, sometimes with her feathered friends, sharing her passion for raising chickens and the book that inspired her. Olivia was one of the 2008 Storytubes Contest winners. Last year’s StoryTube’s Contest featured young people from across the 48 continental United States.
In 2009, StoryTubes videos will feature accents from Canada as Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, comes aboard as a sponsor library for Nova Scotia entrants. The contest adds people from distant time zones as Alaskans join the Storytubes contest as Juneau Public Libraries joins as another StoryTube partner.
StoryTubes organizers are extremely pleased with the exponential growth and interest in the project. Over 160 young people spoke passionately about their favorite books in 2009. Thousands more people were urged to watch and cast votes for videos as the contest moved into the voting phase. One teacher described the scene in her hometown as…”people were stopping in grocery stores to ask each other if they had voted for Jared that day.” During May of 2008, the StoryTubes web site averaged 1,037 pages per day and 1,301 hits per hour. The StoryTubes web site pages were viewed over 150,000 times during the contest. The StoryTubes project also received valuable support from the Children’s Book Council, the American Library Association, Trev Jones of School Library Journal, many schools and libraries across the country and a host of bloggers on the Internet.
New this year - This year’s contest features new partner libraries, new categories that provide opportunities for kindergartners - through high school seniors, groups and people of all ages*, new contest dates and the addition of TeacherTube as a video host to assist organizations that do not enable access to YouTube.
2009 StoryTubes Partner Libraries to date are as follows:
Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, NY
Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY
The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County/ImaginOn, Charlotte, NC
Washington-Centerville Public Library, Centerville, OH
Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL
Harris County Public Library, Houston, TX
Juneau Public Libraries, Juneau, AK
Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, Canada
Tentative Timeline:
Entries Accepted: Jan.8 through Feb. 15, 2009
Partner Library Final Judging: Feb. 16 through Feb. 20
Parent Permission and Movie Files Secured: Feb. 23 through Feb. 27
Announcement of Judges’ Choice Awards/Uploading of Movie Files to non-YouTube Site: March 2-6
Online Voting:
Individual Entries, Grades K-4 March 9-12
Individual Entries, Grades 5-8 March 16-19
Individual Entries, Grades 9 up March 23-26
Group Entries, All Ages March 30-April 2
Visit StoryTubes.info to watch videos from last year. Click here to watch the short promo video featuring last year’s contest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6h4gECcP3o).
* We welcome adult entrants especially as they create enthusiasm in others. The prizes will be awarded to school age young people. Adults may share in those prizes if they are in a group with a school age young person.
Questions:
Categories, rules, partner questions - Faith Brautigam, Director of Youth Services, Gail Borden Public Library, 847-429-5970, fbrautigam@gailborden.info
Technology - Betsy O’Connell, Director of Information Technology, Gail Borden Public Library, 847-429-4689, boconnell@gailborden.info
Sponsorship, marketing, video editing - Denise Raleigh Director of Marketing, Development & Communications, Gail Borden Public Library, (847) 429-5981, draleigh@gailborden.info
Denise Raleigh
Gail Borden Public Library
Director of Marketing, Development and Communications
847-429-5981
http://www.gailborden.info
The summer reading programs are a great opportunity for family literacy experiences. I work with adult literacy programs in the Hudson Valley. I’d like to see greater integration between summer reading programs and the adult literacy programs. I’ll share this information and resource with the adult literacy programs in the HV region.
If adult students accompany children or an adult literacy program collaborates with a summer reading program to extend it’s offerings to adult students, then it would be valuable to offer books, materials and resources of interest to adult learners as well. Libraries working with Literacy Volunteer programs may already possess books and materials suitable for adult learners in Adult Basic Education, English for Speakers of Other Languages, and GED classes.
What I am proposing is a third strand in the summer reading program, in addition to the wonderful programs for children and teens, one that addresses the needs of adult learners across NYS.