The OLD Top Shelf

The following was posted to the Texas Library Connection (TLC) listserv today:

Mark your calendar and buy your tickets! Arts & Letters Live at the Dallas Museum of Art will present popular author Eoin Colfer (ARTEMIS FOWL) on Sunday, January 20, at 3:00pm. Because of renovations in the Museum’s Horchow Auditorium, Eoin Colfer will speak at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dechard Performance Hall (10600 Preston Road; Dallas 75230). Tickets for this event are on sale now by phone (214.922.1818).

But wait, there’s more! This program is part of the BooksmART series (formerly arts & letters live, jr) of Arts and Letters Live. Other authors featured in this impressive BooksamART series are Gary Schmidt, Patricia MacLachlan, Mo Willems, and Brian Selznick! Check the BooksmART web page for additional information on dates and ordering.

Congrats to MK at Terry Middle School for registering her campus at the Teen Read Week site!

If you haven’t done this yet, there’s less than a week left before registration closes. Why should you register? YALSA is a non profit organization that depends on its members for support. By registering, you are letting them know that teen literacy is a concern and you are willing to do something about it! By registering, you are telling YALSA that this program is worthwhile, and they will continue to sponsor the week.

Once you have registered, these 13 steps will help you get the word out about your celebration.

Teen Read Week PR Checklist

1. There is a TRW display in my library.
2. TRW is featured on my library’s web site, blog and/or MySpace page
3. Information about TRW is in my library’s fall newsletter
4. I’ve posted announcements, fliers, and brochures all over my library: along shelves, at each checkout station, and bulletin boards. (Tip: Want a great, ready-made poster that you can easily print on any printer? Check out the Print PSAs on the Teen Read Week Web site’s Get Publicity page)
5. At my school, I asked to include TRW activities and information in the daily announcements.
6. All library staff are knowledgeable about my library’s TRW activities.
7. Relevant local organizations have been informed about TRW and your library’s TRW activities, such as the community center, 4-H club, area schools, parent organizations, etc.
8. Local VIPs such as town council members and/or state legislators, have been invited to attend any special TRW events.
9. Local media outlets such as newspapers, radio stations and TV stations have been informed about TRW and your library’s TRW activities via a press release (see the TRW Web site for samples). You can also ask your local newspaper to print one of YALSA’s PSAs (follow the directions at the Get Publicity page!)
10. My Teen Advisory Group (TAG) is involved in promoting TRW by writing letters to the editor, making a commercial for the public access channel, designing and posting flyers, creating and uploading a short informational video for YouTube, etc.
11. I or my TAG have asked my town council and/or state’s governor to declare Oct. 14-20th, 2007 Teen Read Week in my town or state (see a sample proclamation on the TRW Web site).
12. I have designated a member of my TAG or someone to be the photographer at my TRW events, and I will distribute the photos by posting them on the library’s web site or Flickr account, sending them to the local newspaper and sending them to American Libraries at americanlibraries@ala.org.
13. I went to the Teen Read Week wiki and shared my library’s plans so others can be inspired by my ideas and my celebration can be shared by ALA publications or the Public Information Office for promotional use.

If you’ve done all these things, I’d say you are more than ready! Share your plans in the comments.

Region XI Library Harvest
Thursday, September 6 , 2007
FREE, but registration is required
Register here
Click Calendar>Workshops>September 6, then follow the prompts
More information here

Star-Lit, children’s literacy festival
Saturday, October 20 from 10am-2pm
St. Andrew United Methodist Church
5801 W. Plano Parkway, Plano, TX

This year’s outstanding authors and illustrators include Laura Numeroff, Will Hillenbrand, Kimberly Willis Holt, Bryan Collier, Dee Scallan & Daniel Myers, Kim Brown (inspiration for D.W. in the Marc Brown’s ARTHUR series), Cynthia Leitich Smith, Greg Leitich Smith, and Tracy Dockray.
Event activities include presentations by all attending authors, an on-site bookstore sponsored by Borders, book signings by all authors, food, face painting & balloon animals, and a scavenger hunt to win prizes such as a Nintendo Wii, I-Pod, Webkinz and more. One very neat aspect of this literary event is that participants are able to attend small group gatherings with the authors/illustrators with plenty of time for questions, personal interaction, and books signing.
And here is the really great part – in honor of its 5th anniversary, this year Star-Lit is FREE to the public!! Concessions will be available for purchase throughout the event.
An extra bonus to the festival is the chance to join the authors and illustrators for the AUTHOR BREAKFAST, held before the festival begins. Only 100 tickets will be sold to the breakfast which includes breakfast with the authors before Star-Lit, a book to have signed by one of our guest authors and an event goodie bag filled with fun prizes. The breakfast takes place from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
Tickets to the Breakfast are $30 each and may be purchased online at the Star-Lit web site.
For more information, contact Gina Eckerman at gina@eckermangroup.com / 214-868-7500 (cell).

Show your support of teens and literature by registering
for YALSA’s 2007 Teen Read Week, “LOL @ your library.”
Registration is quick and free. The event will officially
be held Oct. 14-20. The humor theme is meant to encourage
teens to read light and entertaining materials just for
the fun of it. Register at:
www.ala.org/teenread

The first 100 registrants will receive a free audiobook from an award-winning author!

Popular author and illustrator Diane Stanley kicks off the Dallas
Museum of Art’s “arts & letters live, jr.” series on Sunday, January 28, at
3:00pm, in the Horchow Auditorium. Ms. Stanley will share insights
about her imaginative retellings of fairy tales — <The Giant and the
Beanstalk,> <Goldie and the Three Bears,> <Rumpelstiltskin’s
Daughter,>and her latest novel, <Bella at Midnight,> which is featured on the
Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List for 2007-2008.

For a pre-event treat, join teen docents at 2:15 pm in creative
conversation about Thomas Sully’s painting <Cinderella at the Kitchen
Fire,> a work of art in the Dallas Museum of Art’s collection. Please
meet at the Visitor Services Desk.

Tickets are available by calling 214-922-1818.
Prices are $15 for public adults; $13 for adult members of the Dallas
Museum of Art, $9 for students.

Other authors appearing at “arts and letters live, jr” include Wendy
Mass (February 28), Markus Zusak (April 22), and two-time Newbery
Honor winner Laurence Yep (May 20).

The new “For Young Adults” series designed for ages 13 and older
features Barry Lyga (January 19/9:00pm/included in general admission
to Museum) and the FREE Young Writers Workshops with Will Clarke
(February 3/J. Erik Jonsson Central Library and February 10/Dallas Museum of
Art).

The Dallas Museum of Art is located at 1717 N. Harwood Street in
downtown Dallas.

For additional information, contact Arts & Letters Live by calling
214-922-1818 or artsandletterslive@DallasMuseumofArt.org.

Book Blitz Month
Coffee Gourmet Month
Family Fit Lifestyle Month
International Creativity Month
International Life Balance Month
National Clean Up Your Computer Month
National Get Organized Month
National Glaucoma Awareness Month
National Hobby Month
National Hot Tea Month
National Mailorder Gardening Month
National Mentoring Month
National Personal Self-Defense Awareness Month
National Poverty in America Awareness Month
National Radon Action Month
National Reaching Your Potential Month
National Returns Month
National Soup Month
National Yours, Mine and Ours Month
Oatmeal Month
Western Pacific Hurricane Season 1/1-12/31
(may be a typo–if it’s all year long, why designate it?)

Diet Resolution Week ((1/1-1/7)
National Geographic Bee (school level)
New Year’s Resolution Week (1/1-1/7)
New Year’s Day (1/1)
St. Basil’s Day (1/1)
Citrus, Cotton, Outback, Fiesta and Rose Bowl Games (1/1)
Orange Bowl (1/2)
Haiti: Ancestor’s Day (1/2)
Japan: Kakizome (1/2)
Congress Assembles (1/3)
Sugar Bowl (1/3)
National Write to Congress Day (1/3)
Trivia Day (1/4)
Twelfth Night (1/5)

Universal Letter Writing Week (1/8-1/14)
Greece: Midwife’s or Women’s Day (1/8)
St. Gudala’s Feast Day (1/8)
Panama: Martyr’s Day (1/9)
Philippines: Feast of the Black Nazarene (1/9)
Japan: Coming of Age Day (1/10)
National Cut Your Energy Costs Day (1/10)
International Thank You Days (1/11-1/18)
Nepal: National Unity Day (1/11)

International Printing Week (1/14-1/20)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (1/15)
Appreciate a Dragon Day (1/16)
National Nothing Day (1/16)
Religious Freedom Day (1/16)
Japan: Haru-No-Yabuiri (1/16)
Malawi: John Chilembwe Day (1/16)
St. Anthony’s Day (1/17)
Pooh Day (1/18)
Ethiopia: Timkit (1/19)

Hunt For Happiness Week (1/21-1/27)
International Handwriting Analysis Week (1/22-1/27)
National Handwriting Day (1/23)
Bulgaria: Babin Den (1/23)
Bolivia: Alacitis Fair (1/24)
A Room of One’s Own Day (1/25)
National Compliment Day (1/26)

Catholic Schools Week (1/29-2/4)
Free Thinker’s Day (1/29)

This year’s conference will feature author Isabel Allende; “Unshelved” library comic strip creators Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum; demographer Steve Murdock; learning specialist Stephen Krashen; “The Shifted Librarian” Jenny Levine and Internet pioneer Michael Stephens; partnership expert Gary Hartzell; OCLC’s George Needham; Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson; Internet specialist Hal Davidson; technology guru Aaron Schmidt; technology researcher Marshall Breeding; and information literacy expert Randy Hensley.

Some Highlights

Start practicing now for the second annual book cart drill team competition, which will be held Thursday, April 12 from 5 pm to 6 pm. You can show your friends just what all can be done with a little music, some choreography, and a book cart. Or, if you just want to cheer on your favorite team, plan on attending this rousing event which completely dispels the notion that book carts are only for books! The winning team will be invited to compete nationally at ALA 2007. Team preregistration is required.

Portrait in Sepia is the selection for this year’s One Book One Conference. Join in a discussion of general session speaker Isabel Allende’s epic story that explores the lives, loves, struggles, and secrets of a family in 19th century revolutionary Chile. Read the book and come ready to participate in the third TLA One Book One Conference event.Coleen Grissom of Trinity University (San Antonio) will lead the discussion.

YALSA is pleased to announce that registration for “Teen
Tech Week” is now open. “Teen Tech Week” is a new
YALSA celebration aimed at getting teens to use their
libraries for the different technologies that are offered
there, such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, video games and
more.

“Teen Tech Week” will be celebrated for the first time
March 4-10, 2007.

Registration is available now at
http://www.ala.org/teentechweek

Read more at
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/november2006/TeenTechWeek.htm

The “teaser trailer” for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie is online now at the Warner Brothers’ Happy Feet site. The film is scheduled to open July 2007.

Click here for more CBW photos

Additional pictures of Book Week in Mesquite ISD can be seen by clicking on the link above then choosing the Children’s Book Week 2007 set of photos.