On Becoming A Raging Library Activist

On September 12, Maureen Ambrosino, Central Massachusetts Regional Libary System's Youth Services Consultant, requested that we change the location of our monthly Regional Youth Services Meeting to Boston as she had volunteered to testify at the State House to support school librarians for the Massachusetts School Library Association. After our regional meeting concluded, we accompanied Maureen to the State House to support her.

Maureen was among the last to testify and those who preceeded her all read from notes. While they were informative, their presentations were very dry. Maureen quickly realized that her testimony would be more powerful if she spoke extemporaneously. In fact, Maureen’s testimony was the best of the day and the legislators were truly interested in what she had to say.

Inspired by the day’s events, Maureen submitted an article summarizing this experience to School Library Journal. School Library Journal was so impressed by Maureen’s piece that they asked if they could reformat her story as a graphic arts piece.
Read about Maureen’s “Metamorphosis” in the January 2008 edition of School Library Journal at:

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/info/CA6515886.html

~ Janet Eckert, Western Massachusetts Regional Library System

Westen MA Poetry Slam Website

Hi,

Now that the holidays are past us I am getting to work on the regional poetry slams. We have the round table coming up Friday (tomorrow!) and another at Pelham next week.

I threw up this quick Google Pages website to give people an idea of what the slam is and as a central place to draw resources from. Within a week or so all the resources should be there. These should not be a lot of work for people and I think they'll be fun and attract a lot of attention!

See the page at http://taxonomy.googlepages.com/home2

Questions? ask me at taxonomy@gmail.com

Happy New Year!

Recommended Reading:

The January 1 edition of U.S. News & World Report features a fascinating article titled 50 Ways to Improve Your Life. Under the category of "Improving Your Mind" are directions on how the reader can "Get an MIT or Yale Education Free". Reporter Kim Clark states "You can finally get that MIT, Yale, or University of Tokyo education you've always wanted without spending a cent. All it takes is an Internet-connected computer and a little familiarity with skills like downloading programs and unzipping files."

Complete information online at
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/50-ways-to-improve-your-life/2007/12/20/get-an-mit-or-yale-education-free.html