Celebrate National Library Week at the James J. Hill Center!
Join us as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of National Library Week with the theme “Libraries Lead.” Bring your friends and explore the legacy of our historic building and enjoy the Hill after hours for a night of refreshments, special tours, trivia and prizes. This is an opportunity to take action for libraries and continue to support our transformation.
Date: Wednesday, April 11th Time: 4:30pm – 6:30pm Where: James J. Hill Center, 80 West 4th Street, Saint Paul Cost: Free Light appetizers and beverages will be served.
Just a quick reminder that next week is National Library Week!
At CMLE Headquarters, we support all our 300+ libraries, and want to be sure you guys are ready to tell the world how wonderful you are!! Call someone (legislator, stakeholder, potential fan) and tell them about your work. Take some photos and share them on social media, or send them to us and we can share them. Video an interview with a patron who gushes about your great things – or interview yourself on video gushing about your great things!
Libraries are just wonderful, and this is your chance to bask in that!
From the ALA:
“Libraries Transform” is the theme for National Library Week in 2017.
First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.
Celebrations during National Library Week include:
Monday, April 10: State of America’s Libraries Report released, including Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books of 2016.
Tuesday, April 11: National Library Workers Day, a day for library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.
Wednesday, April 12: National Bookmobile Day, a day to recognize the contributions of our nation’s bookmobiles and the dedicated professionals who make quality bookmobile outreach possible in their communities.
Thursday, April 13, has just been designated Take Action for Libraries Day. Read the press release. Details will be posted here as soon as they’re available.
Even though every day is a great day to celebrate libraries, there is a special week each year designated to highlight their importance and awesomeness!
This year, that week is from April 9 – 15 and “is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and library workers and to promote library use and support.”
This year’s theme for the week is “Libraries Transform.” ALA has a Press Kit to help you prepare for activities and events you may want to plan to take place during this exciting week! Check out their library week fact sheet or watch this video from the 2016 National Library Week Video Challenge
My new iPhone case in honor of past and present library systems!
I couldn’t let National Library Week end without taking a moment to reflect on what libraries mean to me. As a child, our little town did not have a public library (still doesn’t), and there was no school library, so the bookmobile came to main street every two weeks. I always checked out the maximum number of books, and even though I tried to ration, I was always done at least a week before the bookmobile lumbered back into town. Finally, the bookmobile librarian put me out of my misery and quietly lifted the limit for me and we were both happier. She was my hero. During junior high, I discovered the school media center, and spent every moment there that I could. The librarian liked me and was nice to me. In high school, I almost got expelled for cutting classes until the school librarian vouched for the fact that I was in the media center reading during my missed class! I guess the principal simply didn’t have the heart to expel me for my innocent love affair with books. When my three children were small, I opened a daycare center. Every day we had story time. The first time I saw a child lock onto the book I was reading with fierce attentiveness, I was hooked. That pure channel between the child’s brain and the story was exactly where I wanted to be! Until that electric moment, I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to be when I grew up. Shortly after this in 1993 or so, I logged onto the Internet (no easy feat at that time), surfed on over to a special collection of aboriginal art in Australia (a bucket list destination), and felt the intoxicating power of remote digital collections too. So, when I started college at age 35, I knew very clearly that I was on a path to be a librarian, and have never looked back. Graduate school in Chicago gave me ample opportunity to visit and use some of the finest research libraries in the world. The deal was sealed; I was completely smitten.
I honor and commend all types of librarians during National Library Week. You make important contributions to people’s lives, some who have little, others who are more fortunate. You help build an informed citizenry, but I am preaching to the choir here! Well done library friends; you rock!
It’s National Library Week, from April 12-18, and this year’s theme is “Unlimited possibilities @ your library®.” National Library Week is a “time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.”
What are you and your library doing for the week? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Locally, CSB/SJU is getting students to share the things they create at the library on Twitter.
The U of MN has a “Libraries from A to Z” campaign where they are highlighting staff and services with trivia contests through their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.
