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Dr. V. is one of the most involved librarians in the field. A school media specialist, professor, and professional speaker, this is the person to follow when starting off or keeping up to date!

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Tweets by joycevalenza

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Dr. Lofton is another great librarian to follow.  A dedicated professor, reference librarian, teacher librarian, she is always letting us know what's shaking in the library world.

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Tweets by jane_librarian

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A librarian who shares his love of reading with the world by traveling and tweeting!

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Honoring the library advocate, Former First Lady Barbara Bush

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Honoring the library advocate, Former First Lady Barbara Bush

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One of America's First Ladies, Mrs. Bush made it her goal to promote literacy among the families of the United States.

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Barbara Bush Foundation For Family Literacy

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Home - Barbara Bush Foundation For Family Literacy

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Join us at the 2018 National Celebration of Reading in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 2018. Enjoy an entertaining evening in our nation's capital featuring bestselling authors, benefiting family literacy programs of the Barbara Bush Foundation.

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An education and media company that is renowned for publishing, selling, and distributing educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, and children, as well as books. Students look forward to their book fairs every year.

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Scholastic | Books for Kids | Learning Resources

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Find the best kids books, learning resources, and educational solutions at Scholastic, promoting literacy development for over 100 years.

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Hi everyone!

I am a librarian in-training at Rutgers University , pursuing a concentration in School Media Studies.  I currently work as a Reference and instruction Assistant at the Alexander Library at Rutgers University.

As a librarian, sharing and freely accessing knowledge is extremely important.  Due to this, I am sharing my knowledge and connections with friends, associates, and strangers.

Follow me!

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Jill M. Bennett | Professional Profile | LinkedIn

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View Jill M. Bennett's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. Jill M. has 4 jobs listed on their profile. See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Jill M.'s connections and jobs at similar companies.

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See what Jill B (jbee2534) has discovered on Pinterest, the world's biggest collection of everybody's favorite things.

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A great place for families and educators to select the type of books they want to work with by selecting characters, settings, and genre.

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After WNDB was formed in 2014, our team traveled across the country to conferences and book festivals where they heard a common theme - diverse books can be hard to find. That's why we created OurStory to help address this problem.

The OurStory app is a tool that highlights books with diverse content and by content creators from marginalized communities.

For more details about the OurStory app, contact Dhonielle Clayton:dhonielleclayton@wndb.local.

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After WNDB was formed in 2014, our team traveled across the country to conferences and book festivals where they heard a common theme - diverse books can be hard to find. That's why we created OurStory to help address this problem.

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Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation

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Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation

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This foundation promotes literacy for children and their parents, sponsored by the late former First Lady Barbara Bush.

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Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation

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Mrs. Bush had an unwavering desire to help others with her innate kindness and piercing wisdom. As a role model for leading a life of service to others and a champion of the literacy cause for more than three decades, she will forever be our inspiration for helping people reach their fullest potential in life through the power of literacy.

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One man’s love letter to finding higher horizons among the stacks.

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One man's love letter to finding higher horizons among the stacks.

"Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free. A great library is freedom," Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in her beautiful essay on the sacredness of public libraries. "A library is a rainbow in the clouds," Maya Angelou exulted in reflecting on how a library saved her life. It was thanks to the library that James Baldwin read his way from Harlem to the literary pantheon. "You never know what troubled little girl needs a book," Nikki Giovanni wrote in one of her wonderful poems celebrating libraries and librarians.

This life-altering power of libraries is what humanistic oral history powerhouse StoryCorps celebrates in The Temple of Knowledge - a lovely animated memoir by Ronald Clark, whose father served as custodian of a New York Public Library branch in an era when library caretakers and their families lived among the books.

Complement with another wonderful StoryCorps short on how a library saved a young Native American woman's life, then revisit Robert Dawson's photographic love letter to public libraries, Carl Sagan on how reading paves the way for democracy, and Maurice Sendak's marvelous vintage posters celebrating libraries and reading.

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The Temple of Knowledge: An Animated Celebration of How Libraries Change Lives

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"Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free. A great library is freedom," Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in her beautiful essay on the sacredness of public libraries. "A library is a rainbow in the clouds," Maya Angelou exulted in reflecting on how a library saved her life.

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Librarians need to be able to connect with librarians around the world.

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Tweets by LDNLibraries

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-National Book Festival
-Princeton Children's Book Festival
-Morristown Book Festival
-American Library Association Annual Conference
-Bologna Children's Book Fair
-ALSC Bookapalooza
-NJLA Conference 2018

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Looking for Fairy Tales? Check the library!

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Looking for Fairy Tales? Check the library!

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If you’re looking for something new this #TellAFairyTaleDay your #library is the place to look! #LoveLibraries #LovetoRead

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If you’re looking for something new this #TellAFairyTaleDay your #library is the place to look! #LoveLibraries #LovetoRead https://t.co/jbpDN20dEA

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If you’re looking for something new this #TellAFairyTaleDay your #library is the place to look! #LoveLibraries #LovetoRead pic.twitter.com/jbpDN20dEA
— London Libraries (@LDNLibraries) February 26, 2018

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If you’re looking for something new this #TellAFairyTaleDay your #library is the place to look! #LoveLibraries #LovetoRead https://t.co/jbpDN20dEA

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If you’re looking for something new this #TellAFairyTaleDay your #library is the place to look! #LoveLibraries #LovetoRead https://t.co/jbpDN20dEA

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If you’re looking for something new this #TellAFairyTaleDay your #library is the place to look! #LoveLibraries #LovetoRead

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Spreading the literary love this Valentine's Day!

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Spreading the literary love this Valentine's Day!

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I #lovelibraries and I #lovemuseums because they offer resources for learning and are open to everyone https://t.co/GCzUe8zYhs

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I #lovelibraries and I #lovemuseums because they offer resources for learning and are open to everyone https://t.co/GCzUe8zYhs

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Happy #ValentinesDay! Let’s show some ❤️— Tell us why you #LoveMuseums and #LoveLibraries! https://t.co/NHgngkFvJH

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I #lovelibraries and I #lovemuseums because they offer resources for learning and are open to everyone https://t.co/GCzUe8zYhs
— Katherine reads banned books📚 (@Kdeanie) February 14, 2018

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I #lovelibraries and I #lovemuseums because they offer resources for learning and are open to everyone https://t.co/GCzUe8zYhs

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Happy #ValentinesDay! Let’s show some ❤️— Tell us why you #LoveMuseums and #LoveLibraries! https://t.co/NHgngkFvJH

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I #lovelibraries and I #lovemuseums because they offer resources for learning and are open to everyone https://t.co/GCzUe8zYhs

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I #lovelibraries and I #lovemuseums because they offer resources for learning and are open to everyone https://t.co/GCzUe8zYhs

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Happy #ValentinesDay! Let’s show some ❤️— Tell us why you #LoveMuseums and #LoveLibraries! https://t.co/NHgngkFvJH

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Christina Riccio is a very popular booktuber, sharing her love of reading in hilarious reviews that leave many YA readers thinking and excited for the next book.

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Looking for something non-boring and awesome? OMG THIS BOOK... My name’s Christine Riccio! I love comedy and reading fantastic books. I make what I like to think are funny videos every Tuesday and other days of the week too...I usually upload more than once a week - about books and book related pop culture stuff! I also have a comedy channel if you’re into that kind of thing *winky face* it’s polandbananas20. I heart the Shadowhunter Chronicles, Harry Potter is my homeskillet, the Throne of Glass series is kicking ass, I love a good contemporary romance, I’m a twihard at heart. I READ A LOT. I’D LOVE TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS WITH YOU. ALSO COMEDY. ALSO TV. ALSO MOVIES. STORY LOVER IN GENERAL. website: http://ChristineRiccio.com business inquiries: xtinemay1920@gmail.com New Jersey girl living in Los Angeles banner by the lovely http://twitter.com/ohceecee

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-association for library service to children

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-young adult library services association

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Follow 2018 ALA Youth Media Award results live

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(CHICAGO) Librarians and library staff are transforming lives by connecting youth with materials that educate, inspire and foster lifelong learning.

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ALA Youth Media Awards

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5 Most Important Libraries in the United States

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5 Most Important Libraries in the United States

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5 Most Important Libraries in the United States

Does your public library have a long and illustrious history? Or is it just an ordinary building where you visit to find your next relaxing read? Believe it or not, there are several libraries in the United States that have immense historical and cultural significance. Read on to learn about the five most important libraries in the United States.

The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the official research library of the United States Congress. Its main purpose is to answer research inquiries from members of Congress, but is open to the public as well. It is the oldest national institution in the U.S. and includes the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence as well as one of only three perfect vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible.

The New York Public Library (Stephen A. Schwarzman Library)

At its opening on May 24, 1911, the New York Public Library attracted more than 30,000 visitors. The library was built in response to the dying wish of former New York governor Samuel J. Tilden to "establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York." Known for the famous stone lions flanking its entrance, this library is also famous for its extensive historical collections. These include priceless medieval paintings, ancient Japanese scrolls, and a comprehensive Maps Division.

Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library is one of the oldest and most respectable libraries in the United States. Its first home was in a schoolhouse on Mason Street, which opened its doors to patrons on March 20, 1854. Later, it moved to its current home: the Johnson Building and the McKim Building-a stunning example of Renaissance Beaux-Arts Classicism in America.

In addition to magnificent architecture, the Boston Public Library boasts a multitude of spectacular collections including several first edition folios by William Shakespeare and the personal library of John Adams.

The Library Company of Philadelphia

America's first successful lending library, the Library Company of Philadelphia was established by Benjamin Franklin in 1731 to provide greater access to expensive and hard to find books.

Currently, the main focus of the Library Company of Philadelphia is American society and culture from the 17th century to the 19th century. Its collections are made up of rare books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and graphics documenting multiple aspects of American history.

Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

The Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is one of the largest buildings in the world completely devoted to rare books and manuscripts. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft and completed in 1963, it is a modern monument of granite, marble, bronze, and glass. Some significant holdings of the library include early Greek and Roman papyri, medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, Near Eastern manuscripts, and historical archives of English and Italian families.

Great libraries make for great people. So the next time you are browsing the stacks at your local library, think of these giants of history and culture and be proud to be a part of such an important heritage.
For more information, please visit librarysciencedegree.usc.edu.

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5 Most Important Libraries in the United States

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Does your public library have a long and illustrious history? Or is it just an ordinary building where you visit to find your next relaxing read? Believe it or not, there are several libraries in the United States that have immense historical and cultural significance.

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An extremely helpful organization for anyone who is a librarian within the state of New Jersey.

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A Canadian class interacting with their global community

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Useful tips and stories to keep in mind from working librarians in urban settings.

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As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, this week's headline quotes Dr. King from a speech delivered in 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City.

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The 100 People Foundation is an education non-profit dedicated to creating media and educational tools that simplify and humanize complex global statistics by looking at the world as a community of 100 people.

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The 100 People Foundation helps students to better understand the complex issues facing our planet and the resources we share.

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Help Center

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A fun way to interact with books and promote literacy!

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The class twitter

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A grade one teacher inviting the world into her classroom.

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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Rutgers School of Communication and Information

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Rutgers School of Communication and Information

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Keeping up with one of the best librarian programs in the USA.

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Rutgers Association of School Librarians

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Rutgers Association of School Librarians

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I am a member of the Association, which provides connections and professional development for students.

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The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

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The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

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One of the world's largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts

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The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is one of the world's largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts and is Yale's principal repository for literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books. The Beinecke Library's robust collections are used to create new scholarship by researchers from around the world.

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Association of Independent School Librarians

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Association of Independent School Librarians

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Official twitter feed of the Association of Independent School Librarians

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America’s first successful lending library!

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The Library Company of Philadelphia has a Grand collection of humanity's achievements, of the great manuscripts of the USA and around the World. Knowledge is the way of the future, the development and the performance of the person. Medical book located in The Library Company of Philadelphia is a unique treasure! The books of Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and other medical books at the library tell about the treatment of male health problems potency all existing methods. From ancient medicine, Chinese and Persian, to the current treatment methods with the help of Cialis. The current generation chooses treatment with tadalafil, how to buy Cialis online is now faster than going to the nearest pharmacy. And Yes, according to patients, is the most effective method in the treatment of disease. The Library Company of Philadelphia keeps a history of all treatment methods of healthy, unique recipes and folk remedies for the benefit of mankind.

5:30 pm: Reception

Free for Shareholders

$10 for Non-Shareholders

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The Library Company of Philadelphia - America's oldest cultural institution, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731.

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The Library Company of Philadelphia has a Grand collection of humanity's achievements, of the great manuscripts of the USA and around the World. Knowledge is the way of the future, the development and the performance of the person. Medical book located in The Library Company of Philadelphia is a unique treasure!

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The New York Public Library is Moving 1.5 Million Books to a vault under Bryant Park

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This summer, several times a week, a 30-foot truck filled with rough wooden shelves of books has arrived early in the morning at the New York Public Library's flagship research library. Each truckload contains thousands of books, which have been sitting for the past three years at a storage facility upstate.

Now, 1.5 million books are migrating home, although not to the shelves they once occupied, in the library's old stacks beneath the Rose Main Reading Room. From the loading dock, the shelves are moved through the maze below the library, until they are two levels below the ground, underneath Bryant Park, which stretches like a lawn before the Beaux-Arts building. There, the books loiter in the hallway, waiting to be ingested.

In this subterranean section of the library, you can accidentally walk a city block if you don't plan right. The basement corridors pass by black pillars that carry the weight of the main reading room and by the stonework from the reservoir that once held the city's drinking water. On the floor, red and yellow arrows guide the way, to a door through which only a few dozen people are allowed to pass.

"We want to keep our collection safe," says Johannes Neuer, the library's director of customer experience, who's in charge of the books' big move back to the library. "Once we go to the second level, you'll understand why it's very important that only people who know what they're doing are allowed in the space."

Twenty-five years ago, when the library first moved books under the park, construction crews carved out two underground floors, but only the top one was finished. The second level, deeper down, was an unlit hollow, until, starting in April 2015, renovations transformed it into an archive-quality storage facility.

It is a beautifully cool 65 degrees down here, with 40 percent relative humidity, and there's a new electric trolley system, in which books can be sent off to reading rooms upstairs in bright red carts. Most importantly, there is space for 2.5 million books.

This underground lair of books was part of a resolution to a tumultuous dispute over the library's future. In March 2013, the library emptied its central stacks, the layers of shelving in the main building. While this main branch of the library has been a research collection, in which books could only be used onsite, the plan, at the time, was to renovate the old stacks and make this a circulating library. But researchers who valued the library's old set-up objected, aggressively. The plan changed.

When most of the library's collection moved offsite, the most frequently requested books stayed behind, in the upper level of the underground stacks, where part of the library's collection of periodicals is also stored. The library collection management division has found that its patrons most often want to look at books published in the past 30 years, in English, but even that tranche of books wouldn't all fit in this one level. Many of the books the library acquired in the early 1990s and 1980s had to go into storage.

Those are the books that are coming back first, but they're bringing freeloaders with them. The collections management team analyzed the books that moved off-site, looking at each box to see how often its contents were requested. If five out of 10 books in a given box needed to come back, the whole thing returned, no matter how old or undesired the other books were.

These are the boxes that are now arriving in a steady stream by truck. On an August morning, the 10-person team that works on the second level of the underground stacks was "ingesting" oversized art material. The books are grouped together by size, in cardboard trays with white plastic handles at the front. This library doesn't use the Dewey Decimal System, so books that are grouped together don't necessarily cover the same subjects. Upstairs, in the older level of stacks, each book has a call number, and to find a book in one of the six bays, you need to be trained to understand where it might be located. In this lower level, there's an inventory control system that might be used in an Amazon warehouse or other industrial setting, that tracks where the books are.

Before the books are allowed to move into the stacks, they are measured, to make sure they will fit. There are shelves here as low as 12 inches and as high as 58 inches. Each book is laid on a sizing template, where rectangles of blue, green, red, yellow and orange give their true measure. The shelves at the storage facility were larger than the shelves here, and many supposed As, the smallest size of book, turned out to be Bs, just a bit too large to sneak onto the shortest shelves. Likewise, Ds have had to become Es. (Bs and Cs were mostly able to stay with the size they originally were assigned.) Before it goes on the shelf, every book is measured by hand, its size double-checked with a ruler.

After that, they are counted. How many books live in this tray? Are they are all there? Each book has a bar code, used to scan it into the library. It's officially back now. When that's done, the books in the tray are counted again. Are they still all there? Are they in the correct tray? Only then does "tray-to-shelf" happen.

The person doing that work has a list of all the empty shelves, and the tray goes directly to an appropriately sized spot. In the new and empty stacks, there are more barcodes to address. The shelf has a barcode, which is scanned. The tray's barcode is scanned. Then two more barcodes, one for the area in which the tray lives-they call it a "module"-and one for the aisle. Once all this happens, the tray will not move. This is where it lives. When staffers come to collect requested books on this level, they will receive a list that optimizes their path through the stacks, so they never have to double back.

This is why it's important that no one come down here who's not familiar with the system. In an old-fashioned library, if someone took a book of a shelf, it could be re-filed, according to the number on the spine. Here, if a book moved without being scanned out, it could disappear. "If someone were to remove an item from this tray, we couldn't find it anymore," says Neuer. "We don't want to be in a situation where we lose track of material."

It takes a book about five days to move through this immigration process, from upstate storage to shelf. The homecoming procession has only just begun. So far, 250,000 books have returned to the library; there are another 1.25 million to come. Moving them all should take nine months.

Even then, though, the migration of the library's books will not be complete. It never really is. Books that live upstairs may move down here or, possibly, off-site. There needs to be room upstairs for new books, which keep coming in. Altogether, there is space for about four million books down here, but within eight to ten years, the library still may run out of underground space. Then the librarians will look again at each tray on the shelf. If no book in the tray has moved since it landed there, it can be sent away again, back to offsite storage.

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The New York Public Library is Moving 1.5 Million Books to an Underground Lair

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The books will live highly organized lives underneath Bryant Park.

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5 Ways Libraries Cultivate Community Art

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5 Ways Libraries Cultivate Community Art

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At the Library as Incubator Project, we work hard to highlight the many ways that libraries and artists can support each other, and not just because makerspaces are cool. We believe that creativity is inherent in everyone, and so we define "artist" broadly in order to communicate that point: to us, an artist is any person who uses creative tools to make new things. We think creativity -- like information --should be accessible to everyone in a community, and that the library is the perfect democratic space to make that happen.

Here are some of our favorite examples of the ways libraries cultivate community art:
1. Libraries Host Writers in Residence (and Artists and Tinkers!)
So, you're writing a children's book. How would you like $20,000 and free office space in a public library in order to help make that happen? That's exactly what The Children's Writer in Residence fellowship at Boston Public Library offers each year to an unpublished author, many of whom have relied on the library's fabulous collections to help them research and write their stories. And it's not just large, metropolitan libraries that create space and support for writers -- the Writer in Residence at Forbes Library in Northampton Massachusetts enjoys in-depth research support from talented librarians who are well-versed in local history, plus the opportunity to lead writing workshops (and cemetery tours!) for the community.

Author Susan Stinson, Writer-in-Residence, in front of Forbes Library

At libraries across the country and the world, these kinds of residencies are popping up in all sorts of incarnations, not least because they offer patrons the opportunity to meet and learn from an in-house expert. The Artist in Residence program at The Bubbler at Madison Public Library, for example, allows artists free reign over The Bubbler room, where they can work on their art, host workshops, and meet patrons who want to know more about what they do.

Artists in these spaces often do incredible things to re-imagine the library as an information-finding experience, like visual designer and artist Chris Gaul, who served as Artist in Residence at the Library of the University of Technology, Sydney, where he conceived of "Book Babble," an installation involving a re-wired a set of headphones that picked up signals from books so that patrons could listen as they wandered the stacks and zero in on something interesting.
2. Libraries collect local music and writing (& help people create it, too)
Libraries don't just open their doors to artists to use the space-- they collect what they produce, too, and it goes far beyond purchasing the latest best seller. The Iowa City Public Library Local Music Collection was one of the earliest efforts to license music from local acts -- if you have a library card and password, and live in Iowa City, you can download full albums from the ICPL Local Music Collection. And you own it forever. The Yahara Music Library at Madison Public Library is modeled on the ICPL's incredible success, and takes it a step further: in addition to licensing streaming and downloadable content in multiple file formats, Yahara also integrates band bios, social media feeds, and news on upcoming shows, essentially providing a free advertising platform for local bands that allows music lovers to discover new music for free.

And it's not just music. The IStreet Press at Sacramento Public Library not only has a suite of workshops that teach writing, editing, and marketing your work, it also leverages the library's Espresso Book machine, which prints books -- both public domain and patron-produced -- on demand, to build an impressive Local Authors Collection. When a patron decides to self-publish their work through I Street, they have the option to donate a copy to the library. The book is then catalogued, and added to the Local Authors Collection at the central library. The titles are included in the system's 28-branch catalogue as well, and are available to everyone with a library card in the area.

Similarly, Provincetown Public Press is a new digital publishing imprint launched by Provincetown Public Library. Because Provincetown is an arts colony -- one of the oldest in the nation -- it made sense for the library to support the work of local writers. Add new, user-friendly platforms for producing e-books, and a juried selection process for choosing new titles to produce and sell on both Amazon and Apple platforms, and you have a new breed of publisher that can give voice to an artistic community: the Library.
3. Libraries show new artwork outside the gallery/museum circuit -- and that's a good thing.
With their place at the center of the community and the free, democratic access people have to libraries, they make a perfect place to show art, in addition to helping artists make and distribute it. Showing work in a library is an opportunity to connect with a huge cross section of people -- little kids and seniors, the homeless and the well-to-do, students and businesspeople. Basically, everyone in the community -- including folks who might never see a modern art installation otherwise. And if the point of art is to make someone feel something, it's best to get it out there in the open where it can do it's job!

Libraries everywhere host local art shows on a regular basis, whether that means small exhibits in glass cases or hung in a reading room, or formal gallery space that can be customized, like the Art Gallery in the new Central location of the San Diego Public Library. On View at San Diego Public Library leverages this impressive new space to allow free access to the visual arts and cultural exhibitions, while promoting San Diego artists and creative community groups as part of their long-running and highly successful Visual Arts Program.

New Central Library Art Gallery at San Diego Public Library

Libraries also tend to be big -- especially in cities -- big enough to commission large installations, like The Reading Nest. Each year the Cleveland Public Library has an open call to artists to execute a temporary installation in their Eastman Reading Garden, and in 2013, artist Mark Riegelman won the commission and created The Reading Nest using discarded wooden boards. The final work stands approximately 13′ tall and 36′ wide, and was inspired by the Eastman Garden's feeling of refuge within downtown Cleveland and symbols from the natural world that we often associate with knowledge and wisdom: trees and owls. "I want visitors to be enchanted by the installation. I want them to feel like they are walking into a fairytale," Riegelman said of The Reading Nest, and we think he pulled it off: the effect of the piece is not unlike cracking open a good book!

Mark Riegelman's 'Reading Nest' at Cleveland Public Library
4. Libraries host readings and performances
In the same way that libraries can connect a huge cross section of people with new and exciting artwork, they can also open up the world of theatre and performance to folks who may not usually go to see a production. The BONK! Performance Series at Racine Public Library, for instance, started out as an independent project run by poet and librarian Nick Demske before migrating to a permanent home as under the Racine Public Library umbrella. The series aims to bring challenging poetry, art, and performance to the established local arts community in Racine -- a place you might peg as an unlikely place for an avant garde performance series to thrive. And yet, BONK! now has a huge following in the area and has garnered national attention on the American poetry scene. It regularly hosts poets and performers like Ching-In Chen, Amaud Jamaul Johnson, and S.E. Smith, bringing their work to an unexpected and enthusiastic audience.

Likewise, the Page to Stage performance series at Princeton Public Library is an exercise in minimalism and creativity for theatre artist Brandon Monokian. Several years ago. Brandon and a group of theatre artists adapted readings from Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology and performed them around New York and New Jersey. The success of their performances caught Programming Librarian Janie Hermann's eye after she booked their show at the Princeton Public Library for Banned Books week, and invited him to develop more performances for the library.

They collaborated to create the Page to Stage series, which features staged readings of plays that have been adapted from or inspired by literature, including Einstein's Dreams, Grimm Women, and The Arabian Nights. Brandon never imagined that he'd be creating performances for spaces other than a theatre, but now he's sold. The spatial and technical limitations at the library not only challenge him creatively -- for one production, the play called for a river onstage, which Brandon interpreted as a collection of recycled water bottles -- but also stretches the use of the art. "Tying live theatrical entertainment to literature serves as an animated way to promote literacy,"Brandon says. He believes that doing theater in a library can be an important political statement in addition to a creative collaboration.

Page to Stage program at the Princeton Public Library. Photo by Kaitlin Overton.
5. Libraries host hands-on workshops for all ages and encourage creative collaboration
So you can see art and performance in a library, and you can use the space to help produce and promote your music and writing and artwork, but what if you're a dabbler, a hobbyist looking to try your hand at something new? Well, you're in luck, because this is the library's primary wheelhouse (in addition to books and other materials, of course). Even if your library doesn't have a fancy gallery space or an artist-in-residence, its mission to be a locus for lifelong learning, and that means it probably has a robust calendar of hands-on programs that can help you get a taste of a new skill or subject. From computer applications to coding, digital photography to embroidery, screenprinting to storytelling, libraries leverage the experts in the community to offer many free tutorials on a variety of interesting activities and skills.

When you combine these hands-on explorations with the classic library book club, you have the recipe for a unique literary exploration, which is exactly what The Book to Art Club sets out to achieve. Carrying out the Book to Art motto, "Read, Talk, Make," chapters at libraries all over the country add a creative twist to the standard book discussion that is a popular library staple. Book to Art meetings aren't just a place to discuss the narrative, characters, or style of a particular title, but also invite participants to create something new in response by riffing on themes, ideas, and settings in a text through simple art projects that can be customized for any skill level. Thinking visually in this way opens up some exciting discussions that would never come up otherwise.

The Madison, WI chapter of the Book to Art Club meets at The Bubbler at Madison Public Library, but any library is welcome to download the Book to Art Club's free templates and project suggestions for such titles as The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief.

A series of drawings created as part of a Book to Art Club discussion for Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
Erinn Batykefer is co-founder of The Library as Incubator Project along with Laura Damon-Moore. The LAIP is based in Madison Wisconsin but lives online here. Follow the team as they write about libraries + art stuff on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. And, be sure to check out their new book, The Artist's Library: a Field Guide from the Library as Incubator Project [Coffee House Press, $23.95].

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5 Ways Libraries Cultivate Community Art

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At the Library as Incubator Project, we work hard to highlight the many ways that libraries and artists can support each other, and not just because makerspaces are cool. We believe that creativity is inherent in everyone, and so we define "artist" broadly in order to communicate that point: to us, an artist is any person who uses creative tools to make new things.

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Generously shared by Jasmine in #RU515

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If you have a Kindle, then you probably know about the cool vocabulary builder feature it has! Anytime you look up a word's definition, it's automatically added to the vocabulary builder, that way you can review, study, and master the words at a later date.

Super cool, right?

I haven't always been consistent about reviewing the words again after I've looked them up, but I thought it'd be fun to create a blog series about some of the words that have either stumped me or words I wanted to know the actual definition for. All definitions have been taken from Merriam-Webster. Hopefully you learn a new word!

So without further delay . . .

Word: Cosseted
Definition: to give (someone) a lot of care and attention or too much care and attention
Originally read in: Drums of Autumn (Outlander, #4) by Diana Gabaldon

Word: Tenaculum
Definition: : a slender sharp-pointed hook attached to a handle and used mainly in surgery for seizing and holding parts (such as arteries); : an adhesive animal structure
Originally read in: Drums of Autumn (Outlander, #4) by Diana Gabaldon

Word: Worsted
Definition: a smooth compact yarn from long wool fibers used especially for firm napless fabrics, carpeting, or knitting
Originally read in: Drums of Autumn (Outlander, #4) by Diana Gabaldon

Word: Avuncular
Definition: 1: suggestive of an uncle especially in kindliness or geniality; : of or relating to an uncle
Originally read in: Voyager (Outlander, #3) by Diana Gabaldon

Word: Bucolic
Definition: 1: of or relating to shepherds or herdsmen : pastoral; : relating to or typical of rural life
Originally read in: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Word: Ilk
Definition: sort, kind
Originally read in: A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2) by Sarah J. Maas

specifically Word: Ciborium
Definition: 1: a goblet-shaped vessel for holding eucharistic bread; : baldachin; : a freestanding vaulted canopy supported by four columns over a high altar
Originally read in: Outlander (Outlander, #1) by Diana Gabaldon

Word: Erasure
Definition: an act or instance of erasing
Originally read in: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Word: Subcutaneous
Definition: being, living, occurring, or administered under the skin
Originally read in: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Which of these words is new to you? What was the last definition you looked up while reading?

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If you have a Kindle, then you probably know about the cool vocabulary builder feature it has! Anytime you look up a word's definition, it's automatically added to the vocabulary builder, that way you can review, study, and master the words at a later date. Super cool, right?