Category Archives: News from the Field

Draw Me a Story: A Century of Children’s Book Illustrations

The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls will exhibit “Draw me a story” from October 1-December 4, 2011.

Originating from the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, California, Draw Me a Story presents both unique works of art and thirteen books in a journey through the history of children’s book illustrators and illustration techniques. Among the award-winning artist/illustrators included in the exhibition are Randolph Caldecott, Jules Feiffer, Kate Greenaway, Sarah Noble Ives, Maurice Sendak, William Steig, and Chris Van Allsburg.

For more information visit the Hyde Collection website.

Literary Speed Dating

Public libraries across the country have found a new and interesting way to attract 20 and 30 somethings — literary speed dating.  The idea behind the program is that each person brings a favorite book to use as an icebreaker to get the conversation going with their “date”.  As with traditional speed dating, the men rotate around the room meeting with each woman for only a few minutes at a time.  Once the speed dates are over, the hosting librarian tallies the scorecards and matches up those people with a mutual interest.  For more ideas on hosting your own literary speed dating event, click here.

Connecting Teens with YA Books

While the common belief is that teens don’t read anymore, they are in fact reading–just not books.  In her article, “Using Social Networking to Connect Teens with Young Adult Literature” in the May/June Public Libraries, Janet Hilbun states that “In fact, research shows that teens read constantly–text messages, e-mail, MySpace and Facebook, magazines, instant messages, websites, required school reading, and books.  Even teens who say they are non-readers or do not like to read spend a great deal of each day actually reading.”  So, connecting teens to books they might really enjoy means giving them the information in a way that best suites their reading style.Continue reading→