Programming Librarian

From the Library

African American History Month
We asked librarians to share their African American History Month ideas last year, and here’s what some of your colleagues were up to: programs in every genre and discipline featuring African American authors, films, visual artists, quiltmakers, musicians, scholars, and storytellers. Topics ranged from the history of slavery, to Barack Obama’s inauguration, to baseball’s Negro leagues.

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month
Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month was created in 1992 to pay tribute to the generations of Asians and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America’s history and are instrumental in its future success.

Civic Awareness Month
September is Civic Awareness Month! As the International City/County Management Association notes, the month-long celebration “reminds us of the importance of cultivating an informed, involved citizenry that can work in partnership with its local government.”

Financial Wellness Month
January is Financial Wellness Month! As the Madison (Wisc.) Public Library noted, “The new year is a good time for people to establish financial balance after credit card bills pour in from the holidays. This is a time to set new goals for financial freedom and moderation in spending.”

Gay and Lesbian Pride Month
A June 1969 riot at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan is often considered to be the beginning of the gay liberation movement in the United States. Launched in 2000, Gay and Lesbian Pride Month is held in June to commemorate this important event in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) history.

Jewish American Heritage Month
On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed that May would be Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) to recognize more than 350 years of Jewish contributions to American culture in fields ranging from sports and arts and entertainment to medicine, business, science, government, and military service.

Learn a Foreign Language Month
December is Learn a Foreign Language Month. Offering foreign language opportunities for your patrons is a wonderful way to boost your library programming and provide added benefit to your patrons. Studies have revealed that language learning supports academic achievement, provides cognitive benefits, and affects attitudes and beliefs about other cultures. Read on to find general foreign language resources as well as to discover what other programming librarians have done in their libraries.

NaNoWriMo
November is NaNoWriMo , or National Novel Writing Month. Launched in 1999, the event has had more than 250,000 participants. The official website describes it best: “Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved. Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.”

National Arts and Humanities Month
In 2009, President Obama named October National Arts and Humanities Month. Across the country, people gather together throughout the month to celebrate the arts and discuss the future of American culture.

National Culinary Arts Month
This month-long celebration promotes awareness of professional cooks and chefs and their contributions to new culinary trends and dining excellence. It’s also a good time to offer food-related programming at your library.

National Hispanic Heritage Month
Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

National Inventors Month
August is National Inventors Month, which began in 1998 by the United Inventors Association of the USA (UIA-USA), the Academy of Applied Science, and Inventors’ Digest magazine to celebrate invention and creativity.

National Women’s History Month
Even though women clearly have a long history, their contributions only began to be formally celebrated and recognized in the 1970s. In 1987, the National Women’s History Project worked to expand the celebration to the entire month of March.

Native American Heritage Month
What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the United States has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.

Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation
February 1861. Abraham Lincoln has been elected as the sixteenth President of the United States. Seven states have seceded from the Union. Representatives from the seceding states gather in Montgomery, Alabama, where they frame and adopt a constitution for their new government. Jefferson Davis is elected President of the Confederacy. Within the next two months, Lincoln will be inaugurated.

From the Blog

2013 Youth Media Award Winners Announced
The American Library Association (ALA) announced the top books, video, and audiobooks for children and young adults—including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery, and Printz awards—at its Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. A list of all the 2013 award winners follows.

A Novel Idea @ your library
November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). During the month librarians across the country and around the world will be reminding would-be writers of all the great resources they have to offer when it comes to writing their masterpiece.

Anniversaries in 2011
At our very productive Midwinter meetings, the ALA Public Programs Office’s Public and Cultural Programs Advisory Committee discussed putting together a list of 2011 anniversaries and events that librarians could use to plan programming around. I offered to work on this, and the result is this calendar of important dates that could lend themselves to author programs, film programs, panel discussions, and much more.

Apply for the Civil War 150 Traveling Exhibition and Programming Grant
For those of you who can’t get enough of Civil War programming, or are still looking for ways to incorporate it into your library, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, in partnership with the Library of America, is now accepting applications from public, academic, and special libraries to host the free Civil War 150 traveling exhibition and receive a $1,000 grant to support public programming.

Apply Now for a Free Moon Viewing Kit
The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) is pleased to invite public and school libraries to apply for a free Moon viewing kit! To qualify for a kit, applicants must commit to hosting an International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) event on Saturday, October 8, 2011.

Banned Books Week 2010
Happy Banned Books Week! This year marks our twenty-ninth year of celebrating the freedom to read, an issue that’s as vital and relevant to libraries today as ever. Banned Books Week is an opportunity to raise awareness about the role of libraries in fighting censorship and providing access to diverse materials.

Celebrate National Bookmobile Day
Audrey Niffenegger wants you to celebrate National Bookmobile Day on April 13, 2011. The acclaimed author of The Night Bookmobile and The Time Traveler’s Wife is the 2011 Honorary Chair of National Bookmobile Day.

Celebrate National Poetry Month!
Reading poems not only builds literacy skills, it lights the imagination. In April 1996, the Academy of American Poets, the largest membership-based nonprofit poetry organization, launched National Poetry Month to introduce more readers to the art form.

Celebrate Poetry!
National Poetry Month is just a week away. Need inspiration for some last-minute programming, or looking for ideas you can use year-round? The American Academy of Poets offers a list of thirty ways to celebrate poetry.

Celebrate Science and Women’s History Month
NASA science education partners are celebrating National Women’s History Month in March with the expanded NASA Science4Girls and Their Families initiative. The theme for this year’s National Women’s History Month is “Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.”

Choose Privacy Week Kicks Off with Awesome Video
This week is the inaugural Choose Privacy Week—a celebration of our right to privacy and an opportunity to inform the general public about the importance of this issue in our increasingly public world.

Create a Glass Wall of Poetry
So I was thinking of those magnetic poetry kits that people put on their refrigerators and filing cabinets, when I got the idea to create a much larger version of it for our library to celebrate National Poetry Month last April.

Creative Aging at Rouses Point Dodge Memorial Library
Throughout the workshop the student artists gained confidence, motivation, and great enthusiasm toward this art medium. There was a tremendous amount of conversation and encouragement from the student artists and teaching artist. The student artists could not wait to show me their progress and product at the end of each class.

Creative Aging in Our Communities: The Public Library Project
The field of creative aging focuses on the beneficial and powerful role of the arts in enhancing the quality of life for older adults, and is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to positive aging efforts. As the population of aging Americans steadily increases, libraries are experiencing a growing need for valuable programming to address patron needs and interests.

Deadline Extended for National Library Week Grant
Your library has something for everyone. This National Library Week, celebrate the ways your library provides a place where everyone belongs. The deadline for 2012 grant has been extended to Friday, October 28. U.S. libraries of all types are invited to apply for a $3,000 grant.

Explore the World @ your library
Libraries allow users to experience new cultures and explore distant countries every day. Whether it is through a book on the art of China or learning to sing a song in French during a multicultural sing-a-long, libraries really bring their users the world.

Featured Library: Aurora Public Library
This month we’re highlighting the Aurora (Ill.) Public Library for its wealth of Civil War programming. This year marks the beginning of the Civil War Sesquicentennial commemoration, and this October, the library is offering a variety of related programs for adults and children.

Featured Library: Hawaii State Public Library System
This month we are highlighting the Hawaii State Public Library System for its holiday programs. HSPLS is hosting a variety of holiday events that celebrate the local culture while toasting the season

Featured Library: New York Public Library
January is Financial Awareness Month, so what better time to highlight the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) financial literacy programs for all types of audiences, including entrepreneurs, college students, those looking into mutual funds, children, those looking for tax tips, home buyers, and retirees.

Featured Library: Red Bank Public Library
February is African American History Month, and our featured library, Red Bank (N.J.) Public Library (RBPL), is celebrating it with some exciting events, including a look at a Pulitzer Prize–winning African American playwright and an exhibition focusing on African art.

Featured Library: Richland County Public Library
Each year, more than 40,000 people from across the state attend free cultural events at the Richland County (S.C.) Public Library (RCPL), including an annual storytelling festival, plays, literary readings, book discussions, and concerts. In February, the library celebrated African American History Month with a wide variety of programming highlighting African-American history and culture.

Featured Library: San Francisco Public Library
June is Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, and this year it is also the fortieth anniversary of San Francisco's Pride Celebration and Parade. To commemorate this historic event, San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) is hosting a number of programs and films under the theme "40 and Fabulous."

Featured Library: Southern State Community College
Fayette County in Ohio has been hard-hit by the poor economy and closing businesses. Recognizing this fact, the librarians at Southern State Community College’s library created programs for this year’s National Library Week, held April 10–16, that they hope will help pull the community together as well as let people know about how valuable libraries can be.

Fifth International Games Day Is This Saturday
On Saturday, November 3, more than 20,000 people in communities across the U.S. and around the world will celebrate the fifth annual International Games Day @ your library. The event aims to reconnect communities through their libraries around the educational, recreational, and social value of all types of games.

Financial Planning @ your library
According to a recent poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, saving money was the third most popular New Year’s resolution. Libraries are trying to make this goal easier to reach.

Free Dust Bowl Resources from PBS
The Dust Bowl, a two-part, four-hour documentary series by Ken Burns, chronicles the environmental catastrophe that, throughout the 1930s, destroyed the farmlands of the Great Plains, turned prairies into deserts, and unleashed a pattern of massive, deadly dust storms that for many seemed to herald the end of the world.

Free PR Tools for Your Día Events
On April 30, families, children and communities will celebrate our nation’s rich cultural tapestry during El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day). Also known as Día, libraries across the country will host multicultural celebrations that include family programs, bilingual story hours, book giveaways, and other literacy events

Free Verse
Every year since the Academy of American Poets launched National Poetry Month in 1996 we have come up with a new angle to help draw people into the world of poetry. For 2009, we are playing off of Paul Sahre’s National Poetry Month Poster design, which features lines from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” scrawled on a fogged window: “Do I dare / Disturb the universe?” We invited people to send in photographs of bits of verse that they have presented in some ephemeral medium.

Freedom Riders
From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South.

Get into the Spirit of the Season
It’s that time of year again, when things get a little … spooky. Hunting for something a little different? Check out these supernatural programs designed to inform, fright, and delight.

Get Ready for Choose Privacy Week
With Choose Privacy Week (May 1–7) right around the corner, the American Library Association (ALA) is offering online resources for libraries who are interested in holding Choose Privacy programs of their own.

Go for the Gold @ your library
You don’t have to travel to Vancouver to participate in the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are several ways to enjoy the Olympics @ your library. Hosting your own Olympic Games @ your library can be a fun way to promote your library’s existing gaming program.

Happy New Year!
I can’t believe it’s time for my last blog post for 2012 already! It’s been a great year, and I owe a great deal of thanks to my wonderful co-workers here at the ALA Public Programs Office and to you, our readers. And, of course, to our contributors.

Healthy Living @ your library
With New Year’s resolutions kicking into effect, it is no surprise that this week marks Healthy Weight Week (January 20–26). Healthy Weight Week is a celebration of healthy diet-free living habits focused on the prevention of eating and weight problems. Once learned, these habits can be cultivated throughout life.

Highland Park Celebrates 125 Years!
When it’s football season in Chicago and the Bears are playing, that’s all that matters. And when it’s the season opener, it’s hardly an ideal time to schedule a library program. And yet, on a recent Sunday afternoon during the Bear’s first game of the season, Highland Park (Ill.) Public Library kicked off their 125th anniversary celebration and 300 people came out to celebrate.

Jazz Appreciation Month
April is also Jazz Appreciation Month! The Smithsonian launched Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) in 2001 to pay tribute to jazz both as a historic and living American art form. This year’s celebration marks the centennial of Chicago jazz-musician Benny Goodman, “The King of Swing.”

Jazz Up Your Library Programming
Next month is Jazz Appreciation Month, and DC Public Library is going all out with a packed schedule of jazz programming for all ages. Check out their programs below.

Let the Day of Games Begin!
American Library Association’s International Games Day on November 3, 2012, is a great way to entice people into the library for a day of fun and learning. Many library collections not only house electronic resources and e-books, but have now begun collecting games. This event is a great way to showcase this collection along with any related collections.

Letter from Birmingham Jail: A Worldwide Celebration
On April 16, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the day that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began writing his Letter from Birmingham Jail, the Birmingham Public Library will sponsor a program titled Letter from Birmingham Jail: A Worldwide Celebration.

Librarians As Engineers: Robotics at Your Library
National Robotics Week (NRW) celebrates robotics technology development each April (this year it’s April 7–15). The NRW website advocates funding robotics programs while addressing its increasing use in healthcare, medicine, manufacturing, and other sectors.

Librarians Promote Reading by Participating in World Book Night
Librarians are helping to spread the joy and love of reading by taking part in World Book Night (WBN) on April 23. WBN seeks out reluctant adult readers wherever they are, in towns and cities and in such public settings as nursing homes, food pantries, low-income schools, and mass transit centers, according to organizers.

Local Poetry Events
There are many regional poetry festivals and other poetry-related events happening around the country during National Poetry Month, and all year long.

MASTERPIECE Turns 40!
Many of us have spent countless Sunday evenings engrossed in a great plot, gorgeous costumes, evocative settings, and witty dialogue—in short, watching MASTERPIECE on PBS.

Money Smart Week @ your library
ALA is pleased to announce a partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to make Money Smart Week @ your library a national initiative, April 2–9, 2011.

Muslim Journeys at Central New Mexico Community College
This week we’ll be highlighting Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys programs at two academic libraries. Up first is the Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) Library in Albuquerque.

Muslim Journeys at Portland State University
This week we’ll be highlighting Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys programs at two academic libraries. Today is Portland (Ore.) State University Library.

New for April at EDSITEment
This spring, EDSITEment has assembled a garland of new multimedia resources to enhance our poetry lessons for readers and students to hear the poetry and experience the power of some of America’s most celebrated original voices in the hope they will emulate them by writing their own American originals.

New for April at EDSITEment
This April, EDSITEment celebrates National Poetry Month as well as Jazz Appreciation Month. It also looks at the Kennedy Administration and the Civil Rights movement, and Romare Bearden’s The Dove.

New for August at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment goes back to school; celebrates the Statue of Liberty; marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation; discusses “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (even if you would prefer not to); and looks back at August 1968.

New for December at EDSITEment
This month, celebrate holiday traditions, go beyond C.S. Lewis’s famous wardrobe, relive Pearl Harbor, learn more about George Washington’s Christmas boat ride across the Delaware, celebrate Emily Dickinson’s birthday, and travel back in time to the City of Light in the first part of the last century.

New for December at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment looks at December celebrations, Emanuel Leutze’s depiction of George Washington’s December crossing of the Delaware, a collection of Civil War resources, and civil unrest in Newark, New Jersey, in the 1960s.

New for February at EDSITEment
This month EDSITEment celebrates the Chinese New Year. February 14 ushers in the new year and the coming of spring. Engage students in “Lions, Dragons and Nian: Animals of the Chinese New Year” with a dragon parade. Dance with lions and hear firecrackers pop!

New for February at EDSITEment
This month, join EDSITEment in celebrating the Chinese New Year, recognizing Black History Month, highlighting the twentieth-century Presidents, and exploring the Salem Witch Trials.

New for February at EDSITEment
This February, EDSITEment offers a collection of Black History Month resources, takes a look at the history-changing events of February 1968, goes on a Flight to Freedom, builds a fire with Jack London, introduces the members of Thoreau’s Circle, and celebrates Presidents’ Day.

New for January at EDSITEment
This month, check out EDSITEment’s new look and sign up for a free webinar tour of the improved site. In addition, you can celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr.; mark the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address; take a look at saints, relics, and devotion in Medieval Europe; and discover Middle Eastern history, religion, and culture.

New for January at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment remembers Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., explores President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, offers lessons for teaching civics through stories, celebrates the Chinese New Year, looks back at 1968, and takes a trip through the looking glass.

New for July at EDSITEment
Today, EDSITEment celebrates two July 12 birthdays: Henry David Thoreau and Pablo Neruda. EDSITEment also remembers William Faulkner, looks at the histories of London and the Olympics, celebrates New Mexico’s 100th anniversary as a state, offers a summertime reading list, goes to war, and reviews the events of July 1968.

New for June at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment celebrates National Zoo and Aquarium Month; offers a resource guide to accompany the College Board’s recommended reading lists; introduces students to Shakespeare via a ghost story; looks at empire and identity in the American colonies; shares some great websites on saving outdoor sculpture, Louisiana culture and history, historical events in June 1968, and the Civil War; and reads Walt Whitman.

New for June at EDSITEment
As you can see from our home page, EDSITEment has a number of cool offerings to engage teachers and students as school wraps up and summer weather beckons...

New for March at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment puts the spotlight on Women’s History Month, which provides an ideal opportunity for students to learn about and connect to the lives, struggles, and achievements of women who came before in order to better understand our world today.

New for March at EDSITEment
March capers in like a lamb this year, along with a number of resources from the EDSITEment program at National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit EDSITEment for insights into a number of important historical moments and figures that will be featured this month.

New for May at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment offers three Launchpads designed to spark discussion about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The May-pole of Merry Mount,” Pablo Neruda’s “Oda al mar,” and Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience.” EDSITEment also celebrates Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month by taking a look at the travels of Manjiro Nakanohama, our first Japanese “ambassador,” and shares stories from survivors who came of age during the Holocaust.

New for May at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment celebrates Asian-Pacific Heritage Month by highlighting the life of Manjiro Nakahama (also known as John Mung), the first immigrant of Japanese descent to the United States.

New for May at EDSITEment
This month EDSITEment is chock full of new lessons and resources marking significant events and celebrations within the May calendar, including Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, the Mexican Revolution, and the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Riders.

New for November at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment celebrates the Mexican Revolution Centennial and Native American History Month. It also offers Civil War lesson plans in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and, in time for Thanksgiving, a resource for Plymouth Colonial history and archeology.

New for October at EDSITEment
Visit EDSITEment in October and discover the origins of Halloween, find out what happens when worlds collide, explore Philadelphia, apply for a school collaboration grant, and learn about an online writing gallery for your students.

New for October at EDSITEment
This month, EDSITEment explores authenticity in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath; looks at what motivated Columbus’s travels; remembers the Cuban Missile Crisis on its fiftieth anniversary; offers new resources for AP English Literature and Composition; discusses voting in Jacksonian American as depicted in George Caleb Bingham’s The County Election; and discovers the roots of Halloween and the Day of the Dead.

New for September at EDSITEment
EDSITEment celebrates Constitution Day and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation this September. In addition, for National Hispanic Heritage Month, EDSITEment looks at noted Hispanic poets from the seventeenth and twentieth centuries as well as offers Spanish-language resources for the novel Esperanza Rising.

New for September at EDSITEment
This month EDSITEment celebrates the signing of the Constitution as well as Hispanic Heritage Month. It also takes a look at the many hats of Benjamin Franklin and announces the launch of Mission US, an exciting series of online educational video games that engage students in United States history.

Not Your Typical Valentine’s Day Celebration
I’m not a hearts-and-flowers kind of girl (although I wouldn’t turn down some good dark chocolate), so I thought I’d see what alternative Valentine’s Day programming libraries are hosting. What did I find?

October Is National Arts and Humanities Month
Be one of the 10,000 communities and millions of people throughout the United States who celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month every year. Join us in recognizing the many ways the arts and culture enhance our lives.

Only Fifty-Nine Days Until Talk Like a Pirate Day
As Dave Barry once wrote, “Every now and then, some visionary individuals come along with a concept that is so original and so revolutionary that your immediate reaction is: ‘Those individuals should be on medication.’” Now, I have no knowledge regarding the mental or physical status of International Talk Like a Pirate Day’s founders, but I do know pirates* are a great way to inject some fun into your library programming.

Partnering for the New Year
Here’s a great example of a long-running partnership between a public library and a university. Since 1993, the Monroe County (Ind.) Public Library has partnered with Indiana University’s Asian Culture Center to celebrate the Lunar New Year in Bloomington.

Pass It On! Celebrate Preservation Week
Preservation Week marks its second anniversary April 24–30. Recognizing the critical role libraries play in preservation, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), in partnership with the Library of Congress and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, is proud to bring Preservation Week to libraries across the country.

Plan Your El día de los niños/El día de los libros
To better serve the growing population of libraries offering events for El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), also known as día, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) released a new día website. The completely redesigned site includes a día resource guide for public and school librarians, giving them everything they need to produce a Día event at their library.

Publicize Your El día de los niños/El día de los libros Events
As libraries throughout the country continue to expand their collections for diverse communities, thousands will celebrate El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), also known as Día, on April 30, 2012. Libraries from coast-to-coast will host celebrations with family programs, including bilingual story hours, book giveaways and other literacy events.

Recycled Craft Day
I love to put on a recycled craft activity, and I’ve offered one for Earth Day for the last four years. It’s amazing what things you can do with junk. It’s also a great way to encourage children to make their own crafts at home with things they find around the house.

Register Now For Teen Tech Week
The time has come to Check In @ your library! Registration for Teen Tech Week, the Young Adult Library Services Association’s (YALSA) annual celebration of digital literacy and technology via the library, is now open at the Teen Tech Week website.

Registration Open for 2012–2013 WrestleMania Reading Challenge
Registration is open for the eighth annual WrestleMania Reading Challenge, sponsored by WWE and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. The challenge encourages teens and tweens to read during Teen Read Week and beyond.

Remembering Our Veterans
In honor of next week’s Veterans Day, I thought I’d highlight the Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center. Created in 2000, the project “collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.”

Request Your Free Days of Remembrance Resource Today
This year’s Holocaust remembrance week is April 7̵14, 2013. The Day of Remembrance itself, known as Yom Hashoah, is April 8. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum leads the nation in this annual observance by encouraging civic, military, religious, and educational institutions from across the country to hold remembrance events.

Schools, Video Games, and STEM
This fall has seen a number of big video game releases (Skyrim, I’m especially looking at you), so what better time for school and academic librarians to capitalize on that and get students involved in the National STEM Video Game Challenge, a “multi-year competition whose goal is to motivate interest in STEM learning…”

Share How Your School Library Program Helps Your Community Thrive
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is hosting a video contest in conjunction with School Library Month for members and their students to share how their school library program helps their community thrive. School librarians are encouraged to submit videos to AASL that support the 2010 School Library Month theme “Communities thrive @ your library” and detail how the library helps their school community thrive.

Share Your National Library Week Programming Ideas
Share your programming ideas and join in the discussion at ALA Connect’s new National Library Week community. The mission of the National Library Week community is to create an open discussion space for ALA members to communicate their ideas and develop new ways to celebrate and promote National Library Week in all types of libraries.

Share Your National Library Week Programming Ideas and Win
How do you plan on promoting your library this National Library Week? Share your programming ideas, and you could win a set of National Library Week–themed promotional materials.

Sniffing Out Innovative Programming at a Community College
As a newly minted programming librarian at Kishwaukee College, one of the first things I wanted to identify at my new job were previously popular events. What headed the list was free hot tea. My predecessor had celebrated January—National Hot Tea Month and the start of a new school semester—by providing free hot tea in the library for a week for the college students and staff.

Teen Read Week Photo Contest Launched
As part of Teen Read Week 2011, teens can enter a photo contest and win autographed books or an e-reader from Penguin Books for Young Readers.

Teen Read Week Registration Ending Soon
Registration for Teen Read Week, the annual literacy event from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), will close on September 16 at the Teen Read Week website. Registrants will receive a resource packet, a webinar, and other bonuses.

Thank You to Our Contributors!
The year is nearly over, but I couldn’t let it pass without taking the opportunity to thank all of the people who contributed such wonderful features and blog posts to Programming Librarian in 2011.

The September Project
A recent comment on Programming Librarian Facebook page recently caught my eye. Sandy Whipple wrote that she “would love to see more libraries, both public and academic, hosting programs and events as participants in The September Project.” Sandy, I can't promise that this blog post will increase participation, but but it definitely seems a program worth sharing for those who are unfamiliar with it.

Whoopi, Penguins Join Banned Books Read-Out
Actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg and the authors of the most challenged book in the United States—the story of male penguins raising a baby penguin—have joined the virtual read-out of banned and challenged books that is taking place on YouTube as part of the 30th annual Banned Books Week.

Winning Ideas for Financial Programming
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association recently announced that grants had been awarded to sixteen libraries as part of the Smart investing@your library initiative.