To read the rest of the article, click here.

Simon Romero, New York Times

A whimsical riff on the bookmobile, Mr. Soriano’s Biblioburro is a small institution: one man and two donkeys. He created it out of the simple belief that the act of taking books to people who do not have them can somehow improve this impoverished region, and perhaps Colombia.

In doing so, Mr. Soriano has emerged as the best-known resident of La Gloria, a town that feels even farther removed from the rhythms of the wider world than is Aracataca, the inspiration for the setting of the epic “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, another of the region’s native sons.

Unlike Mr. García Márquez, who lives in Mexico City, Mr. Soriano has never traveled outside Colombia — but he remains dedicated to bringing its people a touch of the outside world. His project has won acclaim from the nation’s literacy specialists and is the subject of a new documentary by a Colombian filmmaker, Carlos Rendón Zipaguata.

The idea came to him, he said, after he witnessed as a young teacher the transformative power of reading among his pupils, who were born into conflict even more intense than when he was a child.

Read the whole article, click here!

Thank you for believing in us!

By TODD MCHALE
Burlington County Times

If you have to wait to check out a book or use the computer at the local library, blame it on the economy.

The demand for libraries has been huge over the last several months.

“There’s an old saying “when business is bad libraries do well,’ ” said Gail Sweet, director of the Burlington County Library system.

That old saying appears to be playing out here and throughout the country.

“We’re seeing a substantial uptick in use of the library,” said Joe Galbraith, director of the Moorestown Library.

He said the library recently began offering Sunday hours to satisfy some of the demand.

Willingboro Public Library assistant director Christine Hill said she couldn’t agree more with Galbraith’s and Sweet’s assessment.

“In 2007, we had the most use in our 47-year history, and we had record-setting numbers for June and July this year,” Hill said.

To read more, click here

LONG BEACH—The City Council’s budget oversight committee dropped its proposal this week to close Long Beach’s 84-year-old main library. Could its members have heard that the 88-year-old author of “Fahrenheit 451″ was on his way to town to make things warm for them if they didn’t?

“Without libraries, we have no true education,” Ray Bradbury told some 300 people at Long Beach’s main library on Saturday, a day after the budget oversight committee recommended instead that the library be closed only on Sundays and Mondays. The full City Council must still take up the measure.

On Saturday Bradbury reminded his listeners of how he wrote the first draft of “Fahrenheit 451″ on a typewriter that rented for 10 cents a half hour in the basement of a library at the University of California, Los Angeles. The novel, published in 1951, envisions a future in which books are burned to keep people in ignorance.

To read more click here

The Record has been bringing the Literacy and Book Fair, Family Day at the Park for the past nine years to Stockton’s families. It serves to motivate Stockton’s families by presenting a variety of activities that prepare the youth for a healthy future. Booths such as “Friendly Freeway” and “Library Lane” provide a fun and entertaining afternoon for the entire Family

The Stockton2020 team will also be present at Family Day in the Park, so look for us! We will be located down Library Lane.

On Aug. 12, she invited the Bossier Parish Library Aulds Branch to participate in the back-to-school kickoff for Parkway High School freshmen.

Aulds Branch Manager Ellendell Harbour and I prepared 250 packets and library card forms for the newest Parkway Panthers.

The packets included information about technology resources, research tips, reference help source “ASK a Librarian” cards and bookmarks.

To read more click here!

“The public placing their trust in me is the greatest, humbling and most awesome experience I’ve ever had in my life,” Hammons said.

John Tyler Hammons won with 70 percent of the vote over former Mayor Hershel Ray McBride after a runoff election for the nonpartisan mayoral post after neither secured 50 percent of the vote in a six-person election on April 1. They were running to replace outgoing Mayor Wren Stratton, who decided not to seek re-election after one term in office.

Hammons serves as a humble reminder that today’s youth are not a lost cause but rather a generation that is thirsty for change and ready to take action.

For further information about John Tyler Hammons please click here.

The festival includes many big name guests, including “New York Times best-selling author Catherine Coulter, author of several suspense thrillers including her newest, “Double Jeopardy,” and local author Kelly Corrigan, whose memoir “The Middle Place” spent several weeks on the Northern California best sellers list.”

Even more interesting than the festival itself is the history behind the creation of the festival. From 2003 to 2005, the Contra Costa County Library system underwent an extensive self-evaluation process, focusing on the role of a library in the 21st century. After many meetings in coffee shops, libraries, and community centers, the county library decided to transform the library into a place that, according to Laura O’Donoghue, deputy county librarian, offers “lifelong opportunities and special programming”, along with a wide variety of books.

From this mission, the idea of the festival evolved, offering, in the words of Susan Lynn, the Contra Costa County Library’s reading and literacy manager “a chance to discover the wonder of libraries while celebrating reading and literacy.” A reading festival of this scale would be an amazing idea here in Stockton!

For more information on the festival, click here.

This could not have been possible without the help of dedicated individuals and organizations. A special thanks goes out to Fred Gertler, Lynn Beck, Philip Gilbertson, Susan Eggman, the Library and Literacy Foundation of San Joaquin, the Friends of the Stockton Public Library, Sophoan Sorn Productions, and Susan Lenz and Connie Logan from Iacopi Lenz & Associates. You dreamt with us and believed in us. Now please join us as we celebrate this milestone.