Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation, a National Endowment for the Humanities/American Library Association display, and the replica Lincoln Memorial sculpture by Fran Volz have joined the Tapestry of Freedom exhibit and will be at the library until the end of May.

Huntley Area Public Library is has launched a website to inform residents about their referendum effort as well as to gather feedback from the community. The website contains polls, graphs, charts, and library information. View the site.

The “Created Equal” Bookshelf grants are part of the NEH's We the People initiative, which aims to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture through libraries, schools, colleges, universities, and cultural institutions. A total of 3,000 libraries were selected to receive the “Created Equal” Bookshelf. View collection.

The following NSLS member libraries were recipients of this award:

• Barrington Middle School Station Campus, Barrington
• Barrington Middle School Prairie Campus, Barrington
• Beach Park Middle School, Beach Park
• Central Elementary School Library Media Center, Des Plaines
• Red Oak School Library, Highland Park
• Lake Bluff Public Library, Lake Bluff
• Northbrook Public Library, Northbrook
• Rolling Meadows Library, Rolling Meadows
• Vernon Hills High School Library Media Center, Vernon Hills
• Thomas Jefferson Middle School LMC, Waukegan

View list of all award recipients.

The Wauconda Area Library is proud to kickoff National Library Week with The Outfit: A Collective of Chicago Crime Writers. Meet popular Chicago mystery authors, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Barbara D'Amato, Kevin Guilfoile, Marcus Sakey and Michael Allen Dymmoch on Sunday, April 13 at 2 p.m. The panel will discuss all things related to mysteries, crime writing, and their new short story anthology, Chicago Blues. Books will be available for sale and signing following the program.

The Fremont Public Library District kicks off its Big Read program on Monday, April 14. Actress and Cather scholar Betty Jean Steinshouer will perform her one-woman show, Willa Cather Speaks at 7:00 p.m. The Friends of the Library will serve refreshments. Readers of all ages are invited. The library will host book discussions, films, and music concerts during the months of April and May. The specifics can be found on the library's website: www.fremontlibrary.org

Everyone is invited to visit the Wauconda Area Library to see the library's new Children's Authors Quilt, pictured on the most recent issue their newsletter. Now on permanent display in the Children's department, the 5' by 5' quilt is fashioned from fabric squares that were decorated and signed by famous authors and prominent illustrators of children’s literature in response to requests placed by children who participated in the “Happy Birthday, Dear Author” program here at the library. The sixteen squares that comprise the quilt, rendered by award-winning artists such as Trina Schart Hyman, Jan Brett, Paul Zelinsky, and Leo and Diane Dillon, were professionally quilted by Becky Madasz of Palm Harbor, Florida, who incorporated striking colors and dynamic, child-friendly fabrics that enhance the quilt’s overall beauty. To further enhance the message and meaning of the quilt, Ms. Madasz embroidered, “Reading is Fun, Cool, Awesome!” along the binding. Please call Jan Staudemeyer, Head of Children's Services, if you have any questions (847-526-6225).

http://www.wauclib.org/focus/news.html#a

StoryTubes 2008 National Contest
Tell, Tube, Vote for Fun and Prizes

StoryTubes is here! From New York to California , kids in Grades 1-6 are talking up their favorite books. You can too!

Along with your parent or guardian, follow these simple steps:

Make a 2-minute or shorter video about your favorite book;
Upload the video to www.youtube.com; and
Click on to www.storytubes.info and send in the link to your uploaded YouTube video using the online Contest Entry Form.
Beginning April 1, your video becomes part of a national contest!

Voting mania will then begin and happen each week in May! At the end of each week, one lucky contestant will win $500 in books. Their sponsoring organization (school, library or designated organization for home-schooled youth) will receive $1,000 in books.

Four Video Categories:

Hair-Raising Tales
From or For the Heart
Of Heroes and Heroines
Facts, Fads and Phenoms

Tell the story about your favorite book today. When entering, please don’t use your last name in the video. Entries will be evaluated on creativity, content and performance.

Everybody wins when kids get excited about stories. Help get the word out! Posters and flyers are downloadable at www.storytubes.info.

Thank you to the sponsoring publishers, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Eaglemont Press, DK Publishing, Charlesbridge Publishing and Shenanigan Books.

The StoryTubes partner libraries are: Northeast: Middle Country Public Library of Centereach; NY; Southeast: The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County/ImaginOn, Charlotte , NC ; Midwest: Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin , IL ; Northwest: King County Library System, Issaquah , WA ; and Southwest: Pasadena Public Library, Pasadena , CA .

Jan Watkins was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of USBBY for 2008-2009.
The United States Board on Books for Young People promotes international understanding and good will through books for children and young people.

The American Library Association elections have begun, and some of NSLS's very own members are running for prestigious divisional positions!

When completing your ALA ballot, please consider supporting your NSLS colleagues.

Carolyn Anthony (Skokie Public Library) for PLA President
Junko Yokota (National Louis University) for ALSC Newbery Committee Chair
Holly Jin (Skokie Public Library) for ALSC Newbery Committee
Jan Watkins (Skokie Public Library) for ALSC Caldecott Committee
Anna Healy (Rochelle Lee Fund - formerly Skokie Public Library) for ALSC Caldecott Committee

Penny Sympson, NSLS board member and corporate librarian at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. was named a 2008 Mover and Shaker by Library Journal.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6535108.html

Highland Park Public Library Hosts Illinois Poet Laureate

April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, Highland Park Public Library is hosting Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein. On Thursday, April 17, Kevin Stein will read and discuss his poetry at the Library. Mr. Stein, appointed Poet Laureate in 2003 by Governor Blagojevich, shares this honor with such noted poets as Gwendolyn Brooks and Carl Sandburg.

In addition to being named Illinois Poet Laureate, Stein has received honors and accolades during his career as poet, critic, editor and teacher. Such awards and honors include the prestigious Devins Award for Poetry, Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards, Illinois Arts Council Fellowships and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.

Currently a professor and creative writing program director at Bradley University, Stein has written poetry collections, scholarly books, poetry anthologies and numerous poems and essays. Stein edited “Bread & Steel: Illinois Poets Reading from their Works,” the first audio CD poetry anthology. The anthology contains the works of 24 poets, both established and emerging, and is a mix of multiethnic voices. Sales from the CD will support Stein’s Poetry Now! initiative which donates funds to Illinois libraries for the purchase of books by Illinois poets.

“An Evening with the Illinois Poet Laureate” is free and open to the public. The program begins at 7 p.m. and will conclude with a book signing of Mr. Stein’s work. The program is co-sponsored by East on Central and Highland Park Poetry.

The Highland Park Public Library is located at 494 Laurel Avenue, Highland Park. For more information, please call (847) 432-0216.

A rare opportunity for the community to view an exhibition from the Anne Frank Center in New York is being presented at the Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich during the month of March. The exhibit Anne Frank: A Private Photo Album elicits a tender rendering of the Frank’s family life before they went into hiding. The photographs, all reproductions from Otto Frank’s album, will be on display from March 1-31 on the first and second floors of the Library.

About the Exhibit
Just like any average family, the photo album of the Frank family begins with the birth of the first child. As an amateur photographer, Otto Frank has a single theme: the life and times of his daughters Anne and Margot. Nothing we see in Otto Frank’s photos reveals the horrors that Anne and her family will later have to endure.

Exhibit Opening Reception
On Sunday, March 2 from 1-3 p.m. the Library will present an opening reception for the exhibit featuring the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. Join us for free food, live music, lattes and a children’s craft as well as tours of the exhibition lead by trained docents. For more information, please call 847/438-3433 or visit www.eapl.org/annefrank.

Funding for the exhibit and related programs were awarded by the Illinois State Library (ISL), a Division of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), under the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Anne Frank: A Private Photo Album was developed by the Anne Frank House and is sponsored in North America by the Anne Frank Center USA. Special thanks to local sponsors the Friends of Ela Library and the Lake Zurich Rotary.

For more information, please call (847) 438-3433 or visit www.eapl.org/annefrank.

Carole Medal, executive director of Gail Borden Public Library, was asked and has agreed to run for ILA's vice-president/president-elect for a term beginning July 1, 2008. She will share the ballot with Cynthia L. Fuerst of Kankakee Public Library. To learn more about Carole's commitment to libraries, visit www.carolemedal.info.

Log Cabin Raising Inside the Gail Borden Public Library - February 12, 2008, 3:45 p.m. "ribbon chopping"

In Abraham Lincoln's youth, the crack of splitting wood and whistle of handsaws in the forest told neighbors that a log cabin was being built. Seeing that the log cabin being erected on February 12 is in the middle of the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, IL, the building methods will be altered just a little.

Library officials are inviting everyone to come and celebrate Abraham Lincoln's 199th birthday watching the building of an authentic 8 x 10 x 8 foot log cabin in the middle of the library rotunda on February 12, 2008. Representatives of Timbercut Log Homes of Stockton, Illinois, will be taking a break from their busy modern log home building schedule to build this Lincolnesque log cabin. They will begin late morning with completion scheduled for 3:45 p.m. After the log cabin is erected, there will be some short celebratory words before a young Abe Lincoln will visit to "chop" through the ribbon to the library's latest exhibit, a log cabin for all visitors to enter and experience.

During the building process, there will be a stanchioned area designated for children to build their own miniature log cabins using Lincoln Logesque toys.

Representative Ruth Munson will also be there to kick off the year-long activities of Lincoln's 200th Birthday Committee. The committee was created to encourage community, civic, education, arts, business and faith-based organizations to plan Lincoln-related programs throughout the year. The committee's activities will culminate with a 200th birthday party for Lincoln in 2009.

Gail Borden Public Library is building this log cabin to commemorate Lincoln's 199th birthday and to build interest in all things Lincoln as the National Endowment for the Humanities/American Library Association traveling exhibit "Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation," arrives at the library April 17 to be displayed through May 30, 2008. Forever Free is an exhibit of panel reproductions of rare historical documents, period photographs, cartoons and memorabilia. This exhibit re-examines President Lincoln's views on slavery and his evolving approach to emancipation during the Civil War.

The log cabin raising and the Forever Free exhibit are part of the library's Tapestry of Freedom project that features displays throughout the library which spotlight the faces, expressions and histories of freedom in order to promote harmony, respect and unity among a diverse, ethnic, socio-economic and generational groups.

Over 4,000 people attended Tapestry's first event, the Black History Family Festival, on Feb. 2.

The library is planning many compelling programs including "Tea with Abe and Mary Lincoln," "Music America Grew Up With" and a "Fireside Chat with Dr. James Cornelius," the Lincoln curator of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. Please check http://gailborden.info/freedom/ for more information.

Funding for the Tapestry of Freedom grant was awarded by the Illinois State Library (ISL), a Division of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), under the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

"The "Vision" for a Low-Vision Fair" has been published in the February 2008 issue of ILA Reporter. Co-authored by Bob Blanchard, Des Plaines Public Library, and Nancy Brothers, Morton Grove Public Library, the article tells how five area public libraries (Niles, Park Ridge, Skokie, Des Plaines and Morton Grove) collaborated in the planning and implementation of a fair in September 2007 which provided information and resources for people with limited vision.