Better Readers - March 2008

Picturing America

Picturing America is a partnership between NEH and the American Library Association. The program uses art as a catalyst for the study of America—the cultural, political, and historical threads woven into our nation’s fabric over time.

Collectively, the masterpieces in Picturing America, used in conjunction with the Teachers Resource Book and program web site, help students experience the humanity of history and enhance the teaching and understanding of America’s past.

Libraries and schools may apply to ALA or to NEH for a free set of the pictures.

We have one set for circulation to small museums. There are 20 two-sided pictures. Museums may apply to us for a small grant to support local programs based on the images.

Online Book Discussion with Oprah

From the American Library Association comes this interesting opportunity related to the most recent Oprah's Book Club selection, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

For the first time ever, readers around the world will be able to participate in a free, live interactive book discussion program, led by Winfrey and Tolle.  Each weekly class will be presented as a webcast and correspond to a chapter from A New Earth, with the discussion focusing on the chapter's themes. Participants will be invited to take part in the discussion by submitting questions in real-time via the Oprah.com web site.

The 10 weekly sessions will be webcast every Monday night from March 3 through May 5, at 9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT.  To register for the class, log onto www.oprah.com/anewearth. For libraries that can't participate in real time, archives of each session will be available for download via Oprah.com within 24 hours of the original webcast.

This 10-part interactive worldwide web event is a pioneering venture that will have the potential to reach an unprecedented number of readers. More than 250,000 people have already enrolled. Libraries that are interested in providing access to these sessions through public programs may also find a variety of planning resources in the book club section of the Oprah website (www.oprah.com).

ALA is pleased to work with publishers of each Oprah's Book Club selection to provide free copies to our corporate members, and with Oprah's Angel Network on the Great Stories Club reading and discussion grant program for troubled teens.

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• Chautauqua Dates/Towns
• The 2008 Chautauqua tour, THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!, will visit the following towns this June:
  
  Kirkwood, at the Kirkwood Park Amphitheatre - June 5-8
  
  Osage Beach, at the School of the Osage High School Auditorium - June 12-15
  
  Pike County, at the County Fairgrounds - June 19-22
  
  Carthage, at Carthage High School Auditorium - June 26-28
  
  Webb City, at the Route 66 Theatre - June 29
  
  We'll post program details on the MHC web site in early April.
• Judges Needed for History Day
• The State Historical Society and Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia sponsor the National History Day in Missouri state contest. Approximately five hundred students in grades 6-12 from all over the state will converge upon the UMC campus on April 12, 2008 to display their historical research projects in various formats such as multimedia documentaries, original dramatic performances, museum-style exhibits, and websites, as well as traditional research papers.
  
  The students have worked all year on their projects, using libraries, archives, and other resources, and have already succeeded at local and regional contests to get here. Those who win at the state level will move on to the national competition in Maryland in June.
  
  In order to run the state contest, the NHDMO staff must come up with almost 100 judges and about 30 other volunteers to help out for all or part of the day. Judges should have a bachelor's degree, knowledge of history and/or education, or a familiarity with one of the presentation formats, such as drama, speech, communications, video or website production, etc.
  
  Judges are placed in teams that balance history with other talents. Other volunteers can help with registration, selling tee-shirts, serving the food, "guarding" the doors while judging is going on, etc. It is so much fun to see the excitement of these young people that many of our volunteers come back year after year! For more information, please contact Deborah Luchenbill at 573- 882-0189 or HistoryDay@umsystem.edu
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