April 15, 2005

Attending: Ginger Armstrong, Pat Muller, Julie Ramsay, Dena Smith, Susanna Spencer

Dena started the meeting with a discussion of the Jefferson Cup Award. Julie Ramsay announced that A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff won the 2005 Jefferson Cup Award. The author has been contacted. Among other titles honored by the committee were: The Voice That Challenged a Nation by Russell Freedman, Going North by Janice N. Harrington, and Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. The winners will soon be posted on the VLA web page.

The January minutes were approved without addition or correction.

Melanie Barker e-mailed a report on Region II activities. The Amherst County Public Library partnered with local high school students to provide entertainment for family nights in the library. United Way awarded Bedford Public Library a Success by Six grant to benefit the Rockabye Reader lapsit program. Bedford Public Library will offer cash prize incentives for teens and will encourage them to volunteer at the library for lanyards, gift certificates, etc. The Blue Ridge Regional Library hosted a meeting in April for local agencies dealing with children and early childhood education, and they planned activities to celebrate the Governor’s Education for a Lifetime initiative. Campbell County Library will hold a teen murder mystery program entitled “Who Killed Miss Info Mation.” The Central Virginia Regional Library and Pittsylvania County Public Library are planning their summer reading programs.

Neva White and Deborah Wright sent a report on Region III events. The Chesapeake Public Library held its annual Medieval Festival on April 30^th at the Major Hillard Library. The Virginia Beach Public Library has developed a Family Resource Corner at the Wahab Law Library. The Bayside Library Youth Commission served as the first teen advisory group to debate whether to change the age of an adult library card from eighteen to sixteen while the ideas gathered were sent to the appropriate policy makers in the Virginia Beach Public Library system. The Norfolk Public Library offers Babygarten for patrons ages 1 month to 24 months as well as the 1,2,3 Grow With Me Workshop for parents and toddlers ages 1 to 3. The Blackwater Regional Library will display articles on the history of the Windsor Library that is celebrating its 10^th Anniversary. Daily door prizes at that library will also be offered. The Williamsburg Regional Library completed the regional competition for the Battle of the Books. Youth services staff are out in the schools with their “Booked for Breakfast” and “Booked for Lunch” programs where they read aloud to elementary school students. The Mathews Memorial Library is conducting after school creative drama classes. The Hampton Public Library will participate in the Parks and Recreation sponsored International Children’s Festival. The library will represent the U.S. with the theme “This Land Is Your Land.” Gloucester Public Library will have a lock-in for children ages 9-12. Teens at the Poquoson Public Library will hold a bake sale to raise money for poetry contest prizes. The York County Public Library will host a Lewis and Clark Magic Show. The Newport News Public Library completed a pilot program, collaborating with a local elementary school, to do a spring session of Motheread. The summer reading themes for Newport News are “Reach for the World….Read!” for children and “Shake Up Your World….Read!” for teens.

Dena reported on Region IV events. The Appomattox Regional Library will offer a poetry reading with students from Appomattox Regional Governor’s School. Colonial Heights Library is working on a complete library renovation. The Essex County Public Library is preparing for summer reading. The Henrico County Public Library recently hosted Greg and Steve workshops at the Cultural Arts Center for child care providers. C. Shells performed for National Library Week and summer performers will include Peter McCory, magician Joseph Young, Birdman Dave, and the Comedy Sportz Improv. The Pamunkey Library will offer a Teddy Bear Tea and will also offer a Poetry Slam for teens featuring Gayle Danley, the National Individual Poetry Slam Champion. Petersburg will host Jellybean the clown and a chess club for kids. The Richmond Public Library will offer a new unstructured play group for moms and day care providers with children ages 14 months and up. Ginger reported on events at the Chesterfield County Public Library. For National Library Week, programs based on the Dewey areas were offered such as a snake program, the Carver Middle Step Team, and a West African Dance and Drumming program. Summer entertainers so far will include Lucky Bill and Tyrone Travis.

Sue Llewellyn sent a report on events in Region V. The Alexandria Library will hold a storytime series at the Landmark Mall. The Arlington County Library will continue with storytimes. The Central Rappahannock Regional Library will hold an Actors’ Audition Workshop for grades 6-9. The teen poetry contest will be judged by award-winning poet Claudia Emerson. The Fairfax County Public Library will host The Great Zucchini as well as an all-male book discussion group for ages 11-16 with an adult. The Falls Church Library recently hosted performers Sue Trainor and KayDee Puppets and continues its ongoing cooperative programming with City’s Even Start program. The Fauquier County Public Library offers the Read Across America Challenge. Students are invited to read books about, or that take place in, each of the fifty states now through April 16^th, the conclusion of National Library Week. The Loudoun County Public Library will celebrate National Poetry Month by asking students ages 12 and under to write a poem about the library and see it displayed during the month of May. The King George Library is preparing for summer reading. The Prince William Public Library hosted its annual Shepard Animal Program with a Petting Zoo from the Old Mine Ranch at the Chinn Park Regional Library. Bull Run Library is having a make and take craft program called “Spring Cleaning” in which children make projects from leftover craft supplies from earlier projects.

Susanna reported on Region VI events. The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library will use a “Superheroes Powered by Books” summer reading theme for children using materials from the Illinois Library Association. The 10^th annual logo contest for teens was held as well and the winning entry this year shows a group of teens drawn in a manga/anime style. The Waynesboro Public Library will hold a Magical Kingdom evening for families on April 28^th. Folk and fairy tales will be featured, and people are invited to wear costumes of their favorite fairy tale characters. In Culpeper, for Black History Month, Susanna has contacted the schools to offer programs to bring in the kids. A drum team, a dance and singing group, a step team from the high school, and a Christian rapper were featured. With so many families moving into the area, Culpeper will now offer more storytimes and will hold a special storytime during the Fiesta del Pueblo. Captain Kidzo will also be appearing in Culpeper. Teens this summer will write reviews and see them posted on the web.

Pat reported on Library of Virginia news. During the last week in September, training sessions for Every Child Ready to Read will be held in Christiansburg on the 27^th, Charlottesville on the 28^th, Williamsburg on the 29^th, and Centreville on the 30^th. Each workshop will be limited to 50 participants. The Growing Readers Literacy Conference was successful with sixty people in attendance. The Summer Reading Program Workshops are scheduled for November 1^st in Charlottesville, November 2^nd in Hampton, and November 15^th in Roanoke. The summer reading consortium is unstable. Mississippi pulled out of the consortium, and South Carolina and Alabama are not reaching manual deadlines. Pat hopes to continue working with Georgia and has heard that Kentucky may join. The Library of Virginia will continue with the consortium for 2006. The summer reading theme for children in 2006 is “Once Upon a Time.” A decision has not been made as to the teen theme yet. Dena will run some ideas against her teen advisory board and will send feedback to Pat. The Summer Reading Program web site will be live shortly. Williamsburg has applied for the Arbuthnot lecture for 2006. The lecturer is Russell Freedman. Pat continues to present her Customer Services with Teens Workshop.

Pat distributed the results of the Youth Services Forum’s survey. The group will look over the results and discuss their use for planning future programs.

The group discussed possible program proposals for the VLA Conference. The following programs were suggested by the group:

Speakers from several different agencies (ex. Reach Out and Read, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Scholastic Firstbook, Success by Six, Reading Is Fundamental, and other contacts found in the Growing Readers notebook) could discuss their program and how we can offer or promote them in our libraries.
Susanna volunteered to offer a grant writing/researching program. She recently received a grant for a “Get Real, Get Fit” teen program from Libraries for the Future. She will send out a PowerPoint presentation regarding the program.
The Jefferson Cup Overfloweth program presented by the Jefferson Cup Committee is always popular.

The group discussed meeting twice a year (January and June) by conference call and twice a year face-to-face (April and September). The group will further ponder these options.

The next meeting will be held in Charlottesville on June 3^rd at 2:00 p.m. at the Northside Library.

The meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Ginger Armstrong