The days are hot and humid...summer is officially here! Between the RILA Conference and the ALA Conference in June, and the often chaotic throes of Summer Reading, the lazy days of summer are definitely anything but lazy! Makes you wish for the good old days when summer meant no school and lots of time to just play...

And speaking of the good old days, remember Reading Rainbow? "Take a look, it's in a book..." We definitely remember, and RILA encourages you to take a moment this summer to do a little good. Reading Rainbow touched millions of kids by sharing books and encouraging reading. We'd like to recognize the show's host, LeVar Burton, as an Honorary Member of the American Library Association. See the story below to learn how you can help us reach this goal.

And even though it is still summer, fall is just around the corner. School libraries will be enjoying updates to their catalog thanks to grant money - read about all the details in the story below. Be sure not to let fall planning sneak up on you...before you know it, it will be National Library Card Sign-Up Month, Teen Read Week, and Banned Book Week!  

Happy summer and happy planning!

Andria Tieman & Brandi Kenyon

RILA Communications Committee Co-Chairs  

Jack's been working in public libraries up and down the East Coast since the age of thirteen. He got his start in the small town of Cornelia, Georgia, and then moved to Athens Regional Library in Athens, Georgia, before holding two posts at the Providence Public Library from 1999-2001 as the Art & Music clerk downtown and as a Children's Specialist at the Washington Park and South Providence libraries. From there, he moved to New York City, where he started as a Young Adult Librarian Trainee at the New York Public Library (NYPL). He helped build NYPL's central teen center in Midtown Manhattan, and was soon promoted to head up teen programs and services in 87 libraries across the city. Jack was then promoted to the Assistant Director for Public Programs & Lifelong Learning, where his department oversaw over 40,000 programs for children, teens and adults across the city. Afterwards, he worked for the national non-profit Global Kids and the Mozilla Foundation for their Hive Fashion project, where he oversaw 12 programs for teens in Chicago and New York City based on the theme of fashion. Jack also co-authored Serving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Teens: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, and he's been an adjunct professor in teen and tween services at Pratt Institute in New York since 2008. In January 2014, he returned to Providence as the Executive Director of the Providence Public Library. He loves being back and now lives in downtown Providence with his husband and two nutty cats.

Looking at taking on the responsibilities of ALA Councilor, Jack said, "I'm thrilled to be invited to join RILA's board as councilor and liaison to the American Library Association. I've spent the last three years on the Young Adult Library Services Association's Executive Board as President-Elect, President and Immediate Past-President, and I'm eager to use my knowledge of ALA and my connections there to build a strong case for Rhode Island libraries and librarians."

Aaron Coutu presents Donna Gilton's Citation of Merit.

RILA Annual Awards

It's awards season at RILA!  We don't roll out a real red carpet at the Annual Business Meeting, but we do try to celebrate our honorees in style.  This year's recipients are:

Librarian of the Year: Chris Wallace Goldstein, Chief of Children's & Young Adult Services, Woonsocket Harris Public Library

Chris was honored for her dedication to the profession and for expanding the reach of the library in unique ways.  She understands the valuable role of the library in the local community and works tirelessly to deliver engaging programming, develop community collaborations, and fulfill the library's mission for Woonsocket's patrons, often as a department of one. Chris also devotes much time to RILA as a Member-at-Large and Co-Chair of the Money Smart Week committee. She is committed to ensuring RILA's initiatives succeed regardless of the demands of her full time responsibilities. Her "can-do" attitude is inspiring! 

Outstanding Librarian: Regina Slezak, Newport Public Library

Honored for her many years of exemplary service to her library, local community, and the Ocean State Libraries Consortium, Regina has a reputation for providing future focused vision and respected leadership. She saw her library through renovations and expanded services over the years, developed and implemented successful fundraising initiatives to secure the financial health of the library, and she has actively served the library profession through committee work and service to library related organizations. According to her staff and Trustees, she is always supportive and willing to implement new ideas to keep the library vital and a great community resource.  Retiring soon, she will be missed!

Citation of Merit: Donna Gilton, Ph.D.

As a recently retired professor at the Graduate School of Library & Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island, Donna was selected as this year's recipient of the Citation of Merit, which is presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to quality library service.  There is no question that she did just this with her 22 year teaching career at URI and though her work as a leader in multicultural inclusion in the profession by mentoring Prism fellows and helping to found Cornucopia of Rhode Island.

Trustee of the Year: Ellen Schwartz, Providence Community Library

Ellen, a founding member of the Providence Community Library and Treasurer of the PCL Board, was recognized for her expertise as a Certified Public Accountant, which helped the PCL organization determine appropriate staffing levels, select cost-effective vendors, and establish the organization's first operating budget. As PCL has grown into a mature organization, Ellen continues her tireless dedication and advocacy by donating 10 hours per week with PCL's business manager; assisting with the processing books in technical services; teaching ESL classes; and lobbying successfully for increased city funding.

Meritorious Friends of the Library Award: Doug Victor and Karen Hlynsky, Knight Memorial Library (PCL)

Doug and Karen are the first ever recipients of this RILA award!  Both were selected for their tremendous accomplishments in establishing book sales at Knight Memorial Library beginning in 2011.  Their volunteer efforts have turned periodic sales into a significant fundraising mechanism for the Friends of Knight Memorial Library, bringing much needed supplemental revenue to this PCL branch. 

Speaker Mattiello congratulates Rep. Tomasso on her RILA award.

New awards!

This year, RILA also recognized two legislators for their steadfast sponsorship and support of quality educational initiatives in RI, including library and literacy programs.  They were chosen for their commitments to library related causes and for raising awareness of the good work of all libraries in RI, especially regarding information literacy and lifelong learning.  

Senator of the Year: Senator Hanna Gallo, Cranston

Senator Gallo serves on the Board of Regents and Commission on Civic Education and she is a friend to public libraries. She championed this year's Resolution for Library Legislative Awareness Day, which publicly recognized the important role libraries play in providing access to tools and resources for personal enrichment, educational achievement, and skill building, at all levels.  

Representative of the Year: Representative Lisa Tomasso

Rep. Lisa Tomasso of Coventry and West Greenwich is a former Cranston Library Trustee who also served as program director for Literacy Volunteers of Kent County, an affiliate of Pro-Literacy America, based at the Coventry Library.Given her background, Rep. Tomasso recognizes that libraries are education centers in the community, providing support for underserved populations and supplementing elementary, secondary, and higher education in RI. 

Congratulations to all the 2014 award winners!

By Emily Grace Le May

RILA Secretary/ PR Committee Co-Chair

As someone who grew up watching Reading Rainbow and still makes some of my strongest recommendations for books based on those I was exposed to through the show, I would love it if RILA could help bestow an Honorary Membership on LeVar Burton this year.

Mr. Burton's work as a producer of educational programs and materials for children has spanned decades, making an indelible mark on multiple generations, and he continues to expand upon the concept of Reading Rainbow by reviving and adapting it to reach today's kids. He is a champion of literacy and uses his celebrity to address one of the leading concerns facing librarians and educators across the country, which is how to ensure that our students, our children, learn to genuinely love reading.

In a 2014 interview with Salon's Prachi Gupta, Mr. Burton opines that "No Child Left Behind forced the government to make a choice between teaching us how to read and giving [children] a love of the written word. And in a healthy society, you don't make that choice." With the revival of the show comes a renewed message of universal access to literature, for all kids, everywhere, in a variety of mediums, and this is perfectly in line with the American Library Association's own priorities and pursuits

You can play an important part in this process by writing a brief (approximately one page, double-spaced) letter recommending LeVar and sending it to: [email protected] by August 11th, 2014. In your letter, please include your name, job title, and date. Thank you! For more information about the Honorary Membership, check out ALA's website. 

I trekked out to Las Vegas for this year's American Library Association Conference.  As a first timer, it was pretty overwhelming (Las Vegas is pretty overwhelming, too!) but also a really great learning experience.  In addition to staying hydrated in the Las Vegas summer heat, I was particularly interested in learning more about early literacy apps and incorporating them into storytime sessions, so I attended three sessions, Whet Your APPetite: Rapid Reviews of Apps for Children from Preschool to Tweens, The Apps are All Right! Exploring the Role of Apps in Children's and Teen Services and  Dynamic Digital Dia: Promoting Cultural Competence in Digital Storytimes.   

These sessions actually had some of the same presenters, so the information all worked together nicely, without much overlap.  Whet Your APPetite, was the first of these sessions, and early on the presenters made quite clear was that they are not promoting just handing a child an iPad or similar device and walking away.  They stressed that these learning apps can (and should!) be bonding experiences, and time for a child to work through the app with a parent or caregiver.  Digital literacy is a skill that all children need to develop. Parents and librarians can help children learn digital and literacy skills, by working together, in a storytime environment or as a one-on-one child and caregiver activity.  

But how do we know which apps to choose?  That's what I was wondering, and this is where the Rapid Review session was really fantastic.  Carisa Kluver, the founder of digital-storytime.com discussed how to evaluate digital stories and apps, looking at originality, education, readability, interactivity, and animation, amoung other things.  Presenter Cen Campbell founded Little eLit, which reviews Early Literacy and Children's Apps, provides resources on digital literacy, offers digital programs that librarians have done and a lot more.  She discussed the need for Apps (and storytime!) to incorporate the five elements of Play, Talk, Sing, Read and Write.  Some of the apps are from familiar names, The Laurie Berkner Sing and Send app is obviously a great app for getting kids singing.  Other suggested apps include Toca Tea Party (play), Touch and Write app (writing), My Story--Book Maker for Kids (talk) and Endless Reader (read).  

Apps can be a great way for older kids, teens and tweens to get creative.  Make-a-Mosaic, WordFoto, AnimationHD, Poetry Creator and Pic Collage are cool apps for creating videos, art or poetry.  The library doesn't even have to have a classroom full of apps in order to utilize them.  Have an animation month, where teens come in make a short short stop-motion animation video and then share them on the teen page or blog.  Suggest some different apps for teens to play with during teen tech week and they can submit their digital masterpieces.  

The Dynamic Digital Dia session was on promoting cultural competence in digital storytimes.  They discussed incorporating digital media that respectfully shows various culture groups into programs.  The great thing about apps is they can also appeal to children with different learning styles or languages.  It gives children an opportunity to engage and learn on an interactive level.  Yacut Fairytales, Round is the Mooncake and Day in the Market were just a few of the cute and engaging multicultural apps demoed at this session.   

I walked away from Las Vegas and these sessions with a bit of a tan, and a greater understanding and excitement for digital literacy apps.  It is wonderful that there are librarians and other early literacy professionals exploring and reviewing apps.  At this point, apps are beyond a trend can be a fantastic and engaging resource to share with kids, teens and parents.

Additional Resources for more info on apps:

The Rapid Review handout:  Whet Your Appetite: librarian selected apps for your digital needs 

 https://littleelit.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/whet-your-appetite-flyer.pdf 

For app reviews, links to more reputable app reviews, programming ideas, training and more:  Littleelit.com

For more reviews on digital stories:  http://digital-storytime.com/

Although there aren't many records of it, Bryant University's library dates back into the school's previous life as the Bryant-Stratton College of Business Administration in Providence.  Archival documents show that a library existed at least as far back as 1925, located at 40 Fountain Street.  By 1935, when the school became known as Bryant College of Business Administration, it occupied a single room in the Career Services/Placement office building.  The legacy of Bryant's library as we know it today, however, really begins in 1951, when the school purchased the former fire station located at 88 Benevolent Street (today the home of WBRU) and set plans into motion to convert the building into a proper library for the college.

Jacobs Library, 128 Hope St. Providence

The Henry L. Jacobs Library (named for the then-president of Bryant College) opened in 1955 under the guidance of its first head librarian, Miss Dorothy Keith.  The original collection, still being catalogued as the building opened for student use, included 3,000 volumes of business-related literature and reference materials.   The Jacobs Library also included a teacher's lounge and four classrooms, and was originally open from 9 to 4:30 weekdays and 9 to noon on Saturdays.  Expanded evening hours were introduced for students in 1956, provided they had the appropriate "supervised study cards" approved and signed by their dorm housemothers.

Jacobs Library 128 Hope St. Providence

Though growth was figured into the original library plan - they hoped to one day expand the collection to as many as 10,000 volumes - the Jacobs Library's space needs caused them to relocate twice in less than a decade: first to the lower floor of the school's newly constructed Jacobs Hall refectory building on Young Orchard Avenue in 1958; and again in 1961 to the former estate of Phillip B. Simon at 128 Hope Street.  The library still needed more elbow room, however, and the building was expanded upon in 1963, Bryant College's centennial year.

After Bryant alumnus and Tupperware founder Earl S. Tupper donated 220 acres of land in Smithfield to the school, the entire college pulled up its stakes and settled into its current campus in 1971.  Included as part of the classroom and administration building known as the Unistructure, the new incarnation of the library occupied 38,000 square feet across three floors, making it 3 times larger than its Hope Street digs.  At the time of opening it sat 420 students, had the shelving space for 100,000 volumes, several study/conference rooms, listening and viewing stations, and a smoking area (which existed until the early 90s).  This new space was designed with demands for more study space in mind, and statistics showed that 5 times more students made use of the library after the move than before.

Hodgson Library-3 Levels

In 1978, the library was rededicated in the name of Edith M. Hodgson, an alumna of the class of 1916.  In 1983, the library grew again, gaining an additional 17,472 square feet of space, making room for 850 total seats and a shelving capacity of up to 190,000 volumes.

Hodgson Library--Lower Level

In 2002, the library moved again, relocating to the then newly-constructed George E. Bello Center (named for a member of the class of 1958), where it resides to this day.  Designed by the architecture firm of Gwathmey Siegel and Associates, the new Douglas and Judith Krupp Library (named for a Bryant alumnus from the class of 1969 and his spouse) occupies 62,000 square feet of the 72,080 square foot Bello Center, seats 446 throughout the library and study rooms (571 for the building altogether), and contains nearly 5 miles (25,633 linear feet) of shelving if you were of a mind to actually lay all those shelves end to end (we don't judge; everyone needs a hobby).  The open information commons design of the building facilitates a wide variety of functions, whether that's group work, quiet individual study, or the occasional finals week nap.  Besides the library, the building also contains classrooms, study / conference rooms, the C.V. Starr Financial Markets Center (a classroom space and mock-trading room maintained by the Finance Department), and the Heidi and Walter Stepan Grand Hall, a large performance, presentation, and meeting venue.    

Library First Floor

Bryant Library Exterior

As of the 2012-2013 school year, collections included nearly 147,000 print volumes, over 22,000 e-books, 70,000 e-journal titles, and just under 3,000 A/V items.  The library also loans laptops (10 general usage, 7 pre-loaded with Rosetta Stone language software, and one with Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice typing software), tablet devices (iPads, Kindle Fires, and Kindle readers), headphones, laptop and phone chargers, calculators, and all manner of basic office and art supplies (poster presentations can lead to some pretty unusual requests where the latter are concerned).

The staff tries to provide high-touch solutions to users' needs, and buoyed by the university's emphasis on technology, we work hard to serve them in the locations and formats with which they are familiar.  We have provided reference service via email, text, and webchat for several years now, and subject librarians make themselves available through individual classes' Blackboard sites.  In order to make the typical library introduction more inviting, we created an interactive library tour using Articulate's Storyline software, resulting in a learning object that engages as it informs.  Students demanded a better way to ensure they had study space when they needed it, so we researched and launched a room booking system with the help of the University Scheduling department.

Looking ahead, technological and design renovations will soon be underway in one of the Bello Center classrooms to upgrade it to the smart classroom / idea space model.  We also have aspirations toward creating a maker space environment within the library itself to assist students in creating models and prototypes for the many projects and competitions in which they are involved (we're lobbying hard for 3D printing).  No matter the location, it is always the goal of the Douglas and Judith Krupp Library to serve not only the Bryant community's current needs, but to anticipate future ones as well.