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NEW! Exclusive interview with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
Chow Down in Chi-Town, AL’s Annual Conference Dining Guide. Includes “Highlights on Roads Less Taken,” Peggy Sullivan’ overview of off-the-beaten-track sites to see.
Interview with Judith Krug, 1995.
Interview: Andrew Pace Explains Why OCLC’s “Quick Start” Is a Sea Change . An April 24 conversation with American Libraries Editor in Chief Leonard Kniffel on OCLC's foray into web-scale management.
Read This Now: ALA’s Award-winners Represent the Best for Library Collections.The chairs of many of ALA's book and media award committees discuss their selections. Includes a complete review of RUSA's Outstanding Reference Sources.
Stimulate Your Library: How libraries can benefit from the 2009 stimulus bill.
Login is no longer required to view the current issue or archives online. First-time viewers need to install the ebrary reader. (Firefox 3 users: Note this workaround needed.)
AL Inside Scoop, American Libraries’ blog.
American Libraries: The First 100 Years, a timeline, 1907–2007
Top Ten Reasons to be a Librarian
10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library
12 Ways Libraries Are Good for the Country

Summer Reading, 2005: Dogs, Pigs, and Harry—Oh My!

Appearances by a make-believe canine and coyote as well as piggy-bank creations highlighted a summer of reading programs at libraries nationwide. Libraries also organized parties, read-ins, trivia games, and costume contests to celebrate the July 16 release of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the popular children’s series.

Pig prizes at Selby Public Library
Reading was the goal and pigs were the prize at Selby Public Library in Sarasota, Florida, where 5,000 kids decorated and took home their own personalized piggy banks filled with stickers earned from reading books.

In Poughkeepsie, New York, Mid-Hudson Library System staffers sort the 800 books donated by Scholastic that were distributed to area children in the “Tune In @ your Library” program.

Darth Vader at Reading Robots Rock program at Miami-Dade County Public Library.

Face painting at Miami-Dade County PL's Sunny Isles Beach branch.
Star Wars celebrity Darth Vader joins the “Reading Robots Rock” final program July 30 at Miami-Dade (Fla.) County Public Library’s Sunny Isles Beach branch, where more than 30 children enjoyed such events as face painting.

The San Antonio Spurs Coyote entertains a crowd of more than 200 July 13 at the Tye (Tex.) Preston Memorial Library’s “Go Wild—Read” program finale, where 12 bicycles were presented to grand-prize winners.

Clifford the Big Red Dog visits Fargo (N.Dak.) Public Library June 10 for a program kick-off event, cosponsored by the local Barnes and Noble, which drew more than 55 area children.

Kids make ice cream at Onondaga County Central Library.
DaNasia Lynn, Anthony London, and Michael Crumpton shake up vanilla ice cream July 27 at Onondaga County (N.Y.) Central Library’s “What’s the Scoop? Reading Is Cool.”

Kids show winning T-shirts at the Pasco County Library System.
Crystal Gill and James and Kaylee Roach display halfway-mark-winning T-shirts for their Pasco County (Fla.) Library System reading contract.

Youngsters join a carnival kickoff at Fargo Public Library.
Two youngsters join 670 other participants June 13 during a carnival kickoff of “Dragons, Dreams, and Daring Deeds” at Fargo (N.Dak.) Public Library.

Brookfield Public Library staffers atop their dragon float.
Brookfield (Conn.) Public Library staffers promote the “Dragons and Deeds” theme with their first-ever parade float.

Des Plaines Public Library's Pscyho shower scene display.
Readers’ Services Assistant Linda Knorr stands in front of a Psycho shower scene display, which is part of Des Plaines (Ill.) Public Library’s “Villains” adult program and contest.

An art rendering of boxcars with a circus theme, designed by staff member Russell Godfrey, adorns the cover of the “Discover New Worlds” brochure for Sequoyah Regional Library System in Canton, Georgia.

Potter-Palooza

A Boca Raton Public Library staffer dons the sorting hat.

Library Assistant Deborah Sachs dons the sorting hat at a Boca Raton (Fla.) Public Library event.

Brooklyn Public Library staffers surrounded by some of the 1,155 copies of Harry Potter.

Librarians Marily Ackerman, Allison Henden, and Michael Santangelo are surrounded by some of the 1,155 copies—a record-high book order—of the new Harry Potter selection at Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library.

Poplar Bluff Public Library staff dress as book characters.

Poplar Bluff (Mo.) Public Library staff dress as book characters for an event that transformed the facility into a Hogwarts-style fantasyland.

PL of Cincinnati and Hamilton County teen advisory board members.

Fifteen minutes past midnight, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County teen advisory board members display copies of the just-released book at the Madeira branch launch party.

Potter fans at the Rockford Public Library.

Trivia contest at the Rockford Public Library.

Over 2,500 Potter fans converge on Rockford (Ill.) Public Library's main branch to create magic wands, wizard hats, and glasses, as well as to participate in a trivia contest.

Fortune teller at the Allen County Public Library's Georgetown branch.

Allen County Public Library's tattoo parlor.

Hagrid and the Weasleys pause for the cameras in Daigon Alley, the transformed parking lot of Allen County (Ind.) Public Library's Georgetown branch, where nearly 3,000 participants received Hogwarts Handbooks, complete with a Galleons and Sickles section that pointed them to such activities as the fortune teller and the tattoo parlor.

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