The September Project in the news

Last week, The September Project received a nice write-up in American Libraries, the magazine of the American Library Association (ALA). The article’s author, Greg Landgraf, did an excellent job highlighting the diversity of September Project events.

To show the range of events, Landgraf mentions an academic library (O’Grady Library at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington), a public library (Goffstown Public Library in Goffstown, New Hampshire), and a school library (at Country Day School in Huntsville, Alabama). The article also spotlights the ALA’s own event, a reading of the Qur’an on its front steps on September 11.

As an educator, I really enjoyed learning more about O’Grady Library’s September Project event which explored the controversy surrounding the nearby Olympia Food Co-op’s decision to boycott Israeli products (on a local scale) and the related issues surrounding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (on a global scale). Professors Irina Gendelman and Nathalie Kuroiwa-Lewis asked their Digital Journalism students to combine library research and on-site reporting to create a digital slide installation in O’Grady Library. In the article, Professor Gendelman notes that the co-op’s boycott caused “a pretty big rift in the community, and people were polarized suddenly. This is an effort to contribute to that conversation.”

Getting folks together for difficult conversations and providing resources for people to learn more about their world is what The September Project is all about. It is also what libraries – like Goffstown Public Library, pictured below – do every day.

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Robert R. Muntz Library at UT Tyler (TX) participating

Welcome back, UT Tyler! What an impressive slate of events they have planned. Read on…

The UT Tyler Robert R. Muntz Library is announcing the following events in observance of the International September Project. This is our third year participating in the September Project. Since 2004, libraries around the world have organized events about freedom and issues that matter to their communities during the month of September. This grassroots project favors free over fee, public over private, and voices over silence. In addition, September is also the month for Constitution Week (September 17-23) and for Banned Books Week (this year it falls on September 25 to October 2). We bring those events under our umbrella of the September Project as well.

The library will host or present the following activities this month:

• Thanks to the generosity of the Mary Tyler Chapter of the Daughter of the American Revolution (DAR), the library is hosting an exhibit in honor of Constitution Week. This exhibit is on view in the second floor and on one of the two display cases on the third floor. This exhibit will run through the month of September. It can be viewed during library regular hours. The theme of this year’s display is “Historic Preservation, Education and Patriotism.”
• The Muntz Library is hosting a Texas Humanities exhibit entitled The Bonfire of Liberties: Censorship of the Humanities. This is one of our activities for Banned Books Week as well as the September Project. The exhibit looks at the history of censorship in the field of the humanities, showing how many works we consider classics have been considered controversial at one point or another. This exhibit is made possible by a grant from the UT Tyler Friends of the Arts (FOA).
• And our big event: We are happy to announce that we will do a screening of the film Charlie Wilson’s War on Thursday September 30 at 7pm. This will take place in LIB-401. The film presents the story of East Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson’s covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects (from imbd.com description). The film also gives a look at how the federal government works and how funding for things like wars is done. We are pleased to announce also that Dr. James Newsom, Senior Lecturer from the History Department, will be the guest speaker for the event. Dr. Newsom will deliver some remarks and provide some context for the film.

These events are free and open to the public.

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Listen to banned books at CA State Library

Very cool banned books kickoff event at the California State Library. If you’re in the area, listen to folks read from banned books every 15 minutes. What a great idea!

Banned Books to Be Read Aloud by Local Celebrities

Sacramento – Excerpts from banned books will be read aloud at the California State Library for five hours on Wednesday, September 22, in celebration of the freedom to read and the First Amendment. Notable city and state leaders, journalists, librarians, educators, and representatives from labor, sports, and non-profit councils will read from books that have been banned or challenged in the US.

The event will be held in the Fragrance Garden of the California State Library, 900 N Street, Sacramento, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend some or all of the readings, which are scheduled at fifteen minute intervals throughout the afternoon. Light refreshments will be served.

This program is a kick-off for the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, held annually during the last week of September.  Banned Book Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information and draws attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted banning of books across the United States. This year Banned Books Week runs from September 25 to October 2.

The schedule of readings is as follows:

11:30 a.m. Rivkah Sass, City of Sacramento Librarian, Importance of Freedom of Speech
11:45 a.m. Nancy Lenoil, State Archivist, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
12:00 p.m. Dr Nadeen T. Ruiz, Director, Serna Center CSU Sacramento, Friends from the Other Side
12:15 p.m. Jess Zaker, Lipstick Librarian, Sac City Rollers; Sac City Librarian, And Tango Makes Three
12:30 p.m. Pallas Hupé, CBS 13 News Anchor
12:45 p.m. Sandra Swafford, California State Library Board Member
1:00 p.m. Jeffrey Callison, Host of Insight on Capital Public Radio, Of Mice and Men
1:15 p.m. Ralph Lewin, President & CEO, California Council for the Humanities
1:30 p.m. Mark S. Allen, CW31 Good Day Sacramento
1:45 p.m. John Cornelison, California Research Bureau, California State Library2:
2:00 p.m. Bill Leonard, Secretary of State and Consumer Services, Bible
2:15 p.m. Susan Bassett, Governmental Relations Consultant, A Light in the Attic
2:30 p.m. Linda Adams, Secretary, California EPA, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
2:45 p.m. Maria Kochis, Librarian, CSU Sacramento, Valley of the Horses
3:00 p.m. Danny Curtin, Director, California Conference of Carpenters
3:15 p.m. Mariko Yamada, Assemblywoman, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn2
3:30 p.m. Ira Bray, Library Development Services, California State Library, Lord of the Flies
3:45 p.m. Murial Johnson, Director, California Arts Council
4:00 p.m. Gavin Ferguson, The Wake Up Call at 107.9, Catcher in the Rye
4:15 p.m. Player for the new Sacramento Mountain Lions UFL Football Team
4:30 p.m. Stacey A. Aldrich, State Librarian of California, Closing Passage

Local support for the Banned Books event is provided by the California State Library Foundation and by the readers, who are giving generously of their time.

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Goffstown Public Library: Inspire, Challenge, and Engage!

It’s always a joy to hear from Sandy Whipple of the Goffstown Public Library in Goffstown, NH. She recently shared a description of the events from this past weekend and of those that are scheduled throughout September at her library. We’re always thrilled to get a peek at the events that happen around the globe, and as you’ll see below, Sandy’s photos from the 2009 events at her library did not disappoint.  As always, I’m certain those who attended her programs this weekend were thankful that Sandy and staff take time to organize thoughtful and creative events each September. Here’s what Sandy shared:

Inspired by Bill Erbes of Libraries Remember, we will remain open for 24 hours on 9/11, offering an array of programs, of which the candlelight vigil has become an important component. In addition, we will continue our knit a thon which has produced 750 helmet liners since last September. Sent to deployed troops, they offer a warm, made with love piece of home. We will be repeating the Thank a Hero cardmaking, which this year will include requests for non-military youth in the community to compose notes to military youth which will be included in Operation Military Kids Hero Backpacks. Since NH will be experiencing one of the largest deployments of Guard Members in its history on 9/11, these events are particularly apropos. Multiple showings of the award-winning film, “Taking Chance“, will provide a rarely seen side of a military ritual that illustrates the price of war in a unique, and profoundly moving way.

To round out the month, we will honor Banned Books Week in “Out of Silence”, a collaborative with the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. Featuring guest readers of all ages, we will lift the imposed veil of silence from the Afghan women who risk so much to have their voices heard.

Enjoy the pictures from last year which include the candlelight vigil, card-making and knitters from our knit a thon.

As always, we hope our September Project offerings will continue to Inspire, Challenge and Engage!

Peace!

Sandy Whipple
Adult Services & Outreach
Goffstown Public Library
2 High Street
Goffstown, NH 03045

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Clairemont Library in San Diego, CA participates

From the organizers:

The Clairemont Library in San Diego, CA will honor September 11th by hosting a presentation by Colonial Educators called “Overview of Early Years of Colonial America”. This program also fits into the National Endowment for the Humanities bookshelf grant that we received called “A More Perfect Union”. We will have programs through April 2011 based on American history.

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Welcome back, Public Library Berio of Genoa!

We were very pleased to hear from the Public Library Berio of Genoa (Italy) this year, which is participating in the September project for the 5th time. Welcome back!

This year our commemoration is called “WAR! – Yesterday’s and today’s conflicts,” a public conference with a slide show by Livio Senigalliesi,  photojournalist.

From the falling of the Wall in Berlin to the civil war in former Jugoslavia, from Iraq to Kurdistan, from the genocide in Rwanda to the wars in Caucasus… the report of more than 20 years of history of the world in the career of a war photography freelance.

Livio Senigalliesi, from Milan, has published wide coverages   on the most important european magazines and newspapers: Corriere della Sera, Repubblica, l’Europeo, l’Espresso, Epoca, Panorama, Il Manifesto, Avanguardia, El Pais, Liberation, Facts, Die Welt, Berliner Morgenpost, Stern, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Time Magazine.

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surveying the landscape

david and i would like to know your thoughts on the future of the september project. if you have participated in the project, please consider completing a short survey. we’d love to hear from you. thanks!

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U.S. Soldier Will Discuss Women’s Issues in Afghanistan

Cynthia Dutton has just notified us that Cuba Circulating Library in New York will present a talk by Public Affairs Officer Maj. Katherine Oliver, who was deployed to Afghanistan. She will discuss the people and culture of Afghanistan, with a special emphasis on issues that directly affect women. This talk will complement a book discussion on A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, bestselling author of The Kite Runner.

What is so awesome about this event is how it gives people a chance to hear about what life is like in Afghanistan from an American hero who actually served there. We also applaud their efforts to discuss “women’s issues” because matters that concern women invariably concern society as a whole.

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Bringing the community together through music

One of the best ways to bring a community together is through music. Music can have the power to transcend racial, cultural, religious and generational barriers, just to name a few. In the past few years, librarians all over the world have discovered different ways to use music as a way to share ideas and bring people together through their September Projects. Here are a few examples:

• Last year Terrebonne Parish Library hosted a community band concert of patriotic songs after surviving back-to-back hurricanes, Gustav and Ike.  Along with photographs of the USS New York (built from melted down scrap metal from the World Trade Center), Terrebonne Parish Library used music to unite and to overcome hard times.

• Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA celebrated Constitution Day with a musical presentation by their student choral group, led by Cheryl Anderson. They used the music in association with talks by several esteemed professors on constitutional topics.
• La Biblioteca Centro Lincoln and Instituto Cultural Argentino Norteamericano showed Elvis Presley’s 25th anniversary concert and the documentaries Flashing on the Sixties and Empire of the Industry at the Auditorium. Ricardo Poyo Castro talked about jazz and African American music.  Peter Bronzini, Roberto Moreno’s Quartet and James Murray and Proscenio also performed live shows. In this case, music was used as entertainment and as a tool to educate particpants on history and other cultures.

Musical presentation at La Biblioteca Centro Lincoln

These are just a few of the many musical TSP events hosted by librarians. We’re excited to hear more about musical events for TSP 2009 in the upcoming weeks! If you have any ideas, don’t hesitate to drop us a line and share them!

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“World Trade Center” Screenings

We were glad to hear from Roma Baristaite, the Chief Librarian of Lithuania’s Povilas Višinskis Šiauliai County Public Library. They will be participating in The September Project again this year by showing three screenings of Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center on September 11. The film is based on the true story of John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, two heroic Port Authority Police Officers who become trapped in the rubble of Ground Zero.  It stars Nicolas Cage, Michael Peña and Maria Bello.

Siauliai County Povilas Visinskis Public Library participated last year by hosting a poster exhibit “September 11 by the World Press” and the documentary film 9/11.

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