The completely redesigned Guys Read website and the awesome Guys Listen initiative are fantastic tools to promote reading of all types for young men & boys. All hail our National Ambassador of Children’s Literature, Jon Scieszka, for initiating these web-based literacy programs as part of his mission  to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers.

I especially love this quote from Scieszka:

One of the best things we can do to help boys read is to expand the definition of ‘reading’. Audiobooks are an exciting way to do just that…[they] can fit boys’ wide range of subject interests and their love of different technologies.

Stop by the Books-on-Tape/ Listening Library Guys Listen web page to request a free sampler CD with great clips from Guy-approved audiobooks. Perfect for playing during classroom booktalks to whet your students’ appetites for the best in listening. Plus, you’ll hear Jon Scieszka and  audiobook expert & educator Rose Brock explain why audiobooks are an important tool in building a guy’s love of reading.

Audiobook fans, mark your calendars now: Monday 7/13, 3:30-5:30pm, McCormick Place West in W-470b. This is a free event, no ticket needed. Grab your seats early, as last year this was a standing-room only event -I even spotted a few Newbery-award winners sitting on the floor! The Odyssey Award recognizes excellence in the production of audiobooks for children & young adults, and is sponsored by ALSC, YALSA, and Booklist. The 2009 Odyssey Awards Presentation and Reception will include appearances by  Sherman Alexie, Mirron Willis, and Katherine Kellgren. Refreshments at the Odyssey celebration are courtesy of the Audio Publishers Association. Come recognize the work of the best and brightest in audiobook publishing – and the hard-working members of the 2009 Odyssey Award committee. Hope to see you there!

July is here – time to plan for ALA! I’ll be part of the three panels below – one each day. Stop in and say hello!

Booklist/Booklist Online: Books and Blogs, Made for Each Other? Saturday 1:30-3:00 McCormick Place West in W-192c. Librarians, readers, publishers, and authors have embraced blogs as a way to locate, learn about, and promote good books to read. Our diverse and distinguished panel of bloggers, including Mary Burkey (Audiobooker), John Green (Brotherhood 2.0), Nora Rawlinson (Early Word), Kaite Mediatore Stover (Book Group Buzz), and moderated by Booklist Online Senior editor Keir Graff (Likely Stories), will discuss how to use the power of the Web-for the good of books.

Evaluating Audiobooks: Selecting the Best for Children and Teens.

Sunday 10:30-12:00 McCormick Place West in W-470b. As spoken word audio becomes increasingly available in a variety of 21st century formats, interest in audiobooks is high. Presenters will discuss their process in developing expertise in evaluating the audiobook medium for young readers, as well as guidelines for reviewing, purchasing, and collection development of audio materials. The audience will also have opportunities to listen to audiobook excerpts, analyzing quality based on set criteria. Speakers: Sylvia Vardell, Professor Library Science, Texas Woman’s University; Sharon Grover, Head of Youth Services, Hedberg Public Library; Connie Rockman, Children’s Literature Consultant, Stratford, Conn.; Teri Lesesne, Professor of Library Science, Sam Houston State University; Francisca Goldsmith, Director of Branch Services, Halifax Public Libraries; Mary Burkey, Library Media Specialist, Olentangy Local Schools; Merri Lindgren, Librarian, Cooperative Children’s Book Center; Natalie Hoyle, School Media Specialist, Lemont School District.

Multiple Literacies in the Library Monday 3:30-5:30 McCormick Place West in W-179 . A panel presentation and discussion about Multiple Literacies and how the varied forms of literacy affect how librarians and media professionals work. Speakers, including library and educational specialists and children’s book creators, will focus on three types of literacy including visual, audio, and digital. The panel will discuss how these types of literacy relate to traditional literacy education, collection development, and other issues related to youth services. Co-sponsored with The Children’s Book Council, Inc. Moderated by Laura Mancuso, Tricycle Press and David C. Mowery, Brooklyn Public Library. Panelists: Mary Burkey, Teacher-Librarian, Olentangy Local Schools; Karen Potash, Lead Collection Development Specialist OverDrive, Inc.; Christopher J. Borawski, Senior Librarian, Montgomery County Public Schools; David Levithan, Executive Editorial Director, Scholastic Press Fiction; Michele Gorman, Teen Services Coordinator, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County; Jennifer Holm, Author, Random House Children’s Books; Matthew Holm, Author/Illustrator, Random House Children’s Books.

And I’ll be in the audience for the best way to kick off Annual…

Books for Youth Forum: Celebrating Lincoln Friday, July 10, 8-10 p.m. Grand Ballroom, Westin River North. Celebrate 200 years of Lincoln’s legacy at the 2009 Booklist Youth Forum with a group of award-winning authors and editors. Candace Fleming, Deborah Hopkinson, Jean Feiwel, and Russell Freedman will discuss the stories behind their Lincoln titles, as well as the challenges of creating captivating biographies for children and young adults.

Great resources to promote Audiobook Month are yours through Get Caught Listening, sponsored by the Association American Publishers. Get free posters, download promotional celebrity audio clips, and more. My favorite? The Horton Hears a Who poster!

The American military knows the value of great literature for personnel & family members, available at no cost through base libraries & Military OneSource – from the newest fiction bestseller to Arabic languge learning. Playaway has supplied over 150,00 audiobook titles through their military program. The Wyoming State Library has developed another great outreach program:

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – Wyoming National Guard soldiers deploying to Iraq and Kuwait won’t need to allocate precious space in their duffel bags to books – thanks to the Wyoming State Library.

The library is giving MP3 players and library cards to the more than 900 soldiers departing Wyoming next week for yearlong tours. With the library cards, soldiers will be able to download audio books to their MP3 players while serving overseas.

State Librarian Lesley Boughton presented the first bunch of players to Maj. Gen. Ed Wright and members of the Wyoming National Guard on Wednesday.

Creative Technology Ltd. sold the Zen Mosaic MP3 players to the library at a discount.

The 940 departing Army soldiers constitute the largest single-unit deployment in state history.

(As reported on KGWN television)

Here’s an amazing example of 24/7 distance service. Kudos to the Wyoming State Library for offering this tremendous resource to our soldiers!

In these times of tight budgets, I try to reuse/repurpose as much as possible – such as saving CD audiobook clamshell boxes from titles I’ve removed from the collection due to low circulation, to replace the worn boxes of the high circulating items and sending the discarded CDs to the art teacher for recycled craft projects. I spent some time last week weeding audiobooks on cassette tape from my collection, replacing favorite titles with newly-released CD editions. I saved a few of the clamshell boxes, but couldn’t think of a use for the cassettes themselves. But lo and behold – a great craft idea from iri5 called Ghost in the Machine – portraits done in cassette tape. How cool would it be to render an audiobook’s author in celluose? Or perhaps the main character or setting? There’s something Etch-a-Sketchy about the whole process that calls to even my decidedly non-creative inner artist. How I wish I had known about this for Teen Tech Week! You can bet I’ll be squirreling away cassettes for next year’s Teen Tech Week – I even have some old 16mm films to use. My waste-not-want-not hording is finally validated

Thanks to Neatorama for the link!