Holocaust survivor Alter Wiener at the Beaverton City Library

This is an excellent educational opportunity for teachers and students alike:

Local Author and Holocaust survivor to share his life story at the Beaverton City Library.
Please join us on Sunday, January 29, 2012 from 2-4 pm in Meeting Rooms A & B for this fascinating talk. Alter Wiener, author of 64735 - From a Name to a Number, is one of the very few Holocaust survivors still living in the Portland area. He has shared his life story in the states of Oregon and Washington with over 700 audiences in universities, colleges, schools, churches, synagogues, prisons, companies and book clubs. He was interviewed by radio, TV stations and newspapers. Mr. Wiener received an Honorary Bachelor Degree from Warner pacific College and an Honorary Law Degree from Lewis & Clark Law School. This talk is free and open to the public. Please be advised that the talk may be videotaped for use in a future documentary about Alter.

It’s a new school year at the Beaverton City Library! Welcome back to all teachers and students! We just finished our biggest Teen Summer Reading contest yet, with a total of 1,811 participants. Thank you for promoting the library and summer reading to your students!

This year, we are aiming to increase our outreach and activity to the schools through classroom visits – these can include anything from book talks, where we highlight some of the newest and hottest reads, to simply talking for 10 or so minutes about what the library can offer to your students to supplement classroom instruction. Teachers are also encouraged to bring their students in for class visits, which can include database instruction, library tours, class research, and library cards for each student. Please let us know how we can help by calling (503) 350-4001 (feel free to leave voicemail), or e-mailing Dawn (dborgardt@beavertonoregon.gov) or Ian (iduncanson@beavertonoregon.gov).

Here are some big upcoming events at the library that may be of interest to your students:

• Book Jeopardy - Tuesday, September 20 – Teens are invited to come test their knowledge of Twilight, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and more in a Jeopardy-style quiz game. We will have snacks and prizes!

• 9th Annual Teen Art Show – November 17th – 23rd – Teens in grades 6-12 are invited to submit up to 3 works of art each! Submissions will be accepted in the teen room November 14th – November 16th, and the show will be open to the public during library hours from the 17th until the 23rd. There will be an opening reception with refreshments at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 17th! As in previous years, the art show is a wonderful opportunity for teen artists to have their works viewed by the larger community. We will be releasing entry forms and complete details shortly.

• ‘Zombies Say It In 6’ Creative Writing Contest – During the month of October, we’re holding another creative writing contest! This year, the challenge is for teens to write a zombie story using only 6 lines of dialogue! The foundation is generously sponsoring cash prizes for the top 3 winners in each division – grades 6-8 and grades 9-12. The deadline for entries will be Monday, October 31st; entry forms and full details will be sent to teachers the final week of September!
For a complete listing of our events September – November, download the Teen Scene newsletter at http://beavertonlibrary.org/teens/docs/events2011/2011FallEvents.pdf.

John Green on librarians & publishing

I ran across this article recently that our school librarian readers may be interested in:

The Future of Reading
(in SLJ Online)
by YA author John Green

It is a thought-provoking look at the role youth librarians will take in shapingstudent reading over the next few decades, not to mention the publishing industry. (My favorite part is the doughnut analogy... go and find it!)