Solving Mysteries in the Library

By Susan Van Kirk

 

Originally published at http://andsometimesshewrites.blogspot.com

 

Librarians definitely solve mysteries!

 

I spent April 21, SinC's "Solving Mysteries Day," working as a volunteer at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, Illinois. Monmouth is a town of 10,000 in west central Illinois about 20 miles from the Mississippi River. 

Kathy is the saintly woman designated to keep an eye on me. What a patient person! In this photo, were are standing in front of books by authors who are members of Sisters in Crime.

On Saturday, we solved a lot of mysteries -  such as figuring out what is in all the nooks and crannies of the huge old building. Some of the doors in the upstairs are heavy metal and slide open and closed as if we were in a meat packing plant. Very, very old.

 
Here I am checking out a book for a patron. The library is a hub of activity in this little town. Working here would help you see a huge cross section of the town.

A librarian's job is a lot like teaching. First, you rarely sit down or get a chance to go to the bathroom. Second, you are always answering peoples' questions or trying to find things to help them.

I learned how to check books in and out, how to shelve, download digital books, figure out how to check out a book with a hand-written barcode, and how to make the (*&!!#) wand work to check out books.

Kathy told me of an amazing mystery. The library had some books that were overdue and tried to reach the patron by sending a letter. The letter came back from the post office marked "deceased." Instead of just writing it off, the librarians began asking selected patrons if they had seen this person. (Remember, this is a small town!) 

One of the question-ees had not seen the individual, but a few weeks later she approached the desk and explained that the person they had been seeking was sitting at a computer a few yards away. The librarian was able to confirm the person's name and give him that bad news that he owed money for books. The good news was that he wasn't dead.
 

 

This is one of the "nooks and crannies" where "old technology" goes to die. Remember the old card catalog?




 
I also learned of a guilt letter. Someone who had stolen books years ago and not returned them had an attack of guilt and wrote the library a letter. He wanted to apologize for taking the books and offered to make restitution after quite a few years had gone by. I wondered about the statute of limitations on stolen books.

All in all, it was a great day and I felt like I had done my share to say "thank you" to our library for all they do in supporting local authors, educating people, and providing amazing services. 

 

Susan Van Kirk, a SinC member author who participated in SinC's "Solving Mysteries Day," is at work on a mystery with ties to historic events that occurred in her Illinois town. The library has been an invaluable source of information for her work. 

Solving Mysteries Day: On Saturday, April 21, SinC member authors volunteered in libraries and bookstores in hometowns from Livermore Falls, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they worked as volunteers doing whatever a manager asked of staff members - shelving, bagging, sweeping, assisting patrons, pulling holds, making recommendations, taking out the trash, checking in returned books, and more. The day had two themes: "Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day" and "Booksellers Solve Mysteries Every Day."

Solving Mysteries Every Day

Today, Sisters in Crime's "Booksellers and Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day" event is taking place in libraries and bookstores across the nation, from Livermore Falls, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

To support the project, a group of 21 SinC members volunteered to go into bookstores and libraries between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time to help those on the front lines of crime fiction - the very important people who help get crime fiction into the hands of interested readers. 

            "In honor of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Sisters in Crime, we are very pleased to be able to thank some of the people who work the hardest on the front lines of publishing by rolling up our sleeves and working beside them," said Frankie Y. Bailey, President of Sisters in Crime.

 The participating authors, bookstores, and libraries include:

          Frankie Y. Bailey, at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, NY

                      Gail M. Baugniet, at the Maikiki Community Library in Honolulu, HI

                      Charlotte Cohen, at the Santa Ana Public Library in Santa Ana, CA

                      Kathy Lynn Emerson, at the Treat Memorial Library in Livermore Falls, ME

          Barbara Fister, at Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, MN

                      Susan Froetschel, at the Takoma Park Neighborhood Library in Washington, DC

                      W.S. Gager at the Jackson District Library in Jackson, MI

                      Kathleen Heady at the Haverford Township Free Library in Havertown, PA

                      Lee Kelly at Barnes & Noble in Marietta, GA

                      Molly MacRae at the Jane Addams Book Shop in Champaign, IL

                      Robin Murphy at the Sharpsburg Library in Sharpsburg, MD

                      Chelle Martin, at the Sadie Pope Dowdell Public Library in South Amboy, NJ

                      Denise Osborne, at the Mid-Continent Public Library, Raytown branch, in Raytown, MO

                      Bernadette Pajer, at the Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish, WA

                      Karen Pullen, at McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, NC    

                      C. L. (Cheryl) Shore, at Bookmamas in Indianapolis, IN

                      Mary Stanton/Claudia Bishop, at Murder on the Beach in Delray Beach, FL

                      Lane Stone, at the Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Central Library in Alexandria, VA

                      Susan Van Kirk, at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, IL

                      Kathryn R. Wall, at the Beaufort County Library, Hilton Head branch, in Hilton Head Island,

                           SC

                      Tina Whittle, at The Golden Bough in Macon, GA 

           “We know that, in their efforts to help readers find the right books at the right time, booksellers and librarians solve countless mysteries every day,” SinC member Jim Huang, the coordinator of the event and a former independent bookstore owner, said. “This is our opportunity to thank them in a tangible way—and to find out what the publishing world is like from their perspective.”

            Onsite reports are coming in throughout the day from SinC member authors working in bookstores and libraries. The information they send will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and blogs throughout the day. 

            SinC has a Facebook page for the event at www.facebook.com/SistersSolveMysteries. On Twitter, SinC is using the hashtag #sisterssolve.

            In addition, SinC's more than 3,000 members are gearing up to support the "Solving Mysteries Day" event by going into libraries and bookstores today to personally thank the booksellers and librarians they find working behind the counters and in the stacks. 

            We hope your Saturday errands today will include a stop at a bookstore or library. And, afterward, we hope that you'll let us know how the visit went.

 

                 

   

      

SinC at PLA: Presenting 'Perfect Partners in Crime'

By Mary Boone

Sisters in Crime participated in last week's Public Library Association (PLA) conference in Philadelphia with a very popular exhibit booth and a well-received panel titled "Perfect Partners in Crime" celebrating public libraries and the books we read.

Presentation proposals for PLA must be submitted two years in advance of the conference (which is only held every two years), which can make writing a proposal, and then following up with a panel proposal written so far in advance, a real challenge.

I had a front row seat for the proceedings and, from my perspective, the panel was a hit. A 600-seat auditorium appeared to me to be close to a third to half full of librarians there to hear to SinC board members Frankie Bailey, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Cathy Pickens, and Nancy Martin talk to librarian "rock star" Nancy Pearl about books, libraries, a love of reading, and Sisters in Crime.

The conversation flowed from the practical (a little background about SinC and its resources including info about the continuing We Love Libraries drawings and what makes a good author visit program) to the theoretical (how best to connect readers to books and how helpful are genre and sub genre classifications) and back again.

Hank moderated the panel, and started with a "stump the librarian" quiz, which served to bring the audience immediately into all aspects of the conversation that followed. She'd asked the panelists in advance what books had a profound influence on them growing up. She read a few sentences from the opening of each and challenged the audience to identify the book and match it to the panelist. The audience identified Nancy Pearl’s and Cathy Pickens's books, but were stumped by Frankie Bailey’s and Nancy Martin's.

Early in the panel, Hank made Nancy Pearl an honorary member of Sisters in Crime. Nancy P. played a key role in last summer's SinC Summit Team project, when the team went to the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans to talk with librarians about how readers find books.

Later in the conversation, Nancy P., who pioneered the one city/one book movement, commented that one of the things she valued most about SinC is the organization's commitment to building community around books and reading and its commitment to libraries. She said, in that respect, librarians and Sisters in Crime had common goals.

Nancy Martin wanted to know how Nancy Pearl, who has been called "America's Librarian" and has come to be known as a literary "tastemaker," finds the books she reviews and recommends in her popular Book Lust series and on National Public Radio.

Nancy P. said she receives numerous copies of books from publishers and other sources and that she will try to read any book but, if she isn't engaged within the first 50 pages, she stops reading. This is a strategy she recommends to all readers.

"Life is short, and the library is large," she's often said.

The time may not be right, and she will put aside a book, and come back to it later. But, having said that, she went on to say that she believes that most of us (herself included) find the books we read and love from recommendations from friends.

I watched the audience for its reactions, and saw librarians furiously taking notes and listening with concentration to the discussion. A number of librarians approached panel members afterward to say they thought this was one of the best panels of the conference. Bear in mind the time slot was late Friday afternoon, the last full day of the conference, so folks were conference-weary, thinking about getting to dinner or packing for the trip home, etc.; in short, not necessarily an easy audience to please.

Another measure of the success of the panel is that our PLA panel/conference programming liaison, Ronald Block, approached me after the session to say that PLA was looking forward to making a panel from Sisters in Crime an on-going part of its conference programming.

As plans for this panel were coming together before the conference, we began thinking of it as a "dream book discussion group." Every indication Friday afternoon was that the audience thought of it this way, too.


Mary Boone, Library Liaison for Sisters in Crime, says she is happy to be a reader and lucky that, as a librarian, she gets paid to turn readers on to books. She encourages everyone to make sure their library or libraries have entered the Sisters in Crime "We Love Libraries" book grant lottery. Information and a registration form can be found on the SinC website page linked here.

Thinking about Libraries

By Leslie Budewitz

[Originally published at Suspense Your Disbelief, http://www.jennymilchman.com/blog/]

“I have always imagined that Paradise would be a kind of library.”
– Jorge Luis Borges

My first memory of a library is the Parmly Billings Library in Billings, Montana. The city was named for Northern Pacific Railroad president Frederick Billings, whose son Parmly was the only family member to live there. When Parmly died of pneumonia at 25 in 1888, his parents gave the city a building site and seed money for a library. Built of local sandstone in the Romanesque style, it served as the library from 1901 until the late 1960s. I thought it was a castle.

By the 1960s, even with several additions, the castle was so crowded that most books were kept in inaccessible stacks and brought out by request–except for the children’s section. There, Curious George and Mike the Steam Shovel reigned. The Borrowers spun their magic, and I could easily imagine walking through a wardrobe into Narnia.

Libraries needn’t be grand. The castle was eventually replaced by an old warehouse, which offered space and parking, and didn’t seem to cramp Curious George’s style–just like kids, he’s curious anywhere. For a while, a children’s branch anchored a shopping center. And Tuesday mornings in summer, I peddled my pink Schwinn to Rose Park to meet the bookmobile, emptied my twin bike baskets, and filled them up again. The ride home was uphill, but my excitement made the ride easier.

Now I live in a small town with a county branch library. The online catalog lets me sit at home and order books from other branches or the statewide library partnership. It’s great technology, both in scattered rural states like Montana and busy systems with dozens of branches.

But I miss the physical spaces. I miss those accidental finds, the books you come across mis-shelved, or when you kneel down to look at something and your eye falls on something else, or the book that’s just been returned and screams to go home with you.

In law school, I spent much of my waking time in the library, studying. (And some of my sleeping time, too–I occasionally fell asleep on the floor in “the stacks,” the windowless basement rooms crammed with bound volumes of law reviews and obscure references.) The main reading room featured classic oak library tables, some tucked in book-lined alcoves with arched windows of leaded glass. In one alcove, a maple vine poked its way in through a pinhole in the glass and twined down the stone walls.

The main library at Notre Dame is a tall building with a mural outside showing Jesus with his arms raised to heaven. The building faces the end of the football stadium where the students sit, so of course, it’s called “Touchdown Jesus.”

Inside the library, I came across a pink cloth-bound book called Law Careers for Girls. I could hardly believe it was still on the shelves, or that it recommended careers in tax law, because women are good with numbers and details. I’m sure my tax prof would have howled if I’d showed him the book.

Sometimes you can’t find those accidental discoveries again, no matter how many librarians you enlist in the search. I’d still like another look at a book in the Seattle Public Library on pairing American quilts and Asian furniture in design.

When I worked in downtown Seattle in the 1980s, the library occupied a squat black glass building that did nothing to inspire reading or writing, at least on the outside. The new library, built in 2004, is so wildly creative that it’s been both a prize-winner and a bit of a controversy. The exterior makes you wonder "what building is that?"

I always imagine the interior to be made of giant crayons, bent and molded and reshaped. Like libraries and their contents–offering so much more than books these days–do to our thinking, our imagination, our plans for the afternoon.

Kind of like Curious George in the castle, I think.

What’s your favorite library memory?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure (Quill Driver Books, October 2011). She is a practicing lawyer and a mystery writer living in northwest Montana. Read an excerpt and more articles for writers, or send her a question, at www.LawandFiction.com.

SinC at Public Libraries Conference in Philly

Sisters in Crime invites author members attending the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference in March in Philadelphia – and author members living near the Philly area – to volunteer to spend some time at the SinC booth in the convention center to meet and greet visiting librarians.

Author volunteers are needed at the Sisters in Crime booth Wednesday through Friday, March 14 through 16, to help spread the word that SinC works with libraries to connect readers and writers. Authors working at the booth may sign and give away copies of their books. SinC will register all booth workers for the conference.

Members unable to attend the conference are welcome to send a signed book to be given away during daily raffles at the SinC booth. The librarian raffle winners generally put these books in circulation in their libraries’ collections.

We hope to see you in Philadelphia! This is a great opportunity to bring your work to the attention of librarians who put mysteries into the hands of readers every day.

For details, contact Sisters in Crime Library Liaison Mary Booth at boonema[at]oplin.org. Please use “SinC PLA Philadelphia” on the subject line.

SinC Library Grant Program Extended

Sisters in Crime has extended its We Love Libraries! grant program into 2012.

From January through December 2012, SinC will give a $1,000 book-buying grant each month to a library selected via a random drawing.

Recent winners of the SinC We Love Libraries! grants include:

Lawton Public Library in Lawton, OK

Southeast Regional Library in Garner, NC

Plattsmouth Public Library in Plattsmouth, NE

River Road Santa Clara Volunteer Library in Eugene, OR

To be eligible for the grant, libraries must be located in the continental U.S. and must register for the drawing online. For complete program details, go to www.sistersincrime.org.

Is your library registered for the drawing?

A Reader Goes to ALA

By Molly Weston


Asking me to be part of Sisters in Crime's Summit Team and attend the American Library Association's Summer Conference in New Orleans was a lot like throwing Br'er Rabbit in the Briar Patch! Of course, I'd been to mystery conferences and booksellers' conferences, but never to a library conference. I had everything laid out for the trip a month before I was due to pack.

The excitement began to swell on the plane leaving Charlotte. I watched more and more travelers board carrying tote bags from libraries—and paperbacks in their hands. As I looked around en route, nearly everyone was reading! My seat mate was a librarian from Canada and the kind lady who entertained the child beside her until takeoff explained she was a grandmother. I later found she, too, was a librarian.

When I got into line for the van ride to the hotel, it was jammed with more librarians and their accompanying identifying tote bags. And these weren't the "Ssssh!" types from the 50s. They were all swaying to the sounds of the jazz band playing beside baggage pickup!

Unsurprisingly, our hotel was packed with librarians, too, and every day more tote bags replaced purses and suitcases. By the time the trade show floor opened, the bags were stuffed with books and posters. It was heartening to see the distinctive red Sisters in Crime bags amongst those from publishers and distributors.

[Photo: It wouldn't be New Orleans without beignets for breakfast!]

The SinC bags were an enticement for visiting our library-themed booth, as was the drawing for an iPod Touch. Mary Boone and Doris Ann Norris did a bang-up job making the booth both attractive and accessible. In addition to the SinC banners, they hung poster-sized photos of many of the "We Love Libraries!" winners to ensure that folks asked about entering the contest.

[Photo: Dorris Ann Norris and Mary Boone take a break after setting up the SinC booth.]

The Summit Team members were charged with talking with librarians, distributors, and publishers about how readers find books. We met in focus groups, one-on-one interviews, catch-as-catch-can talks on the trade show floor, and at meals. Everyone we talked with was happy to share ideas with us—frequently they seemed thrilled that someone would ask!

The Summit Report will provide full details about these ideas. Don't miss reading it! All SinC members will receive the report as part of their membership package. If you're reading this as a non-member, consider joining today at www.sistersincrime.org. This report will be well worth it.

The Saturday "Mystery Day" coordinated by Rosemary Harris brought in so many mystery writers it would be difficult to list them all. It was great fun catching up with old friends and meeting (and making) new ones. I was delighted to meet Julie Smith, whom I've loved reading for more than 20 years (she must have won her Edgar when she was 12!).

Nearly every member of the Summit Team was on a panel on the Pop Top stage. I was delighted to get to moderate "Attention to Detail: How Research Adds to the Mystery," with Frankie Y. Bailey, Rhys Bowen, Jane Cleland, and Carolyn Hart. My trip was made!

Every night I returned to my hotel room totally exhausted, but with my mind overflowing with great ideas and wonderful memories. After all, what could be better than five days with librarians and Sisters in Crime?

[Photo: (front row, from left) Rhys Bowen, Holli Castillo and Libby Fischer Hellmann ready to lend a hand in the SinC booth at ALA.]




New Orleans photos by Molly Weston.


Molly Weston is the editor of inSinC, the Sisters in Crime quarterly news bulletin. She is a book reviewer, media escort, blogger and book club maven — when not pondering the intricacies of keeping the local deer from eating the entire colorful crop at her day lily farm.

San Bruno Public Library, Newport HS Library Win SinC Library Grants

The San Bruno Public Library and the Newport High School Library are the most recent winners of the Sisters in Crime We Love Libraries! book-buying grant. Each library will receive a check for $1,000 for the purchase of books for its lending collection.

The San Bruno Public Library, in San Bruno, California, is part of the Peninsula Library System, which includes eight public library branches and the San Mateo Community College libraries.

The Newport High School Library in Newport, Washington (pictured at right), is part of the Newport School District, which includes Stratton Elementary, Sadie Halstead Middle School and New Port High School.

To date, the SinC "We Love Libraries!" project has provided $1,000 book-buying grants to 18 libraries in the U.S. The library lottery program began in January 2010 and will continue throughout 2011.

Libraries may participate in the We Love Libraries! lottery by completing the online entry form at www.sistersincrime.org and uploading a photo of one or more staff members with three books in the library's collection written by Sisters in Crime members. A list of SinC author members can be found by clicking here.

At the end of each month, a library winner will be selected in a random drawing from the entries submitted online. Libraries must be located within the United States to be eligible for the funding.

Only one entry per library is required. Once an entry is on file with Sisters in Crime, it will remain active in the lottery selection process for the duration of the program.

The State of America's Libraries: The 2011 Report

By Kathie Felix

During this week's observance of National Library Week, the American Library Association released its annual “The State of America's Libraries" report.

The report provides information on current library trends including budget cuts, library use, the use of wireless internet services and computer access, the ebook evolution and related controversies, the most challenged books in the country and recent legislation affecting America’s libraries. The pdf version of the report is available on the ALA website here.

Some key components of the document appear below.

Budget Cuts

Taxpayers approved 87 percent of library operating measures on ballots across the country. However, according to U.S. mayors, local library hours, staff or services ranked number two in budget cuts, second only to cuts in maintenance and services at parks and gardens.

Library Use

A January 2011 poll conducted for the ALA by Harris Interactive found that:

• More than two-thirds of adults said a library’s assistance in starting a business or finding a job was important to them.

• 65 percent of those polled had visited the library in the past year (72 percent women, 58 percent men)

• 58 percent of those surveyed had a library card (mostly women and mostly working women and working mothers)

• 31 percent of adults ranked the library at the top of their list of tax-supported services

Increased Technology Offerings

Nearly 85 percent of public libraries offer wireless internet access and nearly two-thirds of these libraries extend wireless access outside the library. Computer usage at public libraries continues to increase.

Ebooks

For most libraries, ebooks are a small percentage of circulated items, although they represent the fastest-growing segment of borrowing. More than two-thirds of public libraries offer ebooks; almost all academic libraries offer them.

Last month’s announcement that HarperCollins will institute a 26-checkout policy for library ebooks raises the possibility that ebooks that are not repurchased would be available at a library for only about one year.

Most Challenged Books

The Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books published annually by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom:

And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (which has been a target of censors since its publication in 1932)
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Lush by Natasha Friend
What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Recent Legislation

The legislative topics examined in the report include:

• The Library Services and Technology Act

• Legislation authorizing the use of libraries as relocation centers during disasters and emergencies

• Broadband-related issues such as an FCC-commissioned study that found libraries and other community organizations fill the gap between low home adoption of broadband internet technology and high community demand, library broadband funding via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the National Broadband Plan’s suggestions for the technology needs of libraries.

The American Library Association releases the State of America’s Libraries report each year during National Library Week.

In Praise of Bookmobiles

By Kathie Felix

National Library Week continues today, April 13, with National Bookmobile Day.

Nearly all of us have an earliest bookmobile memory. Mine replays a long-ago sunny day in the southwest U.S., as I stood on a neighborhood street corner with my mother and younger sisters. I can still picture my first look at the inside of that bookmobile – a most amazing place.

It seemed too good to be true when I heard that the library had a truck full of books that would be coming regularly to our neighborhood so that we could get something to read. To my great surprise and amazement, the bookmobile showed up exactly as scheduled. And, as I had hoped, it turned out to be the most fantastic – and convenient – place I’d ever seen.

To this day, I doubt I’ve seen a better idea for a delivery system. Although I’m a big fan of technology, e-readers just don’t seem to strike the same chord of wonder, possibly because I can’t actually see the books inside of them.

I think I will always remember walking away from that van on that summer day, as my five-year-old self imagined which books I’d stock on the shelves if that bookmobile was my very own.

In celebration of National Bookmobile Day, the American Library Association has posted an array of bookmobile-related information online at http://www.atyourlibrary.org/celebrate-national-bookmobile-day. The content includes information on the history of the bookmobile, a bookmobile slide show featuring vintage images and a video of the Parade of Bookmobiles at the 2009 American Library Association convention.

Do you have a bookmobile story that you'd like to share?

Celebrating National Library Workers Day -- and Equal Pay Day

By Kathie Felix

The National Library Week (April 10 – 16) celebration continues on Tuesday, April 12, with the observance of National Library Workers Day (NLWD).

The day was created to help library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.

The January 25, 2003 resolution establishing National Library Workers Day said:

“That in order to recognize the hard work, dedication, and expertise of library support staff and librarians that the Tuesday of National Library Week be designated National Library Workers Day; and, that on that day, interested library workers, library groups, and libraries should advocate for better compensation for all library workers and, if the day coincides with National Pay Equity Day, these individuals, groups, and libraries should recognize both days together.”

This year, both National Library Workers Day and Equal Pay Day will be observed on April 12.

The date for Equal Pay Day was chosen by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) to symbolize how long into 2011 it takes on average for women to earn the same pay as men did in 2010. The NCPE reports that the U.S. Census showed the gender gap relatively unchanged, with women earning 77 cents for every dollar a man earned in 2009.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), library workers’ salaries on average are improving. The 2010 edition of the American Library Association – Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) Salary Survey reports average increases across all six library position types, ranging from two percent for managers of support staff to 13 percent for directors of public and academic libraries.

Even so, a recent ALA statement pointed out that, “However in these tough times there is a need for special emphasis on the pay equity for library workers.”

For ideas on ways to advocate for pay equity, go to the NCPE website and see the ALA-APA Better Salaries and Pay Equity Toolkit.

Keep in mind that many individuals will be wearing red today to symbolize that women and minorities are "in the red" with their pay.

A variety of National Library Workers Day celebrations are taking place across the country today. The ALA-APA is hosting a contest designed to showcase the states that are celebrating their library workers publicly on National Library Workers Day. To find a complete list of these NLWD stars, check out the Library Star map on the ALA-APA website. Make sure your state is represented. Last week, 13 states had no nominations submitted for the Library Star project.

ALA-APA will accept Library Star nominations through the end of the day on Tuesday, April 12. The nominations will be posted online by Friday, April 15.

The National Library Workers Day website offers ideas about ways to celebrate the holiday. In addition, the NLWD Facebook page provides the opportunity to share information about National Library Workers Day celebrations.

Here at Sisters in Crime, we love library workers – and the libraries that employ them.

What are you doing on National Library Workers Day?

SinC Library Grants Awarded

The Pecatonica High School Library in Pecatonica, Illinois, and the Hastings Public Library in Hastings, Nebraska, are the most recent winners of the Sisters in Crime $1,000 book-buying grants.

The Pecatonica High School Library (pictured at right) was the February winner of the SinC "We Love Libraries!" grant money.

The Hastings Public Library (pictured below) was the March winner of the SinC library grant.

Each month during 2011, Sisters in Crime will award a $1,000 grant for library book purchases.

To date, the SinC "We Love Libraries!" project has provided $1,000 to 16 libraries in the U.S. The library lottery program began in January 2010.

To Participate

Libraries may participate by completing the online entry form at www.sistersincrime.org and uploading a photo of one or more staff members with three books in the library's collection written by Sisters in Crime members. A list of SinC author members can be found by clicking here.

At the end of each month, a library winner will be selected in a random drawing from the entries submitted online. Libraries must be located within the United States to be eligible for the funding.

Only one entry per library is required. Once an entry is on file with Sisters in Crime, it will remain active in the lottery selection process for the duration of the program.

Two More SinC Library Grants Awarded

The Folsom Public Library in Folsom, California, and the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base Library in Goldsboro, North Carolina, are the most recent winners of the Sisters in Crime “We Love Libraries!” book-buying lottery.

Each library was given $1,000 for the purchase of books of any kind for the library collection.

To date, the SinC “We Love Libraries!” project has awarded $1,000 to 14 libraries in the U.S. The library lottery program began in January 2010.

To Participate

Libraries may participate by completing the online entry form at www.sistersincrime.org and uploading a photo of one or more staff members with three books in the library's collection written by Sisters in Crime members. A list of SinC author members can be found by clicking here.

At the end of each month, a library winner will be selected in a random drawing from the entries submitted online. Libraries must be located within the United States to be eligible to participate in the program.

Only one entry per library is required. Once the entry is on file with Sisters in Crime, it will remain active in the lottery selection process for the duration of the program.

Previous Winners

The 2010 “We Love Libraries!” winners include:

The Kingstowne Branch of the Fairfax County (Va.) Public Library in Alexandria, Virginia (January 2010)
The Kraemer Family Library, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado (February 2010)
The Pineville-Bell County Library in Pineville, Kentucky (March 2010)
The Cresco Public Library in Cresco, Iowa (April 2010)
The Seminole County Public Library in Casselberry, Florida (May 2010)
The Bartram Trail Regional Library in Washington, Georgia (June 2010)
The Newton Falls Public Library in Newton Falls, Ohio (July 2010)
The St. Joseph Township-Swearingen Memorial Library in St. Joseph, Illinois (August 2010)
The Yuma County Library District in Yuma, Arizona (September 2010)
The Cary Memorial Library in Lexington, Massachusetts (October 2010)
The Lenox Township Library in New Haven, Michigan (November 2010)

Your Own Library Donations

And while we’re thinking about books for libraries:

Have you donated money or books for library circulation?
Do you have any tips to offer on the subject?