The OLIS Summer Reading Mini-Grants opened for request on February 20. Public libraries may request up to $600 for youth activities and up to $300 for adult activities. Library systems may request $300 per additional location for youth activities. Funding has been earmarked for each library in this non-competitive grant. Request forms are due March 18.

• 2024 Summer Reading Program Mini-Grants Notice of Funding Opportunity
  

Save the date for the New England Summer Summit on March 15th. Join library staff from throughout New England to invigorate your Summer Reading Program planning. More details coming soon!

Beanstack

The statewide contract with Beanstack has been renewed through 2026. If you need assistance setting up your library's account please contact our Beanstack rep Becky Garrety. Library staff can register for upcoming Beanstack trainings or view recorded sessions in the Beanstack Help Center.

• Contact Becky Garrety at rebekah@zoobean.com
• Schedule time to meet with Becky Garrety
• Beanstack Trainings
• Beanstack Help Center
  

iREAD

In November instructions for downloading this year’s SRP Guide from iREAD was sent to the SRP contact at each library (in most cases the children's librarian/head of youth services). Please check with your SRP contact for download instructions. Guides must be downloaded before June 1, 2024. If you do not know your library's contact or if no one at your library received instructions, please contact Danielle at danielle.margarida@olis.ri.gov.

• Recording of iREAD 2024 Showcase from January 29.
  
• iREAD open office hours, Wednesdays at 3pm
  

All library staff serving youth who would like to be part of the Young Adult Roundtable and the Children’s Services Roundtable are invited to host a 2024 roundtable meeting. Meetings will remain hybrid for 2024. Meetings with less than 5 people registered for in-person participation will be moved to a virtual only meeting.

The blank schedule and instructions can be found here

The list of suggested topics can be found at here

Scheduling for Young Adult Roundtable

The blank schedule and instructions can be found here

The list of suggested topics can be found here

Calling all K-5 educators, join RIDEM Division of Fish and Wildlife’s outreach and education staff for a fun and free professional development opportunity! You’ll learn all about the national Project WILD and Growing Up WILD curricula and how you can apply them in your classroom. You’ll also learn about RIDEM’s Rhody Critter Kits, which combine activities from both curricula with information about local wildlife conservation work happening right in your own backyard. At the end of the day, you’ll head home with a Project WILD and Growing Up WILD curriculum book, connections to real science happenings here in Rhode Island, and ways to share this with your students! Lunch will be provided. This training is free, and open to all who work with elementary school students (teachers, librarians, homeschooling parents, environmental educators, etc), but registration is required.

To learn more about Project WILD, click here: https://www.fishwildlife.org/projectwild

To learn more about the Rhody Critter Kits, click here: www.dem.ri.gov/critterkits

Copies of the 2024 Kids Reading Across Rhode Island book, The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass, are available to public libraries interested in hosting a KRARI book discussion. These books will belong to your library and you may decide how you want to distribute them (give them to book discussion participants to keep, catalog them, etc.).Please submit your request by March 11. Book sets will be sent through delivery early April.

Public libraries and youth serving organizations are invited to participate in the May 4 kickoff event at the State House. The event is scheduled for 2pm-4pm and is a great opportunity to promote your library and summer reading program to families from all over the state. Please submit the form below if you are interested in participating in this year's kickoff and you will be contacted with additional details.

KRARI book sets are also made available to schools. If you're looking for a way to connect with schools in your community consider hand delivering book sets to the schools in your district that have submitted a request. Please submit the form below if you are interested in delivering a KRARI book set and you will be contacted if a school librarian from your district requests a book set.

It's time for your patrons in grades 3-5 to vote for their favorite book among the RI Children’s Book Award nominees for 2024! For over 20 years the Rhode Island Children’s Book Award has generated widespread enthusiasm for reading. Thank you to the many schools and libraries in Rhode Island that participate.

All voting and program evaluation will be completed online

March 1 – April 30 . Beginning March 1, your school or library’s voting results can be entered at https://olis-ri.libwizard.com/f/ricba2024.

Important voting information:

• Your library does not need to register to vote. Any library that would like to participate is encouraged to do so!
• This form is to collect your library’s total voting results, not a way to collect individual children’s votes.
• Distribute ballots to patrons who have read 3 or more of the nominated books, collect all completed ballots, and tally your library’s results on a blank ballot. Voting materials, including the paper ballot and graphics can be found at https://olis.ri.gov/programs-and-support/reading-programs/rhode-island-childrens-book-award/voting .
• The total number of votes for each book should be entered into the form.
• If you have any difficulties or need to edit your form after it has been submitted, please contact Youth Services Coordinator, Danielle Margarida (danielle.margarida@olis.ri.gov, 401-574-9309/401-400-3006) before 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30.
• All forms must be submitted by April 30, 2024.

It’s that time of year again! The new year marks the time when the teens of Rhode Island get a chance to pick the book they think is best they have read, from a list selected by teachers, public librarians, and school library media specialists. That’s right, it is election time for the 2023 Rhode Island Teen Book Award.

Voting begins January 25, 2024 and runs through February 29, 2024.

Where can teens in grades 9-12 vote? Well, they can do it in their schools and local public libraries. Interested schools and libraries can find an official ballot and a QR code to our digital voting form under Official Election Ballot, to download and print for use at your library. We are also accepting digital ballots (from individual students and physical voting sites) at www.tinyurl.com/RITBAvote24 .

Ballots will be accepted at participating schools, libraries, and online from January 25, 2024 through February 29, 2024. Voting results from physical voting sites should be submitted through the digital ballot form no later than Monday, March 4, 2024.

The RI Latino Books Award Committee is happy to share the download materials and resources for the 2024 RI Latino Books Award Nominees.

On the website, you will find the flyer, book spine labels, wakelet educational resource, poster, paper ballots, round stickers, tracking chart and annotation booklist.

Rhode Island Latino Books Award (Website)

Readers are encouraged to read at least three (3) books from the titles nominated then vote for their favorite. Voting will take place at participating schools, libraries and online. The online voting will be available April 1st through May 31st.

The winning titles will be announced on Saturday, June 1, 2024.

About the RI Latino Books Award

The Rhode Island Latino Books Award (formerly Latino Books Month @RILA), now in its tenth year, promotes literacy amongst Latinos through the celebration of Latino authors, illustrators and books that highlight Latino culture and Latin American identity.

Through this year-long celebration, RILA encourages librarians, teachers, educators and booksellers to promote books written by and for Latinos, and we encourage all Rhode Islanders to read books in both English and Spanish and written by Latino authors/illustrators.

Our website: http://www.rilatinoarts.org/LatinoBooksAward.html

For more information about the Rhode Island Latino Books Award and/or to participate, contact Maria Cotto, RILA's Latino Books Award Chair.

Congratulations to the Jesse M. Smith Memorial Library, Maury Loontjens Memorial Library, and the Pawtucket Public Library for being among the 300 libraries selected nationwide to receive a Thinking Money for Kids Program Kit. This kit is a collection of expertly vetted resources to help libraries offer financial education for children ages 3 to 12, created by the American Library Association (ALA) and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. Nearly 600 libraries applied for this competitive first-of-its-kind program kit, which includes materials for the libraries to host five in-person children’s programs as well as a set of digital games on tablet computers that can be checked out for home use.

Write Rhode Island is excited to partner with We Are ALL Readers and Rhode Island Center for the Book to present WE BELONG ON THE PAGE, an art exhibition of Rhode Island students. Students in grades 7-12 are invited to redesign the cover or a banned or challenged book.

Students whose work is selected are eligible to win prizes and be included in a traveling exhibition. All work accepted into WE BELONG ON THE PAGE will be on display at the We Are ALL Readers book festival at North Kingstown High School on April 6, 2024.

Submissions are open January 15 – March 1, 2024.

http://www.weareallreaders.com/webelongonthepage.html

To submit work:

https://writerhodeisland.submittable.com/submit

Building Equity-Based Summers’ (BEBS) empowers libraries to create summer services that are built on a foundation of equity and designed with the community to ensure systemically marginalized groups engage in library services in new ways. Learn more about this work with the BEBS podcast. The first four episodes include:

• The Why of Equity and the Why of Equitable Summer Services

• Start Where You Are But Don't Stay There
• Evaluation Can Have an Equity Center
• It's OK to Feel Discomfort
  

Listen at https://bebspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2235015