February 2008 Missouri Passages Newsletter

The Problem of Finding Things

Whenever I write a blog or upload a picture to my Flickr site, I face the issue of helping people stumble across it in their search for a breathtaking image or sentence. Ha! Maybe sometimes.

When I finish the blog I have a chance to enter "tags" that will classify it. I'm about to write one about a performance of a song by Schubert titled "Gute Nacht." The song is part of a "song cycle" titled "Die Winterreise." The artist is Dietrich "Fischer-Dieskau." The medium is "vocal music", "German Lied," "art song" and Lord knows how many other decent terms. I have to remember to enclose multi-word tags in quotes and to separate tags with commas outside the quotes! If I provide those tags, you will find my moving and insightful blog when you Google for "Schubert" or "Fischer-Dieskau" or "German Lied."

Now multiply my small tagging challenge with the one faced by an Art Museum that wants to put images of the collection on line. You can see how some professionals are thinking about this by visiting The Art Museum Social Tagging Project. I have subscribed to a discussion group, and I suppose you can, too. What's going on here should be of interest to Missouri history organizations. When you decide to put your photos and archives on line, you'll need to consider how to tag those things.

Better yet, you'll involve the public in tagging your collection. You'll be, dare I say it, visitor-centered in your thinking. That's where you can get on board a fabulous experiment at the Library of Congress. Just go to the Flickr Commons and see what LOC is trying to do with people like you!

Smartening Up With Wordless Books

By Julie Douglas, Family Program Specialist

"So, let’s open Black On White now and read it," said the group's leader. Sitting in a circle at a "READ from the START" program, the parents were filled with anticipation as they turned to the first page. Some smiles quickly faded. A few people chuckled. One mom voiced what everyone else was thinking: "We can’t read this book. There are NO WORDS!"

Children’s picture books are the wonderful marriage of text and illustration. The words tell a story; the illustrations expand the story or sometimes even tell a completely different story. So where do wordless picture books fit in and why are they so good for kids (and adults!)?

According to Denise I. Matulka, creator of the website Picturing Books, "Wordless books are excellent tools for helping children develop the basic building blocks of language. They stimulate creativity and language, while at the same time introducing children to basic story structures and the juxtaposition of images and words. A wordless book stretches the imagination, allowing children to explore language through design and illustration. Picture books help children develop eye coordination and print awareness."

Wordless picture books come in a variety of styles, from books that simply show an object on each page, to flowing comic-style stories, to elaborately illustrated cut-out or pop-up books.
How a wordless picture book is used depends on the age of the reader. Babies delight in looking at pictures of familiar objects and faces. Parents can help a baby build vocabulary by naming the objects depicted or by talking to the baby about what is on each page. Toddlers enjoy naming the objects and asking (sometimes endless) questions about what they see. Preschoolers are ready for simple stories told through illustrations. They also love to spend time poring over the details in illustrations and talking about what they see.

Benefits

As a child matures, he is able to follow a more complicated plot as it unfolds in pictures. Actively engaged, the young "reader" must make sense of what he sees and how it relates to what he has already seen. Sequencing and making inferences are just two of the skills that a reader uses. Guiding the child with good questions helps build comprehension and thinking skills. Enjoying wordless books shouldn't stop once a child learns to read! Wordless books continue to strengthen imagination and inspire storytelling. Wordless books can even capture the attention of the most reluctant reader by allowing the child to experience literature in a way that is accessible and satisfying regardless of reading ability.

Get started on a visual adventure with this baker's dozen of exceptional wordless picture books.

Of Colors and Things by Tana Hoban (Harper Collins, 1996)
Tana Hoban's photographs brightly depict ordinary objects in an appealing way.

Look Book by Tana Hoban (Greenwillow, 1997)
By giving the reader only a peek at an object through a die-cut circle on each page, Hoban encourages readers to guess what they are seeing. When the page is turned, the whole photograph is revealed. Taking a close look at the familiar objects causes the reader to pay attention and use what he knows to make predictions.

Peep! By Kevin Luthardt (Peachtree, 2003)
Who hasn't dreamed of bringing home a little stray animal? Follow a little boy as he befriends a baby duckling. The boy's facial expressions humorously carry the story about gaining and losing a pet.

Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)
An imaginative story about a lonely boy who is bored on a rainy day, Rainstorm entices the reader with a strange key, a mysterious trunk, and a secret passageway that leads to adventure.

The Adventures of Polo by Regis Faller (Roaring Brook Press, 2006)
A graphic novel for the preschool set, The Adventures of Polo invites readers to join a resourceful pooch on his journey to see the world. Bold illustrations make this book visually appealing.

Sidewalk Circus by Paul Fleischman, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Candlewick, 2004)
Hawkes' clever use of signs that advertise a coming circus set the stage for a circus of a different sort. As a young girl waits for a bus, she is treated to a show put on by everyday people. Sidewalk Circus reminds readers that there are stories everywhere we look!

Museum Trip by Barbara Lehman (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
Have you ever lost track of time while exploring a museum only to come out into the daylight blinking and wondering "where" you had been? Lehman gives us a story about a little boy who gets separated from his classmates on a trip to an art museum, only to embark on an adventure of his own. Interesting details and nods to famous works of art make this book fun to study. Children who like mazes will be captivated by the labyrinths that the boy explores.

Sector 7 by David Wiesner (Clarion, 1999)
I love visiting the worlds created by Wiesner! Sector 7 beautifully answers the question that every child eventually asks: "Where do clouds come from?" A young boy befriends a cloud (yes, a cloud) on a school trip to the Empire State Building. The boy travels with his new buddy to a fantastic control center and helps the disgruntled clouds get a new look.

Anno’s USA by Mitsumasa Anno (Putnam Juvenile, 1998)
Readers will discover something new each time they travel to Anno's USA. Each page contains visual references to the literature, art, history, and architecture of our country. Young readers can enjoy pointing out familiar objects, while older children and adults will look for a story in each spread. Fans of Anno should also check out Anno's Journey, Anno's Spain, and Anno's Medieval World.

Madlenka by Peter Sis (FSG, 2000)
Though not technically a "wordless" picture book, Sis uses illustrations in such an interesting way that it deserves to be included. Little Madlenka tells each of the neighbors in her multicultural neighborhood her exciting news. She has a loose tooth! As she talks with each friend, she is transported to exotic and visually rich settings where the reader gets a little taste of other cultures. Sis' clever use of cutouts puts Madlenka right in the middle of each imaginative scene. Madlenka reminds us that a book allows us to travel "all around the world." In case you fall in love with Madlenka (you will, trust me), check out Madlenka's Dog for more of her adventures.

Zoom by Istvan Banyai (Puffin, 1998)
Perspective is what this book is all about. Just when you think you know what you are seeing, a page turn shows you a different way to look at it.

The Red Book by Barbara Lehman (Houghton Mifflin, 2004)
A young girl literally gets lost in a magical red book that she finds on her walk to school. At the same time, a young boy finds an identical red book on a sandy beach. A new friendship blooms in this imaginative wordless story.

The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard by Gregory Rogers (Roaring Brook Press, 2007)
It’s 4 p.m on a midsummer's afternoon when a boy suddenly finds himself on the stage of the Globe Theatre. The bard, Shakespeare, is none too happy to find this trespasser and a chase through Elizabethan England ensues. The boy goes on to rescue a bear and then a baron, meets Queen Elizabeth, and finally makes his way back to the safety of the Globe. This wordless tale, told only in comic-strip style illustrations has it all…adventure, drama, friendship, romance, and humor. Now THAT'S a story!!

A Schubert Song on YouTube

(Michael Bouman's "Creating Interest" Blog)

This week I wrote a piece about one of my favorite singers and a representative performance at the height of his powers. The singer is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the song is "Gute Nacht," the first of twenty-four songs in a cycle titled "Die Winterreise," and the video is of a live performance, perhaps on Japanese TV, in 1966. Fischer-Dieskau was forty-one at the time. His career began in 1947 and continued to his retirement in 1992. At the time of this video he was the most-recorded voice in history.

Dave Barry As Literature? Yes!

We're all going out this week to order Dave Barry's Starcatcher Trilogy. These three books are a "prequel" to the Peter Pan story, and if they are as funny as Dave's other books, we're going to have a very happy time of it.

We are doing this because the "ReadMOre" statewide book group is going to organize discussions on this three-book set, and we're big on one-book projects of any kind.

There's a new wrinkle to how we're promoting the programs this year, and I hope you'll help us give some online gadgets a good shakedown. If you go to the ReadMOre web site and poke around, you will notice that we have set up an online "Discussion" place, a Blog, and an online Calendar for events.

Although navigating this page is somewhat like an Easter Egg Hunt, if you persist, you may see a Facebook link and a photo-sharing place at Flickr.com. So...that's five "portals" for people to participate online in some way, and I've got to admit, the portals are empty right now. (I just set them up!) Why don't you take a look at these portals and see if you might want to become part of an online community, a "virtual circle of friends" who come together to chat about these books? I just jumped in and opened a Facebook account, and that was brave. I felt silly doing it, as if I'd walked into a place made for people of tender years. We'll see how it goes. Join in so I won't feel so lonely, OK?

Matt Meacham to Advise "New Harmonies" Towns

Folklorist Matt Meacham (Folklorist at the West Plains Council on the Arts) has signed on as program advisor to the towns that will host "New Harmonies." We've got a profile of him on the New Harmonies page now.

Smithsonian Exhibit Towns Selected

Oh brother, were we ever deluged with community applications for the 2009 tour of "New Harmonies!" It's a community-participation exhibit about American "roots music." No, not stuff about carrots, beets, and parsnips. It's all about music born and bred here. We had more interest in Missouri than the Smithsonian has ever seen for this touring program in any year, anywhere. The upshot is (trumpet fanfare), we'll have "New Harmonies" in 2010 as well! We'll put out a call for applications next year. The winning towns for 2009 are listed on our New Harmonies page.

Opportunities for Museums, Libraries, Teachers

Exhibit on the African American Baseball Experience - For Libraries - April 4 Deadline

"Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Experience" is a traveling exhibition telling the story of black baseball players in the U.S. over the past century and a half. It requires 1,000 square feet of display area. If you have that kind of space, read on!

Successful applicants will host the exhibit for six weeks and receive a $2,500 grant from NEH for attendance at an exhibit planning workshop and other exhibit-related expenses. The exhibit will tour the U.S. from November 2008 through November 2012. Participating libraries are expected to present at least two free public programs featuring a lecture or discussion by a qualified scholar on exhibition themes. All showings of the exhibition must be free and open to the public."Pride and Passion" is based upon a permanent exhibition of the same name on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) provided major funding to the American Library Association for the traveling exhibition.

Baseball is one of America's central institutions, and it has long reflected the complicated and painful history of race in the United States. The story of African Americans in baseball is a remarkable and fascinating slice of American history, displaying the failures of the greater American society in solving the racial problems resulting from slavery, the Civil War and the confusion of Reconstruction. Through a cultural timeline of American history embedded in the exhibit, visitors will be able to place the African American baseball story into the larger context of American history.Librarians applying to host "Pride and Passion" in their public, academic or special library must register their institution at Grants.gov. Prospective applicants are advised to register with Grants.gov as soon as possible, as the process can take up to two weeks to complete. The application and guidelines for "Pride and Passion" and complete instructions for registering and applying through Grants.gov may be found at NEH. Online applications must be completed by April 4, 2008. This is an NEH grant program; applications may not be submitted through ALA.

Exhibit on John Adams's Personal Library - For Libraries - April 4 Deadline

"John Adams Unbound" is a traveling exhibition based upon a larger exhibition of the same name recently on display at the Boston Public Library. It requires 1,000 square feet of display space.

The exhibit explores Adams' personal library - a collection of 3,500 books willed by Adams to the people of Massachusetts and deposited in the Boston Public Library in 1894. This remarkable collection of books provides first-hand insight into how John Adams shaped American history, and how he was shaped through his lifelong dedication to reading and books. Through photo-reproductions of these annotated volumes, viewers will witness one of our Founding Fathers wrestling with intellectual and political ideas at every stage in his long life - as a boy, university student, Boston lawyer, revolutionary, diplomat, President and citizen of the early American republic.

Successful applicants will host the 1,000 square foot exhibit for six weeks and receive a $2,500 grant from NEH for attendance at an exhibit planning workshop and other exhibit-related expenses. The exhibit will tour from November 2008 through November 2012. Participating libraries are expected to present at least two free public programs featuring a lecture or discussion by a qualified scholar on exhibition themes. All showings of the exhibition must be free and open to the public.Librarians applying to host "John Adams Unbound" in their public, academic or special library must register their institution at www.grants.gov. Prospective applicants are advised to register with www.grants.gov as soon as possible, as the process can take up to two weeks to complete. The application and guidelines for "John Adams Unbound" and complete instructions for registering and applying through Grants.gov may be found at NEH. online applications must be completed by April 4, 2008. This is an NEH grant program; applications may not be submitted through ALA.

Interactive Distance Learning at the National Archives in K.C.

The National Archives is demonstrating a very creative outreach technique in a new interactive Distance Learning program. What they're doing can be adapted as a technique by certain Libraries and Historical Societies, I am sure.

How Museums Use Media

More and more large museums are developing multiple "portals" for audiences to participate. Web sites have evolved from passive experiences to active ones. They used to be like brochures. Now they are like communities. There is a fascinating "gallery" of such museums at MuseumPods.com. You can click a link to the home page of numerous places around the world and see how they use media. These techniques are trickling down to county and local museums in Missouri. The Border War Network keeps adding content to its gallery of Civil War podcasts. This is what needs to happen more widely. You can't make a great podcast until you've learned how to make a good one. That's what is happening in western Missouri and eastern Kansas right now.

Conferences can be podcast, too. Here is a note from our friend, Liz Sinclair, at the Maine Humanities Council about program content on Literature and Medicine. She wrote,

Great News! As you know, we recently gathered many leaders in the Literature & Medicine movement together at the Maine Humanities Council’s national Literature & Medicine conference, Caring for the Caregiver: Perspectives on Literature and Medicine. Now you can now listen to some of the keynote talks and workshops at your leisure! All you need to so is go to our website ( http://mainehumanities.org/index.php ) and click on the link for podcasts. Podcasts are easy to access and can be listened to on your computer or through an Ipod or MP3 player. We have instructions on how to do this that make it very easy! http://mainehumanities.org/podcasts/faq.html.Once you have listened to Rita Charon, Veneta Masson, Rafael Campo, and Judy Schaeffer, you can browse through the other, non-Lit & Med podcasts- you’ll find talks by Maine authors, talks from other MHC programs, and MUCH MORE!

Enjoy!
Lizz