About LTLS Members

Children’s Author and Illustrator Coming to Schools and Library

Author and illustrator Bobbi McPeak of Terre Haute will speak to students at the Marshall Schools on May 3rd and 4th and will present a public program at Marshall Public Library at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, May 3rd.   McPeak’s emphasis is on the importance of reading and writing, interweaving how she gets the ideas for her writing and how reading has influenced her, and now how illustrating is playing a large role in her life.  She will also discuss techniques of how she illustrates.  She will show the children how an idea proceeds from a rough draft to the revision process and the importance of rewriting, how pictures and words come together, and the importance of book design.

Pam Storm - Retired Librarian Honored - Congratulations!

Pam Storm retired as a school librarian last spring, but her work continues to be noticed by her peers.

She received what's called the Polestar Award at the recent Illinois School Library Media Association conference. The award is the association's highest honor and is based on contributions to school library programs in the state.

Storm was the Charleston school district's head librarian and worked at Carl Sandburg Elementary School at the time of her retirement.

Pam also helped to initiate the Monarch Children's Choice Award, which lets students across the state vote on what they think should be the book of the year.

Pam continues to volunteer with libraries and teaches at EIU.

2010 Edible Book Festival

Please join us for the 5th Champaign-Urbana Edible Book Festival.   Bibliophiles, book artists, and food lovers will gather to celebrate the book arts and the (literal) ingestion of culture.  Participants will create edible books to be exhibited, documented, and then consumed.  Photographs of all entries will appear in the Edible Book Festival online gallery.   This year we’re holding two separate events.

SJO Library Needs Old Yearbooks

Katherine Fell, librarian at St. Joseph-Ogden High School, needs help. She would like to have a copy of every yearbook for SJO High School and its predecessors (Saint Joseph High School and Ogden High School). The yearbooks will be kept in the school library as an archive of the schools history. Katherine needs yearbooks from Saint Joseph; anything before 1941, 1942-44, 1950-54, 1960-63, and Ogden High School, all years except 1661-63. From SJO High School Katherine needs; 1964-66, 1968-69, 1973, 1977, 1983, 1990, and 1996. For information or to donate a yearbook please email: [email protected]

Mad about books CMS uses grant to start student book club

Community invited to discuss book Monday during first 'Community Reads' event

Charleston Middle School students meet in the school's library during their lunch hour to discuss a book they read as part of the school's new book club.

The life-or-death story of young people forced to compete to the end on live TV seems to be a hit with students at Charleston Middle School.

Now, reading teachers at CMS want to see what other people think about the story and if they’ll share their thoughts with the students, too.

Real life prompts book on 'normalcy' that has been Read Across Mattoon

An assembly full of cheering students and a library full of rubber ducks greeted author Cynthia Lord on Tuesday at the Mattoon Middle School.

“You could not have made me feel more welcome!,” Lord exclaimed after seeing the rubber ducks.

A rubber duck is featured on the cover of Lord’s book, “Rules,” which was selected as this year’s Ready to Read Across Mattoon novel.

Champaign Central High School Library Warming Work Party

Librarian Corinne Hatcher invited a group of colleagues to a Library Warmig Work Party on Saturday August 8th.   The invitation read: 

 "As the new librarian at Central High School in Champaign, I would like to invite you to a Library Warming Work Party.  I need help moving some of the collection around and I need your help to do it.
I hope you will come for the company of good librarians and to share your ideas for the space. I will provide Lunch.  Bring anyone who you think would have a good time."

This was a great way to connect with colleagues and to have a good time.  LTLS staff Joe Sciacca, Michelle Ralston and Jan Ison helped out.  The following photo shows many of the people after a good morning's work.  Notice Amy Weber former LTLS Consultant and her 2 children were also part of the team.

Dorothy Vickers-Shelley

Dorothy Vickers-Shelley, former school librarian in the Urbana School District, passed away on July 24th at Carle Arbours in Savoy at the age of 74.  Ms. Vickers-Shelley was a 1975 graduate of the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and was librarian at the Yankee Ridge Elementary School in Urbana for over 25 years until her retirement in 2003. A brief biographical profile of her life can be found on This Legacy Is Yours. Funeral arrangements will be handled by Perry's Twin City Mortuary Service, Champaign.

St. Joseph School Board Examines Need for Second Librarian

Barb Turner will be retiring from her position as librarian for the St. Joseph Consolidated School District #169 in 2010. On May 18th Ms. Turner asked the School Board to examine the need for hiring two librarians for the 2010-2011 school year. Ms. Turner told the board that the schedule she currently has means splitting her time daily between the middle school and the grade school. "On paper it looks good but in practice it has created some problems" she said.

Centennial High School Library - Collaborative Mural

The theme of the mural is literacy and the importance of free access to information in our democracy. Twenty three different students in painting and drawing class worked on the project with muralist Glen Davies. Librarian Cynthia Helms created the following slide show of images featuring some of the students who collaborated with the Artist to create an amazing six-panel mural for the library. The mural was funded by: The Illinois Arts Council, Tepper Arts Endowment, Centennial PTSA and The Class of 2009.