[Web4lib] Announcement: July 28 online presentation about The September Project

[Tom Peters]

Greetings!  On Friday, July 28 there will be a special OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries---And All Library Users) presentation about The September Project, which fosters public events and civic engagement through libraries worldwide.  This special online event is free and open to all.  There is no need to register, and no registration fee.  Details are below.  Live links and updates are available at the following URL:
 
http://www.opal-online.org/progschrono.htm
 
Friday, July 28, 2006 beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 2:00 Central, 1:00 Mountain, noon Pacific, and 7:00 p.m. GMT: 

The September Project: Let's Bring People Together This September 
Learn how to host or attend free civic events about freedom, democracy, and citizenship. Gain information on how to sponsor the National Issues Forum: Democracy's Challenge--Reclaiming the Public's Role. A panel of experts will discuss how libraries, librarians, and all citizens can become involved in The September Project, which is fostering civic events around the world on September 11. 
PANELISTS: 
David Silver, Co-Director, The September Project. David leads The September Project's outreach efforts. As a citizen, David believes libraries represent the heart, soul, and collective memory of our communities. As a reader, David looks to libraries, and librarians, for new ideas, new perspectives, and new solutions. His local library is the Ballard Branch of the Seattle Public Library. His work library is the University of Washington's Suzzallo Library. 
Sarah Washburn, Co-Director, The September Project. Sarah leads the online and offline community efforts of The September Project. She is inspired and influenced by the endlessly creative and driven community of librarians around the world. A lifelong supporter and user of libraries, she likes to check out libraries on vacation and business trips, and has been known to visit numerous hometown libraries on a given Saturday. Her first memory of libraries impacting her life was as a member of the summer reading club at the W. Clarke Swanson Branch of the Omaha Public Library. She will never forget the excitement of watching her name appear in construction paper stars each time she finished a book. 
Michael Baldwin, Director, Benbrook (Texas) Public Library. Mike holds a masters degree in public administration as well as library science and has taught American government. Mike believes that libraries are essential to the maintenance of American democracy and that proactive stimulation of responsible citizenship should be a primary component of the public library mission. To that end he wrote the article Can Libraries Save Democracy? in Library Journal (10/15/2002) and Librarians As Knowledge Provocateurs (Public Libraries, March/April, 2006). Mike has also proposed that the American Library Association initiate a One Book/One Nation project that will ask all Americans to read and discuss the same book on an issue of importance to American democracy. Mike is on the board of The September Project. The Benbrook Public Library's September Project program this year will be a public forum using the NIF materials, Democracy's Challenge: Reclaiming the Public's Role. 
MODERATOR: Taylor Willingham, Director,Texas Forums, an initiative of the LBJ Library and Museum that engages people in dialogue about issues that affect their lives. 

SPONSOR: Johnson County Library 

LOCATION: OPAL Auditorium 

This presentation is co-sponsored by members of the Libraries Fostering Civic Engagement Membership Initiative Group of the American Library Association Membership. The Civic Engagement MIG was formed to provide an ALA "organizational home" for members interested in facilitating public forums, fostering civic engagement, and framing issues for deliberation in their communities. For more information about this MIG and other community engagement resources, please visit the Libraries Foster Civic Engagement Blog. 

 
Tom Peters, OPAL Coordinator

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