Dear Teachers,

Welcome back to school! We've had a busy summer here at the Millicent Library. 403 children and teens participated in our 2011 “One World, Many Stories” statewide summer reading program. The Teens had a special theme: “You Are Here!” I have enjoyed getting to know the kids through all of our programming both in the summer and year-round. Getting to know you as teachers has also been a rewarding experience.

Remember that teacher cards are honored only at the library that issued them. We also ask that you abide by the limits on school subjects and holiday books. The limit is 3 books/items per card from the Millicent Library collection on a school subject and three books/items per family for holiday items in general, although we can make an exception for our huge collection of Christmas/Hanukkah books. Patrons are always welcome to borrow materials from all of the other libraries in the SAILS network and beyond, using the Virtual Catalog or Interlibrary Loan. We encourage students to get their own cards; you may send registration forms home and bring them to us if that is most convenient, but we do encourage children to bring their families to the library whenever possible.

Please let us know as far in advance as possible the topics you are assigning. Feel free to email me a heads up on projects. We'd also appreciate knowing at least 6 weeks in advance changes to the Summer Reading lists, so we can order and process additional titles as needed. If we have the list well before school ends in the spring, we will be more successful at acquiring copies of the books. We also encourage the use of e-books and electronic databases by your students throughout the year.

I hope to meet many of you once again during school visits both here at the library and out in your classrooms. Thanks for sharing your students with us! We are grateful for their community service participation as well! Regards,

Jane Murphy