Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens Success Story: Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
May 18, 2012Since the May 2011 launch of Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens, we’ve been receiving success stories and examples of exhibits and activities taking place in museums and gardens across the country. One recently launched exhibit is a fine representation of the work museums and gardens can do to fight childhood obesity using interactive exhibits. It’s called “Big Food: Health, Culture and the… Read more
Summer Learning is Important to Student Success
May 16, 2012By Susan Hildreth Director, IMLS In the coming days and weeks, millions of K-12 students will celebrate the end of the school year, but behind the celebration are some pretty grim statistics. Not all of these students will have equal access to summer learning opportunities and the impact of that lack of opportunity is much greater than you might expect.
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National Medal Video: Columbus Metropolitan Library
May 15, 2012By Kevin O’Connell, IMLS Senior Public Affairs Officer Columbus Metropolitan Library was one of ten winners of the 2011 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. In this video interview, CFO Dewitt Harrell talks about the library's job programs and community member Khamall Howard discusses how his participation in a summer youth program led to his current job at the Main Library in… Read more
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Recognizes Libraries’ Role in Early Learning
May 10, 2012By Susan Hildreth, IMLS Director At an April 24 briefing at D.C's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, I joined Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, the Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) Director of the Office of Head Start, in announcing that our offices and ACF's Office of Child Care would collaborate in an effort to encourage partnerships between federally funded early child care… Read more
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National Medal Video: Edventure Children's Museum
May 8, 2012By Kevin O'Connell, IMLS Senior Public Affairs Officer Edventure Children's Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, was one of five winners of the 2011 National Medal for Museum Service. In this video interview, Catherine Wilson Horne, the museum's director; frequent visitor Noah Charles Aitchison Adams; and his mother Mary Aitchison discuss the museum and the impact it's had on Noah's life.
Spring Things
May 4, 2012By Connie Bodner, IMLS Senior Program Officer Ahh, spring! Most of us like it—except for the blinding, airway-obstructing tree pollen, of course. Poets write wonderfully evocative descriptions of it. Gardeners try to coax life from seeds even when they know it’s too early.
IMLS Programs Help Families Dealing with Autism
April 30, 2012By Michele Farrell, IMLS Senior Program Officer Did you know that boys are four times more likely to have autism than girls? It’s National Autism Awareness Month and here are some ways libraries and museums are using federal funds from IMLS to develop resources to serve families affected by autism and to help people learn more about this increasingly prevalent condition. At the Upper-Hudson… Read more
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Lively Debate Affirms the Importance of Libraries
April 27, 2012By Susan Hildreth, IMLS Director On April 18th I participated in an Oxford-style debate that was part of Harvard Library’s Strategic Conversations series. The question “are libraries obsolete” was supported by James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing Academy, and David Lankes, professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, and opposed by myself and John Palfrey, professor and… Read more
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IMLS on YouTube: WebWise Demonstrations
April 24, 2012By Kevin O'Connell, IMLS Senior Public Affairs Officer One of the highlights of our WebWise conference each year is the time set aside for museum professionals, librarians, and archivists to show their peers the web-related projects they've been working on. Our YouTube channel now features interviews I conducted with five of this year's demonstrators.
Museums and Libraries Can Promote 21st Century Skills
April 17, 2012By Susan Hildreth Director, IMLS Since our Museums, Libraries and 21st Century Skills initiative was launched in 2009 we have been inspired by the stories of many libraries and museums that are taking action to become 21st century institutions.