summer reading – MBLC Blog

MBLC Service Update – March 13, 2025

MBLC Service Update
March 13, 2025

☝️ NEED TO KNOW

Is the State Aid to Public Libraries Program affected by federal funding?

State Aid Grant Awards that public libraries receive through the State Aid to Public Libraries are fully funded by the annual state budget line 7000-9501. Not federal funding. However, all staff who work in the State Aid Unit are funded in part through federal funding. — Cate Merlin, Head of State Programs

🆕 NEW BLOG SERIES! Fortifying Your Library with Al Hayden

Welcome to our new blog series designed to help you fortify your library to protect you, your staff, and your patrons. A library is at its strongest when there are clear, unambiguous expectations for everyone to follow and one of the best ways to implement these expectations is through policy. To read more about library policy that creates stability for your staff and patrons, visit the MBLC Blog.

🕙 MBLC Monthly Board Meeting on April 3(Hybrid)

Contact: Rachel Masse

The regular monthly board meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is scheduled for 10AM on Thursday, April 3, 2025, at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams. This is a hybrid meeting.

😎 Apply for a Summer Library Visit with Blades by March 24

Contact: Rachel Masse, Celeste Bruno, June Thammasnong

The Boston Bruins mascot, Blades, loves visiting libraries throughout the entire Commonwealth to help promote the importance of summer reading! No library is too small or far for Blades. *If your library is interested in a summer visit with Blades, please submit an application by March 24.* Selected libraries will be notified by mid-April. Final decisions on all visits are determined by the Boston Bruins staff.

Blades library visits are 1 hour with all event materials provided by the MBLC and Bruins. A typical visit includes a hockey themed story (read by librarian or local VIP), hockey trivia, activity stations (coloring, beading, button making), photos with Blades, and outdoor games (such as Jenga and Connect 4).

📰 eBook Funding Increases but Access Constrained

Contact: Jaccavrie McNeely

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) recently awarded $1 million in grants to Automated Networks for purchase of eContent for the Library eBook and Audiobook program (LEA). LEA gives Massachusetts residents access to eBooks, audiobooks, and more from 389 participating libraries. For more information on increased eBook funding, visit the MBLC website.

📰 347 Libraries Certified to Receive Local Aid

Contact: Cate Merlin, Jen Inglis

Libraries certified in the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’ (MBLC) State Aid to Public Libraries Program receive local aid funding to directly support public library services. For FY2025, 347 municipalities and their libraries are certified in the program and will share $20 million. For more on FY2025 State Aid, visit the MBLC website.

️📰 Explore Grants Awarded to 18 Libraries

Contact: Lyndsay Forbes

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is pleased to announce 18 libraries will receive a combined $93,000 as the FY2025 recipients of Explore Grants. The MBLC uses federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding to provide Explore Grants that improve library services, collections, and programs. For more on how federal funding makes a local impact with the Explore Grants, visit the MBLC website.

📜 Community Voices: Curating Oral Histories and Audiovisual Collections (Recording now available online)

Contact: Jess Colati

Watch the recording online with password: Dh+0&2%D

Whether your recordings are audio, video, “on tape,” or born digital, curating oral histories and other media introduces new and different questions around collecting, management, preservation, and use. What equipment do you need to capture or digitize? How do you calculate storage? Should you work with a vendor? Do you need permission to make people’s stories and historical recordings available in your library and online? View the recording online, and/or contact Preservation Specialist Jess Colati with any questions or to schedule a 1-on-1 appointment.

🤝 Library Advisory Office Hours (Online)

Contact: Al Hayden

Monday, March 24 at 2PM – More Information & Zoom Link

Monday, April 14th at 9AM – More Information & Zoom Link

Open to all Directors, Trustees, Library Friends, and Foundation Members. They are designed to be an open-ended, safe space for questions and interaction among participants. Sessions will NOT be recorded, and chats will NOT be saved. Registration is not required; stop by anytime during the hour!

🗨️ Preservation Office Hours (Online)

Contact: Jess Colati

Tuesday, March 25 at 10AM – More Information & Zoom Link

Tuesday, April 8 11 at 10AM – More Information & Zoom Link

Open to all interested in ensuring safe and stable storage and improving collection management for your library or organization’s preservation projects. Connect with the MBLC’s Preservation Specialist, Jess Colati and colleagues around the Commonwealth that work to advance the protection of cultural collections during monthly office hours. Sessions and chats are not recorded or saved.

💬 State Aid Office Hours (Online)

Contact: Cate Merlin

Wednesday, March 26th at 2PM – More Information & Zoom Link

Wednesday, April 16th at 9AM – More Information & Zoom Link

Join Cate Merlin, Head of State Programs, and your fellow Library Directors, Trustees, and others seeking advice and answers as we embark upon the FY2026 budget season. Make sure your next budget, materials spending, and hours open fully meet State Aid requirements, and share ideas for budget strategies with others- registration is not required, and session and chats will not be recorded or saved.

📈 Census Bureau Data 101: Resources and Services (Online)

Contact: Al Hayden

Tuesday, March 18 at 2PM – More Information & Zoom Link

In this workshop you will learn about U.S. Census Bureau’s surveys and data resources available to help you understand, access, and use Census Bureau data, which can be helpful to libraries for community research and outreach, program planning, and resource allocation. We will take a tour of the Census Bureau’s website and highlight areas that may be most useful to library staff and patrons and provide a demonstration on how to quickly pull up your community’s data profile.

👭 Building Friendships Between People with and without Disabilities: A Train-the-Trainer Workshop (Online)

Contact: Ally Dowds

Wednesday, March 19 at 1PM – Registration & Zoom Link

The ARC of Massachusetts will facilitate a 2-hour train-the-trainer workshop model to equip library staff with the skills and strategies needed to foster friendships between people with and without disabilities. This interactive presentation will provide practical tools to help integrate inclusive practices into your organization. Registration is required.

🖥️ B&T Connect Training (Online)

Contact: Cate Merlin

Thursday, March 20^th at 10am – More Information & Zoom Link

Thursday, March 27^th at 2pm – More Information & Zoom Link

The State Aid team is excited to introduce Baker & Taylor Connect to the Library community! B&T Connect is the data analysis and visualization counterpoint to B&T Collect. This training will walk you through the basics of creating and viewing data and charts using years of your library data (and data from all MA libraries), so you can better advocate for your libraries and communities.

🌍 Breaking Bad Conversations about Climate Change with John E. Fernandez (Online)

Contact: Andrea Bono-Bunker, Heather Backman

Tuesday, March 25 at 1-2:30PM – Register here to attend!

Please join us to learn how to better communicate about challenges facing our climate with Professor John E. Fernandez, a practicing architect, a full professor in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Director of MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative. Professor Fernandez will leverage his experience engaging across diverse sectors of American society – the public sector, private sector, communities, and civil society generally – to offer ways in which to engage in non-confrontational, nonpartisan, and, most importantly, positive conversations about climate change. The aim of the talk will be to discuss cases in which conversations are likely to be derailed by current misunderstandings and explicitly confusing information and offer pathways toward, if not agreement, then purposeful enhancement of understanding and empathy. Professor Fernandez will also offer several information and communication assets developed over the past few years by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative.

This webinar was planned by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the Massachusetts Library System, and the Vermont Department of Libraries.

🌈Special Populations Deep Dive: Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth (Online)

Contact: Ally Dowds

Wednesday, April 2 at 2PM – Registration & Zoom Link

Join us for a conversation and Q&A with the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth to learn more about its Annual Recommendations for state agencies (including the MBLC!), the Safe School Initiative, and opportunities for trainings and technical assistance to schools across the state. The Commission advises others in state government on effective policies, programs, and resources for LGBTQ youth and will help connect you to resources and latest news to help libraries support youth in their communities.

👕18th Annual Bruins PJ Drive

Contact: Rachel Masse, Celeste Bruno, June Thammasnong

It’s not too late to join the Boston Bruins, DCF/Wonderfund and Cradles to Crayons to collect pajamas for kids in need until March 15. Together, we hope to collect 10,000 pairs of new PJs!

For more details on how your library can participate, visit the MBLC Website for the Bruins PJ Drive Toolkit.

💙 Participate in the Empowered by Libraries Campaign!

Contact: June Thammasnong, Celeste Bruno

🧰 Campaign Toolkit

This year, the MBLC is encouraging libraries in Massachusetts to invite their patrons to share their story of how the library has helped them at LoveMassLibraries.com. As part of the FY2026 Legislative Agenda‘s theme of Empowered by Libraries, their stories will demonstrate the importance and impact of our Commonwealth’s libraries to state representatives and legislators during the legislative budget season and beyond. Learn more about how your library can participate with the Empowered by Libraries Toolkit.

📅 Registration is open! Library Summit on Social Cohesion: April 11, 2025 from 10AM to 3:30PM at Devens Common Center

Contact: Jack Martin (MLS)

Registration & More Information

In collaboration with the Massachusetts Library System (MLS) and Simmons University School of Library and Information Science, we are excited to announce the Library Summit on Social Cohesion! This in-person event will provide a nourishing day for library staff to strengthen relationships within our profession and to support our important role fostering social connection in our communities. The theme of the summit is: Together We Thrive: Libraries as Catalysts for Social Cohesion. Registration is required.

Summer Reading Celebrated at the Boston Bruins Game

Imagine going to a Boston Bruins game and getting to take a ride on the Zamboni or hi-five Zdeno Chara. At their game against the Anaheim Ducks on December 20, 2018, that’s just what happened when the Boston Bruins celebrated the three grand prize winners of summer reading! The winners were all chosen through a random drawing after completing their local libraries summer reading programs. The winners this year were chosen from a pool of over 300,000 children and teens that participated in the annual summer program.

The prize recipient from Topsfield got to ride the Zamboni before the first period began. She got to be down on the ice riding the world famous ice truck while taking in the sights and sounds of the TD Garden. She made a point to wave to all of the Bruins fans up in the stands. After the ride, she also had the opportunity to try on the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup championship ring.

After the first period, the two other prize recipients from Westwood and Erving went down to the tunnel between the ice and the Bruins locker room and lined up to get fist bumps from the players. Stars including summer reading champions Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Ryan Donato walked by and high fived the two boys who were ecstatic to meet their heroes up close.

To top the night off, the 3 summer reading prize winners got to enjoy watching the Bruins defeat the Ducks 3-1. The Bruins have been awarding prizes to readers since 2009, and summer reading participants from across the Commonwealth look forward to their chance to win at the end of every summer!

In addition to the in game experiences, participants from around the state are also rewarded with team-signed Bruins jerseys and Bruins pucks signed by Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy. In all, 27 children and teens from the following libraries received prizes. You can find out more about the prizes and the summer reading program here.

Celebrating President Kennedy’s Legacy this Summer

Massachusetts libraries are collaborating with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum to celebrate President Kennedy’s 100^th birthday and “Build a Better World” as part of the ongoing Centennial Celebration at the JFK Library! This nationwide celebration commemorates one of our Nation’s great Statesmen and proud resident of Massachusetts.

The MBLC has worked with the library to create materials for the Statewide Summer Library Program. This summer’s theme is fittingly, “Build a Better World”. These materials are designed to help people of all ages understand how President Kennedy’s life work has touched so many, and continues to resonate today.

Three toolkits are available, with one for children, teens, and adults, and include biographies of President Kennedy and his family, fast facts about President Kennedy, an interactive look at the President’s desk, film footage documenting the Kennedy family, a selected bibliography of books, and more. The toolkits are available on the MBLC’s public portal and can be found here.

Visit your local library to check out books, and get commemorative posters, bookmarks, and reading lists featuring John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, and to sign your family up for the Summer Reading Program.

Summer Reading with a Purpose

whats-your-four

To me, one of the joys of summer is finding a good book and reading it on the beach. There is nothing quite like the warm air and bright sunshine to make reading extra enjoyable. What made it even better this year was helping to inspire children to read and avoid the summer slide while they were out of school, through our first ever “What’s Your Four?” campaign.

Although I now enjoy reading during the summer as an adult, it was not always my favorite activity growing up, and I always needed a little encouraging. I was not alone. Many children and teens have a hard time reading over the summer, despite the academic benefits that it has been proven to give. In fact, teachers generally spend 4-6 weeks re-teaching what students forgot over the summer at the beginning of the school year[1]. It has also been shown that having reading role-model parents or a large book collection at home has a greater impact on kids’ reading frequency than does household income[2], and that 92% of children and teens say they are more likely to finish a book that they picked out themselves2. Knowing all of this, we decided to do something this summer to try and get kids reading more.

We challenged all residents to choose four books to read over the summer months in a campaign we called “What’s Your Four?” The idea was to encourage children, teens, and adults to read by having Massachusetts residents post four books that they chose to read to social media. It is four books because students who read four or more books over the summer achieve better on reading comprehension tests in the fall than their peers who read 1 or fewer books[3].

In total, we had over 450 posts that used the hashtag #WhatsYourFour, and from these posts, we’ve compiled a list of the over 550 books that have been recommended by participants. These books range from cookbooks, to children’s stories, graphic novels, and biographies. We had responses from the Berkshires to Provincetown, and many local libraries and their staffs got involved to share what was on their reading lists.

The top four books that were recommended by participants on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were:

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub, about a group of college friends in New York City, who now have their own children going to college.

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman, about a grumpy old man who warms up after a young family moves in next door.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, a sequel to the famous Harry Potter series, the book is the script to the play of the same name.

The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, about a dysfunctional wealthy family and its children’s inheritance.

Massachusetts Politicos also got involved and sent over their summer reads. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Attorney General Maura Healey, Treasurer Deb Goldberg, Auditor Suzanne Bump, State Representative Jim Dwyer, Secretary of Education Jim Peyser, and New Bedford Mayor Jonathan Mitchell all shared four books to encourage children, teens and adults from around the Commonwealth to read.

As the air starts to cool and school starts again, reading will shift for many from pleasure to academic. We hope that just how memories of the beach stave off the cold on a snowy January day, the memory of a good book will remind everyone of a great summertime, and will encourage them to continue reading throughout the whole year. You can see a full recap of the “What’s Your Four” campaign here.

[1]Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap, Karl Alexander, Doris Entwistle, Linda Steffel Olson, April 2007.

[2]The Kids and Family Reading Report™ 4th edition conducted by Harrison Group and Scholastic, 2012.

[3]Summer Reading and the Ethnic Achievement Gap, Jimmy Kim, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 2004.

Massachusetts Libraries (libraries.state.ma.us) Relaunches

Massachusetts Libraries (libraries.state.ma.us), the online portal for statewide library resources & services first launched in 2007, has been completely redesigned. We wanted to keep it simple and user-friendly while also offering personalized access to catalogs and collections.

screenshot of massachusetts libraries website homepage

Visitors are first prompted to find their local library by entering a zip code, town, or library name. The new site is then customized with access to their home network’s catalog and the Commonwealth Catalog, making it easy to search both locally and throughout the state. It also helps visitors find ebook collections and provides immediate access to online articles. And there’s a new A-Z title list of all research journals, magazines, and newspapers available through our statewide subscription.

In the Your Local Library section, visitors can find out about classes, events, and workshops – such as summer reading and early learning programs, high school equivalency exam prep, and English learning groups – at nearby libraries and literacy centers. The Digital Collections page highlights digital libraries and special online collections, great resources for teachers and students looking to explore history in Massachusetts and beyond.

We’ll be testing the site with users and consistently making adjustments throughout the coming months, so we welcome any and all feedback on the new site! Send your thoughts and comments to answers@mblc.state.ma.us.