NEWS

Local angles: Greensboro, Raleigh

CHAPEL HILL – Why is bedtime reading so good for you? What happens when a community comes together to read? And how does one become a habitual reader?

These and other aspects of the joy of reading will be explored March 15 in READ – "Reading, Experiencing, Advocating, Discussing" – the annual spring conference of the Librarians’ Association of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Speakers will include UNC Chancellor James Moeser, author Doris Betts and professors and authors who have been involved with community and university reading programs.

Keynote speaker Dr. Wayne A. Wiegand, professor of American studies and of library and information studies at Florida State University, will examine the social nature of reading. Wiegand co-edits Library Quarterly and was a Kenan Visiting professor in UNC’s School of Information and Library Science in spring 1994. He has edited or co-edited seven books, two of which won national awards, and written five monographs, three of which won best-book awards from the American Library Association.

The public is invited to the conference, from roughly 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education. More information, a schedule and registration forms are online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/launcch/conf2004.html. Through March 7, registration costs $45, or $25 for students and retirees; after that, a $15 late fee is added. Lunch at the Friday Center that day costs $10.55.

"This conference will explore how reading as a group can move communities to hold conversations," said Rebecca Vargha, chair of the conference committee and a librarian in UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. "We’ll also consider how reading helps universities prepare the minds of learners for new and challenging ideas."

Up to 200 librarians, scholars, students and readers from across North Carolina and the Southeast are expected to attend, she said. Representatives of UNC and Appalachian State University will discuss past summer reading programs for new undergraduate students.

Since Seattle held the first "community read" of recent times, in 1998, the phenomenon has spread across the nation, Vargha said. The conference’s "One Community, One Book" panels will offer speakers who have helped plan and carry out such programs:

· Susan Brown, adult services librarian at the Cameron Village Regional Library in Raleigh, who was involved in last year’s "Wake County Reads Together" program;

· Dr. Trudier Harris, author and Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English at UNC-Chapel Hill, whose book "Summer Snow" was read as part of a program in Orange County; and

· Steve Sumerford, assistant director of the Greensboro Public Library and project director for the first "One City, One Book" program in Greensboro, in 2002. The selection, "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines, was read and discussed by more than 12,000 people.

Other sessions will cover "The Effects of Reading," with Dr. Brian Sturm, a UNC assistant professor of library science, who will include the insight on bedtime reading; and "How to Become a Habitual Reader" with Dr. David Carr, UNC associate professor of library science, who leads a local reading group and advises community reading programs in Forsyth and Wake counties. Librarians and Duncan Smith, creator and product manager of NoveList, an electronic readers’ advisory service in Durham, will make up a panel on "Advocacy for Readers."

For more information, contact Vargha at 919-962-8361 or vargha@ils.unc.edu.

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Contact: Rebecca Vargha, 919-962-8361, vargha@ils.unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, 919-962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu