Bulletin Board

Announcement

Since Mitzi Myers' death in November, 2001, her colleagues at UCLA and across the country have been considering how best to honor in a lasting way her achievements as a scholar. She never failed to be amazed at the magnificent resources of the Charles E. Young Research Library, which she generously acknowledged in many of her publications on eighteenth-century culture, women writers, and children's books. A fellowship fund that would allow others to do research at the UCLA Department of Special Collections seemed like the most appropriate legacy for Mitzi, a great lover and user of libraries. If you would like to join us in establishing the Mitzi Myers Memorial Research Fellowship in the UCLA Library, please send your contribution, payable to the UCLA Foundation to:

Laila M. Rashid
Director of Development
University Library
21520 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
(310) 206-8551
lrashid@library.ucla.edu

For more information about The Mitzi Myers Memorial Research Fellowship, please contact:

Andrea Immel, Curator
Cotsen Children's Library
Princeton University Library
(609) 258-1510

Announcement

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature, the refereed journal of the International Board on Books for Young People, is seeking an editor for the regular column reviewing professional books related to international children's literature.

The duties of the Professional Books Column Editor include:

• • soliciting professional books to review

• • soliciting reviews of professional books

• • writing a 1,500-word column for each quarterly issue of Bookbird (except for the Andersen issue every other year)

• • providing covers and illustrations of professional books, when available

• • working with a Bookbird editor during the editing and production process for each issue

Those interested in learning more about this position or submitting a letter of interest should contact:

Dr. Patricia Scharer
The Ohio State University
200 Ramseyer Hall
29 W. Woodruff
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 292-2480
scharer.1@osu.edu

Call for Papers

A forthcoming special issue of The Lion and the Unicorn will be called "Handmade Literacies." Every day elementary school children in England are subjected to a "literacy hour." That's when children all across the country are asked the same questions about the same texts and are given the same instructions, all in preparation for the day on which they all take the same standardized examinations at the same time—whether they like it or not. In an age increasingly driven by the need for demonstrations of uniform standards of literacy education, it is important to remember that the one-size-fits-all approach has never been the only way in which to produce a literate community.

In the mid-eighteenth century, Jane Johnson made alphabet cards, and handmade, homemade books with which to transmit literary and social values to her children. That collection is in the Lilly Library at Indiana University. You'll find Jane Johnson's story, and others in a similar vein in Opening the Nursery Door (Routledge 1997). There are other examples: a mother who has written a poem to her children on the blank pages of a published book, a father printing collections of nursery verse for his daughter on a printing press in his kitchen, local people in a particular community making books out of their memories about childhood for children in their own communities. We are seeking submissions for a special issue on the topic of handmade, homemade, hearthside or local literacies. Please submit papers, 15-20 pages long, by August 2003 to:

Michael Scott Joseph
Special Collections
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
169 College Ave
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-1163
mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu

Or

Lissa Paul
Faculty of Education
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton New BrunswickE3B 6E3
Canada
lpaul@unb.ca

Call for Proposals

The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation has just announced that, in celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the publication of The Snowy Day, $40,000 will be awarded in the Fifteenth Annual Minigrants in December, 2003, for innovative and imaginative programs in public libraries and public school libraries designed to combat illiteracy. Minigrants of $350 are available for such programs. The deadline for submissions is 15 September 2003.

Minigrant...