The Board of Trustees and the staff of the John Jermain Memorial Library invite the public to a series of presentations with the four architectural firms currently under consideration for the One Library/Two Building plan. These events will take place in the library’s third floor rotunda and are scheduled as follows:

• Saturday, May 3rd, 10:00 a.m. : Croxton Collaborative
• Saturday, May 3rd, 1:00 p.m. : Farewell Mills Gatsch (FMG)
• Monday, May 5th, 2:00 p.m. : Herbert S. Newman and Partners
• Monday, May 5th, 5:00 p.m. : Drummey Rosane Anderson (DRA)

Each session will consist of a presentation by the firm, and an open question-and-answer session with the public, followed by a period for the Board to question the firms. The public portions of these events will run approximately an hour and a half and will be videotaped and made available for anyone not able to attend. Proposals from each of these firms are available in the Library Director’s office. Please stop by to view them, and please share your thoughts and dreams for the future of your library. For additional information  call Catherine Creedon at 631 725.0049 extension 23.

JJML invites you to join the Academy of American Poets in celebrating the first national Poem in Your Pocket Day. The idea is simple: select a poem then carry it with you (poem in your pocket) and unfold it with family, friends and coworkers throughout the day.

For the past five years, New Yorkers have been unfolding poems on Poem In Your Pocket Day and reading them in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces and bookstores. Organize your own Poem In Your Pocket Day event during National Poetry Month, or visit http://poets.org/page.php/prmID/406 for ways to celebrate this April 17th.

Room to Read, a non-profit organization that donates libraries to communities in developing nations, is the inspiration and life-work of former Microsoft executive John Wood, who delivered the keynote address at the Public Library Association Conference in Minneapolis, MN on March 25, 2008. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance as Mr. Wood brought his energy, intellect, humor and passion to an audience of over 2,000 librarians.

In addition to donating libraries, Room to Read also builds schools, publishes children’s books in the native languages of developing countries and provides scholarships to girls in nations where they would not normally have the chance to receive an education due to lack of funds and cultural preferences. Founded on the belief that “World Change Starts with Educated Children” - and that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, Room to Read has established over 5,100 libraries in the developing world since its inception in 2000.

Mr. Wood was inspired to leave his job at Microsoft after a vacation spent trekking in Nepal where he had the opportunity to visit a local school whose library’s only books were popular soft-cover fiction titles in English left behind by other hikers. His promise to return with more appropriate books for the schools’ students, was met with a certain degree of skepticism, as the local teachers had heard this many times before; but return he did, with Yak-loads of books. The joy he saw on the faces of the students as they eagerly accepted his donation convinced Mr. Wood to quit his job at Microsoft and found an organization that could address this problem on a larger level.

His transformation from Microsoft Executive to proselytizer-and-chief of a pioneering non-profit organization is documented in Mr. Wood’s memoir Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. I picked up a copy at the conference, and found it informative, inspiring, and surprisingly entertaining. As I write this JJML has ordered a copy, which should be on our shelves in a short time. Had I known about this book when I was compiling my Staff Picks list for April, it would definitely would have been on the list. I recommend both the book and the charity as worthy of your time and money.

You can find out more about Room to Read at http://www.roomtoread.org.

This is absolutely fascinating. Project Song from National Public Radio (NPR), is an intimate look at how song writers go about the business of creating words and music in real time. Hosted by Bob Boilen of NPR’s All Songs Considered, Project Song invites musicians to spend two days in the NPR recording studio during which they are asked to write and record a new composition. NPR provides inspiration in the form of words and pictures to stimulate the musicians’ imaginations, and asks them to pick one photo and one phrase as “themes” for the song they will create. Then they get out of the way as they, and we, watch the process unfold.

So far Boilen has worked with three musicians Stephen Merritt of the group Magnetic Fields, Nellie McKay, and the duo of Laura Burhenn and John Davis, who comprise Georgie James, and the results have been both enlightening and, to my ear, very pleasing. The fascinating thing for me is to contemplate the fact that in no other era would it have been possible to observe artists at work in this very personal way.

NPR’s Project Song website has videos of each of the musicians at work, as well as the story of each session as it was presented on public radio’s All Things Considered, and a recording (with video) of the completed song. If you enjoy popular music, this is a don’t miss web experience.