CENTER FOR THE BOOK AT THE NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE LIBRARY

by Mary Russell, Director
NH State Library
(603) 271-2866 www.nh.gov/nhsl/bookcenter/

New Hampshire children from preschoolers to those in third grade selected I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow, published by Harcourt, Inc., as the winner of the 2006 Ladybug Picture Book Award. With 17,027 children casting ballots for their favorite picture book from among 10 titles, I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! won with 3,553 votes. We had more votes this year, from more different schools and libraries, than we have ever had before. Thank you to everyone who makes the Ladybug Picture Book Award a part of their November!

We were able to announce the winner this year only two days after the ballot deadline through our new blog. As the Director of the N.H. Center for the Book, I get all sorts of interesting information sent to me - announcements of new books, invitations to author talks and book signings, links to web sites about books, press releases about book-related events around the country, and some just odd bits of vaguely book-related information. Putting this type of information on the Center for the Book website didn't really seem appropriate because it is not about programs of the Center and I wouldn't want there to be so much stuff on our website that our own programs and projects would get buried. So I decided to try out a blog as a way to share some of this information, as well as updates on Center activities, with anyone who might be interested. Bobbi Slossar here at the State Library, helped me figure out the technical issues involved in creating the blog and the RSS feeds (which seems a little scary but were really quite easy to set up). I posted my first message on November 16th and have added something new every few days since then. I hope you will take a few minutes to check out the blog at http://nhbookcenter.blogspot.org and let me know what you think, either by commenting on a specific posting or sending me an e-mail (mrussell@library.state.nh.us).

Those of you who are regular readers of our printed newsletter, Book Notes should not be concerned that we are planning to replace the publication with the blog. I just like the sound of the name so I used it again. In fact, we are working on plans to expand distribution of Book Notes in the coming year.