Tomorrow I will be getting on a plane to head south for the launch the Step Up to the Plate @ your library program in Mobile, Alabama. We’ve been working with the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Mobile Bay Bears, a local minor league team, and the library media specialists at Baker High School to plan two Friday launch events. In the morning, program spokesperson and Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith will be at the Baker High School library to talk about the program, and later that evening, Ozzie, Jeff Idelson from the Hall of Fame, Jana Barber, a media specialist from Baker, and Val Thomson from the Mobile Public Library will be recognized on field during a pre-game event with the Mobile Bay Bears, the local minor league team. It’s the team’s opening weekend, so it should be a full house. Photos to come!
This is the third year of the program and our partnership with the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Step Up to the Plate encourages baseball fans to test their knowledge of baseball trivia while improving their literacy skills. Season three of the program is a whole new “ball game,” celebrating the 100th anniversary of the song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” To enter, people of all ages are encouraged to use the print and electronic resources available at their library to answer a series of trivia questions designed for their age group (10 and under, 11-13, 14-17 and 18 and over) and inspired by the iconic song.
One grand-prize winner will win a trip for two in October to the Hall of Fame’s World Series Gala event in Cooperstown, N.Y., including a behind-the-scenes tour!
So, what does it mean that the program is launching? If you go online now to http://www.ala.org/baseball and click on “how to enter,” you’ll see that the program’s trivia questions have been posted. People can enter in two ways: either online or print a playbook to submit their answers by mail.
If you want to let people in your community know about this program, go to the program Web site and click on “How librarians can get involved.” After a short registration process, you’ll be taken to a page that has a toolkit with programming ideas and sample press materials and program logos. The toolkit also details how librarians can win prizes.
If there are additional tools you’d like to see added, let us know. Posted by Megan Humphrey, manager, Campaign for America’s Libraries
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