Maine Day by Day Family Literacy Activity Calendar



The Maine State Library is busy mailing out the over 5800 calendars requested by 100 Maine public libraries prior to January 1.. We have dropped shipped large quantities to Bangor Public and Portland Public.



The calendars are receiving great praise and attention, but we are getting calls from Maine citizens who say their library doesn't know about the calendars.  A press release was sent out this morning, so demand is likely to rise.  Press release: http://www.maine.gov/msl/news/display.shtml?id=2018296



We will finish the first mailing by next week - so we are ready to start taking requests from libraries who haven't requested calendars.

We have developed a form to find out how many copies you would like for your library and hope you are willing to distribute to pre-K schools, daycare centers or other organizations in your community that work with parents of young children.



Please make your requests for this second distribution by January 31 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VT6RQ8Z



You can get a sneak peek to the calendar, a list of themes and featured authors and illustrators plus the link to the request form at:

https://www.maine.gov/msl/libs/services/MaineDaybyDayFamilyLiteracyActivityCalendar.htm





Below is background information from the first MELIBS post on December 19.



"To celebrate Maine's Bicentennial, the Maine State Library has been working on a Maine Day by Day

Family Literacy Activity Calendar based on a model developed by the South Carolina State Library. We are happy to say that with funding from the Bicentennial Committee, the David Family Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation, we will be printing 30,000 copies of the calendar this week and will distribute the calendar to libraries in January."



"We are so excited to feature some of the wonderful Maine authors and illustrators we all love.  I want to thank Kirsten Cappy of Curious City, Kara Reiman and Stephanie Schott (MSL present and past specialists) for the work they have put in over the last 10 months to bring this dream to fruition."



"The calendar is free for every library to widely distribute to librarians, parents, teachers, grandparents or anyone who works with children 0-5. This perpetual calendar is designed to assist and encourage emergent reading. Each month features a theme around which books, songs, activities, arts and cultural events, plus health and family wellness information is centered. The Maine State Library wants to provide an easy to use tool built around the five early literacy practices - Read, Write, Talk, Play, and Sing - for everyone to use. Since 2020 is Maine's bicentennial, MSL also wanted to celebrate and feature the wonderful Maine authors and illustrators in the calendar. We hope the calendar makes it easy for anyone to implement the five early literacy practices."






Janet McKenney
Director, Library Development
Maine State Library
SHS 64
230 State Street
Augusta, ME 04333

207-287-5603
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@janetmckenney (Twitter)