While many of our participating libraries in The September Project are public libraries, we also have several academic and school libraries that host some of our favorite events. What we love about these libraries is that they have the opportunity to reach out to so many students.
This year my academic library, the University of San Francisco’s Gleeson Library, will be hosting an event that centers around the First Amendment. They will be displaying books and posters that focus on the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.
Also, here are just a few of the programs that other academic school libraries have hosted in the past:
- Jessica Moskowitz, a Library Technician at the University of Washington’s Gallagher Law Library, helped host a Constitution Day book display of on the U.S. Constitution, democracy and freedom.
- Julia Jorgensen and Cape Central High School in Missouri hosted voter registration, a screening of National Treasure, the Election book display, The First Time I Voted essay collection and a reading by Walter Bergen (Missouri’s first Poet Laureate).
- Karen Chobot and the Mildred Johnson Library at North Dakota College of Science cleverly combined The September Project, Constitution Day and Banned Books Week into a big event. They displayed posters from the Long Island Coalition Against Censorship, featured a window display of the music industry’s attempt to stop student file sharing and presented questionaires asking students how they think of free speech.
- Cheryl Carr and Oregon Middle School teamed up with their local public library to celebrate National Library Card Sign Up Month. They offered applications for public library cards and set up a bulletin board advocating public libraries.
- The Library Ludwig von Mises at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala City commemorated the Month of Freedom and Independence by displaying books on the follwing topics: ethical and philosophical principles of germ independence, the history of the Independence of the United Provinces of Central Americas, the process of separation of the Province of Central Americas and the consolidation of the Republic of Guatemala from the year 1839, and the life and work of Austrian economist Ludwing von Mises.
