Some of you answered, absolutely, the project should continue:

“Freedom, community, etc. do not go out of style, and new generations need to hear the message.”

“In this time when anti-intellectuals, intolerant people, and the ignorant are rampant, we need things like The September Project. If anything, it needs to expand.”

And some of you answered, it’s time for the project to end:

“When the September Project drifted away from its original purpose of remembering 9/11 in a coordinated movement it lost its interest to me.”

“Programming occurs year round. No need to designate events in September as The September Project in order to attract audiences.”

Much of what we heard from you were statements encouraging us to continue the project. One such statement was particularly moving:

“I think the September Project taps into the essential purpose of libraries in our community and our world. While we could do this alone, I think doing it together makes the message so much more powerful. It links us to something outside our community and it forges a bond for our common purpose. It also helps draw attention by the media by being something bigger than just our communities. Please let’s find a way to keep this project going for years to come.”

Let’s find a way:  welcome to The September Project 2010!

This year, we’d like YOU to help contribute content by blogging on our site about events, about ideas, and about your library’s participation. We’re not asking for much; if a group of people blog a few times, we’ll have more community-inspired content providing a more rich experience for participants.

If you plan to participate in the project this year, please consider writing just one blog post. The more voices, the stronger the community.

If you are interested, please contact us – either by email, by replying to the mailing list, or, preferably, by adding a comment below.

Soon we’ll post more information about this year’s project, but in the meantime we want to welcome all of you to The September Project 2010.

You can expect many more blog posts and announcements as the summer progresses but for now we wanted to announce three things:

First, as Sarah blogged about recently, we are thrilled to be working with three exceptionally smart and creative research assistants – Teresa Garcia, Samuel Hernandez, and Laura Plantholt – all students at the University of San Francisco. Teresa, Sam, and Laura will be helping us with all aspects of the project including our blog, our map of participating libraries, and our twitter feed.

Second, as we’ve learned from the past, most libraries sign up during August, once they have decided on their event, its time and date, etc. This year, we are asking all libraries that plan to host September Project events to let us know now (or soon!) so that we can put you on the map. Joining the September Project is easy: 1) email us at septemberproject AT gmail DOT com and 2) say, “PUT US ON THE MAP!”

Finally, we are interested in learning about your experiences during past September Projects. It’s easy: we’ll ask you 3-4 questions via email about your experiences and your library and then we’ll spotlight your library on our blog. If you are willing to participate, please email us ( septemberproject AT gmail DOT com ) – or leave a comment on this blog post – and one of us will be in touch shortly.

We are thrilled to launch The September Project 09 and are hopeful that you and your library will join us this year.

Soon we’ll be posting about events in libraries happening around the world, about resources libraries are using to organize and publicize their events, and about the creative collaborations libraries are concocting to connect communities in September.

Check back often–better yet, subscribe to our RSS feed and stay in touch!