 Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I'm your host, Krista Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is a commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time. But if you're unable to join us on a Wednesday, that's fine. We do record the show every week and it is posted onto our website as well. And I'll show you the end of today's show where you can see all of our archives. Both the live show and the archives are free and open to anyone to watch. So please share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in any of the topics that we talk about here. The Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency in Nebraska for libraries and for all types of libraries in the state, not just public. We tend to focus in public, just because we're their major area of support. But we have a state agency for all types of libraries and you will find shows upcoming in our archives for K through 12 schools, academic, university colleges, museums, correctional facilities. I don't know what it depends on. Anything you can think of to probably find on the show. We do a mixture of things here on Encompass Live, book reviews, interviews, mini training sessions, demos of services and products. Our only criteria is that it is something to do in libraries. Something libraries are doing, something we think they should be doing or could be interested in doing. So it goes across the board. We do have Nebraska Library Commission staff that present certain topics that are things that we are providing services and things we provide here through the Library Commission. But we also bring guest speakers from across the state and outside of Nebraska too sometimes. And today we will mixture of that because we have a topic today that is statewide, but the commission is involved. With us this morning is Tessa Terry, who's our new. A month or two. Yeah. She's been at the Library Commission years for this, but just recently to a new position. Lorraine Riesel on the end here. He's the director of the Beatrice Public Library at the south of us here. We're here in Lincoln, Nebraska. And you are the coordinator of our Nebraska letters about literature program. And then remotely online with us is Christie Walsh, who is the assistant library director at Carney Public Library in Nebraska, and the current Nebraska Center for the book president. Good morning, Christie. Good morning. And they're going to tell us about this year's letters about literature for competitions. Great. Thank you. So I Chris said we're talking about letters about literature. And it's something we've been doing here in Nebraska for how long. Well, I just think you're doing the math. We started in 99. Nearly, you know, they were saying it's 26 years and I think that must be heading to about 20 now when you start 99 and we're 18 and count the first year. That's about, that's my math before noon. So obviously, many people in the state, teachers and librarians know about this contest, but they have made some changes this year as far as what their submission process looks like. So what we'll be doing today is talking about the contest in general and just hitting some highlights about what it's actually about. So Nebraska is involved, House of the Center for the book is involved, as well as going over that submission process for everyone. So we'll just go along. What is letters about literature, Maureen? There's the slide. I have to say that you've reduced things to bullet points and I'm one of those people to write some paragraphs. So give me, you know, it has been a while. I do like the new slogan, the read the inside right back. I think that really says a lot about it. I'm glad to, they're talking about it's a program. I don't really like contests and they're definitely surprising some people more than that would be involved with this, let alone this long. But the first time I ever heard about this, I just thought, how fantastic to get kids who've been inspired in their hearts, they know they're different. You know, something's happened because they've read this book, and to encourage them to write to the very person who created those that work that came up with those words in the first place, whether they're living or dead, because, of course, it's the process of the child that's really important. So just have to say, I'm sorry, don't write to them, they're dead. They're dead, but we know that's very mysterious in itself so that they may be hearing these letters, reading these letters right over the person's shoulder. And the other important thing is that there's also some genre possibilities here that people often think of, they think, oh, this is going to be a child writing to their favorite author and it's going to be, you know, never really clear. It's going to be Jake Brown. It's going to be some of those suspects. Yeah, it's going to be somebody that it's not a novel fiction. This can be fiction or nonfiction. It can be a short story. It can be a poem. It could be an essay. It can even be a speech. What it cannot be, the song works. So put that out of your mind. We're not going there. It's a form of writing, but that's not what we're doing in this case. But otherwise, there's a lot of possibilities so that something that has really touched this child's heart. But more than likely, they can be writing to the person who wrote that. And as I said, they're not limited by the time frame of that person's life. They can go ahead and do that. But the crucial thing is that what they're doing, I like, somewhere in all of this dimension that they're having a conversation. And this is their chance in a sort of, it's a letter format, but in a conversation to say, you wrote this, and I just want to tell you how much it's meant to me, and how it has changed the way I perceive it. What could be more powerful than that? So we'll move right along. Christine, would you like to talk a little bit about what the Nebraska Center for the Book is and how it's involved in letters about literature? Sure. The Nebraska Center for the Book is something that brings together the state's readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, a variety of groups to build the community of the book. And so there are people that know and love books and value that richness that it adds to our state and to readers anywhere else. So we are involved in several different activities. One is, of course, letters about literature, which is a cooperative venture with the Library of Congress Center for the National Center for the Book, which is in the Library of Congress, the Nebraska Book Festival, the celebration of Nebraska books, and one book, one Nebraska, which is obviously supported in part by communities, Nebraska. Letters about literature is one of those things that we hope will touch the hearts of lots of people to highlight the inspiration that comes from books, both with the reading and writing, and build those connections. So hopefully anyone who is involved in it, whether it is a teacher or participant, they enjoy the process. They understand why they're willing to put into words what it is that speaks to them from a particular author or a particular book. And so the Center for the Book, the Nebraska Center for the Book facilitates encouraging participation from Nebraska schools and libraries. We try to provide the resources, obviously with the Nebraska Library Commission, and thank you to everybody there who does so many things. The resources to successfully submit your entries, answer questions, be a participant in the Letters about Literature competition. Did I leave anything out? I don't think so. You covered everything. Okay. So what is the story about the Nebraska Center for the Book's participation in Letters about Literature? Well, at one time, believe me, I also served as the president of the Nebraska Center for the Book. I will add this, but what I feel about that group is, you know, there's people that when you choose a profession, these are the kind of people I want to know. The Center for the Book kind of people are the kind of people I want to hang out with. These are people I want to know. These are connections that I want to make, and that the year that was actually incoming because I got to put an idea day back in BC. And I heard it. That's the first time I've ever heard about Letters about Literature, and I just loved it. And I thought, what a perfect fit for Nebraska where one of the things that we're known for is our wonderful office. And of course, and I thought, I want these kids to be inspired by the fact that they're from the state that has this kind of legacy. And that what they have people to write to the right, right from home if they want to, but also that they can follow in a wonderful pattern of other people who've been in Nebraska, or whatever you think about Nebraska. I understand the tours and people now saying, it's not for everybody, but for 1.9 million of us it is. For those people writing and expressing ourselves, appreciating literature, reading literature is part of our history heritage. And I wanted to encourage them. I wanted them to think about that. I wanted them to see themselves as possibly the next big thing in terms of Nebraska writing. So it just seemed like a wonderful opportunity for us. And we jumped right in and put together things as quickly as we could. Right from the start, we had the children whose letters are selected got to meet the governor. And we worked that out with Proclamation Day. And so now in Nebraska, part of celebrating this National Library week statewide is recognizing those winners and their names are part of the proclamation. And they get to stand and shake hands with the governor and have the picture take a little bit. I thought that that was so important. Their letters initially would just this to the archive now their letters go to the archive of the Martin libraries. So again, this example becomes something that is actually prized. Of course, we all go out to eat. And I really want those kids to feel as special as any kid at a sports banquet. I really want them to realize there is something to this. There's something to this reading. There's something to this appreciating a writer. There's something to expressing yourself about what you're reading. This is really, really important. So we had a chance to kind of put all of that together. Thanks to the library commission. Thanks to the support from the Nebraska Center for the book right from the start. In addition to the national prize, which of course is $100 for the person that's this letter is selected. We houch and bindery from the start has given the we have an alternate winner. We don't have any second place where and I always tell them this. It just in case the first person's letter for some reason or the other can't go on like the state year I heard about one state where they lost the kid moved to another state and they had trouble tracking down wasn't even sure they could submit that letter. Their letter is also worthy and that they also have done produced a super duper worth of art of literary merit. And so those, those people also receive a prize. Thanks to houch and bindery right now $75. And then we get gift certificate from chapters bookstore. The library commission has always been good to give things like a book bag to take things home in. We have the option to the library prayer cells on giving out magic pencils. Sometimes they glow in the dark. Sometimes they're a mood pencil. One year I was able to find some that pinwheels on the end. But because so many authors encourage people to write in pencil and a little many kids tell me if they know their computer from they don't know how to write it. I'm still handing out the old fashioned pencil just in case they do that. And some of the prizes and things that have happened. The stories could go on and on I promise that it's I'm dangerous on this subject but I have to say for those of you think this might be something that only the brightest kid with the best. Well I would say penmanship but of course we don't do that anymore the best skills and the best grammar when this is something that does come from the heart and one of the stories I was thinking about today is that one year when I called about the winner. I just had quite a time with it. And when I reminded them of what the criteria was they said now we know which one. When I called the school the teacher would have previous winner said to me is this a joke. And I said oh you should know me better than that. I never joke about letters about literature. It's way too big a deal to just be telling a little casual jokes. And why would I call until someone they won. How cruel would that be. And it was because the student had just been mainstreamed into the regular classroom. It's the first thing that. They had read Gary Paulson's Hatchet and this was a book this kid. It was at Huntsby's dad and that story just touched him and it came through even though it wasn't the highest quality writing perhaps ever. It really show. And then he was worried about was that going to make him read this letter in public because he wasn't that strong and I never do that. Because again this is a speech contest but I had I when I ask him and I can use you can see he was a little nervous and I said to him you love honey bang. He just he just told what that story meant to him in his own words just like that and I think of that often because how many times do we are we able to reach and touch someone like that. The other quick thing I want to mention is one year. People that child was being honored and two parents came forward and the man worked for the power company here in Nebraska, and he has literally had to find his own substitutes was out on a pole. Doing making sure we had electricity in Nebraska. No small thing with our weather. And he had taken off for more. And what he wanted to do was this child already won a poetry contest. And he said, we have nothing like this need a breath went to college. We know what, what, what should we do for our son. And I was so impressed with them because, again, he was actually paying someone else to be there so that they could be there for their son that day. So meeting these kids meeting that parents meeting the teachers that go along with it, because those people are also invited to our special day when we recognize them. Oh, that it, you know, every year, no matter what has gone on in the news, no matter how bad it is, I feel so much better after letters about literature. So, sometimes this is cows just a school activity something you do in the classroom, but it doesn't have to be just for teachers or school librarians. We want the public library, the community library to be involved as well and there are lots of ways that can happen. Well, I will just say, I'm always trying to get teachers to seriously consider doing this, it fits into the whole framework of what they're supposed to be doing. It's one of the activities that they can do. And it doesn't have to be a whole classroom activity. They can just even encouraging the children that they think that this would really mean something to. In fact, actually, I often feel even better about that. But they just say to people, this is something you can do. And I don't know, I'm not trying to tell them how to teach that class, but we know that when there's their kids that this is going to just spark that gleam in there either going to think, I really want to do this. And judging from the fact that often when I'm contacting the people and saying, Oh, by the way, we're presenting a copy. There's kind of a gasp and I say, don't or you didn't keep a copy did you know it was just one more assignment for them. And I said, not to worry, I've got copies. It's okay. But just encouraging teachers to really do this. And I realized that you don't have it because homeschools, people can enter this without going through a formal classroom. But that is certainly the way to contact most people kind of all at once. We do have. Last year we had grants that we worked with through humanities Nebraska as well as Center for the book to have several librarians or teachers across the state provide clinics letter writing clinics. Christine, do you want to talk a little bit about that. Sure. We ended up awarding four grants of $300 piece, I believe, to four different libraries, three were public libraries and one was a school so Baird Public Library, Morrill Public Library, Overton Public Schools, and the House Memorial Library. So that they could host letter writing clinics to entice people or encourage students to enter the competition to help teachers get a better idea of what it was that the competition involves how do you help coach students or anybody who wants to be involved to craft those letters to be submitted for the competition and annually there about 50,000. People who are involved grades four to 12 that, you know, turn in letters which I think is phenomenal and that's nationwide. So it isn't just Nebraska. We just want to make sure that Nebraska is engaged and excited to do this. So we thought with the letter writing clinics, it would help people feel more confident in the process, give them some examples of what's been done in the past to take some of perhaps the fear factor out of it. Because like you said it's not a graded assignment. This is encouraging readers to put their words down and speak from their heart about why something touched them. So the activities were to help students select books so you could work with your public library to go in and, you know, do some book talks suggest what might be interesting. Maybe that's the one that sparks a student to pick up that book and that becomes their inspiration for their letter about literature. But at least to give them some ideas because sometimes it's very overwhelming to walk into a library and go I have no idea what my favorite book is. Or you can have lots of favorites but you have to kind of whittle it down to one and write your letter. But the idea was to help get those tools into the hands of librarians and teachers and then work with those students so that they felt they were confident in submitting their letters. I thought it was exciting to be able to, you know, have the funds to encourage people to be involved because you still run into people going what is letters about literature. So then, you know, Lorraine and I and whoever else. Let me share some ideas with you. I'm so glad you asked. Right. Are you sure you want. Anyway, because it's an exciting thing. And like you said, there are competitions and I know that this isn't really it is but it isn't a competition. We want to encourage people to be engaged and everybody's got different strength and talents. And so there's a place for the readers and the writers and certainly those overlap with skills in music or sports or whatever it is. There's something for everybody. And this is just something that fits in with the mission for the Center for the book, the Library of Congress, all of those things to support the literature part of our lives. I wasn't really that sure about these writing things when it came up for reasons we won't even get into right now because it turned out to be irrelevant. When our one of our winners last year that was one of the things that she's talked her teacher talked about was going to that and how helpful that had been for her. But the reason I was bringing that up is that one of the things I learned out of hearing about these educational opportunities was how exotic a letter is. Who would have thought the letters about literature started that the part that would become a strange message from the past would be writing a letter. And so I know one of the activities they did was write letters and send them to each other. And the excitement of getting a letter was just due to some of these fourth grade kids. And it made me rethink things in my own life, certainly who had I written too lately and has my granddaughter gotten a letter from me ever lately. But it also made me realize that in doing this, initially when this was started, that was not something exotic to do to write a letter. Now we have to stop, not only do you have to talk about all the other concerns, but even what is a letter really? What is it you're doing when you sit down to write this? And I don't know. I wonder about that too, that yeah, do these kids, we don't write letters if we're going to communicate with someone in more of a long form. I guess we call it, you send an email. Right. Basically, it is the same thing. I mean, you're going to write the same info. You just put it into an email instead, an email message rather than writing a letter on a on your computer, which is a project or whatever. Is there any talk about trying to or do they teach it that way to just read, reformat to say it's like an email. You write an email to someone explaining here's what I'm doing blah, blah, blah. It's the same thing, but it's just not in your email account. I mean, are we still trying to keep the idea of letter writing alive too? Well, I think the idea of just crafting good communication. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. So it translates all over life and this just happens to be, you know, to authors, but to be able to put your thoughts. And have it be an email message to somebody rather than a quote, a letter, and it would still be the content is what matters, not how they, they used to write it. And how to be able to edit your thoughts and gather so it's a cohesive message. That does sound like most of the emails I receive. I don't know about the rest of you. I had very incoherent ones arrive at times. But it doesn't mean we can't keep trying to make sure that there are outlets for great communication. Since I knew I was going to be doing this day, I actually got out the rules and looked at them. And one of the things that they were talking about is formatting so that it does appear to be a letter and I know it's a great shock every now and then when I have to actually send out a formal business letter, you know, we have to screw it around and you know. I mean, you still have to cover letters for job. Exactly. So it's not going away anyway. No. Yeah, just adapted to a different format. Yeah, right, right. So we're going to move right along into the new submission process. It is different this year. In the past, you have either printed out and physically mailed your letters to warring at the after public library. No, they did not. They went to Washington. That's I never had to get all the letters. Thank you. Thank you. This year, it's very different. So when you're submitting, the first thing you're going to do is you can either go to the Nebraska Center for the book website to our letters about literature page, and we have a link to our Nebraska submission on that page. You can also go to the Library of Congress web page, which we're going to look at right now just so you can see what the process looks like. So when you come to the Library of Congress website to the letters about literature page, they have right here at the top a drop down where you will select your state, Nebraska, hopefully, and then it will take you to another page. But the link you're looking for is this enter online link, and this is the same link that we have on the Nebraska Center for the book page. So that's just a bit of a, and you can see, you know, obviously we're here, you know, presenting this from the Nebraska. You can see if you're in a different state, you'll just find your own state's information and go to their link. Exactly. Yeah. Don't go to Nebraska if you're not in Nebraska. Yeah, we don't want to confuse people. I have gotten some, some entries sometimes I got one went from Oyster Bay or something. It was in Maine. Oh, and I knew right away when I got that oyster, I thought this is not Nebraska. Yeah. No Oyster Bay. I know we do have people on with us say we're not in Nebraska or we'll be watching this recording later. So yeah, that's what you're seeing. It does give you a little overview about what Nebraska's or each state's specific details are what your state deadline is. If you don't have access to the Internet and you can't physically submit them online, you can mail them the physical letters to the Beatrice Public Library, and we will upload them to the submission process for you. But please only do that. You absolutely have to. That's really a way to deal with those. It's really a way to deal with those people who are underage. Yes. And the magic. That's why we chose that alternative this year. And it looks like even now that can actually be handled. So at one point it looked like we absolutely had to deal with them through the mail. And now that with this parental permission situation. So please, please make this as please take care of as much of this for yourself as you can. And I'm saying that because it would be coming to me. And so try not to make any more work. So once you click that link or if you go to the Nebraska Center for the page, you will come here and it once again gives you a quick overview of our state specific guidelines as well as a tutorial. If you need it. You do have to create an account in submittable. Now you don't have to create an account for each individual student or submit T. You can do a teacher account and then they submit through your account. So it's all under sort of your school umbrella or your library umbrella. So that will be your first step. So I'm going to get out of here we're going to actually go through a test demonstration form that the Library of Congress has set up for us so that we can see. Exactly what you'll see. Exactly. Yes. So after you create your account. I already have an account. Make me do it again. I hope I can remember my password. Oh, I do. Sometimes our wireless mouse and keyboard don't play nice. Well, I've also gotten used to that. It remembers my login information on my computer. So I hope I don't remember what I made my password. We'll guess. Nope, that wasn't it. I don't know. Lauren, do you remember your password? Are you talking to me? No, I never remember passwords. I try to use the same ones and even then I don't remember them. This is the difference between doing it on your computer and the computer here in the conference room. So you have to write down the cheat sheet that you have. I know. Okay. It's just not something you do for security. Don't write down passwords. No, right. This case. Apparently I needed to write down my password. We'll make a new account for Krista. Krista, you can help us out here now. It's no wonder she's going to remember that one. Okay. So once you're in, pretty easy. They don't ask for too much information up front. You can personalize your account. You can ask them to send you email updates. You don't have to do that. Once you are through into your state submission form, it gives you that overview like we saw before about your specific state. And then it's going to ask you for your information. Okay. The most important thing is these, this first address line is for your specific school or library. It's not your personal information. So it's wherever you want to be contacted. When Lorraine contacts you, if you want, this is that information. So it would be the Nebraska library commission and our address. Lincoln. If I was the one doing this for my students or. If it's a parent doing it for their homeschooler, it would obviously be their personal information, but you can just go through and fill out all this normal information. We'll do that. Oh my gosh, I really can't type on this thing. That just makes it seem more realistic. We all have moments. It does. So that's your first step. The next form it's going to bring you to is. This is the actual submission process. Now you're going to choose if you are having the students do them, do this themselves. You have them all log into this account and then they submit their own letters. That's definitely an option. If you have them send you their files and then you do it. You choose whichever option is most appropriate for you. So if you're a teacher or librarian, it's going to give you this information. Now the nice thing about doing this all under one account is that. All the students will have the same contact information for the school. You won't have to fill that in every time. So you would put in the student's name, which in this case it's going to be Krista. You're there submitting students. So this isn't your name. This is the student that you're actually submitting for, or if the students submitting for themselves. Sarah. That's my sister. We'll take it. Yes. So pretend this is my sister doing this. Yep. And then you pick the age. This is important because this is an online submission. Anyone that is under the age of 13 as of November 1st this year has to have a signed consent form from their parents. So if I click on anybody younger than 13, it comes up with this warning for me. And it pops up the actual form that you have to use. That I can click on and I can download. They have tried to make this as easy as possible to get around these rules they have for submitting online. So it's a fillable form. You can just fill out in. If you have this PDF, you can fill it out online and print it and then have the signature. You can scan it back in to upload it. You can. They even said you can do something as simple as taking a photograph of it with a smart phone. If you don't have a scanner. Accessible. If you're not under 13. You don't have to. It just takes it away. Yes. I'm going to ask you to give us the. Red asterisks. Tell us which are the required information. And then we can put in. A grand were in. What level of competition they're going to be in. And then it does ask you for what type of work. You are writing your letter about. Let's see. We'll do Harry Potter. Harry Potter teacher recently. Hermione Granger quote says. When in doubt, go to the library. Oh, we love that girl. And then it gives you two different ways to submit your file. You can either upload a file. And when you choose that it. Document you've already written. Yep. I can do several different file types. Yes. And then you have a weird format. You might have saved it into. Definitely. Now they are very clear. If it includes the student's address or contact information. As a header or anything on the letter. It will. Include those words in the word count. So they suggest that you don't have that. Since you're already filling out that information above. That you just leave that off your letter. So the document itself. You can also type the letter directly into this platform. So you can just start. Like we said. I'm just Harry Potter. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. You can also type the letter directly into this platform. So you can just start. Like we said. I'm just Harry Potter. Yeah. Whatever. There we go. So it will count your words for you. Once again. Everything you type in here is included in that word count. So it has to be between 400 and 800 words. And then I know in the past. They've decorated the. Envelopes. Sent in drawings with their letters. Anything that. They want to include can still be included. And they've given you a way to do that as well. Please also note right on there. It says, please note. That. These. Materials will not be considered. During the contest judging process. So as somebody that's been at that stage. If it makes you feel better when you're doing it. That's fine. That's not going to be. And you like it. That's great. But yeah, it's not part of the process. I can assure you that in all these years, those letters, it was about the words written down. Yes. It's not required. But if it's part of the tradition that you've already built for your program. They just want to make sure you have a way to share that with them as well. Right. Yeah. And then a place for you to upload. Even more files. Different types of files. They have a terms of use. Which. We are all familiar with when doing online forms, but they give it to you very clearly and you can read through it. And it's actually not as long as you might think. That's kind of short. Yeah. Some that I've seen, but it's there for you. If that's something you're worried about. You do have to click that, that you have read it or that you agree to it. If you read that. And then you, if you're not. If you're typing your letter in and you're not done with it, you can save it as you like. If you're typing your letter in and you're not done with it, you can save it as a draft or you can just click submit. I see it says auto-save too. So as you're going, does it say too if, like when did it last save? Because it has that auto-save. See, I don't know. Because it doesn't indicate that, does it? No. Where does my drafts take me? Hey. Save drafts. Oh, yep. So you do have a saved draft. I'd say double click it anyway. It says double click it anyway just to make sure that it saves. Since it's there, it's a button. Yeah. It's saving is never a bad option. But then you can submit your work if you're ready with it. I don't check the box for the terms. There we go. Common. So it tells you it happened. And then they, so you don't have to be afraid. You know, if your letter is successfully submitted, it tells you it has been. Now, just like, and then it takes you back to this page so you can submit another letter if you'd like to. You do have a way to see what letters you've submitted. You can come to your user account up here at the top and look at your submissions. And we see that Sarah Burns has submitted this. It's been received. You can, if you accidentally hit that submit button and you weren't done yet, you can request to edit your submission before the deadline. But you have, you can't just go in and edit a submitted a letter. You have to request that ability. But as long as it's inside the submission time before the deadline, you can always go back and change it. I see it has withdrawn too. So you can decide never mind. I want. I don't want. If someone changes their mind, that's an option they give you. And I have no saved drafts. So it just gives you, if you're a teacher or librarian and you have 20 submission letters, you can go in and make sure you have them all in there. So you don't miss one. Now, before we go off the stage at the bottom, it says there's an app. That's something new to me, but it does say new. So track your submissions and find new opportunities. You're most wise, check out the submitable app. So you can do this on your phone. That obviously would not be something you'd want to actually type in a letter on your phone. Don't do that. But afterwards, if you just need to quickly check something, maybe that's a way to quickly write that you could go in and see the day before the deadline. And it's a weekend. Yeah. Have all my students gone in and submitted their letters. So I'm thinking to check out. They've, like I said, they've tried to make this as easy as possible for you guys since this is a new process. Yes. If you are a teacher and you've used submitable before this will all be something you're familiar with. If it's not, I hope just being able to walk through this has helped. And I'll just let you know, I'm logged into my email here on this laptop. I use this to track questions and things you have. And it did send me an email because Tess had set up the account for me. Letters about literature submission received burns. So I got an email to my email account, letting me know that this one had been sent in. Yes. This is on the test side too. So this is real. Yes. This is all just practicing. But this is the process it would go through. And we were just using the real. Exactly. Live link. Now they have, this is the video tutorial that they showed on the state submission form when we did the actual Nebraska submission. It is about eight minutes. It's really fast and easy. And they walk you through what we just did again. So if you need a refresher or you would like to have your students watch this and have them submit them themselves. This is a great resource. And it will be very helpful. And as far as other resources for writing the letters for submitting them, the library of Congress has several videos about the actual letters about literature process that when you go to it, just what is a letter and introduction to the actual program. So lots of good resources here on the library of Congress website. We've also got several resources on the Nebraska center for the book. Letters about literature page. Right here, you can see the Nebraska submission platform. It's right there at the very top for you. As well as the official rules. So we will have a link to last year's letters about literature webinar, which talks about the actual contest. We'll have a link after this to the reported session of this webinar. We've got links for past winners. There's a reflective writing assessment that Catherine Gurley from the national letters about literature program put out a couple years ago. And it's very helpful as well. So this is a great place to come if you have questions as well. You can also follow the Nebraska center for the book on Facebook. We will put updates about the contest about the winners in April. So that's another great place you can, you know, message the Nebraska library commission and ask questions there. And who makes all this possible for Nebraska? We have several sponsors. We mentioned the Nebraska center for the book and the Nebraska library commission. Loring mentioned chapters bookstore. And we also have a lot of help from communities, Nebraska and huge and binary. So they help with prizes. They help with grant money for the clinics. So a lot of good information. And then this is my, my contact information. If you have questions about the submittable platform, if you have questions about the process in general, you can always contact me by email or by phone. If you have any questions right now, go ahead and in your go-to webinar interface, there's a question section. Some people have already been asked to be other stuff. Oh, wonderful. This isn't really. Oh, it's okay. But if you do have questions about literature, go ahead and take a question into there. And Tessa or Lorraine or Christy can answer your questions now. So did we, the form opened up November 1st. So last week and the deadline is December 14. Okay. And that really is a deadline. It's not just like a random number. Yeah. That one. There isn't. Yes. And if you're mailing physical letters in, they need to come in well before that because we have to submit them before that December 14. They have to enter those letters. Yeah. So it's good to know. Yeah. It's not a postmark date. It's a, we need them in hand because then we go in. Right. I mean, you guys go into the online form and get that information into there by the end of the day. That Friday. Yes. So that is a very important note. And those deadlines are national. The. Right. The National Center for the book from the Library of Congress. Gave the state centers or state affiliates. Like two choices for what those deadlines would be. So it is consistent across the country. Depending on how you facilitate the program in your state. Now, and we need that deadline in order to be. Standing in April with the governor. Having him shake his hands with these kids. Yeah. One of those pictures earlier in the slide. Yeah. So that knows that's what needs, that's what needs to happen. And counting backwards. We needed to have this happen in December. So that. Cause that, that's again, that's a national deadline. So then by the time things come back to us, it's well into January and then our judges need February and. Then the governor's office, those people need all March. So that's a question I have actually the judging, the judges are people here in Nebraska. That's correct. So you're submitting these letters to. DC will say, but then they filter them back to you. Yeah. Or. Yeah. The letters. Once they go national, and they're sent back to the state coordinators. And we have state judges who are. Wonderful, credible people who really take this seriously and spend the time. We have combined there's supposed to be kind of like three rounds. The first one is just making sure the letters fit the criteria. And we let people somewhere else take care of that for us. But then Nebraska starting at the second round. We've combined second and third with. Two judges so that they are choosing from that point, going through and figuring out who are the winners. And there, there is a judges group about what does it take to be a winner that, again, that they have used over the years in terms of. How many judges do we do it? So I know. For other like awards and things, we have different judges for different types of books. These are, I mean, are there, is it just a group of judges that look at every all of them or split up by judges for each, each one that are different judges. So the people who are doing fourth to sixth grade are much more familiar with that age group. And the people who are doing the high school where we've had people there ordinarily that have academic credentials that where they, they are looking at people. That are they're expecting to see in their classes. And so we've had English professors and people that, that have that criteria and are very excited about these letters in terms of, of looking at people who are, are, are leaving high school and going on. How, how are they writing? Yeah. Exactly. So I was amazed when I think that we would have chosen the same ones. I chose, we've always had two judges and that's so you'd have more than one opinion. And I've also always said to them, now what I'm holding back as a state administrator is if you can't decide, I will make, I will break the time. I have never done that yet. Just, just when I mentioned that, they immediately, that's just inspires them. They're going to figure this out for themselves. They're not going to let me break the time. We do have one question that came in somewhat so typically how many Nebraska entries are received? Last year, we had like 420 I think statewide. We don't see that many come back because some of them, sadly enough, right, book reports, you know, write fan letters. So, So over 400 are submitted. And then in, at the, like our Congress, but they decided which ones met the basic criteria. That's what correctly written. And those are then sent back. We just let them, now some states get everything back, but right from the start that, because it used to all be that they, they did a value issue for other people. And we thought, why not let them sort that out? They know what this contest is. And that means that what we get back are the letters that actually meet the criteria. And then our judges are focused on that criteria. The first year that we went to that system, though I have to say is we used to have them, they'd already gone through two rounds. And the first year, the seventh and eighth graders went from us receiving 30 letters back to receiving over 90. And that year I did add another judge and we went through a two cycle process in order to get that, that many letters read in that amount of time. How many came back to us last year? I didn't bring my individual amounts, but it sadly enough you'd think after that many and knowing what the criteria is that we'd get, you know, hundreds and hundreds of letters. And fortunately, ordinarily I would say it's probably about a hundred letters that come back total and counting up all of the, each one of the categories. You can say 20 to 30 and there's three categories to give you some idea. So obviously sad to say some people are not really, that's partly I think too the idea of the workshops is we want these people to be successful. We want those students letters to have a chance to really be judged and not just have them, and maybe for the teacher they were happy having them write a fan letter or happy with them and doing this is more of a book report or something else. Perhaps that was something that met their criteria, but it doesn't move them into the final round of evaluation of those letters. So we have another follow up question and some more specific advice. Any advice when the student is passionately in love with a fairly common title like Harry Potter, what would you use? How do you help move the student to make significant observations about such a popular title? Oh, that's a great question. I mean, they do have to make it personal to them. Absolutely, it has to be personal. We had a winner last year, I can't remember if she was a winner or a runner up, but she wrote about Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, which is obviously a very... I mean, it won the... Everybody loves that book and everybody reads that book in school, I think, but that was still a winning letter. And do we have... I'm not sure if we have that last year's letters available online. I believe we do. I made sure you have access to them, so if you do, it's on you, Tessa. Let's see. I think down here on our Letters About Literature site, we have past winners. And I do, yes. We have her letter on here. We have past winners for Nebraska on here and who their author was. So we've got Suzanne Consper. The Hunger Games. The Herman Melville was a really fun one last year. It was one of his more obscure... Really obscure short story. But I mean, excellent. And so you can see that Harper Lee letter and see what she did differently. She was actually named after Harper Lee. It was her mother's favorite book, so she immediately had a personal connection to that author. But that wouldn't have been enough. Right, that wasn't enough. Lauren, do you have any more specific ways for them to... I was going to say basically variations on that. Try to get that child from just that fan enthusiasm to reach down deep. Why? What is so special about this? What in your experience ties to that book that made you think that is about me? That author is writing this book right to me. And that is hard. Students often aren't going to ask anything like this. A person that's shy or just not very contemplative may have quite a challenge. I think it's hard even as an adult. I mean, I read a lot of books, and some of them affect me. Some of them, it was just fun to read the story. And I enjoyed the entertainment of it, but there was no deep connection. And that's okay. And if you've read a book and not had that deep connection, you say to the kid, okay, yeah, you're a fan of Harry Potter. You enjoy him. And then you ask the question to say, and you want to write about it because you're a fan, but did it deeply affect you or change something about something that you think or make you do something different in your life? And if it didn't, that's okay. Enjoying the book for just enjoyment purposes is fine. Maybe you need to find another title. Right. Or maybe you could find, you know, if they list out a few specific things that, like the hatchet example, you know, the hunting was a very specific theme for him. Yes. And if you were to look at the hatchet, it hadn't been the book that had moved him, but the hunting part had connected. Maybe find some other titles, you know, the reader advisor sort of idea of a library and where you can find other titles that have that same theme that might connect in a more substantial way. Yeah. And another way of doing it too, if you really, really want to write about Harry Potter, and they just, because they're just a fan, tell them aren't you need to think about it in a different way and maybe start with, something that sounds like your life or something that you, and I identify with sometimes, especially if the younger kids could be harder, but just say, did anything in there that you recognized that sounds like something that's happened to you in your life or could happen to you or is something that you and your friends do, there you go, that's your thing. Now, talk about that. They might not even realize that it was something that affected them. They just love the book so much, and sometimes until they think about it too, did you realize that they're just like you and your friends who do these things? Oh my gosh, there you go. I was going to say the other thing is sometimes where this person is going to go, maybe something that's really so deeply personal that they aren't ready to write about it or feel they have permission to write about it. I was thinking about one letter that came in one year, and the judge called me and said, is the teacher aware I don't know how they thought I got this letter is the teacher aware of this situation because they actually felt like some kind of intervention was necessary in terms of what the child was telling us. Now, I knew that the teacher was very aware, but that child had been willing to spill out on a page, a situation that really was serious enough that other adults needed to be involved in it. And they couldn't voice just talking to somebody to be able to write about it. So, All right, so I hope that's helpful when you're talking to your kids about doing this. We're just a little after 11 a.m. here our show is going to go for an hour. Anybody have any last minute questions they want to ask of Tesla or Chris Christie or any type them in and we'll get them answered for you right now. You can always reach out to them. Their contact information is out there and they're getting less words that you guys want to say. I just point you back to that comment which is on the header of this. How did an author's work change your view of the world or yourself? All right, the way you see if any of you is typing anything in you can't see if you're typing. You've got to wait until you actually hit enter. The way that works. But that's fine. I think we'll wrap it up then today and as we saw here and your slides you had yours at the very end. I did something. Here we go. Send all the questions to Tesla. Sure, if you want to I guess. It's something that she needs help answering. I'm the main contact so if it's a question that I can't answer, I'll reach out to Lauren or Christine or someone else that can get that question answered for you. But yep, I'm your first place to ask questions. All right, great. Thank you very much everyone. Go back out to there we go. So that will wrap it up for today's show. We are recording and I will show you here. This is a Nebraska Library Commission website and you can search on here for Encompass Live or you can even just use your search engine of choice. So far Encompass Live is the only thing called that on the internet. Yay, nobody else used this name. We haven't copyrighted it, but please don't. So you'll find us here at where we've got our upcoming shows listed but right underneath them is the link to our archives. So if you click there you will see our recordings go up here. Today's show will be available probably as long as everything cooperates by the end of the day today. And everyone who attended today and who registered will get an email from me letting you know. And we post it up to our various social media, our Facebook, Twitter and we have mailing lists here within the state. The archive will be here. We'll have a link. This is last week's link to the recording and we'll have the slides that Tessa put together as well. So you'll have both of those there as well. The recording is posted to the Nebraska Library Commission's YouTube channel so you can go and watch it there. And the presentations we posted onto our slide share account online. Most recent ones are first or at the top of the list here. Encompass Live 2018 is, you were talking about how long something's been around. 2018 is the 10th year of Encompass Live. So we've been around for a while. And we have all of our archives shows here. If you scroll to the bottom and I'll do that quickly here. Close your eyes if you don't get sick. We do have our very first shows here going back to January 2009. So do be aware when you're going through our archives that you will find some old information in here. You'll find some shows about things that were previously done, like last year's Literature would have been good for, you know, about the program, but as far as the submission, it's different. So be aware of what you're watching when you go through our archives. Everything has a date, so you can find out. You'll know when it was originally broadcast. And you can use that information when you're watching it to know maybe that product doesn't exist anymore. Maybe that service has changed. Maybe the information is different, but we're librarians. We archive things. That's what we do. So everything will be here and keep posted and go back to the top where we do have a search. You can search all our entire archives. The entire archives are just the most recent year and we just want recent information about anything. And it will search in the description of the session, the presenters' names so you can search our archives since they are so big then. So that is where our archive session will be. As I mentioned, we do have a Facebook page and Compass Live is on Facebook. If you are a big Facebook user, please pop over there and give us a like. You'll get notified of when things are coming up. Here's our reminder to log in today's show. When our recordings are available, I post on here. Anything in Compass Live related, so if you do like to keep up with things using Facebook, do like us over there. Other than that, I hope you'll join us for next week's show. We're talking about reading. Reading reflections. What kids are reading now? This will be a discussion about new children's books that have come up in the last year. Sally Snyder, who is our coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services here at the Library Commission will be with you, along with Librarian Dana Fontaine from Fremont High School and Carla Wendeland, who is the co-founder of the Golden Soar Award program. That's for children's books where the kids vote on new books. We're going to talk about new titles from the last year or so for children. So if you're looking for some new books for your library or expand your collections, definitely check out that section. She has a companion show, I suppose I'd say, for teens. That's coming up December 5th. It's the same idea, but just specifically for the older kids, so for teen novels. So if you want to see the kids, the younger kids next week's and the teens, then begin December. So, on that, thank you very much for attending. Sign up for any of our upcoming shows and hope we will see you next time on Encompass Live. Bye-bye.