Today, Education Secretary Arne Duncan plans to announce a leaner and more simplified FAFSA form that should at least bring a little relief to over 15 million families with college-bound students who apply every year. Changes in the form will be in place in time for the start of the 2010-2011 school year. The Library has financial aid books to help navigate through the student loan application process and Finding the Money is one of the newest.

We're looking for some special people to become part of the library catalog. Are you a religious leader in the Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Jewish faiths? Are you a vegetarian, a policeman, an atheist, a gay/lesbian person, a U.S. military veteran, a rock recording artist, a published author or any other interesting or unusual person? If so, we want you.

The Canton Public Library is starting a Living Books program where patrons can check out "living books" (that would be YOU) for 30 minutes of face-to-face, one-on-one conversation. These interviews are intended to answer questions for the curious, satisfy special interests and beliefs and learn from others' experiences. With dialogue comes understanding - with understanding comes tolerance.

A lot of people think that it's important or positive for a child to read "above grade level", but does it really matter? Is it even good for a child to read books that were intended for an older audience? Many literacy experts believe that it doesn't matter, and that it isn't necessarily good - a child should read books that make for a pleasurable, positive reading experience.

Have you ever heard of government grants? This is government money that, for qualified individuals, does not have to be repaid.  There are grants for women, minorities, business, housing, college, and private reasons. You could get $20,000.00 to fix your house, $50,000.00 to start up a business, another grant to pay your tuition and another to help pay your bills.

Teach for America, the non-profit group who recruits outstanding recent college graduates to teach for 2 years in urban and rural schools, recently received over 35,000 applications and will place 4,100 mostly in Southern states. Wendy Kopp, the group's founder and chief executive officer, said the surge in applicants is unprecedented and the bad economy is the cause. The Corp began its existence in 1990 and began as an undergraduate thesis topic.

Looking for something fun and educational to do during the summer break? Check out Summer-Daycamps.com, a website where you can search for summer day camps by area code. On Kidscamps.com you can search for day camps and away camps. Just imagine, you could spend the summer designing a video game, composing a song, caring for farm animals, painting, collecting worms or becoming a dramatic actress in a theater camp. Summer is bound to be fun with these possibilities!

Need information about local options for college? The Canton Public Library is hosting a College Night Open House on June 1, from 7-8:30 p.m. Come by and get information from 17 local colleges, including community colleges and schools with online and alternative education programs. Learn about financial aid, admissions, degree programs and transfer credits. It’s not too late to make plans for the fall semester!

President Obama has announced the recipient for this year's National Teacher of the Year award at a special ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. A former NYPD retired captain, Anthony J. Mullen, has been working for the past seven years as a teacher at an at-risk and special needs alternative high school in Greenwich, Conn. Born in the Bronx and served the NYPD for 20 years, Mr.

The popular TRACES traveling buseum makes a return trip to CPL on May 22 from 9 a.m. to noon with the story of 372,000 German POWs held in U.S. Army-operated work camps in the Midwest during World War II. Learn how these men worked alongside U.S. citizen German immigrants to build roads, harvest crops and roof barns. Some POWs returned to the Midwest after the war to live.

17-year old Canton High School senior, Willa Chen, achieved perfect scores on not 1, not 2 but 3 college success predictor tests. It is so rare to ace all three exams, the ACT, SAT and PSAT, that the non-profit organization, College Board, doesn't keep track of those statistics. Willa, who has a 4.33 GPA, has been accepted at UM and MIT, but plans to attend Princeton in the fall to study applied math or computers. Props to you, Willa!

The weather is getting warmer and children are eager to play outside.  Their curiosity often leads them to investigate all the little critters crawling about, and sometimes a bug or two might even make its way home with them.  Then what do you do?  The Animal Planet Pet Care series has a book Bugs as Pets which tells you how to house and properly care for your new "pet". 

If you are considering a new addition to your family, the library is a great place to start. We have many books available to help you select a pet for your family. The Animal Planet Pet Care series has books on dogs, cats, hamsters, birds, fish and even bugs as pets!

On Monday, April 20th, the nation marks the 10th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Ten years ago teenagers and fellow students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, walked into their high school killing 13 people and wounding 23 others before turning their guns on themselves. It is the 4th deadliest school shooting in U. S. history and sparked a fierce debate on gun control laws and school violence.

Have you ever noticed the current state of the world and wondered...WHY?  Visit Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonist Index for a different view of today's events.

National Poetry Month is a celebration of poetry first introduced in 1996 by the "Academy of American Poets", as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. It is celebrated every April in the United States and (since 1999) in Canada as well. Since 2000 Great Britian has celebrated a National Poetry Month each October. (Wikipedia)

[Update: YouTube released YouTube EDU this week]
While YouTube is great for entertaining videos, you have to dig pretty deep to find educational stuff (or know what you're looking for). Below is a short list of educational video sites:

Academic Earth - Selected lectures from top professors at Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. Subjects range from Astronomy to Religion.

Donalyn Miller, Teacher Magazine blogger and author, couldn't find a book that demonstrated her love for reading to her students so she decided to write one herself. It's a shame we aren't born with the desire to love books. We have to discover the world of books on our own, or from parents and teachers. Many of us have cherished childhood memories of visiting the library and happily leaving with an armful of books.