the whole article is rather lengthy--but here's the 'super hero' part. so, Thrift, are you saying Lash doesn't use the public library! for shame! we're great!
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Capt. Info to the rescue!
Comic characters rush to pull in more readers
By Wayne Risher
January 25, 2005
Library chief Catherine Nathan is banking on cartoon power to keep 9- and 10-year-olds interested in books and the buildings that stockpile them.
A superheroes-themed marketing campaign will be one of the first moves made by First Regional Library's first new director in 33 years.
"Plug into the Power of Your Public Library," is the slogan for a campaign featuring caped crusaders Captain Info, his wife, Storyteller, their son, Dewey, and daughter, Page.
Dewey is a reference to the Dewey Decimal System of library book classification. Young people who help shelve books at the library are called pages.
"What we're going to try to do is really capture the attention of our fourth- and fifth-graders," Nathan said. Libraries tend to lose students, particularly boys, as they move into middle school.
"I want both boys and girls and moms and dads," Nathan said.
She said the system's 15-year-old mascot, Reggie the Reading Raccoon, has nothing to worry about. He'll still make public appearances, while Captain Info and family probably will be confined to T-shirts, printed materials and the library's Web site at
www.first.lib.ms.us. Captain Info's debut is planned for National Library Week, April 10-16. The new campaign is on a long list of changes planned by Nathan as she settles in as successor to longtime director Jim Anderson.