From the mailbag

From MyTracs

The MyTRACS interns thank all of you who took time to email us. We hope you will continue to CONTACT US via email to talk with us about the project.

Here are excerpts from the emails we’ve received:

• Hello Interns, Everybody always remembers their first paying job. Your always welcome to come back. You all have been highly motivated and now have an understanding how valuable our Library is to the community and it is free. Sincerely and with Respect,
• It was great having the MyTracs class here in the History and Genealogy Department last Saturday. I hope everyone was able to at least find one piece of information about their family. It is so important for the present generation to learn what they can from their living relatives now and record it for future generations. Good luck to all of you!

• I've lectured at dozens of schools and libraries all across the country and met thousands of kids, but rarely have I encountered as bright and motivated a group such as yourselves. You truly listened to what I had to say, responded with intelligent questions, and then created excellent comics of your own that I hope will be the first of many. You do your instructors, your library and your city proud. (May 2008)
• I really like our interns' enthusiasm. I enjoyed the photographs and the Open House. Public Speaking is difficult for most people -but all the interns have excellent elocution skills. (May 2008)
• I would like you all to know how much I was gratified by my interaction with the MyTracs students. It is nice to have an audience that (a) is interested in what I have to say, and (b) pays attention. I congratulate all the MyTracs students for getting into the program and sticking with it. (April 2008)
• Hi…I am part of the yes teens group that is looking up the caracal cat and we checked out the mytracs web site…Our group thought that their information that they looked up was very helpful to our project and we would like to thank them for all their hard work. (April 2008)
• Some neat stuff. (April 2008)
• The wiki y'all did is AWESOME. I like the overall layout, use of indexing at the top of some pages, and the personal pages are great as sources of info and 'logs' of learning. The liberal use of photos is also great! You know the site is good because in 10 minutes of looking through it, I can tell you what your program has been up to in 2008 with a great level of detail. That is cool!" (April 2008)
• These students [MyTRACS interns] are learning time management, how to be a team player, writing skills, public speaking skills and so much more. They are also becoming life-long learners; as Jackie put it, "the more questions I ask the more interested I become." !…great job. Twenty teens are thriving and SLPL is looking very good! (April 2008)
• Last week; I could see from your web pages that you were good writers, but after reading about your visit to the Humanities department, I'm impressed with your research skills as well. You all picked great books to recommend. Your comments tell others about the thing we love about our department--the whole study of human thought and action means there's something for everybody. I hope you'll contact us with questions or if you want help finding some information about any of our topics in the future. Thanks for coming. (April 2008)
• Thank you very much to all of the Mytracs interns who visited the Business, Science & Technology Department at St. Louis Public Library. It was a pleasure to meet such an intelligent, vibrant group of young people. I hope you enjoyed and profited from your time in the Business, Science & Technology. Please do visit us again.!!! (March 2008)
• Greetings from the Fine Arts Department! Just wanted to drop a note to say we hope you are still enjoying and learning from this experience (visit to Fine Arts department at Central Library). We really enjoyed having you in our department that Saturday... it was more activity than we usually have on a Saturday morning, so it kept us on our toes! It was great showing you, however briefly, our collection and some of our resources…Good luck with the rest of the project, and remember you are always welcome to come back and browse or do research in this department. (February 2008)
• The MYTRACS teens are awesome! Wonderful wikis and they write very well. (February 2008)
• The students were very enthusiastic as well and what a group to come out on day like today [a very snowy day]. (December 2007)
• I enjoyed so much the opportunity to talk to the group on Saturday. They inspired me!!! Thank you and I hope we can work together again soon. (January 2008)
• I had a chance to look at the mytracs page and found it to be very informative. It is a very rewarding experience for (the interns at my school)…They expressed their satisfaction with this program and counted it as an opportunity. They were elated by the fact they are getting paid. I would like to thank you for opening up such a program to the students and allowing them to share their writing skills which in turn will allow them to sharpen those skills. (January 2008)
• I will check back in a week for the photos and think the My TRACS program is such a great one for the kids. I would have liked to be part of something like that when I was younger. (January 2008)