Master Gardeners and children between the ages of 6-12 or even younger.

"Master Gardeners are ready to help you with your gardening problems. with splits, acid soil, or compost that won't smoke, we can give you guidance in solving your gardening dilemma. The Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association is a non-profit organization. It is comprised of trained Master Gardeners who must graduate from a demanding study program and volunteer many hours of working with the public to receive a Master Gardener Certificate. Our program originated at the Cooperative Extension Service of the State University System. In 1989, the program ended at UMass due to funding problems, and a dedicated group of graduates organized and continued the program independent of the University.

As a volunteer association, our primary goal is to share gardening knowledge and skills with the public." www.wmassmastergardeners.org

It advances my library objective by increasing circulation. Gardening is the most popular of hobbies and if the library can link gardeners with books, especially young children, it would keep them coming back for valuable information and the Master Gardener could faciliate the learning of these new gardeners.

What I did: I asked several Master Gardeners for help. George Kingston gave me the objectives of the Master Gardeners, which I have quoted above. Donna DuBour gave me the garden book link for cool gardening books and other great leads. Anne Gannon suggested Sciene Through Childrens Literature which is an awesome book. Ray Carrando connected me with Junior Master Gardener program in Texas. The URL is in the Pathfinder.

I checked all of the above books out. I also got suggestions for the Book Talk selections from the reference book A to Zoo. and from Children's Catalog - Eighteenth Edition.

The gardener or Master Gardeners could go to the web site just for ideas for gardenomg. I looked the suggested books up in the card catalog and then I went to Infotrac and put in the author's name. I was able to go through the reviews quickly and easily. I have given the directions on how to access Infotrac on the Pathfinder so anyone can look up reviews quickly.