Saturday, August 8, 2009

Lunar Librarian


Margaret McGrath of Plymouth, Massachusetts; NASA certified Lunar Librarian, entrusted with precious lunar samples. (Wicked Local Plymouth)

The new exhibit at the Plymouth Public Library is so out of this world Margaret McGrath needed a special certification from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to handle it.

McGrath, the library’s youth services librarian, is now a certified lunar librarian as well.

And for the next two weeks she will carry a special NASA briefcase with her most everywhere she goes. The briefcase, kept locked overnight at police headquarters, contains half a dozen samples of moon rocks and six more fragments of meteorites.

NASA loans the samples to schools and libraries to promote the space program as part of the 40th anniversary of the moon landings. But first, a librarian must be trained in handling the specimens.

“They basically just want the public to see them, but they are considered national treasures so they want to limit the numbers that do handle them,” McGrath said.

The library is displaying the rocks in conjunction with its summer reading program, Starship Adventure.

Read the feature HERE.

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