Applications for Citizens-Save-Libraries grants due April 15

For Immediate Release
Tue, 04/09/2013

Contact:

Jillian Kalonick

Marketing / Public Relations

United for Libraries (United)

800-545-2433 ext.2160

jkalonick@ala.org

PHILADELPHIA - Applications for the Citizens-Save-Libraries grants from United for Libraries, made possible by a grant from the Neal-Schuman Foundation, are due April 15, 2013.

The 20 grants will support advocacy at the local level for libraries with troubled budgets by sending expert advocates to library sites over the next two years. The expert advocates will help friends of the library groups, library directors and trustees develop individual blueprints for advocacy campaigns to restore, increase or save threatened library budgets.

The first 10 libraries will be selected in 2013, and the second 10 will be selected in 2014. Among the criteria to apply is a willingness to “pay it forward” by sharing what is learned with others in their states through presentations at local conferences, articles written for the state library association journal and a willingness to answer questions and support other advocacy campaigns via digital media and Skype.

Grant winners will receive a power guide, which will be available to any library at www.ala.org/united, that will lay out a step-by-step blueprint for libraries to follow in generating advocacy campaigns.

To apply for the grants, visit www.ala.org/united/grants_awards/neal-schuman.

The Neal-Schuman Foundation, established in 2000 by Neal-Schuman Publishers' founders Patricia Glass Schuman and John Vincent Neal, strives to aid and promote charitable research and education for the improvement of libraries. An active American Library Association member and past president (1991-92), Schuman founded the Library Advocacy Now program and co-founded the Library Champions program.

United for Libraries: The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations, is a division of the American Library Association that supports citizens who govern, promote, advocate, and fundraise for libraries. United for Libraries brings together library Trustees, advocates, friends, and foundations into a partnership that creates a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century. For more information or to join United for Libraries, visit the United for Libraries website or contact Jillian Kalonick at (312) 280-2161 or jkalonick@ala.org.

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