2015 ALA Diversity & Outreach Fair to feature library services to people experiencing poverty and homelessness, diversity in action ideas

For Immediate Release
Wed, 06/24/2015

Contact:

John L. Amundsen

Program Officer, Outreach and Communications

ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services

(312) 280-2140

jamundsen@ala.org

CHICAGO — The ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services has selected 23 presentations for the 2015 Diversity and Outreach Fair, to be held from 3 p.m. – 5 p .m. on Saturday, June 27 in the Special Events area in Exhibits Hall at the Moscone Convention Center during ALA’s Annual Conference in San Francisco.  

The selected presentations will highlight innovative and successful library outreach initiatives and programs during a poster session open to all ALA attendees at Annual Conference. The theme of this year’s fair will be library services to people experiencing poverty and homelessness.

Presentations at the fair will also highlight library services to underserved or underrepresented communities, including people with disabilities; people of color; English-language learners; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people; new Americans, new and non-readers; older adults; people living in rural areas; incarcerated people and ex-offenders; and mobile library services and bookmobiles.

The 2015 Diversity & Outreach Fair presentations will include:

ALA Committee on Literacy, “The American Dream Starts @ your library”

ALA Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table, “GLBTRT”

ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, “Censored Diversity”

ALA, “Rebranding Librarianship – Building a Knowledge Alliance”

ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table, Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday and Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Forces, "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Poverty"

ALA Spectrum Scholarship Program

Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, “APALA: 35 Years of Representing and Serving APA Communities”

Brooklyn Public Library, “Growing Outreach:  Serving People Where they Are”

Chinese American Librarians Association, “CALA: Serving Diverse Populations”

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee, “The Coretta Scott King Book Awards”

Colorado State Library, “Supporting Parents in Early Literacy through Libraries: Partnerships and Best Practices Nurture Young Families”

Filipino American Library, “Filipino American Library in Transition”

Global Alliance for Africa, “Outreach and Community Libraries in Urban Kenya and Rural Tanzania”

Mastics Moriches Shirley Community Library, “Summer Food Service at the Library – Feed your Imagination”

Oakland Public Library, “Share the Love: Giveaway Books as Outreach Tools”

Queens Library, “Improving Immigrants’ Health: Innovative Programs in the Nation’s Most Diverse County”

San Francisco Public Library, “Bookmobiles Bring It: Expanding Library Services Beyond Library Walls”

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health Resource Center, “Free Online Resources for Minority Populations”

University of North Carolina Greensboro, “The Library as an Incubator of Anti-Discrimination and Multicultural Engagement”

University of Northern Iowa Rod Library, “Embrace Diversity, Let’s Travel the World Together in Our Library”

University of Tennessee, “’Out’reach to LGBTQ Students on Campus”

University of Tennessee-Knoxville School of Information Sciences and the Center for Literacy, Education, and Employment, “Public Libraries and LGBTQ Youth Experiencing Homelessness: An IMLS Project"

Western Washington University Libraries, “Cats, Dogs, and More? Service Animals in the Library and How One Library Developed Best Practices”

Generously sponsored by DEMCO, the ALA Diversity and Outreach Fair is an opportunity for libraries and member groups to share their successful diversity and outreach initiatives with ALA Annual Conference attendees, celebrate diversity in America’s libraries and exhibit “diversity in action” ideas.

In conjunction with the 2015 Fair's theme of Library Services for People Experiencing Poverty and Homelessness, the Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table will be coordinating a book donation drive benefiting organizations in the Bay Area, including Compass Family Shelter, the Providence Foundation of San Francisco, the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, YEAH! (Youth Engagement, Advocacy, and Housing), and the Homeless Prenatal Program.

Donations will be accepted in specially-marked bins from June 26-29 throughout the conference campus, including in the street-level lobbies of the North and South buildings at Moscone Center, the Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services table in the ALA Office Area, and the DEMCO booth located at booth #3201. In addition, a special collection will take place at the Diversity and Outreach Fair.  

To learn more about the Diversity and Outreach Fair, please visit www.ala.org/divfair.  

For over 100 years DEMCO (www.demco.com) has supported the valuable work of librarians—taking pride in providing the best service possible. DEMCO’s mission is to continue to anticipate future needs, to supply products and services that support the activities of library professionals and improve library environments by making them more attractive and user-friendly. The people of DEMCO demonstrate their continuing commitment to library professionals through their support of the Library Champions Program and participation at ALA’s conferences.