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Contact: Lainie Castle
PPO
312-280-5055
lcastle@ala.org
For Immediate Release,
November 6, 2007 

ALA Public Programs Office receives funding from The John E. Fetzer Institute, Inc.

CHICAGO – The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office (PPO) is pleased to announce its collaboration with the Fetzer Institute’s Campaign for Love & Forgiveness on “Let’s Talk About It,” ALA’s 25-year-old national reading and discussion program. Fetzer’s funding of $277,440 will support development of Let’s Talk About It: Love and Forgiveness, the latest themes in the program.

Thirty public libraries will eventually be selected to each receive $2,500 program grants each through a competitive application process. The application, full guidelines and selected book information for the Let’s Talk About It: Love & Forgiveness reading and discussion series will be made available on the ALA Public Programs Office website, www.ala.org/publicprograms, in January 2008.

“On behalf of the John E. Fetzer Institute, we are pleased to partner with the ALA Public Programs Office and the Let’s Talk About It series,” said Mickey Olivanti, program officer. “The Fetzer Institute strives to foster understanding about the power of love and forgiveness in our world, and so we are very excited to support the ALA to facilitate national discussions on love and forgiveness.”

“We are so happy that the ALA Public Programs Office has received such generous support from the Fetzer Institute for this important initiative,” said ALA President Loriene Roy. “Let’s Talk About It is a key national model that uses the lens of literature to encourage honest dialogue and thoughtful discussion in libraries and communities.”

Let’s Talk About It: Love and Forgiveness will follow the well-established ALA reading and discussion series format Let’s Talk About It, using classic and contemporary literature to explore stimulating and relevant themes. Project themes and books will be chosen by national project scholar Betty Sue Flowers, Ph.D., director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum and a distinguished literature professor and humanist.

The Fetzer Institute’s mission, to foster awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community, rests on its conviction that efforts to address the critical issues facing the world must go beyond political, social and economic strategies to their psychological and spiritual roots. The Institute works with global leaders, organizations and individuals to bring the power of love and forgiveness to the center of individual, community and organizational life. For information on the Fetzer Institute and its Campaign for Love & Forgiveness, visit www.fetzer.org.

Established in 1992, the ALA Public Programs Office has developed nationally recognized library programming models and initiatives, including Let's Talk About It, LIVE! @ your library®, traveling exhibitions, film discussion programs on humanities themes and more. Recently, it has established the Cultural Communities Fund, an endowment created to help all types of libraries across the country bring communities together through cultural programming (www.ala.org/ccf). More than 10,000 libraries and at least 10 million individuals have participated in library programming initiatives supported by the Public Programs Office. For more information, please visit www.ala.org/publicprograms.


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