For immediate release | December 29, 2011

New Día brochure, webinars offered in January

CHICAGO - For 2012, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) will be releasing a new El día de los niños/El día de los libros brochure for parents and will also host a new round of Día-related webinars.

The new Día brochure for parents and caregivers will be available after the ALA Midwinter Meeting. It will focus on reading to children every day and tips on using the library for parents. A downloadable PDF will be available from the new Día site. It will feature more than 100 titles, in 10 languages, for children ages birth to 12. The brochure is generously funded as part of the Everyone Reads @ your library grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

To help librarians plan for their 2012 celebration, ALSC has lined up three exciting Día-related webinars. Each webinar covers a different area of Día celebrations, including strategies, expansion and cooperation in the community:

Connecting with Many Children from Many Cultures: Cultural Literacy @your library (Tuesday, Feb. 21 @ 1 p.m. CT) examines culturally sensitive library programming options that help promote literacy. Participants in this one-hour webinar will return to their libraries with incredibly inclusive program ideas.
Día 201: Community Partnerships, Marketing, and Funding (Wednesday, January 11 @ 1 PM CT; Friday, March 2 @ 1 p.m. CT) explores hosting large scale Día events and strategies for community collaboration. Participants in this one-hour webinar will have the knowledge and experience to transform their Día celebration into a community-wide event.
Making Every Day a Día Day: Incorporating Día into Current Youth Programming (Thursday, April 12 @ 1 p.m. CT) discusses the opportunity to introduce multicultural literature and bilingual literacy into any and all programs and events at the library. This webinar gives librarians and support staff insight into transforming their library into a multicultural learning zone.
ALSC also invites libraries to register their Día events on the new website at http://dia.ala.org. Every registration becomes part of a national database of information for everyone interested in promoting Dia and sharing programming ideas represents an opportunity to increase funding for this multicultural celebration. You can also share your stories at Día’s Facebook page.
El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), also known as Día, is a celebration of linking all children to reading and cultures. The celebration culminates annually on April 30. The Día celebration was founded in 1996 by children’s book author Pat Mora, who proposed conceptually linking the existing Children’s Day with literacy. The founding partner of Día is REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Literacy and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking.
Dollar General is the leading discount retailer with more than 9,000 neighborhood stores in 35 states. Dollar General stores provide convenience and value to customers by offering consumable basic items such as goof, snacks, health and beauty aids and clearing supplies, as well as basic apparel, house wares and seasonal items at everyday low prices. The company has a longstanding tradition of supporting literacy and education. Since its inception in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $50 million in grants to nonprofit organizations, helping more than 2.8 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy, a general education diploma or English proficiency. To learn more about Dollar General, visit www.dollargeneral.com.
ALSC, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. With a network of more than 4,000 children’s and youth librarians, literature experts, publishers and educational faculty, ALSC is committed to creating a better future for children through libraries. To learn more about ALSC, visit ALSC’s Web site at www.ala.org/alsc.

Contact:

Dan Rude