Celebrate @ your libraryTM
Contact: Megan Humphrey
312-280-4020
mhumphrey@ala.org
For Immediate Release
December 19, 2002
Celebrate @ your library™
Get ready for National Library Week 2003 with innovative Graphics products and online tools
It's not too early to be thinking about National Library Week 2003 (April 6-12) - a time to celebrate all the terrific resources libraries have to offer to their schools, campuses and communities, as well as an opportunity to showcase the librarians who bring them to life. In 2003, National Library Week will be promoted using @ your library™, the brand for The Campaign for America's Libraries, ALA's multi-year public effort to speak loudly and clearly about the value of libraries and librarians in the 21st century.
Libraries are encouraged to use National Library Week to promote librarianship and recruitment to the profession, one of the key goals of the @ your library campaign.
Connected to this goal, for the first time, the Grolier National Library Week Grant is designed to promote librarianship and the role librarians play in the 21st century. The grant, sponsored by Scholastic Library Publishing and administered by ALA's Public Awareness Committee, is awarded annually to a single library for the most innovative promotion during National Library Week. ALA received a record 82 applications for this year's grant, a strong indication that the focus on librarianship resonates with the library community. The winner will be announced at or immediately after the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia.
"National Library Week is the perfect time for the public to learn about what we do as librarians - and how well we do it - everyday," says ALA President Maurice J. (Mitch) Freedman. "Using the @ your library campaign to promote librarianship will be one of the keys to creating a greater awareness of the critical role we play in schools, on our campuses and in our communities. I hope library staff nationwide will take advantage of the campaign's resources to help tell their story during National Library Week and throughout the year."
Programming ideas to highlight the role of librarians, as well as libraries, are available on the @ your library Web site at
www.ala.org/@yourlibrary/nlw.cfm. The page also features publicity materials, including a proclamation, display ideas, PSAs and a sample press release, which are available for libraries to customize.
To make it even easier for libraries to engage in National Library Week activities, ALA Graphics has produced a new digital art CD with these programming and publicity materials, as well as graphics for customizing the National Library Week poster, bookmarks, library cards, stationary, buttons, Web banners and more. Artwork on the CD can be used beyond National Library Week, too, with the alternate headlines "Qué Pasa?" and "School Library Media Month." Traditional posters and bookmarks also are available, along with helium-quality balloons that carry the @ your library slogan. Libraries can order National Library Week merchandise through the ALA Online Store at
www.alastore.ala.org or by ordering from 1-866-SHOP-ALA.
The Campaign for America's Libraries launched during National Library Week 2001 in Washington, D.C., at an event with First Lady Laura Bush. Today, more than 10,000 libraries in all 50 states are being reached by the campaign. To learn more about how your library can get involved throughout the year, visit
www.ala.org/@yourlibrary. If your library is participating and would like to be considered for inclusion in presentations and workshops, please send a description of your efforts to atyourlibrary@ala.org. Hard copy samples of how your library is using the @ your library brand should be sent to: Megan Humphrey, ALA PIO, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611.
Founding partners of The Campaign for America's Libraries include Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Morningstar Foods Inc., maker of Hershey®'s Milk, Major League Baseball, Woman's Day Magazine, 3M Library Systems, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
