Applications for The Sixties film discussion series available

Contact: Laura Hayes


312-280-5055

lhayes@ala.org



For Immediate Release


January 22, 2003

Applications for The Sixties film discussion series available

National Video Resources (NVR) and the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office are now accepting grant applications from libraries wishing to host
The Sixties: America's Decade of Crisis and Change. This new six-week library program features scholar-led lectures, documentary film screenings, and readings and discussions on a period of extraordinary change and social conflict in American history. Twenty-five libraries will be selected to serve as pilot sites for
The Sixties project. Libraries interested in applying for the pilot site opportunity can download an application at
www.ala.org/publicprograms/sixties/.
Applications must be received by the ALA Public Programs Office by March 28, 2003.

Topics covered in
The Sixties series include the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and Kennedy's reform agenda, the civil rights movement, America's involvement in Vietnam and the anti-war movement, the "counterculture," and rage and reaction in 1968. Professors John Morton Blum, Sterling professor emeritus of history at Yale University, and Leon Litwick, Morrison professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, will serve as lead scholars for
The Sixties project.
The Sixties is supported by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

Each library selected will receive a full set of videocassettes to use in the series and to keep as a permanent part of their collection; $1,000 to pay honoraria for local scholars to present the series at the local library; the opportunity to send a team of two people - a library staff member and local scholar - to a one and half day national training seminar November 7 and 8, 2003, in Oakland, Calif.; support print materials, including a programmer's manual, publicity materials, and downloadable handouts for participants; and national publicity for the series as well as a list of potential local co-sponsors. Libraries of all types are encouraged to apply. The discussion series must be open to a public audience.

The Sixties builds on three earlier programs developed by NVR in partnership with the ALA Public Programs Office and funded by the NEH. These programs offer public library programmers and academics a new model for public discussion through the following series:
From Rosie to Roosevelt: A Film History of Americans in WWII;
Post War Years, Cold War Fears: American Culture and Politics, 1946-60; and
Presidents, Politics, and Power: American Presidents Who Shaped the 20th Century. For more information on these series, please visit
www.nvr.org.

The mission of the ALA Public Programs Office is to foster cultural programming as an integral part of library service in all types of libraries. Established in 1990, the office helps thousands of libraries nationwide develop and host programs that encourage dialogue among community members and works to establish libraries as cultural centers in their communities.

National Video Resources (NVR) is a not-for-profit organization established in 1990 by the Rockefeller Foundation. NVR's goal is to assist in increasing the public's awareness of and access to independently produced media & film and video as well as motion media delivered through the new digital technologies.