Teen Read Week 2003 welcomes corporate sponsor Barnes & Noble Booksellers

Contact: Nichole Gilbert


YALSA Program Officer


312-280-4391

For Immediate Release


September12, 2003

Teen Read Week 2003 welcomes corporate sponsor Barnes & Noble Booksellers

The Young Adult Library Services Association
â (YALSA) is pleased to announce that for the fourth consecutive year Barnes & Noble Booksellers, parent company of Barnes & Noble and B. Dalton bookstores, is a corporate sponsor of Teen Read Week, October 19-25, 2003. Teen Read Week is included on the Barnes & Noble Booksellers’ store-events calendars nationwide, and information about Teen Read Week will be posted on their corporate Web site,
www.barnesandnobleinc.com/company.

Hundreds of schools, bookstores and libraries across the country will celebrate Teen Read Week by encouraging teens to “read for the fun of it,” so their reading skills will stay sharp, and they will develop a lifelong reading habit.

“YALSA is pleased to have Barnes & Noble as a continuing sponsor and promoter of Teen Read Week,” said YALSA President Audra Caplan. “Having Teen Read Week promotions in Barnes & Noble stores across the country will insure that teens will learn about the event and will have fun places to celebrate Teen Read Week in and out of the library.”

Now in its sixth year, Teen Read Week is a nationally recognized literacy initiative of YALSA. This initiative is aimed at teens, their parents, librarians, educators, booksellers and other concerned adults.
Its goals are to encourage recreational reading among teenagers, allow teens to select their own reading materials, and help teens get in the habit of reading regularly and often.
This year’s theme is “Slammin’@ your library.”

In year-round support of this literacy initiative, a special Web site has been developed that allows YALSA to offer booklists, reading research and survey results related to teen reading habits.
The Web site can be found at
www.ala.org/teenread.

Other Teen Read Week corporate sponsors include Harcourt, Inc., Harper Collins and Morningstar Foods.
Friends include Scholastic and Pamela Spencer Holley.
Nonprofit partners include: American Association of School Administrators, American Booksellers Association, Kidsnet, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Council of Teachers of English, SmartGirl.org, The N/Noggin, National Education Association, National School Boards Association, Speak Up Press, International Reading Association and TeenInk.

For more information about Teen Read Week, visit
www.ala.org/teenread or contact the YALSA Office at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4390 or E-mail
yalsa@ala.org.

YALSA is a division of the American Library Association.