ALA-APA names winner of advocacy writing contest
Contact:Jenifer Grady
Director, ALA-APA
312-280-2424
jgrady@ala.org
For Immediate Release
August 2, 2005
ALA-APA names winner of advocacy writing contest
CHICAGO – The American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) is pleased to announce Sue Knoche as the winner of the contest to write a guide to accompany “Working @ Your Library: For Love or Money,” the advocacy video produced by ALA-APA. Martha Whaley edited the guide. Knoche and Whaley are employed by the Quillen College of Medicine Library of East Tennessee State University, which received the prize, a donation of $250.
Contestants were asked to write a short guide showing people who use the video how to customize their presentations by type of library, geographic region, etc., and how to advocate for better salaries for library workers.
The judges had a tough decision but they were impressed with the creativity and thoroughness of the guide, which will be available in January for downloading from the ALA-APA Web site following the ALA 2006 Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio.
Knoche already had several medical books in mind for her library to purchase with the prize money. She chose and purchased six books for the College of Medicine Library on pharmacology, consumer health, and career planning for health care professionals. She stretched the $250 prize in an incredible way, which she says “is all in a day's work.” Knoche has been a medical library assistant since 1988 in cataloging, with acquisition responsibilities added in 2001.
The Working @ Your Library: For Love or Money video demonstrates the importance of library workers, examines how they often are not compensated fairly for their work, and describes what must be done to improve salaries.
“In just a few minutes this film shows some of the many jobs librarians are doing and explains why they deserve to earn a lot more money than they do,” said Steve Fesenmaier, West Virginia Library Commission State Data Coordinator.
The video is a gift with a $25.00 donation or more to the ALA-APA. ALA-APA is an organization for library workers, with two missions – certification and support of salary improvement initiatives. Please visit the Web site for more information:
http://www.ala-apa.org/donate.html. Both VHS and DVD formats are available.
