Fourth year of ALA-Woman's Day partnerhip launches during National Library Week
Contact: Megan Humphrey
Campaign Coordinator
mhumphrey@ala.org
For Immediate Release
March 1, 2005
Fourth year of ALA-Woman’s Day partnership
launches during National Library Week
On April 12, the fourth year of ALA’s partnership with Woman’s Day launches with another round of "Put it Writing @ your library®" workshops for aspiring writers, hosted by 15 academic and public libraries throughout the country. The workshops will be announced in the March 8, 2005 issue of Woman’s Day. The magazine has a readership of over 4 million.
A total of 45 libraries nationwide have hosted the workshops since 2002. They feature writers from Woman’s Day magazine speaking about how to get published in a magazine and librarians highlighting the writing resources available at their library. The workshops were started to promote the wealth of opportunities that all types of libraries offer to spark writers’ imaginations and creativity and help develop a community of writers.
Annual publicity from the magazine has helped the workshops bring in over 2,500 attendees since 2002.
Libraries hosting the 2005 workshops include: College of San Mateo (Calif.) Library; County of Los Angeles Public Library, East Los Angeles Library; College Hill Library, Westminster, Colo.; DeKalb County (Ga.) Public Library; College of DuPage Library, Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Kirkwood Community College Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Silver Spring Library, Montgomery County (Md.) Public Libraries; Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, Mass.; Montclair (N.J.) Public Library; Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library; Greenburgh Public Library, Elmsford, N.Y.; University City Regional Library, Charlotte, N.C.; Durham (N.C.) County Library, Main Library; Washington Centerville (Ohio) Public Library; and Portland (Ore.) Community College, Rock Creek Campus Library.
Since its beginnings in 2002, ALA’s partnership with Woman’s Day has resulted in publicity valued at approximately $2 million per year. This includes the magazine’s annual promotion of the Put it in Writing workshops; editorial initiatives; an online book club featuring recommendations from ALA members; and the donation of public service advertising promoting support for library funding.
Last year, Woman’s Day’s publicity for the "Librarian for a day" initiative resulted in more than 500 essays from readers who answered why they would like to be a librarian for a day and what the library means to them. The two winners, who were selected with help from ALA members, participated in job shadow days at their local libraries, the Glendale (Calf.) Public Library and the South Dade Regional Library in Miami. Their experiences are documented in a three-page article in the March 8 issue.
The Woman’s Day online book club currently features AASL, ALSC and YALSA members’ book recommendations for children and young adults. The book club will continue into 2006 with YALSA members’ recommendations exclusively for young adults. Woman’s Day began its first online book club in 2003 with featured recommendations from ACRL, PLA and RUSA members.
The Woman’s Day Web site receives 12 to 14 million page views hits per month. The book club is available by visiting
www.womansday.com/community .
Woman’s Day is a founding partner of The Campaign for America’s Libraries, the ALA’s multi-year public awareness and advocacy campaign to promote the value of libraries and librarians in the 21st century.