ALSC's 2007 Hayes Award winner announced

Contact: Laura Schulte-Cooper

ALSC

312-280-2165

For Immediate Release

February 27, 2007

ALSC’s 2007 Hayes Award winner announced

CHICAGO - The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is pleased to announce that Betty Ranck and Lauren Miller, Athens County Public Libraries, have been selected as the 2007 recipients of the Maureen Hayes Award. The award is designed to provide up to $4,000 to an ALSC member library to fund a visit from an author/illustrator who will speak to children who have not had the opportunity to hear a nationally known author/illustrator.

Athens County Public Libraries, in cooperation with Appalachian Community Hospice, West Elementary School, West Elementary Parent/Teacher Organization, the Plains Public Library, Friends of the Athens Library, and the Little Professor Book Center, will bring artists Jeanette and Christopher Canyon to the Plains Public Library and Athens Public Library, located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Ohio.

“The library wishes to host a special event to honor one of our librarians, Debby Sullivan, who passed away in 2006,” said Betty Ranck, children’s librarian, Athens County Public Libraries. “Debby enjoyed her work at the library, was an avid reader, and loved sharing books with her children. Through this visit our intention is to reach out to children and families in the community to offer them entertainment and to inspire their creative expression.”

Members of the Maureen Hayes Award Committee are: Floyd Dickman, chair, Columbus, Ohio; Crystal Faris, Waldo Community Library, Kansas City, Mo.; Judith Rovenger, Westchester Library System, Ardsley, N.Y.; and Deborah Wright, Newport News Public Library System, Newport News, Va.

The Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Visit Award was established in 2005 with funding from Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing to honor Maureen Hayes for her life-long efforts to bring together children and authors/illustrators. In the 1980s, Maureen Hayes was the director of Library Services for Atheneum, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

For more information regarding the Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Visit Award, please visit www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/profawards/hayesaward/HayesAward.htm.