Kids! Campaign Phase two to launch at ALA Annual Conference
Contact: Laura Schulte-Cooper
ALSC Program Officer
312-280-2165
NEWS
For Immediate Release
January 20, 2009
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), will launch phase two of its Kids! @ your library® public awareness campaign at the ALA Annual Conference in July.
Phase one of the campaign, launched in 2006, currently provides a free, online tool kit of promotion tips, downloadable art, sample press materials and other resources to help local libraries reach out to children in grades K-4, their parents and caregivers.
Phase two of the campaign will expand the tool kit to provide additional resources for marketing the library to kids in grades five through eight, including free downloadable and printer-ready art designed especially for the Kids! Campaign by award-winning children’s book illustrator and graphic designer David Diaz.
“Materials for phase two of the Kids! Campaign are being created by librarians for librarians,” says Rhonda Puntney, chair of ALSC’s Public Awareness Committee. “We are using findings gathered from a survey of youth services librarians in February 2008 and focus groups held with fifth through eighth graders last spring to develop the most relevant and practical tools possible to help libraries reach out to kids in grades five through eight.”
The campaign conference program, “A.R.T. and Your Library: How You Can Bring Them Together!” is scheduled for 1:30 to 3 p.m. Sunday, July 12. Renowned children’s authors Avi, Brian Selznick, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Sarah Weeks will perform their readers’ theater magic to demonstrate how librarians can successfully present readers’ theater in the library.
In anticipation of the July launch of phase two, ALSC has added to the online tool kit two resources to help libraries reach out to fifth through eighth graders. Hook kids into your library with poetry, using “15 Ways to Use Poetry @ your library®” and “Poetry Programs @ your library®.” To find these new materials and many other resources for promoting your library to kids, visit the Kids! Campaign Web site at
www.ala.org/kids and click on “Tool Kit.”
