America @ your library

Contact: Megan McFarlane


Campaign coordinator


312-280-2148

mmcfarlane@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release


February 3, 2009

Chicago – Since 2005, the United States Embassies of Germany and Finland have been working to provide up-to-date information and resources about the United States to libraries in their communities through the America @ your library program.

In Germany, Information Resource Centers in the embassy and consulates work with local libraries to select books and other information materials on the United States.

Seminars and educational workshops are also made available to area teachers. In December, the America Memorial Library branch of the Central and Regional Library IN? Berlin hosted Making Reading Fun @ your library, a bilingual reading from selected award-winning youth books. The program was designed to promote reading and complement English education and social studies programming related to the United States.

The program also brings authors and experts abroad to read from their works. Authors have included Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx, who visited the Frankfurt City Library and hosted a reading at the Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies in 2008.

During the 2008 presidential race, Consul for Public Affairs James W. Seward hosted a discussion on the election with English students at the Görlitz Euro Schulen Organisation as part on the America @ your library program.

For more information on The United States Embassy of Germany’s America @ your library campaign, visit: http://germany.usembassy.gov/germany/ayl.html.

In Finland, the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki donates more than 100 books to regional libraries around Finland. Topics highlight American contemporary society, political trends, history and cultural diversity, along with classic and modern American fiction.

For more information on The United States Embassy of Finland’s America @ your library campaign, including a list of libraries that have received books, visit: http://finland.usembassy.gov/ayl.html

The Campaign for America’s Libraries (
www.ala.org/@yourlibrary), ALA’s public awareness campaign, promotes the value of libraries and librarians. Thousands of libraries of all types – across the country and around the globe - use the Campaign’s @ your library® brand. The Campaign is made possible in part by ALA’s Library Champions.