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Contact: Jennifer Petersen


ALA PR Coordinator


312-280-5043


jpetersen@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release


March 3, 2009

CHICAGO - National Public Radio’s “Your Money” segment on Saturday, Feb. 28 highlighted the “Smart investing @ your library” campaign, a partnership between the American Library Association (ALA) and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

“Smart Investing @ your library” helps to fund library efforts to provide patrons with unbiased financial education resources. The program is sponsored by FINRA and administered by the ALA’s Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). It has awarded over $1.7 million to 25 libraries across the U.S. to date.

In the interview, FINRA President John Gannon said that “the current economic climate has made libraries a more vital institution in communities” because libraries have the ability to reach large numbers of people who may need more information to make important financial decisions. “Whether that's women facing retirement, teens or even younger people who are still in school, it's figuring out how to get that information to people," he said. The radio clip and Web article can be found at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101268021.

ALA’s Public Information Office (PIO) has helped place this and many other stories about the vital role libraries play during tough economic times. Other stories have been run recently include
CNN Money,
NBC Nightly News,
Washington Post, Parade Magazine, The New York Times blog
Freakonomics, CBS Evening News on
Dec. 31 and
Feb. 2,
CNN Newsource as it appeared on Los Angeles’s KCAL-TV and an op-ed in the
Huffington Post.