Win a StoryCorps interview slot with American Libraries

Contact: Leonard Kniffel


Editor & Publisher,


American Libraries


lkniffel@ala.org


312-280-4215

For Immediate Release


March 30, 2010

CHICAGO –

American Libraries is offering librarians a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do a personal
StoryCorps interview with an admired mentor or colleague during the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., June 24-29. Like all StoryCorps interviews, the Annual Conference sessions will be archived in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Select StoryCorps interviews air weekly on NPR and can also be heard at the
StoryCorps website.

StoryCorps is an award-winning, nonprofit oral history project that honors and celebrates the lives of everyday people through listening. Since its founding in 2003, more than 50,000 people have participated, many of whom have come as a part of special initiatives to reach underrepresented voices. This is the first time StoryCorps is visiting an ALA conference to capture librarians’ stories.

For a chance to win an interview slot, simply explain in 500 words or less whom you would like to interview—a mentor, colleague, or someone who inspired you to want to join the profession—and what the relationship has meant to your life and career. Essays should be
submitted online. Entries will be accepted until midnight on April 15, and winners will be announced in May. Both you and your suggested interviewee need to be present at ALA Annual. A general
overview and contest rules can be found on the website.

In addition,
American Libraries is proud to sponsor StoryCorps founder Dave Isay’s appearance at the Annual Conference from 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 27. Winner of a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, Isay’s new book, “
Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps” is from Penguin, and he will sign copies following the program. In founding StoryCorps, he predicted that libraries and librarians would play a big role; be there in June to hear how his prediction has played out.

Learn more about StoryCorps: "Listening as an Act of Love,"
American Libraries, December 2005.

American Libraries, the flagship magazine of the American Library Association, is delighted to extend its 100-year tradition of keeping readers informed in print and online and keeping library and information science and technology workers in touch with the profession’s most current concerns.

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