URGENT! Call your Representative and tell them to Support the Museum and Library Services Act!

I am forwarding this message from the ALA Washington Office and hope that you will follow-up with calls to Congressman Welch’s office NOW asking that he support the Museum and Library Services Act. This bill will re-authorize the work the LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) federal funding that fuels so many library program across the country. LSTA funding is absolutely critical to quality public library support in Vermont.

LSTA in Vermont is used to support:

  • DOL library consultant program for public libraries
  • Summer reading program for children and teens
  • Cooperative Interlibrary loan program with UVM so that citizens can borrow from UVM collections
  • Vermont Automated Library System (VALS)
  • Continuing education program for public library employees
  • Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
  • Resource sharing grants for public and academic libraries
  • First Wednesday programs in nine public libraries
  • Vermont Online Library databases

Ask Congressman Welch to support this bill for full reauthorization of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the LSTA funding. See below for more information.

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Donations requested for the NaNoWriMo Book Drive

Posted on Behalf of Danielle DeLisle, VT Coordinator for the NaNoWriMo Bookdrive.

Hi! I am collecting books from all around Vermont for the First Annual Great NaNoWriMo Book Drive, a fundraiser for the Office of Letters & Light. OLL provides the national support for National Novel Writing Month, ScriptFrenzy, and the Young Writer’s Program. All of these are programs that support creativity, perseverance, and a fresh relationship to writing and literature.

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Secretary of State Outreach to Voters with Disabilities

The Department of Libraries is working with the Secretary of State to get special information on voting out to Vermont’s disabled citizens. I am asking libraries to help with this effort by displaying posters and distributing handouts. Please help spread the word!

The following items are available:

  1. Text to send out in an email (Attached here as a Word document)
  2. Postcard handouts (Contact Pat Sears at Spike Advertising for copies. Contact information below.)
  3. 8 1/2 x 11 poster (Attached here as a PDF or Pat Sears can send out hard copies.)

Libraries can contact Pat Sears directly to have handouts and posters sent to them:  pat@spikeadvertising.com or 802-951-1700.

spikeadvertising.com/Download/SOS/Voting_email.doc
spikeadvertising.com/Download/SOS/voting_poster.pdf

Thank you.

Martha Reid
State Librarian
Vermont Department of Libraries
109 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05609
802-828-3265
martha.reid@state.vt.us

Trejo Foster Foundation Institute

Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science is pleased to announce that we are hosting the Trejo Foster Foundation Institute on November 5 and 6. The institute is a forum for library professionals and scholars to share experiences, issues and strategies in serving Hispanic/Latino populations. It will focus on two major themes: best library and outreach practices, and current issues, challenges affecting the provision of library services.

For more information and to register, please visit http://gslis.simmons.edu/trejoinstitute2010. Please note there is a discounted fee for students of Simmons College, University of Rhode Island and Southern Connecticut State University.

Please register by October 22, 2010.

Love My Library Contest

Laura Lippman has created a why-I-love-my-library essay contest. The winning writer gets a visit from Lippman to his or her favorite library. The essay needs to be under 1000 words, sent as an email to Lippman, deadline September 30. Full details at http://www.lauralippman.com, along with a plug for her newest, I’d Know You Anywhere. Lippman writes, “I am who I am today because of libraries. Perhaps you have a similar story to tell. If so, I really want to hear it.”

Banned Book Week Poster

Each year ALA sponsors Banned Books Week to highlight our 1st Amendment right to read.

In the past two years the education committee of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Vermont chapter (on which I serve) has offered free ALA posters to 21 school, public and college libraries in order to help them use this week to draw attention to the dangers of censorship.

We have money to do this again this year.

The first ten libraries to email response to this post will receive the ALA Banned Book Week poster offered this year by ALA and shown in the ALA graphics catalog (p. 6) that was recently mailed.  The 2010 poster measures 24” by 32” and retails for $16.00.

See the 2010 poster at  http://www.alastore.ala.org/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=269

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Four Calls for Contributions

  1. Pre- and Post- Retirement Tips for Librarians
  2. Library Collaborations with Writers, Artists, Musicians and Other Creative Community Members
  3. Library Services for Multicultural Patrons to Encourage Library Use
  4. Publicity Methods to Keep Libraries in the News

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