Skip navigation 
Previous Page
8 COGNOTES
DECEMBER 2016 PREVIEW
United for Libraries to Present Nuts & Bolts for Trustees, Friends, and Foundations
United for Libraries will present “Nuts & Bolts for Trustees, Friends and Foundations,” sponsored by EBSCO, from 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. on Friday, January 20 during the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits in Atlanta.
The popular, free Nuts & Bolts program will feature speakers addressing topics of interest to Trustees, Friends, Foundations, and advocates. Roundtable discussions will be held on fundraising, marketing, social media and more.
Martha Hall Kelly, author of Lilac Girls will be the featured author. A native New Englander, Kelly lives in Atlanta. Lilac Girls is historical fiction and is based on the true story of Polish women who were imprisoned at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp and how Caroline Ferriday, an American philanthropist and former actress, brought them to the U.S.
The first 75 people to register will receive a complimentary lunch during the program. Those who register after the first 75 are welcome to attend the program and will be placed on a waitlist for the complimentary lunch.
Those planning to attend the Nuts & Bolts program at the ALA Midwinter Meeting should RSVP by visiting www.ala.org/united/events_conferences/midwinter.
For information on registering to attend United for Libraries programs, visit www.ala.org/united/events_conferences/midwinter.
Apply for YALSA’s 2017 Summer Learning Grants
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has opened the applications for its 2017 summer learning resources and teen summer intern grants.
Through generous funding from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, two grants are available: the Summer Learning Resources Grant and the Teen Summer Intern Program Grant. The purpose of the grants is to help libraries combat the summer slide, as described in YALSA’s position paper, “Adopting a Summer Learning Approach to Increase Impact,” which can be read at http://tinyurl.com/adoptingsummerlearning.
Twenty summer learning resources grants, worth $1,000 each, will be awarded to libraries in need and will allow them to provide resources and services to teens who are English language learners, struggling in school and/or who are from socio-economically challenged communities. Twenty teen summer intern program grants, also worth $1,000 each, will be awarded to libraries to support the implementation of summer learning programs while also providing teens a chance to build handson job skills.
Interested applicants are invited to apply for the grants if they meet the following eligibility requirements:
- Must be a YALSA member at the time the application is submitted and when recipients are selected
- Summer learning program must be administered through a library
- Summer learning program must be open to all teens in the community
- Library must be within 20 miles of a Dollar General store
Eligible applicants can apply now through Jan. 1, 2017 at http://summerreading.ning.com/page/summerlearning-grants. Recipients will be notified during the week of Feb. 13, 2017. For information about joining YALSA, visit www.ala.org/yalsa/join. YALSA/ALA membership starts at $61 per year.
To learn more about the grants and to apply, please visit YALSA’s Summer Learning website at http://summerreading.ning.com/.
Increasing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
In the past year alone, the world has experienced loss, hate, anger, anguish, and distress that have rocked communities to their core. At the forefront of so many tragedies and challenges, libraries responded to their communities by advocating for knowledge and providing brave spaces. Events such as the Pulse shooting, Dakota Access Pipeline, and Black Lives Matter demonstrate the real need to keep our focus on diversity as a key action area for ALA. It is time to embrace and understand the concepts of equity, diversity, and inclusion as instrumental to the success of libraries.
The Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (TFEDI), charged with assessing and addressing how ALA can be more intentional about the ways it addresses issues surrounding equity, diversity, and inclusion within the Association and its events, and how to increase the impact, unveiled its recommendations at the 2016 Annual Conference. Over the next few conferences, you’ll see and hear about progress, and the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services (ODLOS) will offer ongoing updates on how we are addressing issues and implementing solutions.
In the meantime, we encourage you to engage with the events and sessions at this Midwinter Meeting that committees, divisions, affiliates, and individual members have designed to continue dialogue around these complicated issues, provide best practices, and share stories from the field. There will be many related programs, events, speakers, exhibitors, and meetings at the Midwinter Meeting, and we’ll share tips for identifying them closer to the conference.
ODLOS Director Jody Gray encourages attendees to reap the benefits of participating in related events at a conference. “Often, the people who attend sessions that directly address equity, diversity, and inclusion are the ones who already have the life experiences or the expertise. The reality is, these issues affect you, your colleagues, your patrons, and your communities. In addition, there is a palpable racial, social, and class boiling point that has erupted in the United States and around the world that can no longer be ignored. For progress to happen in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion, every person needs to be at the table.”
Find out more about the Martin Luther King Celebration event.
RUSA Invites Attendees to Celebrate Winners of Year’s Best in Adult Reading and Reference
On Sunday, January 22 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) will host their annual Book and Media Awards ceremony to announce the many awards and best of lists in adult reading and reference. The free event, sponsored by NoveList, is open to all ALA Midwinter Meeting attendees and will take place in Rooms B302-B305, Georgia World Congress Center. For the second year in a row, the winners of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced and as always, RUSA will unveil the Reading List, Notable Books List and Listen List selections, the Sophie Brody Medal, the Dartmouth Medal and many more! Selections are made by library professionals who work closely with adult readers, and offer an excellent guide to quality reading and library collection enhancement. Readers are sure to leave with their To-Be-Read lists full! For those who cannot attend, information about this year’s winners will be posted on the RUSA blog and tweeted via @ala_rusa during and immediately after the event using the hashtag #alabma. The ALA Midwinter Meeting now offers all ALA book and media award announcements in the same 24 hours, with the Youth Media Awards following on Monday morning.
The literary winners announced at this event will shape the program for RUSA’s Literary Tastes author panel at ALA’s 2017 Annual Conference in Chicago. More information about the award winners and the Literary Tastes event will be available on the RUSA blog following ALA’s Midwinter Meeting.
PLA Offers Partnering with Law Enforcement to Advance Social Justice
The Public Library Association (PLA) is offering an interactive Institute at the 2017 ALA Midwinter Meeting, “Partnering with Law Enforcement to Advance Social Justice: A Train-the-Trainer Event for Public Libraries.” The institute will be presented by Andrea Blackman, division manager for the Special Collections Division of the Nashville (Tenn.) Public Library from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, January 20.
Using Nashville’s groundbreaking civil rights training partnership with law enforcement agencies as an example, this institute will offer concrete strategies for how public libraries can use history as a gateway to discussing today’s complex community dynamics in an environment that encourages open conversation and greater understanding.
