Promotions, Awards

ALA presents 2011 James Madison Award During Sunshine Week, March 13 - 19, 2011

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Sunshine Week – the time to celebrate and investigate open government! Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.

Though created by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public's right to know what its government is doing, and why. Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger. Sunshine Week is a nonpartisan, non-profit initiative.

Help us find the winner for The Harper Lee Prize

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To honor the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird,  the ABA Journal and The University of Alabama School of Law  have created THE HARPER LEE PRIZE, to honor former Alabama  law student Harper Lee for the role model she created.

Atticus Finch has inspired generations of readers—to become  lawyers, to take on unpopular causes, to behave honorably. As Atticus reminds us, “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

The Prize will be given annually to a book-length work of fiction that best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society, and their power to effect change. Only works first published in 2010 qualify. Completed entry forms must be submitted by the publisher prior to April 8, 2011. There is no entry fee.

Teen Tech Week 2008

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Teen Tech Week is a celebration of the technology you love to use @ your library®, including playing video games, chatting on the Web, listening to mp3s and more.

During Teen Tech Week, libraries across the nation encourage teens to explore technology and learn something new. Visit your school or public library to find out how you can celebrate Teen Tech Week or get started right away with a list of 25 celebration ideas. Tune in @ Your Library is the 2008 Teen Tech Week theme and the celebration takes place March 2-8.

Booklist Editors Read for Fun 2007

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American Libraries Associate Editor Dan Kraus talked to seven editor-reviewers for Booklist Magazine about the books they read in their spare time in 2007. Learn one editor's excuse for not reading Harry Potter, how another found cheer in "an intrusive and lying government, torture, and nuclear experiments," and the treasure a third found in Montana

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Speaks Out for Libraries

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This year, NBA legend and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is this year's honorary Library Card Sign-up Month chair. “The library has always been my own personal time machine. I can walk through the doors and land in any place, any time period in history. I didn’t have to wonder what their worlds were like; I could experience it first hand,” Jabbar has said.

En tu biblioteca campaign officially launches

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“I can help you” are words that resonate with librarians and library users alike. However, it’s the words “yo te puedo ayudar” (“I can help you”) that are the focus of the En tu biblioteca Campaign.

Launched in September, the “en tu biblioteca” (“@ your library”) campaign was developed with Univision Radio and the ALA to reach out an encourage members of the Latino community to use their local library. The campaign communicates how libraries create opportunities for Latino adults and their children by providing trusted help from librarians and free public access to information

Core Collection: Graphic Women

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Dale Messick started the first enduring newspaper comic strip by a woman, Brenda Starr, in 1940, and Nicole Hollander (Sylvia), Cathy Guisewite (Cathy), and Lynn Johnston (For Better or Worse) followed in her footsteps, only much later. Women creating graphic novels came still later. In fact, this core collection of books either made up of comic-book short stories and comic-book serials or created as books is an honor roll of pioneers.

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