El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), known as Día, is a celebration EVERY DAY of children, families, and reading that culminates every year on April 30. The celebration emphasizes the importance of advocating literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

For libraries that serve a diverse population in their communities, Día’s 15th anniversary is a great opportunity to better address their needs.

Plans for Día’s 15th anniversary include a special presentation by Día’s Founder, author Pat Mora, at the Valencia Branch of the Pima County Library System in Tucson, Ariz.

Mora and the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association will join the Pima County Library System for an afternoon filled with children’s reading events and a discussion on the history of Día.

“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to visit the site of one of the first libraries in the nation to embrace El día de los niños/El día de los libros,” said Mora. “Libraries play such a key role in supporting family literacy within diverse communities. From bilingual story hours for children to adult literacy and English as a Second language programs – libraries are truly part of the American Dream and are an important key to lifelong learning.”

A former teacher, university administrator, consultant and the author of many award-winning children’s books, Mora is the founder of Día, the family literacy initiative now housed at the ALSC. Mora is the author of many children’s books including Pula Belpre award-winning books “Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children’s Day/Book Day; Celebremos El día de los niños/El día de los libros,” “Doña Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart” and “Tomas and the Library Lady.”

Día is an enhancement of Children’s Day, which began in 1925. Children’s Day was designated as a day to bring attention to the importance and well-being of children. In 1996, nationally acclaimed children’s book author Pat Mora proposed linking the celebration of childhood and children with literacy to found El día de los niños/El día de los libros.

The founding partner of Día is REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Literacy and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking. This event is co-sponsored by the Tucson Chapter of REFORMA. With the support of REFORMA, Pat Mora and ALSC, librarians all over the country have been able to bring children and families the opportunity to explore language and culture through books. For more information, see www.ala.org/dia.

ALSC is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. With a network of more than 4,200 children’s and youth librarians, literature experts, publishers and educational faculty, ALSC is committed to creating a better future for children through libraries. To learn more about ALSC, visit ALSC’s Web site at www.ala.org/alsc.

You can also find the celebration on Facebook, where daily exchanges of Día ideas are already taking place.

In addition, “Building a Culture of Literacy in Your Community through Día,” is available through ALA Editions. This book will provide many helpful suggestions for multicultural programming in your library.

Día’s 15th anniversary will be also celebrated at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, on June 25th beginning at 10:30 am.

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Kent Oliver, president of the Freedom to Read Foundation, recently took the dissenting view of the question “Should literary classics be sanitized?” for The Costco Connection magazine.

The question was inspired by the recent publication of a revised edition of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” that removed racially charged words.

Oliver wrote, “This edition clearly subverts the intent of the author: depicting life on the Mississippi River in the 1800s. It contributes to a disturbing trend in our society to dumb down controversial ideas, subjects and language in our literature.”

He notes that because of its language and “surface racism,” the book has been the target for challenges and bannings.

He wrote, “Ironically, the book is highly regarded in part because of its undeniable anti-racism message.”

Taking the opposing view to Oliver in the magazine was Alan Gribben, a professor at Auburn University who helped produce the revised edition.

Borrowing a phrase from Twain himself, Gribben said his aim was to prevent the book from becoming a work that “people praise and don’t read,” simply because of the 228 combined repetitions of the n-word.

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Charles Wilt, executive director of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the ALA, discusses Preservation Week @ your library (April 24 – 30) in this podcast.

Preservation Week @ your library is a time when libraries across the country will provide programs, information and expertise on how to preserve collectables, photos, family records and other valuable materials. With a running theme of “Pass it on,” Preservation Week is the first national awareness campaign targeting the importance of collections preservation for the general public.

In the podcast, Wilt discusses the importance of preservation, as well as the valuable role libraries play in preservation awareness.

Recognizing the critical role libraries play in preservation, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association, in partnership with the Library of Congress and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, launched Preservation Week @ your library in 2010.

For more information on Preservation Week @ your library please visit www.ala.org/preservationweek or contact Jennifer Petersen, ALA PR coordinator at (312) 280-5043 / jpetersen@ala.org.

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Preservation Week @ your library marks its second anniversary April 24-30.

Emphasizing the critical role libraries play in preservation, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), in partnership with the Library of Congress and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, is bringing Preservation Week to libraries across the country.

This national awareness campaign was developed to promote the understanding and importance of care for personal and community cultural heritage collections whether books, documents, photographs, textiles, paintings, sculptures, furniture and decorative arts or whatever any person or community collects.

Preservation Week provides a time when thousands will turn to libraries across the U.S. for information and expertise on how to preserve collectibles, photos, family records and other valuable materials. During Preservation Week, themed “Pass it on!,” participating libraries will offer special programs and services that help connect library users with preservation tools; promote the importance of preservation; and enhance knowledge of preservation issues among the general public.

The Preservation Week website (www.ala.org/preservationweek) connects librarians and the public with excellent resources, tracks programs across the country, enables people to share their stories and provides information on a wide variety of preservation issues.  There is a wealth of information for those interested in participating in an event or in holding their own event.

The website includes an Event Toolkit with ideas for low-cost activities, a speaker’s bureau containing names and contact information for preservation professionals willing to speak on various preservation topics and marketing tools for promoting your own Preservation Week such as logos, bookmarks and tips for writing press releases. Local events can be found on the regularly updated Google Map, which plots all locations of planned preservation activities. If your institution plans to host an open event, please post it to the Preservation Week 2011 Google Map (http://bit.ly/pw2011map). Doing so will help promote your event, and assist with the broader aims of Preservation Week.

Libraries can:

• create a display about preserving and collecting personal, family or community heritage;
• offer a preservation workshop or event;
• highlight Preservation Week on their website with a link to ALA’s Preservation Week resources;
• add a Preservation Event to the 2011 Preservation Week Event Map;
• view the Facebook event (http://on.fb.me/preswk11) and RSVP or share information about an event by linking to it or posting a photo or video;
• follow ALCTS and Preservation Week on Twitter;
• tweet about PW using hashtag #preswk.

People can share their stories by clicking the “Share your Story” icon on the main page.

Find more events on the “Events Calendar.”  Register for the free webinars.  This year Preservation Week is offering three: on April 26 – Protecting & Saving Family Treasures, on the April 27 – Protecting Future Access Now and on the April 28 – Preserving Your Personal Digital Memories.  To register for any of the webinars, visit the events page at: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/index.cfm.

A Preservation Week poster and bookmark is now available in the ALA Store.  Help support Preservation Week. 
 

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Libraries are finding Earth Day (Friday, April 22) an opportune time to remind people in their communities that libraries do their part to reduce, reuse and recycle. Here are just a few things that libraries across the country are doing to promote the library as a key renewable resource.

In celebration of “Earth Day @ your library,” the Atlanta-Fulton (Ga.) Public Library System reminds library users of new “green” innovations available through the library. In addition to promoting “recyclables” like books, DVDs and CDs, the library encourages users to conserve gas by using its OverDrive database to download audiobooks and e-books at home.

Leading up to the Earth Day, the Warren-Newport Public Library District of Gurnee, Ill. has encouraged library users to “Take the Earth Day Challenge @ your library.” Library users are encouraged to submit their own “recipes” for creating “green” cleaning supplies using household items like vinegar and baking soda that have less of an environmental impact then traditional cleaning agents. Entrants will get a chance to win a bucket of green cleaning supplies.

For “Earth Day 2011 @ your library,” the East Hampton (N.Y.) Public Library will collaborate with East Hampton Public Works and the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) to sell backyard compost bins and rain barrels to library users.

For each compost bin and rain barrel, $2 will be donated to the library, which will then use the proceeds to purchase books about eco-friendly topics.

The Quarryville (Pa.) Library will be promoting Earth Day to a new generation of library users and environmentalists. “Earth Day @ your library” programming will include the planting of a children’s garden, a used book sale, recyclable crafts and a presentation on learning how to recycle.

And at the Dracut (Mass.) Library, the library blog is touting a selection of books and DVDs to help patrons in planning and nurturing their gardens. It also talks about the progress on its new Children’s Garden, which, when finished, will be visible from the Children’s Room.

First celebrated on April 22, 1970, Earth Day promotes awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. For more information on Earth Day visit www.earthday.org.

The Campaign for America’s Libraries, ALA’s public awareness campaign that promotes the value of libraries and librarians. Thousands of libraries of all types – across the country and around the globe – use the Campaign’s @ your library® brand. The Campaign is made possible in part by ALA’s Library Champions, corporations and foundations.

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Deborah Lazar, a school librarian from the north suburbs of Chicago, is on a personal mission to raise funds for Haiti. She hopes her efforts will build new libraries and restore old ones.

“One question people ask me, especially when they’ve seen pictures (of the country post-earthquake) is if the basic needs are so great, why do you focus on libraries,” Lazar told the Winnetka Patch.

“First off, I believe education is empowerment, and libraries are a way of becoming educated. Most people don’t have money for school, there aren’t a lot of public schools in Haiti.”

“Lazar said she first became aware of Haiti during a trip with the New Trier Haiti Project. The people she met on the trip stayed on her mind, and when the earthquake hit in January she felt an immediate call to action.

“She went to an American Library Association conference where she met Francoise Thybulle, the national director of Haiti’s libraries. She worked with Thybulle to return to the country, and stayed with her when she visited in July.

“The issue of basic needs is huge, but at the same time it doesn’t negate trying to build something sustainable, to rebuild the infrastructure, to give a sense of hope and community, and I think this is a project that can happen,” she said.

Read the rest of the story.

The American Library Association has a Haiti Relief Fund.  Learn more about ALA’s efforts to help libraries in Haiti or donate to the fund.

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