The Great Web Sites for Kids committee has selected 19 sites as a 2009 Great Web Site for Kids. These sites have been added to the Great Web Sites for Kids page. See the annotated list below, or go to the website: http://www.ala.org/greatsites.

Great Web Sites for Kids are those considered the best web sites for ages birth to 14, outstanding in both content and conception. As applied to web sites for young people, “great” should be thought to include sites of especially commendable quality, sites that reflect and encourage young people’s interests in exemplary ways.

Sincerely,

Meagan Albright & Sharon Haupt

co-chairs of the 2009 Great Web Sites for Kids committee

Contact: Laura Schulte-Cooper, ALSC Program Officer, (312) 280-2165, lschulte@ala.org

For Immediate Release, May 26, 2009

Phase Two of ALSC’s  Kids! Campaign targets tweens

Phase two of the Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Kids! @ your library® public awareness campaign, which officially launches in July, focuses on tools to help librarians promote library services to kids in grades five through eight.

In preparation of the official July launch, the following free resources have been added to the campaign’s online tool kit: "Bud, Not Buddy" readers theater script, adapted from an excerpt of Christopher Paul Curtis’s award-winning book; and "The Library Card" readers theater script, adapted from an excerpt of Jerry Spinelli’s award-winning book. Other additions to the tool kit include a fresh, new navy blue and lime green version of the So Much to See/Do @ your library® artwork, which is also now available in Russian, Polish and French. The artwork is ideal for promotional flyers and library handouts.

All campaign resources are free and available for download at http://www.ala.org/kids.

The campaign’s phase two launch is the conference program, “A.R.T. and Your Library: How You Can Bring Them Together!” which is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, July 12, in McCormick Place West, Room W-181. Renowned children’s authors Avi, Brian Selznick, Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Sarah Weeks will perform their readers theater magic to demonstrate how librarians can successfully present readers theater in the library. Librarian presenters will share what’s new in the campaign tool kit and how libraries are using these resources.

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crocheting seriously cute animals, toys or dolls. Would anyone who has held a teen Amigurumi program be willing to share the patterns used and the results? 

  APPLICATIONS INVITED FOR 2009 LOIS LENSKI COVEY FOUNDATION LIBRARY GRANTS

Libraries serving economically or socially at-risk children are invited to apply for 2009 Lois Lenski Covey Foundation library grants. Grants are for the acquisition of books published for young people preschool through grade 12.  To be considered, libraries must have limited book budgets and serve a disadvantaged population. Rural and urban, public, school, and non-profit agency libraries are eligible.  The grants are given to individual libraries, rather than library systems or cooperatives. 2009 grants will range from $500 to $3000.