Grants of $3,000 available to support Civil War reading and discussion series

The ALA Public Programs Office and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced an increase in funding for the Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War reading and discussion program grant. Following the application process, 50 selected public, academic and community college libraries will receive a $3,000 grant to support the reading and discussion series in their library in addition to books, promotional materials and other programming support. Applications, available at www.ala.org/civilwarprograms, must be completed by April 19. The program grant includes: * A $3,000 grant from NEH to support program-related expenses. * Twenty-five copies of two titles: “March” by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, 2006) and “Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam” by James McPherson (Oxford University Press, 2002) and 50 copies of a forthcoming Civil War anthology of historical fiction, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biography, and short stories, edited by national project scholar Edward L. Ayers and co-published by NEH and ALA. * Promotional materials, including posters, bookmarks and folders, to support local audience recruitment efforts. * Training for the library project director at a national workshop, where they will hear from the project scholar, expert librarians and organizers and receive a program planning guide, materials and ideas. As part of the grant, NEH will pay for two nights of lodging in Chicago for the library project director. Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War follows the popular Let’s Talk About It model, which engages participants in discussion of a set of common texts selected by a nationally known scholar for their relevance to a larger, overarching theme. More information including project guidelines and the online application are available at www.ala.org/civilwarprograms.