Use April 15-21, 2007 National Library Week to tell your community that your library is central to community life.

What are you doing to tell the world that your library is relevant to the life of the community. Try using the marketing research and promotional dollars that ALA spends on behalf of all libraries to get the message across. April 15-21, 2007 is National Library Week, a time when libraries of all types and the people who use them come together with the American Library Association and its Campaign for America’s Libraries to celebrate the contributions of all libraries, librarians and library workers in our nation’s schools, campuses, and communities. Nebraska Public Library Staff and School Library Media Specialists can put Nebraska libraries in the forefront by encouraging local radio stations to play one of the following PSAs during National Library Week, April 15-21. Volunteer to record the psa at the station or just give them the text of the following psa for their on-air talent to read. :30 Celebrate National Library Week! Come together with your librarian this week to get trained professional assistance to help you find what you’re looking for. Whether you’re looking to connect with a new job or a DVD for family movie night, your library has what you need and the librarians on staff to help you find it. Come together with the information you need @ your library. A message brought to you by the American Library Association’s Campaign for America’s Libraries and [name of your library] OR :30 Research shows that the highest achieving students attend schools with good library media centers. It’s easy to see why. Everyday, school library media specialists come together with teachers to help students develop the information searching skills they need to succeed both in school and throughout their lives. And the school library is the place where students can come together with new ideas, their favorite books and to study with friends. The [name of your library/school library media center]: where students, teachers and ideas come together. A message brought to you by the American Library Association’s Campaign for America’s Libraries and [name of your library] If they want to know more, the following talking points might be of use: Libraries today are enjoying a golden age in which public, school, college and university libraries are flourishing not only within the physical confines of bricks and mortar, steel and glass, but also in the continuously expanding Internet universe. The facts speak for themselves: library use is up nationwide. More than 2 billion items were checked out last year, and librarians serve nearly 1.8 billion visitors annually. At our library…[Insert information about your library: stats, unique programming, etc.] Rather than threatening our libraries, the age of technology has only complemented our services and expanded our reach. This is because libraries are about more than information and data sharing. Libraries are about community. Research in 14 states has found that students with well-developed school libraries consistently score 10-18 percent higher on reading and other tests. Just recently a group of 15 seniors who met each day after school at their library learned that 100 percent of their group was selected for early admissions at some of the nation’s most selective colleges. College and university librarians help students conduct research, either in person or online through “ask a librarian” services. In fact, they answer almost 73 million reference questions each year – about twice the attendance at college football games. For more information, see www.ala.org. Thanks and please comment on this Blog to let us know how much airtime you get. Mary Jo Ryan, Communications Coordinator Nebraska Library Commission, The Atrium, 1200 N St., Suite 120 Lincoln NE 68508-2023, 402-471-3434, 402-471-2083-FAX http://nlc.nebraska.gov “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane,” Jimmy Buffett. Mary Jo Ryan, Communications Coordinator Nebraska Library Commission, The Atrium, 1200 N St., Suite 120 Lincoln NE 68508-2023, 402-471-3434, 402-471-2083-FAX http://nlc.nebraska.gov “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane,” Jimmy Buffett.