LTLS - Quick Connections

Kids Are Authors

Kids Are Authors is an annual competition open to Grades K–8 and is designed to encourage students to use their reading, writing, and artistic skills to create their own books. Under the guidance of a project coordinator, children work in teams of three or more students to write and illustrate their own book. A librarian, teacher, teacher's aide or parent can be the project coordinator.

One Grand Prize winner from each category (Fiction and Nonfiction) will be selected for publication and will receive $5,000 in merchandise from the Scholastic Book Fairs Instructional Resource Catalog to be awarded to the school or non-profit organization, 100 copies of their published book, and a Gold Medallion. Twenty-five Honorable Mention winners will receive $500 in merchandise from the Scholastic Book Fairs Instructional Resource Catalog to be awarded to the school or non-profit organization and Student Award Certificates.

Guidelines and entry forms are available on the Scholastic website. Deadline is March 15, 2007.

IMLS 2007 National Leadership Grants

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is accepting grant applications to the agency's 2007 National Leadership Grant program. In 2007, these grants will provide an opportunity to explore important research questions, develop and test new models of library and museum service, and help build digital resources. This year the agency is bringing back its Library and Museum Community Collaboration category. Collaboration grants provide opportunities for libraries and museums to partner with each other and with a host of other community organizations, including public broadcasters, schools, universities, cultural and performing arts organizations, and health and social service providers. With this change, the three funding categories for 2007 are as follows: Building Digital Resources; Library and Museum Community Collaboration; and Research and Demonstration.

Deadline is March 1, 2007. For guidelines and application visit the IMLS web site.

14th Annual Spotlight Awards

The 14th Annual Spotlight on Achievement and Spotlight on Service awards will be held May 23, 2007 in Springfield. These awards are being sponsored by Illinois Secretary of State's Office and the Illinois Press Association. Nominations are now being accepted for the 2007 awards.

These awards recognize outstanding progress made by adult literacy students or families, and adult literacy volunteer tutors for their outstanding contributions to literacy.

For more information and submittal forms, go to: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/who_we_are/literacy/home.html (pdf format) or contact the Literacy Office at 1-800-665-5576, #3 or Diane Manning at 217-524-3005/dmanning@ilsos.net.

Literacy Volunteers of Illinois Conference

The 2007 Annual State Conference for the Literacy Volunteers of Illinois and UIC Center for Literacy will take place February 8th and 9th. The conference will be held at the University of Illinois Chicago. The featured speaker at the Friday lunch is Kevin Stein, Poet Laureatte, State of Illinois

National Library Week.

National Library Week is scheduled for April 15-21, 2007 with the theme "Come together @ your library". Customizable graphics and other promotional materials in English and Spanish can be ordered from ALA at http://www.ala.org/@yourlibrary and click on "National Library Week".

Book Give-A-Way

The Urbana Free Library has the following books to give away. Please contact John Dunkelberger at jdunkelberger@tufl.info if you would like any of them. Thank you! Please make arrangements to pick-up the materials at the Urbana Free Library.

Best's key rating guide: life/health, property/casualty (both 2005)
Catholic almanac, 2004
Countries of the world, 2006
Encyclopedia of associations, 2005
Federal directory (Carroll, quarterly)
Foreign consular offices in the U.S., 2005
Foundation directory, 2005
Gale directory of publications and broadcast media, 2004
Higher education directory, 2005
Illinois services directory, 2006
Magazines for libraries, 2005
Official museum directory, 2003
State directory, 2005 (administrative officials)
Ulrich's periodical directory, 2006
United States government manual, 2005-2006
Who's who of American women, 2004-2005
World chamber of commerce directory, 2005
World factbook (CIA), 2005

RUSA announces Best Free Reference Web Sites

The Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is pleased to announce the Best Free Reference Web Sites Combined Index from 1999-2006 created to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web.

The 2006 Best Free Reference Websites list includes online information sources as varied as the Big Cartoon Database, the Encyclopedia of Chicago, and Recalls.gov from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The MARS Best Website Task Force meets during the ALA Annual Conference each year to create a new list of best free reference websites. The index was created by the task force to provide a valuable information resource for librarians of websites that are free or predominantly free, or no-fee sites.

To learn more about MARS and the index go to: http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marspubs/MARSBESTIndex.htm.

LTLS Closed Monday and Delivery is Cancelled

Because there are many LTLS member libraries that are closed on Monday January 15th for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, LTLS will also be closed that day. There will be no deliveries on Monday and LTLS will resume regular schedule on Tuesday January 16th.

Oracle Education Foundation ThinkQuest International 2007

The ThinkQuest Competition is a project-based learning challenge in which teams of students and teachers compete to create the best educational websites. They learn research, writing, teamwork, and technology skills and compete for exciting prizes. The top 10 teams in each age division receive laptop computers and a $1,000 grant for the school.

Students, ages 9-19, form a team with an adult coach. The coach must be employed by and working in a teaching or resource capacity (e.g., teacher, librarian, technology coordinator, etc.) at an Eligible School. An Eligible School is an accredited school that is owned or operated by a government or local school board, or an accredited, non-profit, private school that is tax-exempt under U.S. Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), or the non-U.S. equivalent of a Section 501(c)(3) school.

Deadline is April 16, 2007. More information and the application is available on the ThinkQuest website.

Champions for Healthy Kids Awards

The American Dietetic Association Foundation, the President’s Challenge, and the General Mills Foundation are partnering to improve youth nutrition and fitness through the General Mills Champions for Healthy Kids initiative. Each year the Champions program awards fifty grants of $10,000 each to community-based groups that develop creative ways to help youth adopt both good nutrition and fitness habits.

Community-based, nonprofit organizations and agencies with a 501(c)(3) or 509(a) status are eligible to apply, including government agencies, Native American tribes, municipal organizations, churches, schools, YMCA’s, and Boys & Girls clubs. The target audience must be youth between the ages of 2 and 20, and the proposal must have at least one nutrition objective and one physical activity objective.

Deadline is February 1, 2007. More information including the application form is available on the General Mills Web site.