_________________________________________________________________ ALAWON Volume 7, Number 132 ISSN 1069-7799 October 22, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (101 lines) [1] LIBRARIANS SHINE AT 1998 INNOVATIONS IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AWARDS [2] NEW WEB SITE OFFERS RESOURCES FOR ORGANIZATIONS CONCERNED ABOUT RURAL EDUCATION _________________________________________________________________ [1] LIBRARIANS SHINE AT 1998 INNOVATIONS IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AWARDS On October 21 Jean Hatfield and Kathy McLellan from the Johnson County (KS) Public Library made an oral presentation at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on their Books to Grow program. Their project was selected as one of twenty-five finalists from 1,425 applicants in the Innovations in American Government Awards. The Books to Grow program allows day care providers to obtain pre-planned packages of activities for children enrolled in their programs. Providers call the library and reserve a Books to Grow bag that contains five picture books, an audio tape, a videotape, and a folder of activities, play and craft ideas. Hatfield, program services manager and McLellan, youth services outreach specialist, detailed the need for resources for day care providers. Presently there are 19,000 pre-school child care providers in the metropolitan area of the Johnson County library district. They stressed the importance of early childhood education for pre-reading skills, their partnering with resource and referral agencies and the training and outreach piece of the program. They also emphasized that the program can be replicable in other communities at low cost. At the conclusion of the program, David R. Gergen, chairman of the national selection committee, warmly congratulated the two librarians on their presentation. Not ones to miss a marketing opportunity, Hatfield and McLellan gave him a sample Books to Grow bag. Gergen is also editor-at-large at U.S. News and World Report magazine. The Innovations in American Government Awards are funded by the Ford Foundation and administered by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government. For further information on the awards, go to The Innovations in American Government Web site at http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/innovat/index.html. For more information about Books to Grow, contact Marcia Bennett at the Johnson County Library at (913) 261-2319. _________________________________________________________________ [2] NEW WEB SITE OFFERS RESOURCES FOR ORGANIZATIONS CONCERNED ABOUT RURAL EDUCATION A new Web site, http://www.ruralschools.org, offers online news, views and other information about rural education issues. ALA is a member of the Web site sponsor, Organizations Concerned about Rural Education (OCRE), a coalition of more than two dozen education, farm, rural, technology and utility organizations concerned for the economic future of rural America, particularly, the education of rural children. OCRE believes that modern, effective schools are vitally important to that future. According to the General Accounting Office, one-third of the nation's schools need major repairs or replacement -- and half of these schools are located in rural communities. OCRE produced a 26-minute video on the needs of rural schools and the successful efforts of two rural communities to rehabilitate old and crumbling schools. The coalition is offering preview of this video and a guide, "Rebuilding America's Schools," on their Web site at http://www.ruralschools.org/takeaction/. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/ subscribe.html or send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Mary Costabile All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. _________________________________________________________________