UA School of Library and Information Studies Awards Books to Black Belt Schools

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies awarded more than $8,000 in books to elementary and high school library media centers in the Black Belt region of the state through the SLIS Book Bonanza for the Black Belt Program.

School librarians in the Black Belt region were asked to apply for the book giveaway program in mid-November. More than 30 school libraries applied for the program, and seven schools were selected to each receive more than $1,000 in new books for children or teens. The winning schools for the 2010 SLIS Book Bonanza for the Black Belt Program are:

• Akron Community School (Hale County)
• Fort Deposit Elementary School (Lowndes County)
• Hale County High School (Hale County)
• R.E. Lee High School (Montgomery County)
• South Highlands Middle School (Bullock County)
• Sunshine High School (Hale County)
• York West End Jr. High School (Sumter County)

Established in 2009, the SLIS Book Bonanza for the Black Belt is an annual program that provides free books to school library media centers in the Black Belt region each December. The program is just one of the many ways in which the School of Library and Information Studies gives back to our local community, region and state.

Schools in the Black Belt region of the state are encouraged to apply again in November 2011 to receive free books for their school library media centers during the 2011 SLIS Book Bonanza for the Black Belt Program. If you need additional information about the program, contact Dr. Jamie C. Naidoo at jcnaidoo@slis.ua.edu or SLIS at 205/348-4610.

SLIS also presented Athens-Limestone Public Library with a free Ellison die-cut machine as part of another giveaway program. For the Die-Cut Give-Away program, 32 school and public libraries from across the state wrote mini-grants to receive a free die-cut machine (worth more than $1,000) for library displays and programming.

The School of Library and Information Studies in the UA College of Communication and Information Sciences houses Alabama’s only library education program accredited by the American Library Association. The School offers both a Master of Library and Information Studies and a Master of Fine Arts in the book arts.