Product News

New Advocacy PSAs from ALA

ALA has made four new author public service announcements (PSAs) available to library advocates through the association’s ”Our Authors, Our Advocates” initiative. The new PSAs by Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book), Kathy Reichs (Virals), Pam Muñoz Ryan (The Dreamer), and Carmen Agra Deedy (14 Cows for America) are available by visiting the I Love Libraries website. Participating authors provide a variety of video PSAs on such issues as library funding, literacy, value of school libraries, and much more. Library advocates are encouraged to share the PSAs via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter and embed them to relevant webpages. Libraries, Friends groups, and library supporters are welcome to download videos and add their own logos and music.

Through “Our Authors, Our Advocates,” authors will lend their support for libraries through media interviews, podcasts, and public service announcements. Other authors whose video PSAs are available through the initiative include Scott Turow (Innocent), Brad Meltzer (The Inner Circle), Sara Paretsky (Body Work), and Sharon Draper (The Jericho Trilogy). “Our Authors Our Advocates” audio PSAs are also available, including Tony DiTerlizzi (The Spiderwick Chronicles), Holly Black (White Cat), M.T. Anderson (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing), and Laurie Halse Anderson (Chains).

A toolkit called “Cultivating Your Local Notables,” providing resources for library advocates at the local level to work with authors and other celebrities, is also available.