June 9, 2016
The American Indian Library Association and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Announce Winners of the 2016 Talk Story Grant
The American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), supported by Toyota Financial Services, are pleased to award a $600 grant to each of the following 10 libraries and community organizations to host Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture programming. The winning libraries and community organizations are:
California State University Fresno in California – The university is designated as an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution and the Library Diversity Committee will use their funds to host a Native American storytelling event to reach users from these communities. Their event will help promote other library resources of interest to Native American visitors such as the upcoming traveling exhibit “Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness” sponsored by the American Library Association. Funds awarded will also be used to purchase books and audiovisual materials to add to their Native American children’s collections.
Hoh Tribal Library in Washington – The tribal library, located on the Hoh reservation, will use their funds to support young children as there is no early education program for the community. The majority of their library patrons are children ages 1-13 so to engage these users they will create Native American story kits. Families can check out the kits on a variety of topics which will include books, activity idea sheets and materials to complete the activities suggested. To promote the availability of these new materials there will be a kick-off event at the start of summer vacation.
Kenton County Public Library in Kentucky – With funding from Talk Story, KCPL will be holding their eighth Filipino Independence Day celebration. The event will allow KCPL to share aspects of Filipino culture through bilingual stories, folk dance performances, folk songs, games and crafts. KCPL is partnering with the Filipino-American Association of Northern Kentucky, the Filipino American Association of Southern Ohio, the Philippine Nurses Association of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky, and United Filipino-Americans Mabuhay Society. Each family in attendance will be given a bilingual book in English and Tagalog.
Long Beach Public Library, North Branch in California – The North Branch of LBPL will be partnering with the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum to hold a Talk Story program focused on Polynesian culture. The museum will aid the library in filling its display cases with Polynesian artifacts. Dance and musical performances, crafts, movies and storytelling are scheduled for the event in mid-November, in conjunction with events celebrating the relaunch and opening of their new state-of-the-art branch, the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library.
Monroe Township Public Library in New Jersey – Monroe Township Public Library will use the majority of their Talk Story grant to invest into collection development of titles in South Asian languages, collaborating with a local Indian agency to aid in selecting and promoting materials to the local community. The library plans to use this new collection to add storytimes and art programs focusing on Indian culture. The remaining amount of the grant will be used to hire performers for a Diwali themed program, crafts and publication of the event. Moreno Valley High School in California – Moreno Valley High School’s newly revived Polynesian Club will be use their funds to hold a program titled “Let’s Talk Story! Sharing Culture & Celebrating Diversity With Students & Their Families,” and include a book discussion, storytelling, crafts and a closing dance with students and alumni. This is the first Asian/Pacific American community event to be held in over six years. Funds will also be used to purchase a starting collection of APIA books in different areas including APALA award winners.
Pierce County Library System in Washington – To strengthen their relationship and share information about library services and resources with the Puyallup Tribe, the library, as part of Pierce County’s service area, will host two storytelling events with their Talk Story funds. One event will be hosted by the Puyallup community and another will be held at a Pierce County library facility with each event featuring a Puyallup storyteller. The event will also include the chance to make an art project related to the story, which can be used by the families who attend to tell their own stories at home. Funds will also support the purchase of Native American children’s books for the Pierce County libraries.
Sacramento Public Library, South Natomas Library in California – The South Natomas Branch will be using their funding this May to hold programs for adults and children during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The adult program will focus on teaching brush painting techniques that will encompass art styles from China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The library will host a local Hawaiian dance company to perform and present information on Hawaiian dance and culture. The event will also include face-painting and crafts. The library will use remaining funds to add APALA award winning and honor books to the library collection.
Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribal Library in Washington – The tribal library plans to use their Talk Story funds to host multiple cultural events to support the revitalization of their Native language of Lushootseed. The tribal library will host a storytelling night with a Lushootseed storyteller who encourages audience participation with children. Partnering with the tribe’s Cultural Resources department, another event will be held where community members can create family trees and storybooks and learn how to make traditional crafts such as drums and cedar weaving. Additionally the library will purchase culturally relevant Native American materials to enhance their collections which currently are majority donated materials.
Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians in California – The tribal library plans to host a storytelling series for community members and to create books illustrating stories from the book “Pomo Myths”. These events and materials will support the revitalization of the Pomo language and culture. The book creation and storytelling series will both be implemented by tribal high school students. Once the books are created they will be given to attendees at the storytelling series and added to the library collections for those unable to attend to check out. Because storytelling events have not been offered in the community for many years, the tribe hopes to revive interest in the telling of Pomo stories and using the Pomo language.
