[Publib] 2009 ASCLA/KLAS/NOD Award

[kathegarty at yahoo.com]

Meg Kolaya, director, Scotch Plains Public Library (NJ) and Dan Weiss, director, Fanwood Memorial Library (NJ)  will accept the 2009 ASCLA/KLAS/NOD Award for their remarkable project, "Libraries and Autism: We're Connected,"at the ASCLA President’s Program on Sunday, July 12, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon in the Empire Room of the Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago.    
The award is sponsored by the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), Keystone Systems, and the National Organization on Disability. Winners are honored for innovative and well-organized projects that have successfully developed, or expanded, library services for people with disabilities.  The award includes a citation and a $1000 prize, donated by Keystone Systems 
 “The “Libraries and Autism” project is being honored for having launched a  national campaign to make librarians aware of people on the autism spectrum and, most notably, to train librarians to serve this growing and underserved population. State sponsorship, able project leadership, involvement of the autism community, and highly effective promotion have contributed to the success of an initiative that has had  significant inpact. 
The project’s sophisticated, yet accessible website, www.thejointlibrary.org/autism, offers valuable background information, a superb customer services training video, and supportive materials and graphics, all of which can be downloaded.    Citations to print and non-print materials, websites, and organizations concerned with the autism disorder abound.   Individuals with autism interact with library staff in the video which focuses on some unconventional behavioral traits of people with this disorder.  Techniques are then suggested and demonstrated that will enable librarians to respond in a positive and welcoming manner.  
The website includes a list of workshop consultants, a non-verbal communication tool, customer service tips, publicity logos, and a storybook template—“This is My Library”—that a library can customize to provide a visual pre-visit library tour for the child with autism.  A “Libraries and Autism: We’re Connected” decal for the library front door or window is available on request. 
The “Libraries and Autism” project has reached a broad audience.  The training video was sent to all of New Jersey’s public libraries, and the Pennsylvania State Library has replicated 1,000 copies. The video has also been viewed nationwide through its posting on YouTube.  It has formed the basis of numerous In-service training workshops throughout the country.  
The initiative is part of the “Welcoming Library Spaces for the Autism Community and Their Families” incubator project which was made possible by a contract with INFOLINK: The Eastern New Jersey Regional Library Cooperative.  The Cooperative and its services are funded by the New Jersey State Library which is responsible for the coordination, promotion, and funding of the New Jersey Library Network.  
Libraries interested in implementing the project in their community should contact project managers Meg Kolaya or Dan Weiss at autism at thejointlibrary.org or call (908)322-6400 or (908)322-5007 x202.


      
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