September 26, 2011
The American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Announce Their New Sponsor, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.
The American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) are pleased to announce their new partnership with Toyota. Toyota will sponsor the Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture program by providing funding for four mini-grants that will be awarded in early 2012.
Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture (www.talkstorytogether.org) is a literacy program that reaches out to Asian Pacific American (APA) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) children and their families. The program celebrates and explores their stories through books, oral traditions, and art to provide an interactive, enriching experience. In 2012 AILA and APALA will partner on the Talk Story project for the third year, allocating grant funding to libraries to implement programs geared towards the APA.AIAN communities. To date, eight Talk Story grants have been awarded.
This will be the first year that Toyota has sponsored grant funding for Talk Story and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them. “Thanks to funding from Toyota we will be able to provide more grants to libraries and community organizations interested in hosting a Talk Story event in their community,” said Liana Juliano and Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, chairs of the Talk Story committee for AILA and APALA.
Grant applications will be available beginning in December and will be due February 1, 2012.
An affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA), the American Indian Library Association is a membership action group that addresses the library-related needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Members are individuals and institutions interested in the development of programs to improve Indian library, cultural, and informational services in school, public, and research libraries on reservations. AILA is also committed to disseminating information about Indian cultures, languages, values, and information needs to the library community. Additional information about AILA can be found at www.ailanet.org.
The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) was established in 1980 by librarians of diverse Asian/Pacific ancestries committed to create an organization that would address and support the needs of Asian/Pacific American librarians and those who serve Asian/Pacific American communities. In addition, over the years, APALA has granted numerous scholarships and awards. Additional information about APALA can be found at www.apalaweb.org.
Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture is a joint project of the American Indian Library Association and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association that started as part of American Library Association (ALA) 2009-2010 President Camila Alire’s Family Literacy Focus Initiative. The project is sponsored by Toyota.