SAGE Sponsors New ALCTS Support Staff Grant: 3 Recipients to Attend 2005 ALA Annual Conference

["Johns, Valerie" <Valerie.Johns@sagepub.com>]

CONTACT:
Elena Nikitina
Director of Journals Marketing
SAGE Publications
Tel: 805-410-7204
Fax: 805-499-0871
Email: elena.nikitina@sagepub.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAGE Sponsors New ALCTS Support Staff Grant

Thousand Oaks, California, and London, United Kingdom (January 2005) -
SAGE Publications, in partnership with ALA's Association for Library
Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), is sponsoring the new "ALCTS
Support Staff Grant".  The new grant will make it possible for three
library support staff personnel to attend the ALA Annual Conference in
Chicago this June.

Support staff members are often the "unsung heroes" in today's libraries;
they perform increasingly complex tasks and have considerable
responsibility. Unfortunately, the realities of library budgets seldom
provide the finances for them to attend conferences.  Blaise Simqu, SAGE
President and CEO, recognized this situation, and with support from ALCTS,
SAGE has contributed the funds to sponsor the grant.

The grant is right in step with the American Library Association in
focusing attention on this important segment of the library profession.
Just this past September, ALA added a new membership category for library
support staff through a special membership initiative developed by ALCTS
and RUSA (Reference and User Services Association) together with LSSIRT
(Library Support Staff Interests Round Table).

The new Support Staff Grant will be awarded to deserving full-time
support staff members with a minimum of three years experience in
technical services, who have never attended an ALA Annual Conference.
There were many applications for the grant, and the filing deadline
closed on December 1, 2004.

"We're thrilled with the amount of interest in this award and at the
abilities of the applicants," reported Pamela Bluh, chair of the 2005
ALCTS Support Staff Grant Award Jury." 

The award recipients will be announced after the ALA Midwinter
Conference in January.

About SAGE:

SAGE Publications is a leading international publisher of journals, books,
and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets.
Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of
scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students. SAGE Publications, a
privately owned corporation, has principal offices in Thousand Oaks,
California, London, United Kingdom, and in New Delhi, India.

About ALCTS:

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services is
responsible for the following activities: acquisition, identification,
cataloging, classification, and preservation of library materials; the
development and coordination of the country's library resources; and those
areas of selection and evaluation involved in the acquisition of library
materials and pertinent to the development of library resources.

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