I love being a children\u2019s librarian.\u00a0 But, I also have a secret love of numbers. Luckily for me, I am the chair of the ALSC budget committee where we have the thrill of looking at spreadsheets, puzzling out numbers and analyzing trends with ALSC\u2019s Executive Director, Aimee Strittmatter.\u00a0 My committee also has the honor of overseeing the Children\u2019s Library Service Endowment, which provides funding of approximately $1500 annually for ALSC committee projects.\u00a0 We make dreams come true, okay maybe not dreams, but we make good ideas a reality.<\/p>\n
The Children\u2019s Library Service Endowment fund (CLSE) started in 1982 and was formerly known as the Helen Knight Memorial Fund.\u00a0 The proceeds of this fund support long and short-range projects and programs of ALSC.\u00a0 The endowment is designed to support committees that have ideas for special projects not covered by the operating budget. Through the years it is has been the financial engine behind the \u201cSeal\u201d\u009d created by the Great Interactive Software for Kids Committee, School-Age Programs and Service Committee\u2019s PDF booklist \u201cGreat Elementary Reads\u201d\u009d. The endowment also financially supported the Great Web Sites Committee in the redesign of the website and in 2013, CLSE funded the Early Childhood Programs and Services Committee webinar speaker and provided free access for ALSC members.<\/p>\n
If you are part of an ALSC Committee please consider using CLSE funding to make your idea a reality.\u00a0 The Special Funds Application (also known as Form M) is located in The Division Leadership Manual and on ALA Connect in the ALSC Budget Committee Files and is easy to complete.\u00a0 Remember that projects must align with ALSC\u2019s strategic plan. If you have any questions along the way please contact Diane Foote, ALSC Fiscal Officer dianebfoote@gmail.com<\/a> or myself, Paula Holmes, ALSC Budget Chair qsprite2@gmail.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Deadline for Applications is April 15, 2014 with notification of funding approval after Annual 2014.\u00a0 Monies must be spent prior to August 31,2015.<\/p>\n **********************************************<\/p>\n Paula Holmes chairs the Budget Committee for ALSC.\u00a0 She is the past chair of the Library Service to Special Population Children and their Caregivers, serves as a member of the United for Libraries Awards Committee, another division of ALA and serves on the Upper St. Clair Township Library Board. Outside her board responsibilities she runs a book group at the USC library. Before entering the world of Library Land, Paula was a retail buyer for a major, no longer existing, department store chain.\u00a0 Her husband Neal, sons Thomas and Sean have benefited from her keen fashion sense, even if they don\u2019t know it.\u00a0\u00a0 She is secretly proud of her LEGO trophy she won in Denmark at LEGO headquarters.<\/i><\/p>\n