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StoryTubes Wins Public Library Association National Award - $1,000 Honorarium Added to Project

StoryTubes - the 2-minute or shorter "my favorite book" video project - has won the PLA Polaris Innovation in Technology John Iliff Award and that win couldn't have come at a better time. The $1,000 PLA award honorarium prize will go into the project.

Alan Harkness, Director of the Piedmont Regional Library System, chaired the PLA award jury. He said that the StoryTubes project was chosen for the prize because it "captured the essence of using technology in an innovative way to tie back into a core business function of public libraries: sharing the joy of reading.

"The StoryTubes project gave local kids a means to use technology they were interested in to talk about stories. The way that this project brought the community together to vote on the videos the children made was quite original and easily replicated in libraries everywhere."

Staff members at Gail Borden Public Library, creators, and now coordinators, of the StoryTubes project, were thrilled to hear the news. With so much economic uncertainty, support was a little harder to come by this year.

However, publishers did step up to support the project and the $1,000 will help ensure that coveted prizes will be available in all categories.

Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, DK, Little Brown, Charlesbridge and Harper Collins are publishers that will support the project with book prizes. The Sony Corporation has provided camera prizes.

The PLA Polaris Innovation in Technology John Iliff Award honors the life and accomplishments of John Iliff, early adopter and champion of technology in public libraries, and recognizes the contributions of a library worker, librarian, or library that has used technology and innovative thinking as a tool to improve services to public library users. The award provides a $1,000 honorarium, a plaque and a bouquet of roses for the workplace. The award is sponsored by Polaris.