Kent State Pilots Library Project

The program, entitled the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education, will bring together Kent State's School of Library and Information Science, College of Education, and the university library to offer various summer workshops and training sessions on "ways to encourage the effective use of school libraries in classes," says Regula, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. The Institute is expected to be launched in July and will include regular lectures by prominent leaders in the library profession.

Martha Regula, a school librarian at the Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, OH, often told her father that students were missing out on library resources because teachers weren't aware of what the library had to offer. Those comments, coupled with last year's first White House Conference on School Libraries, inspired Regula to include money for the program in a recent bill reauthorizing funds for the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The federal money, which will pay for the new institute's operating expenses, will also help fund travel expenses for attendees.

Michael Eisenberg, dean of the Information School at the University of Washington, will help hammer out the curriculum and other details.