Krahnke will use the grant to purchase books to give away as library card registration incentives and for the library’s monthly teen book club, while Rérat’s goal is to partner with the Jasper County (MO) Juvenile Detention Center and update the center’s library.

Funds raised through Books for Teens will be distributed to institutions in communities with a high level of poverty, where librarians and library workers will purchase and distribute new books, encourage teens to get library cards and provide teens with reading-focused events and activities. Visit the Books for Teens website for complete information on grant requirements.

JJ Echaniz, Yale freshman and CEO of Forward Tutoring

Like one or two other well-known tech wizards, Michael Dell began building his vision for an innovative computer company from a college dorm room, when he was a student at the University of Texas at Austin. Supporting that spirit of entrepreneurship among young people, Dell, Inc. is now awarding grants to student innovators whose projects aid education in and out of the classroom.

“Every company starts with a great idea,” says Michele Glaze, Strategic Giving and Employee Engagement Manager at Dell. “We believe that students have this wonderful voice when it comes to changing the world.”

With that in mind, Dell last month announced the winners of its Dell Education Challenge, an international competition recognizing projects that support learning issues among K-12 students. From the 400 project submissions, Dell employees selected one winner, awarded $10,000, along with three finalists who will be entered into the 2013 Dell Social Innovation Challenge, whose entrants compete for more than $350,000 in cash prizes and other awards. Seven additional Dell Education Challenge “Promising Projects” received $1,000 each.

The winning endeavor, Forward Tutoring, started in 2010 as the brainchild of seven teenagers at the Newman Smith High School in Carrollton, Texas. Through its online platform, Forward Tutoring allows students to earn credits by volunteering in their communities, and then applying those credits toward one-on-one online tutoring sessions with other qualified students. Those volunteer tutors can themselves earn scholarships and internships from supporting organizations.

“Students don’t like to volunteer if they’re not passionate about the issues they’re volunteering for,” says JJ Echaniz, one of Forward Tutoring’s founders who is now a freshman at Yale. But Echaniz said that a survey among north Texas schools showed that “given the right opportunity that matches a student’s interest, 96 percent of students said they would go out and volunteer.”

Echaniz and his classmates harnessed that volunteering potential to create “an ecosystem where students pay it forward,” he says, creating a win-win situation in which kids’ community efforts also help them academically.

The Forward Tutoring team also strived to make tutoring fun. “Other tutoring programs are very impersonal,” says Echaniz. With Forward Tutoring, “the idea is that you’re speaking with someone your age. The advantage is that if students can relate to the tutor, it’s so much easier to learn.” Becoming an FT tutor is actually competitive, Echaniz notes, since interested high schoolers who are academically gifted still must pass a qualification process. Echaniz adds that the organization is creating college chapters, including ones at Yale, The UT Austin, and the University of California at Berkeley, schools that other Forward Tutoring founders are attending.

The Dell Education Challenge second-place winner is the Gyan Knowledge Lab, an organization that sets up hands-on learning labs for students in India, with the goal of keeping kids engaged in education—and in school.

“There’s not a lot of hands-on learning in India,” says Glaze. Without that, it can be hard for students to stay academically stimulated and many drop out. “In the U. S., you’re going to get out the beakers during science class, but that doesn’t necessarily happen in India,” she explains. “This project focuses on constructive learning.”

Another finalist is e-Education for Gaza, which provides support for children with learning difficulties in Gaza by providing videos with which teachers can connect with educational experts in their field.  The third finalist, Next Step Leaders, is a leadership development training program for educators that provides personalizes assessments, group leadership training, and one-on-one coaching.

According to the company, the Dell Education Challenge expands the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, the world’s largest platform to support student innovators. It is managed by UT Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Star Wars: National Star Wars Reads Day is October 6. The event is an initiative of Lucasfilm and its publishing partners, Abrams, Chronicle Books, Dark Horse, Del Rey, DK, Scholastic, Titan Magazines, and Workman. Although the sign-up period to receive a free Star Wars event kit from the sponsors (1000 libraries signed up) has ended, there is another option available for libraries that want to participate in the event. ABDO Publishing is offering a free Star Wars event guide containing teacher’s guides, promotional posters, interviews with celebrities connected to the franchise, a list of nearly 300 Star Wars universe terms, a video of the event that was held in the Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, and an order form for the 68 ABDO/Spotlight Star Wars library editions. You can also follow Star Wars Reads Day on Facebook.

Game On

Free online game: Electronic Arts’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, previously a subscription only massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), will be available online for free starting this fall. The free version allows players “to play free to Level 50, with game play restrictions that limit game options and access to certain game content,” according to Jeff Hickman, the game’s executive producer. Those who continue to subscribe for $15 per month will have free unlimited access to all game features and game updates. The publisher will rely on players buying premium content and virtual items to make money.

Digitally Yours

Multimedia ebooks: eBoost is ABDO Digital’s new multimedia line of flip book ebooks that are combined with related media links. Among the multimedia features of ABDO’s flip books is the ability for readers to turn pages and make them larger. Each ebook in the new eBoost line also includes Web links; downloadable content; embedded videos; RSS and/or Twitter feeds; notes and custom links fields for teacher comments, posting messages, and student assignments; and more. The eBoost titles, featuring secure Web-based hosting by ABDO, are compatible with Macs, PCs, iPads, and Android-based tablets such as Kindle Fire or the Nook. The new line is being launched with 164 titles for elementary through middle grade students. Titles can be ordered individually or in bundles such as Animal Kingdom, Body Systems, The Civil War, Planet Earth, and more. eBoost is sold as a site license with simultaneous access for multiple users.

Granted

Public awareness campaign: The 2013 Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant is an annual $3000 award open to all libraries. To apply for the grant, libraries must come up with a public awareness campaign using the National Library Week Theme—“Communities matter @ your library—and involving at least one other community organization. An application form and guidelines are available on the Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant website. The application deadline is September 30. The winner will be announced after the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle in January 2013. The winner must provide documentation of their activities and submit a report to ALA’s Public Awareness Committee by May 20. The grant is sponsored by Scholastic Library Publishing and is administered by the Public awareness Committee of the American Library Association (ALA).

Read On

Literacy initiative: Author John Green, Michael L. Printz and Edgar Award winner, has been named the spokesperson for the 2012 Teen Read Week, a literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). The theme of this year’s Teen Read Week—celebrated October 14-20—is “It Came from the Library!” “Getting more teens to pick up a book and make it a regular habit” is what Teen Read Week is all about says Jack Martin, YALSA president. Among his duties, Green will host a national event to kick off the celebration and will judge a contest in which teens are charged with creating a video about their favorite book.

Create art based on literature: It Came from a Book!, a Teen Read Week art contest, is being launched by The Library as Incubator Project in partnership with Teen Librarian’s Toolbox, The Real Fauxtographer, and EgmontUSA. Teens are encouraged to read any book and create an original piece of art in any medium—painting, drawing, photo, sculpture, manga, etc.—inspired by the story. Then, they must take a digital photo of the artwork and submit the photo (or file if it is digital) to trwartcontest2012@gmail.com by September 30. Make sure to read the instructions carefully. Librarians are urged to encourage their teen patrons to enter the contest and can download a poster that contains all the relevant information. Teens can submit their own artwork or librarians can do it for them.

During Teen Read Week—October 14-20, 2012—The Library as Incubator Project will host a digital art gallery of all the entries. Online voting at The Library as Incubator Project is open to the public and will determine the winner. One grand prize winner, to be announced on October 20th, will receive a $50 Amazon gift card, The Library as Incubator Project t-shirt, photograph prints from The Real Fauxtographer, signed copies of books (Crewel by Gennifer Albin, Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, and Divergent by Veronica Roth), and a package from EgmontUSA, including their Teens Top 10 nominated titles.

Teen Read Week is a literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. The annual event is intended to encourage teens to read books just for fun on a regular basis so that reading becomes a habit.

Reading Club

Harry Potter: Scholastic has announced the launch of the Harry Potter Reading Club for educators, librarians, and after-school program coordinators “who want to organize a book club with access to all the tools they need to host a Harry Potter Reading Club and celebrate the joy of reading.” A welcome kit that includes bookmarks, stickers, and nametags will be given to the first 10,000 registrants for the online club. The site will include a discussion guide for each of the seven Harry Potter novels. Scholastic plans to add new content on the site every month. To celebrate the club’s launch, educators can register their classes for a live virtual webchat with J. K. Rowling, author of the series, on October 11th at 12 pm (ET) where she will answer questions from children.

Industry News

New imprints: Soho Press is launching a new imprint for young adults called Soho Teen. What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard is the debut title scheduled for publication in January 2013. Mitchard has previously written four books for children and six young adult novels, including The Midnight Twins (Razorbill, 2008) and All We Know of Heaven (HarperTeen, 2008). Soho Teen’s first list will also include five other titles. “Every story must have a mystery at its heart,” according to Daniel Ehrenhaft, Soho Press’s editorial director.

Triangle Square Editions is a new children’s book imprint that will be launched by Seven Stories Press this fall. The first list, for middle school and young adult readers, will include both fiction and nonfiction titles. Among the first releases are A Different Mirror for Young People by Ronald Takaki, Do You Dream in Color? Insights from a Girl without Sight by Laurie Rubin, James Lecesne’s Trevor, and The Story of the Blue Planet by Andri Snaer Magnason.

Granted

Achieve, a nonprofit education reform organization, has been awarded a three-year, $7 million grant from the GE Foundation. The grant will assist Achieve in giving states support needed to implement the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS). “We look forward to working with Achieve’s leaders as they further engage governors and the business community in getting ready for the changes required by the Common core,” noted Robert Corcoran, Vice President, Corporate Citizenship and President and Chairman of the GE Foundation.

“This is very meaningful work,” says Rachel Garbow Monroe, president of the Weinberg Foundation. “It’s going to be extraordinary.”

Three school libraries—Thomson Johnson Elementary/Middle School, Moravia Park Elementary, and Southwest Baltimore Charter—are set to open their doors September 12, with nine others scheduled to roll out over the next few years. The Weinberg Foundation has plans to  announce the second round of school libraries planned to open in 2013.

With school libraries across the nation suffering deep budget cuts, foundations, and even private businesses are coming to their rescue. Retailer Target and grants from the Laura Bush Foundation have been helping schools restock book collections and even supply new computers.

Weinberg had originally promised $1 million in December 2011, but that grew to $5 million this month after the foundation’s trustees decided to increase their support of the Baltimore Library Project. Each library will cost approximately $3 million to build, says Monroe. Additional funds and in-kind promises also will come from outside partners, including the Baltimore Sun, which will donate free newspapers to the school libraries indefinitely, and the Maryland Food Bank, which will build a food bank at each school site.

Each new school library will receive thousands of new books, 100 pre-loaded Nooks and technology that could include laptops to Macs, depending on what the schools determine will best benefit their students. Schools will also receive a matching $100,000 grant over four years and hire a part-time paraprofessional to free up more time for librarians to work with students.

Monroe says the requirements for winning a new library or library upgrade included having a full-time librarian on staff, as well as a principal and librarian excited and willing to participate. All applicants also had to receive federal Qualified Zone Academy Bonds, which are non-interest-bearing bonds given to school districts. Those schools with existing libraries will be renovated, while those without any formal space will have one built.

The Weinberg Foundation targets high schools, particularly those in the K-8 grades, to ensure they provide kids with physical books to increase their literacy skills as they mature as students.

“There’s a feeling that high school libraries will become over time like college libraries, more Internet focused and online,” says Monroe, who says the foundation sought advice from local experts. “The anecdotal feedback was that elementary schools are going to continue to have books for children to touch, and practice reading, which is so important for them in order to have strong reading skills. And we thought we could have a stronger impact on the lives of elementary and middle school children.”

Another hitch? The deadline for the school literacy grants is August 10 at 4:30 p.m. EST, which doesn’t give applicants much time to prepare and fill out the lengthy online form.

The American Library Association says it’s grateful that the U.S. Congress-with Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) taking the lead-passed an appropriations bill in December, which created the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Program and made $28.6 million in federal funds available for programs that “improve the quality of elementary and secondary education at the state and local levels and help all students meet challenging state academic content standards and student achievement standards.” The bill specifically states that half of the money must go toward school libraries and the other half toward literacy initiatives such as Reading is Fundamental or Reach Out and Read.

But what took the DOE so long to make the grants available, especially since they were expected in late spring, while schools were still in session? Phone calls and emails to DOE officials in charge of the program went unanswered.

“The American Library Association is disappointed that it took the U.S. Department of Education many months to release this grant application,” says Jeff Kratz, assistant director of ALA’s Office of Government Relations, adding that ALA is still grateful for the federal school library funds, which in effect replaces the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grants that the DOE zeroed out in May 2011. That program was created in 2001 as the only federal program specifically geared toward providing funds for school libraries-and also was spearheaded by Reed.

Both programs distribute competitive grants to help students in low-income school districts have access to up-to-date school library materials. The Innovative Approaches program is specifically designed to support innovative literacy programs for young children, increase student achievement by using school libraries, and motivate older children to read. According to the DOE, the grants are to be used to “develop and improve literacy skills for children and students from birth through 12th grade within the attendance boundaries of high-need local educational agencies.”

Local education agencies must apply for the grants on behalf of school libraries and can use the money to support school libraries and purchase materials. The DOE has emphasized the need for school libraries when it announced the program, saying, “Many schools and districts across the Nation do not have school libraries that deliver high-quality literacy programming to children and their families. Additionally, many schools do not have qualified library media specialists and library facilities. Where facilities do exist, they are often under-resourced and lack adequate books and other materials. In many communities, high-need children and students have limited access to appropriate age- and grade-level reading material in their homes.”

ALA says it “encourages school librarians to apply for the program grants,” which will amount to about 30 grants in the $150,000 to $750,000 range.

Applicants must register with Grants.gov in order to apply, and the DOE says registration may take five or more business days to complete. “We strongly recommend that you do not wait until the last day to submit your application,” reads the DOE website, explaining that Grants.gov will put a date and time stamp on all applications and then process them after they’re fully uploaded. The time it takes to upload an application will “vary depending on a number of factors, including the size of the application and the speed of your Internet connection, and the time it takes Grants.gov to process the application will vary as well.” If Grants.gov rejects an application, applicants must resubmit successfully before the August 10, 4:30:00 p.m. deadline.

By law, half of the $28.6 million appropriated under Innovative Approaches to Literacy must be allocated to a competitive grant program for underserved school libraries, and the remaining money will be allocated to competitive grants for national nonprofit organizations that work to improve childhood literacy. Funding is expected to be distributed no later than September 2012.

To get tips on how to apply for the literacy grant program, visit the ALA Innovative Approaches to Literacy application guide webpage.