Apply for the Virtual Learning and Enhancement Grant

Applications are open for the American Library Association's Virtual Learning and Enhancement Mini-grant opportunity. ALA is partnering with Google to offer up to 90 $1000 mini-grants to provide digital skills programs for library patrons and students using Google's Applied Digital Skills curriculum. School, academic, tribal, and public libraries that have not received a Digital Learning Day or Hour of Code mini-grant in the past year are eligible. As part of the grant, library staff will receive professional development training through Five-Star Technologies to enhance their virtual programming capabilities. The deadline is Sep. 17, 2020. Read more here.

Niche Academy, a library vendor, is making the resources on their Reopening Lives Academy free to all libraries in the U.S. There is no password or geo location necessary to access the materials. The library community curated the resources, which include COVID 19 resources, such as cleaning and disinfecting, paycheck protection program, virtual programming and much more.

https://my.nicheacademy.com/reopening

NY State Library Announces Digital Equity Webinars (Even though they are NY focused, may have useful information for NJ too)

The New York State Library and State Education Department, in partnership with the METRO Library Council and the Northern New York Library Network, announced a series of webinars on Digital Equity beginning Sep. 10, 2020. This webinar series is intended for educators, librarians, and other stakeholders with an interest in bringing about digital equity. Read more here.

All the best,

Sharon Rawlins, MLS, she/her/hers

Youth Services Specialist for Lifelong Learning

NJ State Library

185 West State St.

P.O. Box 520

Trenton, NJ 08625-0520

...@njstatelib.org" style="color: #2199e8; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">sraw...@njstatelib.org

609-278-2640 ext. 116

609-278-2650 – fax