Libraries across the country are celebrating an all-American summer pastime and the role libraries play in building literacy skills by participating in the Step Up to the Plate @ your library® program, developed by American Library Association and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The Greenville County Library System is among the programs involved.
Since the program began in April, nearly 1,400 libraries have registered for the program at www.ala.org/baseball to gain access to free tools to help promote the program locally. Tools include a toolkit with programming ideas and customizable media relations materials, downloadable audio and print PSAs featuring Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith and more.
The Greenville system helped its 12 branches get a jump start on promoting the program by providing each with a packet containing copies of the Step Up to the Plate playbooks and a sign to display at the circulation desks. A mascot from the Greenville Drive, a local minor league team, also visited two of the branches to help promote the program.
Libraries that bring in the most number of entries are eligible to win special incentives. The library that brings in the most entries will get a $100 bookstore gift certificate, a copy of Lawrence Hogan's Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball (published by National Geographic Society) and three copies of Satch and Me by Dan Gutman (published by HarperCollins). The next three libraries will receive a $50 ALA Graphics gift certificate, a copy of Shades of Glory and three copies of Satch and Me.
Step Up to the Plate @ your library® encourages people to use the library’s resources to look up the answers to a series of baseball trivia questions. The trivia questions, available in English and Spanish, are organized by age group (10 and under, 11-13, 14-17 and 18 and older).
The grand prize includes a trip to the Hall of Fame's World Series Game One Gala event in Cooperstown, N.Y., in October, and a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum. Twenty first-place prize packages also will be awarded, including a commemorative hardbound copy of the Hall of Fame Yearbook, Hall of Fame T-shirt, commemorative set of 20 Hall of Fame baseball cards and more.
All of the program’s baseball trivia questions are posted on the Step Up to the Plate Web site, and answers can be submitted in electronic form or by mail.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a founding partner of The Campaign for America's Libraries. The Step Up to the Plate @ your library program is supported by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), the Public Library Association (PLA), REFORMA, and the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum.
