Awesome Libraries

As stated in their mission, "We Here seeks to provide a safe and supportive community for Black and Indigenous folks, and People of Color (BIPOC) in library and information science (LIS) professions and educational programs, and to recognize, discuss, and intervene in systemic social issues that have plagued these professions both historically and continue through present time."

With our April grant, our trustees specifically wanted to provide funding that directly supported library workers who have lost wages because of a Coronavirus-related layoff. The Awesome Libraries Chapter is excited to provide the initial funding for the "Help a Library Worker Out" campaign, and we look forward to signal boosting this initiative across our networks.

The Awesome Libraries chapter of the Awesome Foundation, an international organization that forwards the interest of awesome in the universe $1000 at a time, will be hosting our Awesome Ideas Pitch for Libraries during ALA Midwinter 2020 in Philadelphia. 

The Awesome Libraries Chapter of the Awesome Foundation will host a live-pitch event at the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting’s Symposium on the Future of Libraries. The event will take place Saturday, January 25th, from 5:00 – 6:30pm in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

--- Deadline Extended to January 6, 2020 ---

In 2011, Iceland rewrote its constitution using a uniquely and historically open process. It reshaped the dialogue on how a population can use available technology, consensus building, and civic engagement when reinventing the governmental processes in supporting the needs of their constituents. What resulted was a proposed constitution, that was affirmed by a public referendum. However, the Parliament has yet to ratify the proposal. Eight years later the effort is still alive and well, gaining traction and interest globally. Yet there’s a threat that this historically relevant process will disappear without documentation.

On June 22nd, during the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington DC, Awesome Libraries teamed up with Awesome DC to throw a collaborative live pitch event at OpenGov Hub. Over 100 folks registered to attend and sponsors included: OpenGovHub, EveryLibrary Institute, and B.Lin Catering.

The EveryLibrary Institute today announces a new partnership with the Awesome Foundation - Libraries Chapter to support their fundraising and philanthropic activities with the launch of AwesomeLibraries.org. The EveryLibrary Institute is providing fiscal sponsorship and digital infrastructure support to help Awesome Libraries further its philanthropic mission of support. Awesome Libraries is a voluntary organization of library professionals who contribute on a monthly or yearly basis to a common donor pool and select “truly awesome” library projects from around the world to fund. Since 2017, Awesome Libraries trustees have donated $11,000 to eleven library and literacy projects in the United States and abroad.

The Awesome Foundation’s Libraries Chapter is hosting its first ever “Awesome Ideas Pitch for Libraries” during the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver. Chapter organizers reached out to the profession looking for great ideas for small projects that could impact our communities, demonstrate a new idea, or improve a tool or service. Eight individuals will share their proposed projects with the ALA community today and the audience and judges will choose their favorite.

Originally published by the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences blog:

A commitment to library innovations led a small group of librarians, including iSchool alumnus Joshua Finnell (MS '07), to create the Awesome Libraries Chapter. The chapter originated from a working group of the Library Pipeline, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting structural changes by providing opportunities, funding, and services that improve the library as an institution and librarianship as a profession. Finnell, head of research and instruction and associate professor in the University Libraries at Colgate University, started the chapter with group members Bonnie Tijerina, researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute in New York, and Robin Champieux, scholarly communication librarian at Oregon Health & Science University.

Transformative innovation is often driven by small scale projects and experiments. The Innovation in Libraries Awesome Foundation Chapter was created to support the prototyping of library innovations that embody the principles of diversity, inclusivity, creativity, and risk-taking. Since its founding, the chapter has supported projects from around the world that reflect the potential of citizen and library-driven collaborations to address community issues and innovations. This session will discuss how the chapter was formed, the projects that have been funded, and the future direction of the Innovation in Libraries Chapter.