The South Carolina State Library's Center for the Book and the State Library proudly announce the recipients of the 2010 South Carolina Center for the Book Awards for Writing, Teaching and Literary Arts Advocacy as well as the first annual State Library Partnership & Collaboration Award. This year's Center for the Book award winners are noted South Carolina author Batt Humphreys, for Writing (Dead Weight); Dr. Tom Mack of Aiken, for Teaching; and the Irvin Department of Rare Book and Special Collections at USC, for Literary Arts Advocacy.

We had an exciting idea exchange at the State Library today experiencing iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and Sony Readers. It was great to get input from staff and state government employees on how new technology can be used productively.

Check out the latest Reading Rooster Recommends on the State Library's YouTube channel!

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Join the fight against illiteracy. Add your name to the Declaration for the Right to Literacy Scroll, which will visit several locations across South Carolina through August 6.

The 2010 Summer issue of MORE: The Newsletter for South Carolina Libraries, is now available online. Download a copy and read about what's going on at the State Library and at other libraries across the state today!

The Richland County Public Library will host the Quilters of Gee's Bend, at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 2 at the Koger Center for the Arts, in downtown Columbia. Hear from several of these endearing women as they share their personal stories and the history behind the art of their quilt making at this free event, open to families.

Your Guide to the Economic Census workshop hosted by the South Carolina State Library on September 8, 2010, will teach participants about the wide range of data available from the Census Bureau, including both the Economic Census and more frequent data sets. Attendees will also learn about new features of the data, comparability issues, and qualifications of the data.

The Speaker at the Center program of the South Carolina Center for the Book, in conjunction with the University of South Carolina Press, will present a series of talks on new regional history books beginning at noon on Thursday, August 19, with Allen Stokes, director of the South Caroliniana Library.

The 20-page booklet "Talking Rooms: Walking Through History at the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Headquarters" has received an APEX 2010 Award of Excellence in the One-of-a-Kind Government Publication category.

"Talking Rooms" portrays the history of library service to blind and physically handicapped individuals by taking readers on a tour of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) headquarters in Washington, D.C. This is the fourth APEX Award that NLS has received since 2006.

Looking for some more summer reads for children? Check out Helen Fellers' Reading Rooster Recommends series on the State Library's YouTube channel. Create a YouTube profile and subscribe to it today!

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