"Thank you for the opportunities afforded me through the California State Library tuition assistance program…I am extremely excited to be a part of this rapidly progressing profession. I have worked for the Whittier Public Library for the past 7 years and in that time have had the privilege to see and experience all that the library offers the community. I look forward to beginning my career as a librarian and advocate for the people in the community. Thank you for helping me to realize this dream."

- Venus Snell, Acquisitions, Whittier Public library

"I am a 2004-05 recipient of a PLSEP grant and it has really helped me afford the cost of becoming a librarian. I am now less than one year away from finishing my degree at SJSU. I am a part-time, hourly librarian at Fullerton Public Library and besides some hours at the desk, I provide story time programming for pre-schoolers…Please continue to support PLSEP so that future students may receive help with tuition costs in order to serve our communities “@ the Library.”

- Judy Booth, La Habra

"I have worked at the Oakland Public Library for 2˝ years and began my MLIS program at San Jose last January. It is because of the LSTA funds that I was able to attend SJSU.... Your assistance has been critical for me."

- Lucia Willow, Oakland Public Library

"Thanks to the California State Library for helping Reach Out and Read programs in California.  I was hired last March to spread the word about Reach Out and Read to community clinics in Los Angeles County.  I am always pleased to hear Suzanne Flint, CA Reach Out and Read Executive Director, report to our state coalition about the partnerships of libraries and clinics throughout the state thanks to LSTA grants.

Thank you again. I hope this partnership can continue and expand."

- Debbie Mackay
Reach Out and Read Los Angeles Project Coordinator

"I am using Rhea Rubin's evaluation of the Radio Works! program with one of my classes here at the University of Michigan. The evaluation captures the power of this program and the executive summary transmits the evidence effectively.

Thanks for funding the program that has provided such a fine exemplar for my students."

- Joan C. Durrance
PhD, School of Information, University of Michigan

"Thank you for the great news about the 2005/06 LSTA OCLC Worldcat initiative!  I have been pushing in both Sunnyvale and San Mateo County Library for Worldcat subscriptions.  It makes sense for libraries to offer Worldcat if our users are going to get used to seeing it through the Open Worldcat project.  You are providing us with a way to "close the loop" so that people will begin to see that there is a synergy between libraries and Internet search engines rather than either one making the other irrelevant. 

As this progresses I hope we can also look at whether a California Catalog would make sense for resource sharing using the OCLC shared catalog approach.  I think this approach is what we were all dreaming of way back when we started testing things like WebZ and Supersearch.  It makes a lot of sense for us to get this added value from the database we are all already contributing to."

- Victoria L. Johnson
Director of Library Services, San Mateo County Library

"The article in the Spring 2005 CSL Connection about the Mekel machine pointed out a service that will be extremely valuable to our students and faculty…Thank you for your help navigating to this excellent service."

- Rosanna Brown
Lassen Community College Library