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CHICAGO — The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has awarded the 2014 Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Visit Award to the .

The award, sponsored by Baker & Taylor, is designed to provide up to $4,000 to an ALSC member library to fund a visit from an author/illustrator who will speak to children who might otherwise not have had the opportunity to hear from a nationally known author/illustrator.

The Keene Public Library, in collaboration with the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the Martin Luther King Jr./Jonathan Daniels Committee, the Historical Society of Cheshire Country and the Jonathan Daniels Elementary School will present programming about civil rights activist Jonathan Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement. This programming will highlight the 75th anniversary of Jonathan Daniels’ birth and the 50th anniversary of his death.

Well-known author, Andrea Davis Pinkney, will speak about her work and the Civil Rights Movement at the elementary school and present a public lecture for the community. Additionally, a Created Equal Grant from the Gilder Lehrman Institute will provide a series of discussion programs focusing on the changing definition of freedom and equality in American. All the programming will be offered to children as well as adults in the community.

“All the committee members felt stakeholders collaborated to plan an event with great meaning to the community,” said Nancy Baumann, grant administration committee chair. “Focusing on an important local person connected to the Civil Rights Movement provides children and adults a look into a piece of history that changed America and their own community."

ALSC, a division of the 91´«Ã½, is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. With a network of more than 4,000 children’s and youth librarians, literature experts, publishers and educational faculty, ALSC is committed to creating a better future for children through libraries. To learn more about ALSC, visit ALSC’s website at .

Members of the 2014 ALSC Grant Administration Committee include: Nancy Baumann, chair, University of Missouri School of Information Science & Learning Technologies; Sondra Sue Eklund, Fairfax County (Va.) Public Library; Jonathan Hunt, San Diego (Calif.) County Office of Education; Susan Poulter, Main Library Nashville (Tenn.) Public Library; Elizabeth Stalford, Bellevue (Wash.) Public Library; Julie Danielson, Deanna Mae Romriell, Salt Lake City (Utah) Public Library; Patty Saidenberg, New York, N.Y.; Destinee Sutton, Burien (Wash.) Library.