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The Alliance for the Study and Teaching of Adolescent Literature (ASTAL) was officially begun in January
2002, by authorization of Academic Vice President John Salasses and the support of Dr. Joan Dagle, Chair of the English Department. The ASTAL foundation was established earlier with Author Visits to RIC
and by a number of us participating in the planning and staging of the inaugural "Under the Spell of Books Conference," in 2001. By 2003, "Under the Spell of Books Conference," was completely merged
with ASTAL and it became one of our multi-faceted programs designed to recognize and promote the importance of literacy for young people through literature.
- ASTAL has hosted 88 author visits to Rhode Island College including 51 different authors and 37 returning.
- ASTAL has also brought 12 leaders in the field of Adolescent Literature to campus, including scholars, publishers, editors, agents/publicists, and a book designer.
- ASTAL has arranged and coordinated 13 Author-in-School visits in Providence, Cranston, Warwick, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and North Providence.
- The ASTAL Summer Institute Writing for Young People is held each year in June.
- Since 2002, ASTAL has received two internal Faculty Development grants to help build the Adolescent Literature collection at Adams Library.
- During that same period ASTAL has also donated over 600 books to the Adams Library collection.
- ASTAL is working with Adams Library to establish a repository of author papers, manuscripts, and letters. We have received several boxes of materials from authors and we are working to increase our holdings.
- In 2005, ASTAL initiated the Books for Kids program. ASTAL has donated over 350 books either directly to young people or through schools and nonprofit community organizations.
- In 2007, the ASTAL Executive Board authorized an internal restructuring to shift most of our communications to the Internet. We now have over 120 members of the astal-1 listserv and we have moved our web site to
www.astal-ric.org.
As of 3/29/08, the ASTAL web site has had 8239 visitors; since moving to www.astal-ric.org in September 2007, we have had 2,420 visitors from forty-seven states and D.C. and thirty-two
foreign countries. There have been 5320 page loads, and 18% of the visitors spend at least 5 minutes while 14% spend over an hour at the site.
There is no fee for membership in ASTAL and registration is charged only for the Spring Luncheon, ASTAL Fall Conference, and ASTAL/SCBWI Encore Program.
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