Date & Time
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
6:00pm - Reception
7:00pm - Dinner / Program

Location
The Drake Hotel
140 East Walton Place
Chicago, IL 60611
www.thedrakehotel.com

Ticket Information
$500 per person

Phone: 312-587-0234
Fax: 312-587-0536
invite@pmlgala.net

Ten Great Reasons to Support The Pritzker Military Library

1. We're located in downtown Chicago, in the midst of the city's most famous shopping, dining, and entertainment, and we're free and open to the public – during the day and evening events.
   
   
2. We host our 200th program in May 2008. That's 200 free, public events with authors, scholars, and Medal of Honor recipients – more than 300 hours of quality programming, and over a dozen original exhibits of art and photography in our gallery. And we will celebrate our 5th Anniversary on Oct. 23, 2008 with another great event in the McHenry Atrium.
   
   
3. Our 100th television program was broadcast on April 11th 2008 – reaching the entire Chicago area, northern Illinois, and parts of Wisconsin, Indiana & Michigan. Our audience is growing with new airtimes – our shows premiere at 4 p.m. Fridays on WYCC Channel 20, a PBS affiliate, with re-broadcasts the following Friday at 5 a.m.
   
   
4. Each year, we honor excellence in scholarship with the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing, which includes a medallion, citation, and $100,000 honorarium sponsored by the Tawani Foundation.
   
   
5. Our extensive collection includes over 27,000 books, films, and documentaries; 800 vintage posters and prints; 6,000 original photographs and glass plate negatives; and hundreds of medals, uniforms, and other fascinating military artifacts that tell the story of the Citizen Soldier in America with a depth and vividness that few other institutions can match. And the collection is growing at the rate of several hundred items per month – mostly from donations.
   
   
6. We are expanding the vocabulary of what a library can do, with collections on military heritage accessible to researchers and the general public not only in person but also online at our website – and engaging programs available to audiences live at the Library, on the Internet via webcast and audio podcast, and on television – all free to a growing audience. Our audio podcasts, in particular, are being downloaded at a rapidly growing rate – over 15,000 a month.
   
   
7. We have a hard-working, award-winning staff. Leighton Shell, our Digital Collections Librarian, won the '07 Crosman Award from the Illinois Library Association; David Cannek, our Production Associate, was nominated for an Emmy in 2007; Theresa A.R. Embrey, our Senior Librarian, received the '06 Library Leadership Award from the Metropolitan Library System and the '06 TBS, Inc. Technical Services Award from the Illinois Library Association
   
   
8. Our membership continues to grow – we have 410 Associate and Household Members, compared to 241 at the start of 2007. Our free Online membership is now over 5,600 – worldwide.
   
   
9. We were an Official Honoree at the 2008 Webby Awards in TWO categories – Broadcast & Live Events, and Podcasts.  That was our second consecutive award for Broadcast & Live Events – we were an Official Honoree at the 2007 Webby Awards, too.
   
   
10. We're proud to have supported the military by hosting ceremonies, events and visits at the Library. Since our doors opened in 2003, more than 30 officers have been commissioned here. We've also hosted hundreds of military guests, including the annual Sailor of the Year visits.