Dr. Curtis honored by American Library Association

"Space Today Online" (STO), a web site published by UNC Pembroke Professor Anthony R. Curtis, has been selected by the American Library Association (ALA)
for inclusion in its Great Web Sites for Kids.

"This is a prestigious award and I feel very honored to be chosen," Dr. Curtis said. He is a professor in UNCP's Mass Communications Department.

Dr. Curtis' not-for-profit web site is at spacetoday.org.

The American Library Association's Great Web Sites for Kids page is located at www.ala.org/greatsites.

"Space Today Online" is in the section on Sciences - Astronomy and Space.

The Great Web Sites for Kids web page is overseen by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association.

In a congratulatory letter to Dr. Curtis, Mary R. Voors, chair of the ALA's ALSC Great Web Sites committee, said, "Great Web Sites for Kids are those considered the best web sites for ages birth-to-14, outstanding in both content and conception. As applied to web sites for young people, 'great' should be thought to include sites of especially commendable quality; sites that reflect and encourage young people's interests in exemplary ways."

"Your site was one of 25 selected as a 2003 Great Web Sites for Kids addition," Voors said.

Dr. Curtis founded Space Today as a print news magazine in 1986. In 1994, it migrated to online publication as Space Today Online (STO). During 2004, the publication will celebrate its 18th year.

"My mission is to provide accurate information on human activities in and about space - past, present and future," Dr. Curtis said. "I interpret this broadly, to include such areas of human knowledge as space science, space history, space research, space flight, Solar System exploration, Solar System astronomy, deep space astronomy and cosmology. Thus our slogan, Covering Space from Earth to the Edge of the Universe."

STO is a definitive news, information and education site dedicated to space science, astronomy and related subjects. By communicating the record of human understanding of and enthusiasm for, human space research and travel.

"STO is accessible and useful to young and old, casual and serious readers and learners," Curtis said. "My audience is the global general public including traditional and non-traditional students and teachers everywhere."

"Space Today Online" has become an historical journal of human space activities to the point where STO receives a steady flow of emailed questions from students who want to understand how space works and what lies beyond Earth.

"Over the years, I have been motivated by love of subject and sharing of knowledge to perform this public service without remuneration," Curtis said. "This is a free content site, without advertising support. My reward is the positive moral support I receive from readers who appreciate my contribution.

And now I am deeply gratified to receive this positive acknowledgement of my work from the American Library Association."

View the Great Web Sites selection criteria.

For more information, contact Dr. Curtis at 910.521.6616 or anthony.curtis@uncp.edu.