By Sarah Polace
2009 Penguin Young Readers Group Award Winner 
I was very thankful to win the 2009 Penguin Young Readers Group Award which allowed me to attend the Annual Conference in Chicago. Without the award, I would never have had the opportunity to attend a professional conference so early in my career.
 My first conference experience [...]

Once upon a time in the fall of 2008, a Head of Children’s Services saw that there was a grant to fund a summer reading program. She looked at the requirements and the previous winner’s information. In her mind, she didn’t have a chance of getting the grant. Then a copy of the grant application [...]

The “Light the Way: Library Outreach to the Underserved” grant is sponsored by Candlewick Press in honor of author Kate DiCamillo and the themes represented in her books.  A $3,000 grant will be awarded to a library with exceptional outreach to underserved populations.  The grant winner is chose by the ALSC Library Service to Special [...]

Sponsored by Scholastic Library Publishing and administered by the ALA Public Awareness Committee, this $3000 grant supports a single library’s public outreach efforts during National Library Week. National Library Week 2010 will be celebrated April 11-17. The 2010 theme is Communities thrive @ your library.
The application deadline is October 16, 2009. Proposals must use the [...]

Congratulations and many thanks to Jane Botham for all the great work she does, has done and will do to promote and ensure exceptional library service to children.

The Odyssey Award program, recognizing the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States, will be held on Monday, July 13 from 3:30 – 5:30 on Monday afternoon at McCormick Place West, Room W-407B.  Sherman Alexie, author and narrator of Odyssey winner The Absolutely True [...]

What do Jane Botham, Henrietta Smith, Marilyn Miller, Caroline Ward, Mimi Kayden, Ginny Walter, Julie Cummins, Phyllis Van Orden, Maggie Kimmel, Peggy Sullivan, Lillian Gerhardt, Spencer Shaw, Zena Sutherland, Ginny Moore Kruse, Virginia Mathews, Carolyn Field, Augusta Baker, and Bill Morris have in common?
Each has received the Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Library [...]

Hear about the 2009 ALSC book and media awards from the committee chairs themselves through new podcasts by Sarah Long, the executive director of the North Suburban Library System. 
The podcasts are available on the system’s Library Beat Web site, and feature interviews about the Newbery Award with Committee Chair Rose Treviño; the Caldecott Award with Committee Chair Nell Colburn; and [...]

The Pura Belpré book awards, which are named after the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library, are being highlighted on Thinkfinity.org. The awards are presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and [...]

ALSC Members, the 2011 Arbuthnot Lecture Committee is gathering ideas for possible speakers at the 2011 Arbuthnot Lecture. If you have someone in mind that you think should be honored, please let us know.
You can contact me at cedwards@denverlibrary.org. Thanks very much for your thoughtful support and contributions.
Carol Edwards
Chair of the 2011 Arbuthnot Committee
********
Our [...]