Selection Tools Outside the Box

Part of good collection development is knowing where to find the newest and greatest books. For so long we have relied on the standards such as School Library Journal, Horn Book, Book List, and H.W. Wilson’s Core Collection for Children among others, and while these are great selection tools if you want to wait six months to read the reviews, today’s library patrons want books that are still being unpacked at the local bookstore. Everyone knows the release date to new and upcoming books — think back to when Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins came out. Weren’t you waiting with bated breath? How many times have you been asked, “When is Inheritance by Christopher Paolini coming out or the next Diary of a Wimpy Kid?”

Library vendors such as Ingram, BWI, Baker and Taylor and Brodart do a great job of letting us know the forthcoming titles through catalogs and lists but if you don’t use a vender you might not have access to them. One of the best is Baker and Taylor’s Publishers  Presents Powerpoints provided on their webpage. My second favorite is BWI’s What’s New section but you have to have your own log-on to access it.

Other sources to help in collection development and selection are newsletters, blogs, author’s websites and other sites dedicated to children and young adult books. Check out these sites and sign up today to start receiving information on upcoming children’s books.

• Candlewick Press

• Harper Collins

• Random House

• Penguin Publishing

• Fuse 8 Production Blog

• Chicken House Publishing

• Publishers Weekly Newsletter

• Simon & Schuster

• Teen Reads and Kids Read

Know of any other selections tools outside the box that you use? Where do you find out about new books?

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Our guest blogger today is Danielle Day, the Youth Services Manager at the Carnegie-Stout Public Library in Dubuque, IA. Danielle can be contacted at dday@dubuque.lib.ia.us

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.