Awards & Scholarships

Final Call for Children’s Literature Lecture Award Nominations

The Children’s Literature Lecture Award Committee is seeking suggestions for our 2023 honoree. The lecturer may be an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children’s literature, of any country, who shall prepare a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature. The lecture will be given in April or May of 2023 at a site to be chosen next year. ALSC members are welcome to send suggestions to the committee for consideration. Please send your proposed lecturer(s), with supporting rationale for each recommendation. The nomination form is available online and the deadline for submissions is July 31. Recent past lecturers include Pat Mora, Maurice Sendak, Dr. Debbie Reese, Andrea Davis Pinkney, and Peter Sis. The complete list of past lecturers is on the ALSC website. The 2023 lecturer will be announced at the 2022 ALA LibLearnX next January in San Antonio. For more details…

ALA Annual Conference 2021

The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award

The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award recognizes the most distinguished digital media created for an early learning audience by a producer based in the United States. This award considers all forms of digital media, defined as “any interactive media content or product that is available via electronic device across one or more platforms,” for “children ages 2-8 along with their caregivers, professionals, and media mentors serving them.” (Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Committee Manual, 2018, p. 5).

Awards & Scholarships

2023 Children’s Literature Lecturer – Send Your Suggestions!

The Children’s Literature Lecture Award Committee is seeking suggestions for our 2023 honoree. The lecturer may be an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children’s literature, of any country, who shall prepare a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature. The lecture will be given in April or May of 2023 at a site to be chosen next year. ALSC members are welcome to send suggestions to the committee for consideration. Please send your proposed lecturer(s), with supporting rationale for each recommendation. The nomination form is available online and the deadline for submissions is July 31. Recent past lecturers include Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, Neil Gaiman, Dr. Debbie Reese, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Jacqueline Woodson. The complete list of past lecturers is on the ALSC website. The 2023 lecturer will be announced at the 2022 ALA LibLearnX next January in San Antonio. For…

Awards & Scholarships

Apply Now for Baker & Taylor Summer Reading Program Grant

It may seem like summer reading just ended, but many of us are already planning what our programs will look like for next year. As you envision Summer Reading 2021, would an extra $3,000 help your program to be more innovative? ALSC and the Programs and Services Recognition Committee are now accepting online applications for the ALSC/Baker & Taylor Summer Reading Grant. This $3,000 grant is designed to encourage reading programs for children in public libraries, while recognizing ALSC members for outstanding program development. Due to COVID-19, the committee will consider proposals for virtual programming, as well as in-person programs which can take into account public health and safety measures Each application will be judged on the following: The plan and outline submitted for a theme-based summer reading program in a public library Program ideas that are open to all children (birth – 14 years) The committee encourages innovative proposals involving…

Awards & Scholarships

Submit Your 2020 Mock Elections Results!

YMA high res image

It’s almost that time of year again! The 2020 ALA Youth Media Awards are coming up on January 27, 2020 at 8 a.m. ET. The ALSC Blog has a “YMA Mock Elections” page dedicated to each award year and libraries, schools, bookstore, and book clubs are welcome to submit their mock election results based on the exciting and robust discussions they’ve had in their own groups. Check out the real 2019 recorded webcast  and 2019 Mock Elections results page. The 2020 Mock Elections submission form is now open! We look forward to receiving and posting your mock results on the 2020 page. Please submit your results by January 17, 2020 to have them featured on the ALSC Blog.

Awards & Scholarships

The Distinguished Service Award: the Ongoing Legacy of Children’s Services in America

Recently I have been going through files that describe the work of Alice M. Jordan (1870-1960) the pioneering children’s librarian in the Boston Public Library.  Among Miss Jordan’s accomplishments were the following: establishing children’s services in the BPL, creating the New England Round Table of Children’s Librarians, an early and still active professional organization, mentoring Bertha Mahony Miller (1882-1969), who founded the Horn Book Magazine and teaching at Simmons College. Her contemporaries were two other pioneers Anne Carroll Moore (1871-1961) at the New York Public Library and Caroline Hewins (1846-1926) at the Hartford Public Library in Connecticut.