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.
Category: Awards & Scholarships
work of ALSC Priority Group III and other items dealing with awards and scholarships that might be of interest to ALSC members
Fascinating Worlds of Children’s Lit: Adventures from the Baldwin Library
Along with feature articles, interviews, and columns, did you know Children and Libraries also features reports written by ALSC’s Bechtel Fellowship winners? The Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship provides a grant of up to $4,000 for a children’s librarian to spend up to four weeks reading and studying at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature of the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville. And, during their visits, Bechtel winners enter some fascinating worlds of story and illustration. In this edition of CAL Rewind, we highlight Bechtel stories from past winners: Bridgid Mangan, Wendy Stephens, and Angela Reynolds. Who knows…maybe they will inspire a future Bechtel winner or two. (Bechtel Fellowship 2020 applications are still open!) The Many Faces of Little Red The Better to See You With: Peering into the Story of Little Red Riding Hood, 1695–1939 by Angela J. Reynolds Meet Little Red Riding Hood. She’s been around…
The Mentor Connection, Finding the Next Distinguished Service Award Winner
I am certain many, if not all of you reading this blog can think of an individual who had a profound impact on your future direction in children’s services. A person whose interest, support, and encouragement you have always remembered and been grateful for in your life. It might have been a person who gave you the freedom to develop programs that hadn’t been done in your community and that freedom made the difference for children who didn’t know what a library could mean in their lives. Such an individual should be recognized by our profession with a Distinguished Service Award.
The Phoenix Award: From the Ashes—20 Years Later
Read about one librarian’s love for the Phoenix Award, which is intended to recognize books of high literary merit, which never won award at the time publication, and which is still worthy of recognition.
Get to know ALSC’s Book & Media Awards
One of the things librarians do best is promote great books and get them into the hands of the kids and families we work with. We know that access to good books can have an extraordinarily important impact on young people’s cognitive, emotional and social development. I believe that developing a familiarity with various children’s book awards represents one great way of building your book curation repertoire. If you know what the awards are for, you can do a better job of evaluating why specific books win specific awards, which will help you decide if and how you may best promote them to your community. Keeping up with children’s literature awards takes a fair amount of effort because there are dozens, if not hundreds, of children’s book awards given out every year by many organizations. However, luckily for us, our association administers some of children’s literature’s most prestigious awards and…
2019 Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award Honoree: Spotlight on Tinybop’s Coral Reef
In February, the ALSC Children and Technology Committee blog post presented the criteria for the newest Youth Media Award, the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award [EELDM]. Last month, the blog featured the 2019 winner, PBS’s Play & Learn Science. Today, I would like to take you through one of the inaugural award honorees, Tinypbop’s Coral Reef, to highlight some of the features that stood out to the committee particularly related to the award selection criteria. Media Reflects/Embodies Its Stated Mission/Purpose
Bookapalooza Packing
On March 13th 2019, ALSC announced the three winners of the 2019 Bookapalooza Program; McNary Community Library of McNary, Arizona; Jaffrey Public Library of Jaffrey, New Hampshire; and Lawrence County Public Library of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. These three libraries will receive books,and audiobooks published for children birth through fourteen. Each year, the ALSC office receives nearly 3,000 newly published materials from children’s trade publishers. These materials are submitted for consideration by the ALSC award and media evaluation selection committees. By the end of each year, our shelves are filled to the last inch! It’s really exciting to watch the shelves fill up throughout the year. ALSC staff had the tiring, but fun, task of organizing, dividing, and packing these thousands of materials to be sent to our Bookapalooza winners. This year, due to the awards coordinator vacancy, staff pitched in and completed packing over the course of a few weeks. Staff…
Salvadore is 2019 ALSC Distinguished Service Award Recipient
Maria B. Salvadore is the 2019 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). This prestigious award honors an individual who has made significant contributions to library service to children and to ALSC. Salvadore is the former coordinator of children’s services at the DC Public Library System, and a long-time literacy consultant and advisory board member for various educational non-profits. She has served ALSC as a member-leader in numerous positions over 35 years of membership. Her expertise in literature benefitted a number of media evaluation and award committees, including chairing the 1994 Caldecott Committee. She has served on advisory boards and helped shape ALSC partnerships including NASA @ your library, Born to Read, READ * WRITE * NOW, and Prescription for Reading. “Maria Salvadore has continuously found innovative ways to bring quality children’s literature to families in the DC area and beyond,” said…