This is the first time I have attended an ALSC Institute and I found it to be an exciting weekend filled with some of the best professional training sessions I have ever had the opportunity to take part in. I also got the chance to meet a few of the other members of the Public Awareness Committee face to face for the first time.
Children’s Librarians are Experts at Designing Innovative Services!
Children’s librarians are heroes! Since I have been doing this work, I’ve met many champions in the profession—people like YOU who go the extra mile to make sure that all your patron bases are being served. Since serving on the Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers Committee, I have seen librarians come up with exemplary programs to serve incarcerated youth, indigenous tribes, refugee families, and children in a low-income housing authority just to name a few. I’m sure there are more innovative programs that we need to hear about. Maybe it’s yours, but you need a little money to get started. The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers Committee (LSUCTC) are now accepting online applications for the 2018 Light the Way: Library Outreach to the Underserved grant. This $3,000 grant, made possible by Candlewick Press in…
Changes to the Batchelder Award and Call for Submissions
Changes to the Batchelder Award Last month, the Board of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), voted to change the terms and criteria of the (Mildred L.) Batchelder Award in response to recommendations from the Batchelder Award Evolution Task Force. The terms and criteria (view them here on the ALSC Website) have been adapted to meet the changes in children’s publishing since the establishment of the award in 1966. The purpose of the Batchelder Award, a citation to an American publisher, is to encourage international exchange of quality children’s books by recognizing United States publishers of such books in translation. Going into effect immediately, the new terms of the award state: “The Mildred L. Batchelder Award shall be made to an American publisher for a children’s book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originating in a country…
FINAL CALL FOR NEWBERY SUGGESTIONS DUE
Love a book this year? Send your suggestions to the Newbery 2019 Committee. Suggestions from ALSC members can be sent to Committee Chair Ellen Riordan (emary1@gmail.com) through October 30th.
Final Call for Caldecott Suggestions
Final call for your suggestions for the 2019 Caldecott Award! ALSC members are invited to submit book titles from the 2018 publishing year by December 15 for consideration. The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in the United States in English during the preceding year. For the complete terms and criteria, refer to the ALSC website. Have your ALA login & password handy to access the suggestion forms, and go here to post your suggestion(s)! With thanks, Mary Fellows 2019 Caldecott Committee Chair This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competency: IV. Knowledge, Curation, and Management of Materials.
It’s Time to Submit Your Suggestions for Notable Children’s Recordings
Are you an enthusiastic audiobook or children’s music listener? Have you heard anything that might represent the best in children’s recordings? ALSC personal members are encouraged to submit titles for consideration to the Notable Children’s Recordings committee. Any recordings published Nov 1, 2017- Oct 31, 2018 and currently available through a US distributor is under consideration. Please note that publishers, authors, illustrators, artists or editors may not nominate their own titles. Please send your suggestions to Michelle Ng at michelle.ng.alsc@gmail.com. The Notable Children’s Recordings list includes recordings for children 14 years of age and younger of especially commendable quality that demonstrates respect for young people’s intelligence and imagination; exhibit venturesome creativity; and reflect and encourage the interests of children and young adolescents in exemplary ways. This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competency: IV. Knowledge, Curation, and Management of Materials.
LAST CALL FOR SIBERT SUGGESTIONS!
The 2019 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Committee is asking the ALSC membership to submit book titles for consideration.
Words Matter: Owning and Learning from Our Mistakes
By Jamie Campbell Naidoo, 2018-2019 ALSC President with Elisa Gall, ALSC Board Member The ALSC Institute this past weekend was filled with excitement, passion, and lots of energy generated by just over 400 children’s librarians, youth services educators, children’s book creators, children’s literature researchers, and other professionals working to promote children’s literacy. The new ALSC logo was also unveiled at the Institute; check it out on the ALSC Facebook page.The conference materials for the Institute described the meeting as an intensive learning experience for attendees. With the theme of All Aboard!: Embracing Advocacy & Inclusion, many of the Big Ideas sessions, keynotes, and individual breakouts addressed equity, diversity, and inclusion work that is ongoing and needed in the field and within ALSC. Check out the ALSC Blog for #ALSC18 entries that highlight some of this exciting work. Speakers also prompted attendees to think critically about ways that they can become…