After I left Atlanta, I was thinking about the many other wonderful awards that are given out yearly (or every few years) by several affiliates of ALA that might not receive the same fanfare. The Awards section of the YA & Kids Professional Tools resource offers a selected list of these youth awards that can help your Readers’ Advisory and reference sessions.

The American Indian Library Association announces winners of their American Indian Youth Literature Award every two years and “the awards were established as a way to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians. Books selected to receive the award will present American Indians in the fullness of their humanity in the present and past contexts.” ¹ They even offer a PDF brochure with their latest winners to share with patrons and fellow librarians.

The “goal of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature is to honor and recognize individual work about Asian/Pacific Americans and their heritage, based on literary and artistic merit.”² Given out annually by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, the awards cover not only three categories of youth literature but also Adult fiction/Graphic Novels and Adult nonfiction.

REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, co-sponsors an annual award with ALSC. “The Pura Belpré Award is presented 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 youth.”³ Their book awards honor both writing and illustration for children and teens.

Check out the Awards section for further resources and recommendations.

References

¹ http://ailanet.org/activities/american-indian-youth-literature-award/

² http://www.apalaweb.org/awards/literature-awards/

³ http://www.reforma.org/content.asp?pl=7&contentid=7

The post Exploring Youth Book Awards first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

What is special about the award is that the winner is decided by the children themselves. Because many of the participants can’t even walk or talk yet, the voting process can get pretty interesting. “The voting process can be determined by each participating location,” explains Suzanne Walker, director of the Indiana Center for the Book. “One library gave each child a large circle of construction paper. The books were laid out on the floor and the children each had to put their ‘dot’ on one of the books; their favorite. The librarian then just had to tally all the votes for books”[1] tells Walker. Those dots, along with lots of other votes from fifty-one counties across the state, made Won’s Hooray for Hat! the big winner. Hooray for Hat!, in addition to winning the Firefly Award, has also been named a NPR Best Book and Huffington Post’s Best Read-Aloud of 2014. Readers might also recognize Won’s work as the featured art on this year’s Children’s Book Week poster.

(L) Brian Won (R) Hooray for Hat!

With a young child of his own, Brian Won understands the challenges of creating a book that appeals to a young audience. “If the story doesn’t grab my six year old by the third spread, he’s ready to move to the next book. On the other hand, young readers can also be die-hard fans of a book. My wife and I have read Peggy Rathmann’s GOODNIGHT GORILLA so many times the visuals are etched in my brain. We are grateful that the book has only ten words.”[2]

Hooray for Hat! has a similar appeal of joyful simplicity. Walker says of Hooray for Hat!, “It’s fun and it showcases the idea that if you wake up grumpy, you don’t HAVE to stay grumpy all day. Also, the pictures and layout are clean, enjoyable, and well proportioned.”[3] In addition to being lots of silly fun, the story includes Every Child Ready to Read practices throughout, a requirement for nomination. Every Child Ready to Read emphasizes the important role parents play in helping their children the early literacy skills essential to reading success. Walker explains how Hooray for Hat! can make learning those skills a good time:

Talking: “Children can talk to their parents about ways to deal with feeling grumpy. They can talk about how the hats in the book affect each of the characters mood and what it’s like to get a surprise.”

Singing: “This book has some great repetition of the phrase ‘Hooray for Hat’ which can be chanted by the children, inviting them to play with language.”

Reading: “It’s a great story to read aloud with a group or one on one.”

Writing: “Writing with children as it relates to Every Child Ready to Read can also be thought of as practicing fine motor skills. As with any book, a child could practice turning pages, pointing to the animals, and it would be easy to make crafts based on this book, giving children even more opportunities to practice their fine motor skills.”

Playing: “Children are encouraged to play dress up or with their stuffed animals after reading this book. This would be a great book for a simple readers theatre [sic] as well.”

Even if you don’t live in Indiana, Hooray for Hat! would be a great addition to your library collection! Be sure to also look out for Brian Won’s new releases, including Secret Agent Man Goes Shopping for Shoes (Candlewick Press) written by Tim Wynne-Jones (to be released June 14) and Hooray for Today! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), the sequel to Hooray for Hat!(to be released in September 2016).

Resources

Hooray for Today! Animated Trailer

Ladybug Award

Brian Won

Every Child Ready to Read

TeachingBooks.net

Indiana State Library

References

[1] Suzanne Walker, director of the Indiana Center for the Book, in an e-mail interview with the author, May 23, 2016.

[2] Brian Won, children’s author, in an e-mail interview with the author, June 2, 2016.

[3] Suzanne Walker, director of the Indiana Center for the Book, in an e-mail interview with the author, May 23, 2016.

The post And the Winner Is… first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Working with government policymakers: Stiftung Lesen’s Lesestart, a program in Germany, supports libraries in educating parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children. A mix of non-profit and government partners provide book packs to families with young children, including pediatricians, libraries, and schools. In receiving the book packs from diverse groups, Lesestart teaches parents that reading affects many facets of their children’s life and development.

Creating a community of literacy: The Family Reading Partnership, located in Ithaca, NY, targets parents and children at different stages of development to support early literacy in children ages 0-5. Expectant mothers receive a children’s picture book as well as an adult book on the importance of literacy at prenatal visits, and children receive a higher level book when they register for kindergarten, marking the next stage of education.

Selecting appropriate language of instruction: Worldreader, located in Barcelona, Spain, serves fifty countries in Africa and Asia in providing access to over 27,000 e-books in forty-three languages. Books are distributed through e-readers and mobile phones in low- and middle-income countries served where phones are often more common than bathrooms or running water. Large international publishers donate licenses and small local publishers give large discounts to some of their best works.

Literacy in service of social goals: Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop serves youth who have been charged as adults in Washington, DC jails and federal prisons. The three-stage program motivates inmates to read with both reading and writing projects.

Providing access to readers with disabilities: Men with a Message Braille Program relies on eleven residents of the James T. Vaughn Correctional Facility in Delaware who create materials for visually-impaired residents of Delaware, and the American Printing House allows much of their work to reach the entire nation. Visually-impaired readers request translation of materials that range from worksheets and textbooks from K-12 classrooms, poetry and plays, and religious texts used for worship.

Click here to read more about these and other extraordinary literacy programs. See if any of the innovative techniques spark ideas you can use in your own organization.

Sources

http://www.read.gov/documents/BestPractices2015.pdf

http://www.read.gov/literacyawards/index.html

The post Library of Congress Literacy Awards 2015: Best Practices first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Expectations:
I bought a cute little pink notebook to write down summaries of all the books so I would remember my thoughts. One of the women who had been on the committee before (yes, they were all women) laughed and said I wouldn’t need it. She was right. By the end, I was reading during every free moment–no time for note-taking. Said A, “I think that I didn’t realize just how much reading we would be doing though, and how disciplined I’d have to be!”

Reading Time:
We read approximately 105 books over about 9 months’ time. (We were supposed to read more but a few of us who work throughout the year whined enough over the lengthy summer list!)

I’m the person who always has a book in their car in case of emergencies, but this got a little ridiculous. I was reading everywhere, all the time. A said she was even reading while blow-drying her hair. One big help for many committee members was audiobooks in the car–and while cleaning, cooking, and… It did take up a lot of time, but B said that the benefits to reader’s advisory alone were worth it. She mentioned that she spends so much time selecting great picture books to read in storytime, but rarely has the chance to get as in-depth with older readers. A had a great tip and said she put all the titles into her Goodreads account so she could go back when making a recommendation to a patron.

Junior Readers:
We had two student readers on our committee–one boy and one girl. Everyone I talked to agreed that their input was valuable, though our students were on the quiet side. A suggested adding two more students, while B said, “I think that a lot of them feel intimidated being on the committee with a bunch of librarians.  Therefore, they tend not to speak up and speak their minds as much as they should (which I can totally understand).”

Our student members definitely helped to sway us when the group as a whole was on the fence about a title. I found that the students were better at telling us why they liked a title, as opposed to why they didn’t.

The Debate:
C said it best – “I enjoy every part of the process—the rich discussions, passionate debates, and the opportunity to ask the committee to reconsider a title (& the thrill when I have successfully swayed votes in a desired direction!).” There were many great debates over a few titles, though luckily no fist fights ensued. What I found to hold true was the old adage “the cream rises to the top.” Those special titles that are really good usually find a way onto everyone’s top lists. But then there are those that speak to each of us individually, and maybe not to everyone.

Said C, “I am not going to lie—it is nothing short of disheartening when a book I have placed in my “emphatically, yes!” column is casually tossed out by the group! (Or the opposite happens!) It has been a humbling reminder to respect my students’—and friends—differing opinions regarding genre, authors, & titles, and to fully support everyone’s right to not finish a book.” D said there were times when she looked at a book in a whole new way after hearing someone’s comments about it.

The Notes:
While my pink notebook was repurposed, I did write notes in the margins on my reading lists to bring to the meetings. Here are some of my favorite ones:

“Apocalyptic”

“Seems like it was created for the illustrator”

“He (author) has done better”

“Cover may limit readership”

“STRANGE”

“Don’t like cover, don’t like concept!”

The Controversies:
One title we all really enjoyed ended up with a split vote, simply because some of us thought it would do better on the Teen List. And in fact, the Teen committee did vote it through so that was a win-win situation! An issue I still have trouble deciding on has to do with books that are extremely popular before we choose them— maybe even a Newbery winner or honor book. I feel like that book is going to get enough readers on its own and that one of the ten slots should go to a less publicized book. But then someone makes the case that not everyone has read it, and if it’s that good, doesn’t it have as much right to be on the list? The jury is still out on that one.

Another issue arose when we really liked a title that was a sequel to another book. The first book was too old to be on the list, but we weren’t sure we should choose the sequel if the kids hadn’t read the first one. Ultimately the book was selected, because a few committee members who hadn’t read the first one said it could stand on its own.

The Vote & the Aftermath:
Our committee had to borrow five titles from our alternate list because some of our top choices were not available in paperback, which is one of the criteria. The titles we couldn’t end up including might be able to make it on the next year’s list depending on their publication date. Ultimately, six of my ‘Top 10’ titles made it to the official Top 10. Two more made it to the ‘Alternate 10’ list, and the last two were not voted through. Of course I made sure my library owns all the titles I liked, and am still taking every opportunity to push them on my young patrons!

When the final list came out, I had a friend who is a school librarian comment that there weren’t any sports books on the list. Like I told my friend, we really didn’t read many from the lists, and of the ones we did, we chose one book about a female soccer player. In the end, that book was cut because it wasn’t available in paperback. This forced me to look back at the list through a different lens, and I still stand by it. It may not have the requisite ‘sports book for boys’ but there are boys as the main or co-main character in at least half of the titles, and in the others, at least two have animal main characters.

So I say, if you have the chance to serve on a book award committee, do it. You will be infinitely glad in the end that you have read so many wonderful titles that you can recommend. Said A, “Library work can be very insular sometimes, and I wanted to join the committee to get to know how other libraries operate, and meet colleagues.”

And then there’s the happy dance you do when the list is announced and you get to tell your patrons that YOU helped choose that book.

Cover Image Credit: ProjectManhattan (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The post Observations from Serving on a Children’s Book Award Committee first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Black Swan Green
Longlisted for ALA’s Carnegie Medal, David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks is a rollicking adventure that follows the life of the intrepid Holly Sykes, who comes to understand her role in a war between two societies of body-jumping psychics. While its style has drawn comparisons to Mitchell’s acclaimed Cloud Atlas,The Bone Clocks also has a surprising connection to Mitchell’s deceptively straightforward coming-of-age story, Black Swan Green. While the fate of the world is not in question in Mitchell’s earlier book, the stakes seem similarly high.Our hero, Jason Taylor, endures adolescence in Thatcherite England and must come to terms with first love, destroyed heirlooms, and his parents’ deteriorating marriage. Mitchell’s unerring eye for the small detail brings Jason’s story to life, and readers will find themselves totally immersed in Jason’s struggles. As for the connection to The Bone Clocks? Jason’s silver-tongued cousin–who makes a memorable impression in one story–plays a key role in Holly Sykes’ life as a college-age lothario.

After Tupac and D Foster 
Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming was named a Newbery Honor book, one of the many awards this terrific memoir received this past year. Readers will enjoy perusing her past titles, particularly After Tupac and D Foster. Detailing the friendship of three young women  in the early 90s, Woodson’s spare but powerful novel captures the power of teenage friendship and the painful transition between childhood and adolescence.

The Gone-Away World
Nick Harkaway’s Tigerman was listed as an ALA Notable Book, but readers will also be interested in visiting his debut, The Gone-Away World. The book’s plot is difficult to describe succinctly, deftly combining screwball comedy amidst apocalyptic war scenes and containing frequent cameo appearances by ninjas.  Sci-fi aficionados will love this fast-paced adventure.

The World in Half
Christina Henriquez’ The Book of Unknown Americans was longlisted for ALA’s Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, so now might be the time to catch up on this relatively new author. Her debut, The World in Half, tells the story of Miraflores, who uncovers surprising truths about her parents’ relationship while caring for her sick mother. Bouncing back and forth between suburban Chicago and Panama, The World in Half weaves a haunting love story while exploring the complicated bonds between parent and child.

Shining Girls
RUSA’s Annual Reading List honors the best in genre fiction in eight different categories. This year’s Best Adrenaline (which encompasses suspense, thriller, and action adventure titles) went to Lauren Beukes’ Broken Monsters. Suspense fans will be equally pleased to explore her novel from 2013, Shining Girls. Shining Girls has an alluringly flashy premise: a young woman is in hot pursuit of a time-travelling serial killer. Yet what lingers long after you finish the book are Beukes’ sparse portraits of the different women who fall prey to the killer. Beukes is able to summon up the quiet heartbreak of their lives in just a few pages, which only makes their eventual demise even more haunting.

The post The ALA 2015 Book Award-Winners – A Reading List first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

First, I have a problem with using the phrase “rock star librarian.” This is another one of those empty phrases that gets thrown around, but has no real meaning or pertinence. What defines a rock star librarian? Somebody who actually got noticed for a cool program that brought in a fresh group of patrons to their library? Someone who can deliver a solid presentation at a conference and get the majority of the attendees to leave more motivated to than they were before? This all reminds me a bit of high school with the cool kids versus the outcasts. Do we really need to label people in our profession? Or maybe we should just judge people based on their performance and not whether they appeared in Library Journal or another major library-related publication.

I read pretty much every issue of Library Journal, American Libraries, Public Libraries, etc. and pay attention to library trends through social media as much as I can. Each publication has an audience they are trying to reach and there is also competition amongst them. Therefore, some of the articles may feel sensationalized since they are trying to get your attention. American media in general has become pretty sensationalized. As a result, some members of the library profession have also found unique ways to get publicity for either themselves, or for their libraries. This makes perfectly good sense to me since if nobody is paying attention to what you are doing in today’s competitive tax environment; you are going to lose out.

Personally, I understand why some of these famous librarians exist. Who wants to get paid what we get paid with an advanced degree and not get some recognition for it? Yes, I know we are here to serve the community, but doing just that can burn you out. Also, who wants to keep watching the budgets for police, fire, roads, etc. continue to be increased while the budgets for most libraries and schools decrease? Just like King Kong beating his chest for attention, we have to find a way to not only engage our communities, but also the glazed over eyes of the dead weight that permeates our profession. I say let the rankings continue, let the beauty contests go on all night. If this is what it takes to get people to take our profession seriously and motivates the smart and ambitious to come up with bigger and better ideas to make libraries matter, then go for it. There are always going to be a few rotten apples that ruin it for those who actually deserve recognition, but that should not be enough to derail the entire idea that some truly deserve their moment on the stage.

Reference

http://bossladywrites.com/how-did-we-get-here-the-rise-and-hopeful-fall-of-rockstar-librarians/

The post Keep on Rocking first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The awards include:

• Allie Beth Martin Award, honoring a public librarian who has demonstrated extraordinary range and depth of knowledge about books or other library materials and has the distinguished ability to share that knowledge. Sponsored by Baker & Taylor.
• Baker & Taylor Entertainment Audio Music/Video Product Award, promoting the development of a circulating audio music/video collection in a public library.
• Charlie Robinson Award, honoring a public library director who, over a period of seven years, has been a risk taker, an innovator and/or a change agent in a public library. Sponsored by Baker & Taylor.
• DEMCO New Leaders Travel Grant, enhancing the professional development of new public librarians by making possible their attendance at major professional development activities.
• EBSCO Excellence in Small and/or Rural Library Service Award, honoring a public library serving a population of 10,000 or less that demonstrates excellence of service to its community.
• Gordon M. Conable Award, honoring a public library staff member, library trustee or public library that has demonstrated a commitment to intellectual freedom and the Library Bill of Rights. Sponsored by Library Systems & Services LLC.
• John Iliff Award, honoring a library worker, librarian or library that has used technology as a tool to improve services. Sponsored by Innovative.
• Romance Writers of America Library Grant, providing a public library the opportunity to build or expand its romance fiction collection and/or host romance fiction programming.
• Upstart Innovation Award, recognizing a public library’s innovative and creative service program to the community.

The PLA Award Nomination Form is open from now until 11:59 p.m. CT on Dec. 1, 2014. An award jury appointed by the PLA President will review each nomination. Winners will be announced in February 2015, and awards will be presented at 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. For more information, contact the PLA office, (800) 545-2433, ext. 5PLA or by email pla@ala.org.

PLA is a division of the American Library Association. PLA’s core purpose is to strengthen public libraries and their contribution to the communities they serve, and its mission is to enhance the development and effectiveness of public library staff and public library services.

The post PLA Now Accepting Nominations for Nine Service Awards and Grants first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

If, at the end of this article, you’re still unsure whether or not Mr. Snicket cares about libraries, there’s always this.

The post The Puzzling Prize for Loyal Librarians first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

I think the Cybils can be a great addition to libraries looking to expand their collections and use for readers’ advisory. Sure, there are lots of book awards out there, but what makes the Cybils unique is that they focus not only on literary merit but also on reader appeal. I had the chance to talk to Anne Levy, who founded the Cybils in 2006, and Jackie Parker, who is chairing the young-adult fiction category this year, about what makes the Cybils unique and why librarians should take notice.

Public Libraries: How did the Cybils start and how has it changed over the years since it began?

Anne Levy: The Cybils began as a comment on a blog post in 2006. There was some grumbling from children’s book bloggers that online awards were little more than popularity contests, while the ALA awards had grown so elitist that some librarians and teachers were out of their comfort zones recommending the winners to kids. I left what I thought was a one-off comment about starting our own awards that aimed for the middle: we could pick our favorite books that kids and grownups both loved.

I signed off, made dinner for my family, tucked the kids into bed and got back online for a last-second email check. The blogger who’d posted the original rant said, “I’m in.” I went back to her blog to find more than fifty comments from people wanting to sign up. We had a name, a blog, a Yahoo group and eighty volunteers within a few days, and we just took off from there.

In the past six years, the awards have grown from the initial eight genres to eleven—last year we added a book apps category that’s still being defined and broadened to reflect the amazing changes in how and what kids read. We now boast 110+volunteers and we’ve grown in recognition and – I hope – prestige. Otherwise, we’ve kept to our initial credo of singling out books with both popular appeal and literary merit.

PL: What is the process for the Cybils? How are books nominated, judged, and awarded?

AL: Nominations open to the public on October 1st and close two weeks later, at 11:59 pm on October 15th. Any title published in the United States or Canada during the previous contest year is eligible. We accept bilingual books too! This year, we’re also giving publishers a chance to pick a few of their titles that didn’t make the nominations list. Sometimes good books get overlooked because of limited marketing dollars, so we’re giving editors and marketers a second chance, so long as they’re not just dumping their backlist on us.

Then the awards go through two rounds of judging. The first round involves about sixty judges and they plow through the stack to find up to seven titles for the final round. The finalists are announced on January 1st, and then a second round of judges starts up. They pick a single winner, announced on February 14th as our big valentine to authors and illustrators.

The award is a fountain pen in an engraved box, but the 2011 winners haven’t gotten theirs yet. Some fundraising woes and organizational headaches have gotten in the way, but winners will get their prizes eventually.

PL: What makes the Cybils different from other book awards?

AL: We are transparent and accessible. We allow the public to nominate books so we can assure ourselves we’re really getting a good look at a broad swath of the titles. We guarantee all books get at least some consideration—our young adult and YA fantasy/science fiction judges are encouraged to read to at least the fiftieth page before dropping a nominee.

Jackie Parker: We encourage our participants to blog their personal thoughts about the titles they are reading for their Cybils obligations. The group deliberations are still completely confidential, but the public acknowledgement of judges actually reading, discussing, and contemplating the nominations is an added layer of transparency unusual in book awards. We aren’t quite so cloak and dagger.

AL: Hype doesn’t enter into the picture. Indie publishers get an equal shot at a berth on our short lists. Last year, we had our first self-published title make the finals.

JP: The only criteria to participate are to have a blog and use it to talk about subjects related to children’s and young adult literature. This creates a diversity of perspective because participants aren’t all librarians or teachers or booksellers or authors, as you usually find with most book awards. All four professions are well represented, but we also include parents and enthusiasts. Some day jobs are as far from children’s literature as you can get, but they may volunteer at their local library, or may have rediscovered their own love of children’s lit through the frame of reading to their kids. Whatever has led our volunteers to writing a blog about children’s literature, in doing so they’ve added to the general discussion and bring their own perspective to the task. Pulling from so many different experiences, the dialogue is approached from a different direction, and assumptions of “what kids like” and “what is good” can be challenged. For the Cybils the focus on appeal to the intended demographic carries just as much weight as literary criteria. That isn’t something that I’ve seen in other book awards.

PL: Why do you think it’s important to include reader appeal in the award criteria? Has it been hard to find books that combine literary merit and reader appeal?

AL: I don’t subscribe to the broccoli theory of literature: that to be any good, it must feel like forcing a kid to eat her veggies. I recently became a teacher and had to proctor a reading comprehension test to incoming seventh graders. They were told to bring a book to read if they finished early. It struck me that their choices were more engaging, better written and, yes, more literary than the boring, officious prose on the assessment test.

We can’t keep turning reading into a chore. My sixth graders are accustomed to earning points for the number of books and pages and words read. They’re proud of those numbers but couldn’t tell you three things about any particular title. They can barely name three titles. I tell them they’re going to read only four books for our class this year but they’re expected to learn literary analysis, including MLA-style, in-text citations. They freak. And then they think about it and most of them realize I’m right about the importance of reading deeply, and it’s going to be a great year.

So I don’t think it’s difficult to find titles that are both fun and smart. Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book won a Cybils Award the same year he earned a Newbery Award, and we picked The Hunger Games before it became a household title. Both titles are working their way into middle school language arts classes, a sign there’s stuff worth teaching in them. We’re making it okay to talk about popular, well-written books in a way that doesn’t patronize readers or belittle their choices.

JP: I always wonder how successful a book truly is if the intended demographic doesn’t want anything to do with it. Is it really a book for youth if the only people who appreciate it are adults?

PL: How are the Cybils Awards promoted?

AL: Oh dear, you’ve hit my Achilles’ heel. I am dreadful at promotion—I can’t even convince publishers to buy our stickers. I have to plead for enough donations to buy pens and bookmarks. I know there must be some wonderful ways to promote the Cybils, but they remain a mystery to me. It’s holding the awards back from the national recognition it deserves, which pains me.

JP: We rely primarily on word of mouth. Anne’s tough on herself, but the Printz Award has been around for more than ten years and I still run into librarians who don’t know what it is. The Cybils Award is incredibly popular in the circles that pay attention to both children’s lit and the Internet. Could we up that profile? Sure, but most of the ways of reaching a new audience would require a funding source we simply don’t have.

PL: Have you found publishers and authors accepting of a new book award?

AL: Authors love us! It’s like a big smooch when they find themselves nominated. It’s often an unexpected pleasure for them, and we’ve gotten some love on their own blogs. I love to read posts from the morning after authors wake up to discover they’ve been shortlisted. We also aggregate
reviews that have appeared on our judges’ blogs, so it’s a smidgen of extra publicity for many, even if they don’t make the list of finalists.

Publishers also seem to like us, but they are wary of how many advance reader copies (ARCs) we seem to gobble up. We have a lot of volunteers, and more than a thousand books get nominated, so for the bigger publishers, those numbers add up. We’re forever working on ways to share ARCs or plead with libraries for copies so we can keep the awards running smoothly without costing the publishers a fortune.

JP: It’s a really awesome feeling to pick up the paperback copy of a Cybils Award winner and see that laurel printed right on the book itself. It’s happening more and more frequently.

PL: What has been your favorite moment working on the Cybils?

AL: I love comments from the winning authors and that remains the highlight of the awards for me.

JP: In participating as a panelist, my favorite part is discovering the book you hadn’t even heard of is amazing. I also love how it pushes me to read books I might not normally gravitate toward. Some of my most successful booktalks have come from books found via Cybils participation. As a readers’ advisor, as a leader, and organizationally, I think it’s made me a better professional.

PL: Why should librarians pay attention to the Cybils Awards and how can they use them in their library?

AL: We have so many librarians judging at Cybils and they’ve come up with so many useful suggestions for using the lists. In years when we’ve done bookmarks listing the winners, many will keep a few bookmarks by their checkout desks so parents and teens can have them as a resource.
Others have suggested books off our shortlists to their most avid readers.

I’ve heard of Cybils book groups and also library selection committees that use our shortlists when considering purchases. The Cybils gives librarians a useful list of titles that please both parents and kids.

JP: It’s a fantastic collection development and booktalking source—especially the shortlists. Librarians can have their students submit nominations and use that as an opportunity to talk about genre, age, and publication date. Librarians can create Mock Cybils Awards and stress reading for the fun of it—if students don’t like the book, they don’t have to finish it. They can come up with their own winners based on the nominations and see how close they come. Since the nominations are public, and judges blog many of their personal thoughts, it adds a whole level of accessible information and springboard for discussion.

The post The Cybils Awards first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The event was hosted by Faith Salie, a national public radio host, writer, and Rhodes Scholar, who kept the evening rolling by with humor and enthusiasm for the book world. NPR host Terry Gross presented the Literarian Award to Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of The New York Times. Mr. Sulzberger accepted the award, making note of how important book reviews still are in a world of downloading and e-reading. Martin Amis presented the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Elmore Leonard. Leonard, the author of over 45 published novels, mostly thrillers, stated he was doing pretty well for someone who wrote “books about people with guns.”

The National Book Awards was established in 1950 and since then have recognized such authors as Philip Roth, William Faulkner, Elizabeth Bishop, and Alice Walker. Finalists are given a financial award as well as a medal and a citation. Winners receive a larger financial award and a bronze sculpture. And although the judges receive numerous books in the late spring and all summer, the final decision is not made until all the judges gather for lunch on the day of the awards ceremony. Although there may be a general consensus about where the judges are heading in terms of a winner before then, nothing is official until that luncheon.

This year’s event was particularly memorable for the staff of The National Book Foundation and not necessarily in a good way. Hurricane Sandy flooded the foundation’s offices, leaving staff without a home. “We piled our computer servers into a taxi and they are now ensconced in my dining room. The hotel where we put up our judges and others was flooded out and we had to re-book everyone to a midtown location,” explains Executive Director Harold Augenbraum.

But it was worth the struggle, Auguenbraum says. “The award itself is a champion for good writing.”

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