Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC),
a division of the American Library Association (ALA)

Annual Report 2007-2008

Jane B. Marino, President

I am pleased to report on the activities of ALSC for this year, one in which there was an increased focus on two-way communication with members, highlighted by new technologies, such as the ALSC blog, and surveys by two different committees: the Education Committee and the Children and Technology Committee. Our newest staff member Jennifer Najduch, as you will see below, is already hard at work using several other technologies to reach out to our members. We have also begun to examine our committee structure to align the work our Division does with our Strategic Plan and to put our members’ energies where they can be best utilized. As you will see, it has been a busy and productive year for ALSC.

Membership

ALSC membership continues to grow steadily, and stands now at 4,246, an increase of 2% over this time last year. This is especially notable since ALA is in the second year of its graduated dues increase, during which membership numbers may have been expected to fall temporarily.

The ALSC office hired a new Marketing Specialist this year, Jennifer Najduch, who is charged with identifying areas of growth for ALSC and increasing and enhancing two-way member communication, as well as helping us promote ALSC’s many valuable products, services, and member opportunities. Jenny’s already made an impact with fresh “new member” mailing materials and in ALSC’s use of 2.0 technologies, including the newly-launched ALSC Blog, Twitter, Second Life, and Facebook.

For the second year, we’re presenting “ALSC 101: Making Connections” at Annual Conference. This program orients new members to ALSC and to the conference experience. ALSC will also participate again in ALA’s Membership Pavilion on the exhibit floor featuring all ALA divisions, offices, and round tables in one location, and exhibited at PLA’s national conference in Minneapolis in March, handing out Newbery and Caldecott posters donated by Follett, among other items, as well as networking with current and potential new members.

Professional Awards and Scholarships

Every year, ALSC awards more than $60,000 in funds to support members through a variety of programs with support from endowments and our sponsors. They include the Emerging Leaders, the Maureen Hayes Award, the Bechtel Fellowship, the Melcher and Bound to Stay Bound Scholarships, the Book Wholesalers Inc. and Tandem Awards and the Penguin Awards. These awards make a difference in our members’ lives by offering study grants, money to sponsor an author visit or financial support to attend ALA’s Annual Conference.

• This year, through the generosity of Candlewick Press and Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo, we were able to administer a one-time donation to a library with exemplary service to traditionally underserved populations. The ALSC Library Service to Special Population Children and Their Caregivers Committee did yeoman’s work in developing an application and evaluating more than 50 applicants for the “Light the Way” grant! We hope to be able to offer this on an ongoing basis in the future. This year, the donation went to the Rogers Public Library in Rogers, Arkansas, for their program “Bilingual Teens as Teachers and Tutors.”
• This year’s Distinguished Service Award winner is Henrietta Smith, who has been an ALSC member for 23 years, and an ALA member for 44. Dr. Smith is professor emerita from the University of South Florida. Over her long and storied career, she has been a teacher, mentor, and inspiration to many children’s librarians and ALSC members and she is a nationally recognized expert in the field of multicultural children’s literature. She has served on numerous ALSC committees, including Newbery and Caldecott, and has long been active on the Coretta Scott King Award Task Force. She has edited two editions of The Coretta Scott King Awards Book: From Vision to Reality, published by ALA Editions.
• The 2008 ALSC Emerging Leaders project focuses on membership and is developing a marketing plan for their peers; that is, how can ALSC best reach those who are poised to take the next step in their career, and what kinds of programs and services do these folks need? We hope to be able to put their findings into practice next year. ALSC sponsored two Leaders this year: Patricia Tarango of Los Angeles, and Jessica Trujillo of New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Literary & Related Awards

ALSC is best known for our flagship awards, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, but we present a wide array of other awards. These awards include the Arbuthnot Honor Lectureship, the Batchelder Award for the best translated book, the Pura Belpré Awards for the authors and illustrators of the books that best represent the Latino culture, the Carnegie Medal for children’s video, the Geisel Award for books for beginning readers, the new Odyssey Award for excellence in audiobook production and the Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book. ALSC member committees also produce lists of recommended children’s media and books: the Notable Children’s Books, Notable Children’s Recordings, Notable Children’s Videos, Great Web Sites, and Great Interactive Software for Kids lists. They are all available on the ALSC Web site.

• The ALA Youth Media Awards Press Conference at Midwinter in Philadelphia was again Web cast live; this year the Web cast has been archived and is available via Google Video. ALA President Loriene Roy represented the Association on the Today Show, along with Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz, who won for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (Candlewick Press, 2007) and Caldecott Medalist Brian Selznick, who won for The Adventures of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic Press, 2007).
• The first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production, administered jointly by ALSC and YALSA and sponsored by Booklist Magazine, was awarded this year to Live Oak Media for Jazz by Walter Dean Myers. The award and four honors are presented this year at the Booklist Books for Youth Forum on Friday night at Annual Conference 2008.
• This year, both the REFORMA and ALSC Boards voted to present the Pura Belpré Awards annually, beginning in 2009. These awards have been presented every other year since their inception in 2006. It is indicative of the success of the awards, as evidenced by the growing body of work by and about Latinos, that we are able to present them annually.
• In May, I attended the 2008 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, delivered by Caldecott Medalist David Macaulay to a capacity crowd in Madison Wisconsin. The lecture, entitled “Thirteen Studios” gave a retrospective look at what inspired Mr. Macaulay throughout his career. The 2009 Arbuthnot Lecture will be given by Newbery Honoree and Coretta Scott King Award winner Walter Dean Myers. The location will be announced at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim.

Initiatives

ALSC is home to four major national initiatives, each with a unique focus, although two have to do with different aspects of early literacy. Several ALSC committees including the Public Awareness Committee and the Early Childhood Programs and Services Committee help to implement these initiatives, with the ALSC Board providing oversight.

• Kids! @ your library Campaign
  After a successful launch in 2006, the ALSC Kids! @ your library Campaign continues to offer tools and tips, many at no charge, to help youth services librarians raise public awareness of their collections and services. The first phase of the campaign is targeted at children and their caregivers in kindergarten through grade four; the second phase is set to launch at Annual Conference 2009 and will focus on children in grades five through eight. The ALSC Board voted significant budget support of $25,000 for enhancement and evaluation of phase 1 and planning for phase 2 this year, and we’ve secured Caldecott Medalist David Diaz to create artwork that will be available free for download for phase 2. The campaign is administered by the ALSC Public Awareness Committee. Please visit the Kids! Campaign Web site at http://www.ala.org/kids for more information.
• El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day)
  Día 2008 was a success. Nearly 300 libraries registered their celebrations on a Web-based database searchable by state, our event “spokesperson” Dora the Explorer was featured on complimentary bilingual brochures and on posters and bookmarks for sale through ALA Graphics. I was honored to attend the second Día celebration that was held in the nation’s Capitol on April 30. Other featured guests included Día founder Pat Mora, REFORMA President Mario Ascensio, Congressmen Mike Honda (CA) and Rubén Hinojosa (TX), Senators Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Ken Salazar (CO).
  
  I am also pleased to note that the ALSC Board voted to fully integrate the initative into the ALSC structure. In so doing, it becomes a part of the ALSC strategic plan as a strategy under the “Advocacy” goal area and will become a part of the ALSC budget. ALSC will continue to support and promote the initiative by developing materials, maintaining the Día Web site, and pursuing additional outreach through our partners. This year, we worked with a number of new partners to increase awareness of Día, including First Book, the National Education Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Children’s Book Council, and the National Council of Teachers of English. Please visit the Día Web site at http://www.ala.org/dia for more information.
• Every Child Ready to Read
  ALSC works with the Public Library Association (PLA) to administer this successful program, which launched in 2004 and aims to train library staff to in turn train parents to function as their children’s first teachers. ALSC and PLA offer Web-based resources as well as kits for purchase that include scripts in several languages as well as print materials and videos. The two divisions began a comprehensive evaluation of the program this year, and a full report is expected by Annual 2009. Please visit the Every Child Ready to Read Web site at http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/ECRR/ECRRHomePage.htm or the Every Child Ready to Read Wiki at http://wikis.ala.org/ecrr for more information.
• Born to Read
  The ALSC Early Childhood Programs and Services Committee is hard at work on ideas to refresh this popular initiative, including working with their local health-care providers to come up with effective messaging that will connect librarians with pediatricians, OB-GYNs, and pediatric and neonatal nurses. Look for updated brochures in English and Spanish by Annual Conference 2009.

Projects and Partnerships

In addition to our own initiatives, ALSC partners with other like-minded organizations and programs to promote each other’s literacy-based activities. ALSC is approached often with partnership requests, and we work hard to make sure the ones we pursue are ones that will truly interest and benefit our members and the children and families we serve. “Collaboration” is one of the three major goal areas in the ALSC strategic plan, and ALSC is continuing our strong tradition of working with national partners to promote our common goals.

• Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Day
  DEAR Day is annual April 12 initiative that encourages families to designate time to put aside other activities and read together. Celebrated on Newbery Medalist Beverly Cleary’s birthday, the initiative features Ramona Quimby as its official “spokesperson.” ALSC promotes the initative to members each year, and provides input on the development of materials, in return for recognition as a partner on press releases and on the materials. Please visit http://www.dropeverythingandread.com.
• The Boys and Girls Clubs Day for Kids
  This day is intended to celebrate America's children through the gift of meaningful time with a positive adult. This year, the event took place on September 15, 2007. Through ALSC outreach to members 50 libraries participated and used 115,100 copies of the “Making Memories Guide” from BGC. This guide is updated annually and includes tips provided by ALSC for reading with children. Further information is available on the BGC Web site at http://www.dayforkids.org/.
• First Book
  We have begun a new partnership with First Book, which provides children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. To begin, First Book offered Día host libraries the opportunity to receive new bilingual books for free or at deeply discounted prices, and plans are in the works for future opportunities for ALSC members. Please visit http://register.firstbook.org.
• PBS Parents
  The ALSC Quicklists Consulting Committee provides annotated bibliographies for the PBS Parents Web site, including one for Black History Month in February 2008 and one for PBS’s “Planning for Health” initiative.
• National Endowment for the Humanities/We the People
  Each year, ALSC works with NEH to create the list of books available via the We the People Bookshelf grant, which gives books on the list to 2,000 libraries nationwide. The 2008 theme is “Created Equal,” and ALSC Vice President/President-Elect Pat Scales traveled to Washington to work with NEH on developing the list. The Quicklists Committee also provides input. Please visit http://www.ala.org/ala/ppo/currentprograms/wethepeople/wtpdir.cfm.
• National Education Association
  NEA and ALSC again partnered for Read Across America, which took place March 3, 2008. As part of this reading promotion initiative, NEA for the first time created a 12-month calendar of literacy events nationwide, and Día was included along with others such as Children’s Book Week, Teen Read Week, and the like. I met with the NEA along with Executive Director Diane Foote and the Presidents and Executive Directors of ALA’s other youth services divisions, AASL and YALSA, and we’ll continue to work closely together. Please visit http://www.nea.org/readacross/index.html.
• ALA/CBC Home Library Bibliographies
  ALSC used a Carnegie-Whitney grant from ALA Publishing to work with the ALA-Children’s Book Council Joint Committee to update and redesign the series of bibliographies called “Building a Home Library.” CBC member publishers submitted titles, and ALSC’s Quicklists Consulting Committee made the selections. The bibliographies are available free for download from the ALSC Web site at http://www.ala.org/alsc; click on “Resources,” then “ALA-CBC Building a Home Library.”

Publications and Communications

ALSC seeks to reach members in a variety of ways, including ways that increasingly allow for two-way communication. We still publish our traditional journal, Children and Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, and the ALSConnect newsletter, which went electronic-only last year, as well as the annual guide to the Newbery and Caldecott awards. In addition, we’re now hosting a blog and a wiki, and we’ve even got a presence on Facebook and in Second Life in addition to our complement of electronic discussion lists.

• Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books was published by ALA Editions in April 2008, featuring an essay by Mary Erbach of the Art Institute of Chicago on “The Art of the Picture Book.” This annual guide serves as an invaluable resource on the award-winning titles and includes author, title, and illustrator indexes as well as information about the media used in the Caldecott�� Medal and Honor Books.
• Following on the success of the ALSC Wiki, which launched in 2006, the ALSC Blog launched this year; please visit it at http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog. The mission of the ALSC Blog is to provide a venue for coverage of time sensitive news in children’s librarianship, current issues in the field, and programs, conferences, initiatives, resources, and activities of interest to ALSC members and those interested in children’s librarianship. It is ably run by blog manager Teresa Walls, aided by a cadre of volunteer bloggers. Even the staff has gotten involved, with regular “behind the scenes” posts from ALSC headquarters.
• It is important to ALSC to maintain as much openness with our members as possible. Due to changes in ALA’s electronic discussion list software last year, we had to eliminate the “read-only” feature of the ALSCBOARD list. I’m pleased to report that it is now again possible to subscribe to ALSCBOARD on a read-only basis, and proud to note that ALSC is unique among the divisions in offering this opportunity.

ALSC Events and Continuing Education

• ALSC Institute
  Plans are in place for ALSC’s biennial Leadership Institute in Salt Lake City, September 18-20, 2008. This two-and-a-half day intensive learning opportunity with a youth services focus features three tracks: technology and children’s services, programming in the new millennium, and creating lifelong readers, with a focus on tweens and reading. The Institute will host the first-ever Breakfast for Bill, a special event supported by ALSC’s Bill Morris Endowment. At Breakfast for Bill, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from and meet with authors, illustrators, editors, and other publishing personnel, in the spirit of connecting people that Bill Morris, ALSC’s first Distinguished Service Award winner, embodied.
• Charlemae Rollins President’s Program
  The Charlemae Rollins President’s Program at Annual Conference 2008 featuring Dr. T. Berry Brazelton is part of ALA’s Auditorium Speaker Series for the second year in a row. Dr. Brazelton is the founder of the Brazelton Touchpoints Center. Based on Dr. Brazelton’s pioneering infant research, and over 60 years of listening to parents and children, Touchpoints is a way of understanding and participating in family development. Libraries are well positioned to establish partnerships with community agencies serving young children and families, a place that can enhance the parent/caregiver’s ability to meet the needs of their very young children by making resources, experts, and materials available.
• Preconference
  The 2008 ALSC Preconference, “Summer Reading Survivor: Overcoming the Challenges,” aims to help youth services librarians fight summer reading fatigue and come away re-energized, with new ideas and inspiration. Folklorist and author Judy Sierra; poet, author, and illustrator Harry Bliss; literacy educator Stephen Krashen; Newbery Honoree and Belpré Award winner Pam Muñoz Ryan, and library director Ginnie Cooper are featured speakers.
• Bill Morris Seminar
  The first-ever Bill Morris Seminar was held at Midwinter 2008 in Philadelphia, and was an enormous success! ALSC’s Morris Endowment supported the seminar and provided travel stipends to 30 ALSC selected ALSC members who had never before had the opportunity to serve on an award or media evaluation committee. The seminar was designed to train future committee members in book evaluation and discussion, as well as the committee process. We expect these talented individuals to form the core of many future committees, and look forward to hosting the Morris Seminar every other year at Midwinter.
• National Library Legislative Days
  In May, I participated in ALA’s National Library Legislative Days in Washington, DC with ALSC Executive Director Diane Foote and the Executive Directors and Presidents of AASL and YALSA. We called on the Democratic and Republican staffs of the House and Senate Committees charged with education and library issues, and thanked the legislators for their successful passage of language in the Head Start reauthorization bill that expressly lists libraries as suitable partners for Head Start agencies. In addition, we advocated for the SKILLS Act, the section of No Child Left Behind reauthorization that would require a certified school library media specialist in every school library, and for an approach to internet safety for youth that is education-based, rather than filter-based. We also met with some of our current and potential national partners, including National PTA and the National Education Association.

Board Actions and Bylaws Changes

Board actions this year included routine items such as approving the budget, cosponsorship of Annual Conference programs with other ALA divisions and affiliates, and updating some committee function and membership statements, in addition to some more ambitious items, including bylaws changes that generated lively discussion and debate.

The bylaws changes focused on two areas: updating the procedure for appointing the ALSC Nominating Committee to conform to current practice; and changing the award committee chair positions from elected positions to appointed positions and increasing the number of existing member positions that are elected by one. The total number of positions on the committee would not change. Both bylaws changes were approved by the ALSC membership and will take effect with the 2009 election.

ALSC Finances

ALSC is financially healthy, thanks to diverse revenue sources including dues, journal advertising, grants and sponsorships, endowment interest income, the Friends of ALSC, and sales of products. There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a difficult economic climate, and ALSC revenues do reflect the broader national trend, but fortunately we have built up a solid financial base over the past few years, which allowed the Budget Committee this year to advise, and the Board to approve, a schedule of transfers into the many ALSC endowments over the next few years. This will ensure the long-term success of many of our ongoing programs and awards such as the Arbuthnot Honor Lectureship, the Morris Seminar and “Breakfast for Bill,” the Pura Belpré Awards, and many others.

In an effort to encourage committee work and initiative, with the help of the Budget Committee we have publicized the availability of funds from the ALSC Children’s Library Services Endowment, which is available to support projects at the Board’s discretion. This year the winning application came from the School-Age Programs and Services Committee, which created an update of the “Great Middle School Reads” bibliography developed for the 2004 ALSC Institute in Minneapolis, called “Great Elementary School Reads.” CLSE funds went for design to add art and make the bibliography available free for download in PDF.

It has been my honor to serve as your President for 2007-2008 and to work with the dedicated member leaders who serve as Committee Members and Chairs, Task Force Chairs, Discussion Group Conveners and Priority Group Consultants who have been amazing in their responsiveness and sense of responsibility as well as their creativity and vision for ALSC and its mission. This report has detailed many of their achievements. But what it does not tell you is how inspiring it has been to work with so many people who are ready, willing and able to pitch in whenever and wherever they are asked. Our stalwart and visionary Board of Directors whose names are listed below, have faced a whole array of issues and problems, both small and not-so-small, and they have handled them all with great thoughtfulness and care. We continue to value our hard-working office staff, capably led with energy and enthusiasm by our Executive Director, Diane Foote. Incoming President Pat Scales, who has already proved herself to be a person of integrity and intelligence, will lead our association in 2008-2009 and will continue to move ALSC forward. Thank you, ALSC, for all that you do. It has been a memorable year.

2007-2008 Board of Directors

Executive Committee:
Jane B. Marino, President
Kathleen T. Horning, Immediate Past-President
Pat Scales, Vice President/President-Elect
Linda Perkins, Councilor
Sue Zeigler, Fiscal Officer

Directors:
Thom Barthelmess
Mary Fellows
Starr LaTronica
Penny S. Markey
Kate McClelland
Elizabeth “Betsy” Orsburn
Tim Wadham
Judy Zuckerman

ALSC Staff:
Diane Foote, Executive Director
Aimee Strittmatter, Deputy Executive Director
Marsha Burgess, Program Coordinator
Linda Mays, Program Officer
Jennifer Najduch, Marketing Specialist
Laura Schulte-Cooper, Program Officer
Angela Smith, Administrative Secretary