The audience erupted in cheers Monday morning after “Animorphs” (Scholastic) author Katherine Applegate was named the winner of the Newbery Medal for her heartfelt and unforgettable story The One and Only Ivan (HarperCollins), and Jon Klassen was awarded the Caldecott Medal for This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick) at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards for 2012, which were announced during ALA‘s annual Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, WA. Another Klassen project, Mac Barnett’s picture book Extra Yarn (HarperCollins), was named a Caldecott Honor book.

Katherine Applegate

The Newbery for The One and Only Ivan, Applegate’s uniquely creative, fictional take on the true story of a silverback gorilla who once lived in glass enclosure in a shopping mall, surprised many attendees who had not shortlisted it for the win. Nevertheless, the book had many enthusiastic fans among the crowd in Seattle, who agreed that it was—and would continue to be—a hugely popular choice with kids.

California resident Applegate was visiting relatives in Virginia when she was surprised by the call from the Newbery committee this morning, only an hour and a half before the YMAs presentation began, she tells SLJ. ”I was stunned, totally delighted but speechless,” she says. “The speechlessness went on for a while, then I screamed, and my family marched in at that, and there were a lot of screams! Then we watched the webcast and it was great. It was fun to watch with no anxiety, because they had called me already.”

Applegate credits her win in part to a large community of online fans, especially on Twitter, who have been championing the book and who have conducted huge amounts of outreach to middle readers, including John Schumacher and The Nerdy Book Club. “I have gotten so much support from different communities,” she says. “They have helped tremendously in how visible the book was to readers.”

Adds Applegate, “It’s just surreal! I know what a lottery it is because there were so many good books this year. It’s a huge honor but it could have been any one of them.”

Jon Klassen

And although This Is Not My Hat was a Caldecott favorite going into the awards, “I was actually very, very surprised,” Klassen tells SLJ. “I had done a pretty good job of convincing myself not to think about it, so it came out of the blue. It’s such a big thing to think that you were going to get mentioned at all, (the dual win) didn’t register. I’m still getting used to the idea that people are looking at these books, much less giving them the distinction.”

The crowd was also ecstatic to learn that the Margaret A. Edwards Award, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, will be presented to Tamora Pierce for her significant and lasting contributions to YA literature via her “Song of the Lioness” series. The award is sponsored by SLJ.

Other big winners of the day were Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon (Roaring Brook Press) by Steve Sheinkin, which scored the YALSA nonfiction award, the Sibert Informational Book Medal, and a Newbery Honor; and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Simon & Schuster) by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, which also was selected three times: for the Stonewall Award, the Belpré Author Award, and a Printz Honor.

Although Sheinkin knew Bomb was a strong contender for the YALSA nonfiction award, he was “really surprised by the other awards—happily so,” he tells SLJ.

In fact, after the YALSA committee informed him of his win for the nonfiction award on Saturday night, he turned off his phone before the Sibert committee was able to reach him. ”They tried to call me many times last night,” he says, “but then they left a message. But that was cool, too.” (Now he has the message saved, he says.)

Sheinkin hopes his cross-category wins might signal a trend of growing popularity for exciting young adult nonfiction overall among kids.

“It’s really cool to break out of just the nonfiction category,” he says. “That’s my biggest thing—I’m a big proponent of history for kids, of nonfiction, but also trying to win over people who just want to read a good book. To prove to young readers that this kind of book can be fun also is a really big thing. A lot of kids know it (some kids are into history) but some kids are scared of it.”

Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Meanwhile, Sáenz, after hearing of his three wins across categories “had a frantic and beautiful morning, was in class all afternoon and then quietly celebrated by taking a walk in the desert,” he tells SLJ, adding that the Stonewall award was a “complete surprise” and the Printz honor left him “stunned.”

He notes, “the Belpré people called me the night before and I was absolutely thrilled. They were all on speakerphone and I could hear them screaming. They were very sweet and I didn’t know what to say. I don’t know that we as authors should expect awards; they are gifts to us. I get really choked up. I’m just grateful for the gifts. I would hope my mother raised a gracious man, who knows how to say thank you.”

He also notes that the book’s cross-category recognition is a testament to how well it was marketed by Simon & Schuster as well as the word of mouth of reviewers and librarians who recommended it. “They felt that everybody should read this book, they put it into everybody’s hands,” he says. “It takes a village to take the book out into the world. We had a great village.”

The prolific author—who writes poetry, children’s books, and adult novels in addition to YA literature—somehow found the time to write Aristotle and Dante while teaching bilingual creative writing and acting as MFA department chair at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is already deep into his next project, another dramatic YA novel. “I’m always writing,” he says.

* * *

Here is the list of winners of the ALA’s Youth Media Awards:

(John) Newbery Medal
The One and Only Ivan. Katherine Applegate. HarperCollins.

Honors:
Splendors and Glooms. Laura Amy Schlitz. Candlewick.

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Steve Sheinkin. Flash Point/Roaring Brook.

Three Times Lucky. Sheila Turnage. Dial/Penguin Young Readers.

(Randolph) Caldecott Medal
This Is Not My Hat. Jon Klassen. Candlewick Press.

Honors:
Creepy Carrots! Aaron Reynolds. Illus. by Peter Brown.
Simon & Schuster.

Extra Yarn. Mac Barnett. Illus. by Jon Klassen.
HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray.

Green. Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook.

One Cool Friend. Toni Buzzeo. Illus. by David Small. Dial/Penguin Young Readers.

Sleep Like a Tiger. Mary Logue. Illus. by Pamela Zagarenski. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Theodore Seuss Geisel Award
Up, Tall and High. Ethan Long. G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Honors:
Let’s Go for a Drive! Mo Willems. Hyperion/Disney.

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. Eric Litwin. Illus. by James Dean. HarperCollins.

Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover. Cece Bell. Candlewick.

(Laura Ingalls) Wilder Award
Katherine Paterson

Andrew Carnegie Medal
Anna, Emma and the Condors. Produced by Katja Torneman.

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Steve Sheinkin. Flash Point/Roaring Brook

Honors:
Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. Robert Byrd. Dial/Penguin Young Readers.

Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95. Phillip M. Hoose. Farrar.

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Deborah Hopkinson. Scholastic.

Mildred L. Batchelder Award
My Family for the War. Anne C. Voorhoeve. Dial/Penguin Young Readers.

Honors:
A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return. Zeina Abirached.
Tr. by Edward Gauvin. Graphic Universe/Lerner.

Son of a Gun. Anne de Graaf. Eerdmans.

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award
Andrea Davis Pinkney

Pura Belpré Awards
Author: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
Simon & Schuster.

Honor: The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano. Sonia Manzano. Scholastic.

Illustrator: Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert. Gary D. Schmidt. Illus. by David Diaz. Clarion.

Michael L. Printz Award
In Darkness. Nick Lake. Bloomsbury. 

Honors:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Simon & Schuster.

Code Name Verity. Elizabeth Wein. Hyperion/Disney.

Dodger. Terry Pratchett. HarperCollins Children’s Books

The White Bicycle. Beverley Brenna. Red Deer Press.

Odyssey Award
The Fault in Our Stars. John Green. Narrated by Kate Rudd. Brilliance Audio.

Honors:
Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian. Eoin Colfer. Narrated by Nathaniel Parker. Listening Library.

Ghost Knight. Cornelia Funke. Narrated by Elliot Hill. Listening Library.

Monstrous Beauty. Elizabeth Fama. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren. Macmillian Audio.

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Steve Sheinkin
Flash Point/Roaring Brook

Finalists:
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different. Karen Blumenthal. Feiwel & Friends.

Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95. Phillip Hoose. Farrar

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Deborah Hopkinson. Scholastic.

We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March. Cynthia Levinson. Peachtree Publishers.

William C. Morris Award
Seraphina. Rachel Hartman. Random House.

Finalists:
Wonder Show. Hannah Barnaby. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books.

Love and Other Perishable Items. Laura Buzo. Knopf/Random House.

After the Snow. S. D. Crockett. Feiwel and Friends.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post. emily m. danforth. Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins

Margaret A. Edwards Award
Tamora Pierce for her “Song of the Lioness” series

Coretta Scott King Book Awards
Author: Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illus. by Brian Pinkney. Hyperion/Disney.

Honors: Each Kindness. Jacqueline Woodson. Illus. by E. B. Lewis.
Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Young Readers.

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller 
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner.

Illustrator: I, Too, Am America. Langston Hughes. Illus. by Bryan Collier. Simon & Schuster.

Honors: H. O. R. S. E.. Christopher Myers. Egmont USA.

Ellen’s Broom. Kelly Starling Lyons. Illus. by Daniel Minter. Putnam/Penguin Young Readers.

I Have a Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. Ilus. by Kadir Nelson. Schwartz & Wade/Random House.

Virginia Hamilton: Demetria Tucker
Practitioner Award for Lifetime achievement

Stonewall Book Award
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Simon & Schuster.

Honors:
Drama. Raina Telgemeier. Graphix/Scholastic Inc.

Gone, Gone, Gone. Hannah Moskowitz. Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster.

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. Lesléa Newman. Candlewick.

Sparks: The Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie. S. J. Adams. Flux.

Schneider Family Book Award
Teen: Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am. Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis. Simon & Schuster.

Middle Grade: A Dog Called Homeless. Sarah Lean. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Book.

Children: Back to Front and Upside Down! Claire Alexander. Eerdmans.

ALA Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution during its annual meeting in Anaheim, CA, that reiterates the importance of certified media specialists to academic achievement and calls on all ALA divisions to support our nation’s beleaguered school librarians.

Drafted by the Special Presidential Task Force on School Libraries, the resolution was “formed out of necessity” in response to the ongoing budget cuts and school librarian layoffs, says Sara Kelly Johns (right), the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) Division Councilor and a media specialist at New York’s Lake Placid Middle/High School, who last Friday proposed the resolution at an ALA membership meeting, where it also passed unanimously.

The Task Force was created at last year’s annual conference in New Orleans by ALA President Molly Raphael to “combat increased reports of threats to school library instructional programs.” Once Council passed the resolution, it became policy.

Although the resolution doesn’t offer specifics, it does form the framework for actions that should be taken to support the profession-and for the first time, it’s endorsed by all ALA divisions, not just AASL.

“The strength of this resolution is that it marshals the expertise and resources of all of ALA to work in support of school librarians and libraries as critical to educational success,” says Johns.

The resolution emphasizes the importance of school librarians, who teach “information and technology skills essential for students in the 21st century,” and calls on the Presidential Task Force on School Librarians to lead the association in its “continued mission to address the urgent need for advocacy for school libraries and school librarians; to address the impact of the de-professionalization and curtailment of school library instructional programs on students and student achievement, and to continue to engage librarians of all types from across the association to advocate for school libraries, which are imperative to the survival and success of all libraries.”

The resolution also states that ALA places a “high priority” on making sure that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act—our nation’s most important K-12 education law- includes language that “supports the necessity for effective school library programs and credentialed school librarians” so that they can receive crucial federal dollars.

The resolution encourages state associations and affiliates to help influence legislation so there’s “adequate funding and appropriate staffing of libraries in schools at all levels,” and it calls for seeking out “partnerships with national organizations to reach mutual goals of sustaining school libraries.”

Johns says the resolution is so comprehensive that any librarian can use it as an advocacy tool because it “says the entire ALA understands the importance of school librarians.”

Johns emphasized that cuts to school librarians have a direct impact on all types of librarians.

“It has an effect on public librarians who have to pick up the teaching functions of school librarians,” she says. “And academic librarians say they know when their students have had a high school librarian by their ability to do in-depth research with critical thinking skills.”

Johns points to a recent post on her Facebook wall, which illustrates the crucial role of school librarians to everyone.

“A grandmother read about [the resolution] on my Facebook wall and says she’s going to use it to advocate for her grandchildren’s school librarian,” Johns says.

What’s next? “There’ll be a great deal of follow-up,” explains Johns, adding that ALA’s Washington office, along with various divisions and chapters, must now draft a plan for increasing advocacy for school librarians. Maureen Sullivan, ALA President for 2012-2013, and Barbara Stripling, ALA President-Elect for 2013-2014 and a former school librarian, will join as Task Force members.

The two spoke at an awards banquet during the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA, with Raschka saying he “never dreamed” he would win the prize awarded to the most distinguished picture book for children. But, he explained, he always dreamed of being an artist.

“Or maybe what I dreamed of was seeing like an artist,” said Raschka. “I have never known a time when I didn’t want to look at things, wanted to see things and draw them.”

Raschka went on to explain what being an artist felt much like traveling to a foreign country, especially on the first days of a trip. “You look about you, and nothing registers properly. You walk around in a kind of daze, and then some hand grabs you from behind.”

He best described it as an “almost an out-of-body experience.”

Making picture books, Raschka said, is to “remember a particular emotion, heighten it, and then capture it in some painted vocabulary, so that the same emotion is evoked in the child, in the reader. I must make you feel what I feel, and maybe even more.”

Raschka said he’d been working on A Ball for Daisy, a nearly wordless picture book that deals with the anguish a dog named Daisy goes through when her favorite ball is destroyed by a bigger dog, for so long that he could hardly remember its beginnings. The ball in the book was based on one that belonged to his son, Ingo, who was very small at the time. Daisy, the big black dog who lived on the tenth floor of their building, bit down a little too hard on Ingo’s beloved yellow ball and popped it. “That I remember well,” Raschka says.

“So this is how I see making my picture books today,” he said. “First I’ll draw what I see. Then I’ll draw what I remember. And finally I’ll draw what I feel.”

Gantos (right) said that he hadn’t felt more earnest winning the Newbery, given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children, since he surprisingly won the first-place medal for religious studies in second grade.

He went on to recount several important events that took place in history on January 23. For instance, it was the day in 1737 that John Hancock was born, the day in 1849 that Elizabeth Blackwell became the first medical doctor in the United States, and in 1912, it was the day that the International Opium Convention was signed.

And on the morning of January 23, 2012, Gantos was in his kitchen feeding his cat, Scootch, some treats and glancing at his cell phone. The week before, Dead End in Norvelt, a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is “grounded for life” by his feuding parents, had won the Scott O’Dell Award for historical fiction.

“And so the Newbery was toying with me like the fruit that Tantalus could never reach or the water he could never drink,” Gantos said.

When his phone rang, he stared at it and thought, “If this is my mother calling me to tell me again where she hid her life insurance policy, I’m going to put that policy to work.”

When Gantos picked up the phone, it was Viki Ash and a chorus of excited voices in the background, and she told him that Dead End in Norvelt had been chosen as the John Newbery Award book for 2012.

Gantos said he had wanted to ask if the book won the gold or silver medal because he wasn’t sure about what he had heard—but then stopped himself because he thought it was rude.

“So I just said, ‘Why, thank you. I’m very thrilled that I wrote a book about history that made history,’” Gantos recalled, adding that the call was over in a flash.

It wasn’t until Gantos and his wife went back to bed and turned on their laptops that they found out what had really happened.

“In about two hours we watched the live feed and there it was: Dead End in Norvelt had won,” he says, thinking that the book had just squeaked in because it was the last one announced.

“No,” his wife told him. “They saved the best for last, you moron.”

From the left (left image): Rocco Staino; Barbara Genco, Library Journal's manager of special projects; and Christopher Harris. From the left (right image):Jon Gregory, Matt Andros, Roger Rosen, Diana McDermott, and Geraldine Curran. Photographs by Sean McGinty.

The world of reference is moving at warp speed these days. Public library patrons are used to Wikipedia and expect the same convenience when it comes to library resources. And in many school libraries, budget crunches, technology issues, and Common Core standards have made librarians’ jobs even more, shall we say, exciting. Wouldn’t you love to sit down with some of the world’s leading reference publishers and say, “Hey, wait a second! This is what we need you to do to make our libraries better”?

Well, here’s the next best thing. The following conversation offers an abridged, fly-on-the-wall view of SLJ’s gathering of publishers, aggregators, and, yes, librarians at the American Library Association’s January midwinter meeting in Dallas. Our goal? To talk about the latest trends and issues in reference materials for school and public libraries. A broad mandate, to be sure, but one that was ably corralled by our quick-thinking moderators, Christopher Harris, of New York’s Genesee Valley Educational Partnership, and Wendy Stephens, of New Market, Alabama’s Buckhorn High School. The duo, both librarians and SLJ contributors, led a spirited discussion of the merits of print vs. digital learning, the impact of those Common Core guidelines on publishers’ plans, and other timely and vexing topics.

Christopher Harris: What are schools looking for these days?

Wendy Stephens: One of our databases had a lovely area where all of these social issues, topics, were broken down. It was the best interface for selling databases to my students and teachers because in one moment they could see what was most applicable to the topic that they were working on. They didn’t even have to type anything.

Rocco Staino (SLJ contributing editor): Schools that have AP courses need quality information that’s very expensive to subscribe to for the entire year. But let’s say we only need access for the month of April. I think temporary or periodic access to expensive resources is something that libraries are open to.

Harris: Let’s be honest, that’s what they’re doing with trials anyway. Here’s a chance to monetize that. All the studies show that people pirate music because there’s no easy, cost-effective way to access it. If you make it easy and cost effective, they buy it instead because pirating it is a pain. But now there are new pricing models, or maybe we could go back to old-school consortia pricing. One library needs the database in March and another one in April, and one of them’s doing it at 8:30 in the morning, one of them’s doing it at 2:30 in the afternoon. Can we buy seats, and spread some of the cost out?

Jon Gregory (vice president of regional sales, World Book): But one of the first questions that we’re asked by our new subscribers is, “This isn’t seats, is it?”

Rick Lumsden (executive director of institutional sales, Britannica Digital Learning): We’re very flexible. If somebody says, “I’ve got money for two months,” I can switch them on and off for two months. Going the other direction, when money runs out, digital content goes away. We have a lot of people who say, “I’ve got the money now. I’m going to subscribe for five years, so that I know it’s there.” There are always creative solutions.

Staino: But in some states, you can’t do that.

Lumsden: Still, there’s a lot of flexibility with digital content. I’m not really sure our customers know that, but they shouldn’t be shy about asking.

Harris: There might be opportunities if you build modular things around the large curricular areas.

Gregory: That’s absolutely where we’re headed, and I know you all are doing the same thing.

Staino: AP courses are standard throughout the country, so everyone who has an American history AP course is doing the same thing and needs that material.

Gregory: So we create a database that should cover nine or 12 months’ worth of curriculum and price it knowing how much things will be used. But the problem is that it has to be there the whole time so the teachers can be trained. And you have students who are trying to catch up on the remedial side or who come in late to the game, and if access has just been turned off, it’s a problem.

Diana McDermott (director of marketing and sales, M. E. Sharpe): I also work on the academic side and the push is even more urgent there in terms of libraries wanting to pay only for what is used. But it’s difficult for a small publisher to invest in new products without having a firmer grasp on what the revenue might be.

Because we were late in the game and wanted to provide as much flexibility as possible, we set up a one-time purchase for digital. We thought that might be an incentive for libraries, as well, because they could budget it when it worked best. So many libraries—I would guess most of them—have access through statewide consortia to these larger databases and encyclopedias. We had to explain how ours could be looked at as a one-time book purchase. And we’ve been successful with that.

Stephens: Is that sustainable in the long term? I worry about the infrastructure required to maintain that, whether materials sold that way will continue to be available to us.

McDermott: Our costs are not as huge as some other databases, and we still publish print. We’re not sure how long we can financially sustain that, though we like to make print available and have librarians who still want it.

Roger Rosen (CEO of Rosen Publishing): With an outright purchase, does a library have access to all your updates?

Stephens: I think if [publishers are] not updating, they just have to make that new print edition so dynamic and so different that libraries will want to buy it to get the electronic, or get the electronic only.

From the left: Diana McDermott and Geraldine Curran; Henrietta Thornton-Verma and Rocco Staino; Rick Lumsden.

Harris: We need a mathematician and an economist to help us, because we do these things by gut. Maybe I buy one copy of the ebook, and I get to use it with one student—or five-to-one, or 10-to-one, or X-to-one. What’s the value of X that ceases to be statistically different from unlimited, simultaneous access?

Stephens: In the school environment, I would say it’s a class, or in a district it may be a class per school.

Stephens: Will there be a greater emphasis on embedding images and video?

Rosen: Yes, so long as it truly advances the content and is substantively useful in terms of access that goes way beyond the book, and provides a wealth of primary-source documents, historic coverage of an event, or audio recordings of speeches or of poets reading their own work. That’s amazing fire power.

One of the things we’re looking at is how copyright-friendly material is embedded within what we’re creating so that they can use it, do their mash-ups, use 21st-century transliteracy modes to be ever more capable producers, and have a sense of ownership about their learning.

Geraldine Curran (marketing specialist, Scholastic): We feel that our TrueFlix online material has enhanced a longstanding product that many librarians enjoyed in print. It’s been called not just an ebook, but a digital learning tool. It was nice to hear people like yourselves call it that.

Stephens: How do you create an interface that works on a mobile device and has the features of a full-fledged database?

Gregory: That’s a real challenge, and not just on the publishers’ and aggregators’ side. It’s because of different formats. Apple doesn’t work with Flash, for example. And by the time you feel like you have it all together, the rules change on how to make material robust and include the videos, the pictures, and all that textual content. We get caught up in the idea that if it’s digital, it’s better, but we still have students who learn better using print. If we’re going to look out for learners, not just try to be 21st century, we have to understand that online is just a delivery method.

Stephens: As many lovely things that you can do within the databases—send the articles to yourself, formulate the citation, download—a lot of kids in my school don’t have access to home computing. It’s not necessarily even a financial issue. Part of the area that I work in is very rural, and they’re using dial-up or satellite.

Gregory: And the more robust we make something, the harder it is for those in rural areas to access.

Stephens: Exactly, and all the different options are so confusing sometimes. If you try to look at a full-fledged database on a mobile device, it’s one of the most frustrating experiences.

Lumsden: A real challenge right now for publishers is that when people ask for access on mobile devices, they may mean a multitude of things—access to a standard interface on a mobile device, a site that’s optimized for mobile devices, or an app. Right now, we’re doing all three because we don’t know where things will go. One of the things that publishers need from librarians is clarity about what they mean when they’re talking about mobile devices.

Harris: How are database publishers helping librarians curate the best resources for students?

Rosen: We serve initially as curators of what we deem to be the most appropriate material—primary-source documents that are age appropriate, correlated to the curriculum, and potentially at the right reading level. We want to move students from being passive consumers of information to more active creators of it and thereby fulfill many of the mandates of the Common Core state standards.

McDermott: I agree with Roger in terms of the publisher functioning as a curator. When the publisher gears material to exactly that level, we hope that students will become more engaged more quickly because the material is accessible, it’s what they need, and it’s interesting to them.

Harris: Matt, as a larger database vendor, do you foresee more of that?

Matt Andros (vice president of field sales, EBSCO): Definitely. The difficult position we’re put in as an aggregator is getting content that’s written at the right level—especially when you’re looking at K–3 or K–5, there’s not much for that audience. We use a Lexile indicator so we can see exactly the level material is written at, and that helps.

Stephens: How do you encourage kids to use your digital resources before they turn to Google or Wikipedia? Is there a way to highlight quality content within the search results or on your home pages?

Gregory: One of the good things about search is that we don’t have to wonder. We can look at curriculums and Common Core standards to find out what they’re going to be looking up and work toward that. Also we can see what they type into the search box and move information relevant to that “above the fold,” as we used to say with newspapers, and find out where we need to develop more content. Looking at queries also helps us realize when we’re putting resources toward something that we thought they were spending a lot of time on, and they’re not.

Stephens: I use the same method for collection building. I look at what people have entered as search terms in our OPACs. I like the idea that you’re building off those queries.

Harris: I would really encourage you to deeply investigate the analytics. You can see that a student spent only 30 seconds on an article because it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be.

Gregory: What if they only spent a little time because they found all they needed quickly? They could spend five minutes on an article but not find what they’re looking for, but there the statistics are saying, “Great resource!” Whereas in an article they looked at for 30 seconds or a minute, they found all they needed in the first two paragraphs because we did our ranking properly and moved it to the top.

Lumsden: The search results can really drive your content development and the way that you display results. But the issue of how to get them to actually do the search to begin with is still a huge challenge. The question is, can resources be in all the different places that librarians or other educators are searching for content? Are they completely integrated with the district’s learning management system or the school’s library catalogue, so that you have as many potential touch points as possible for a search to occur?

Rosen: The school administration needs to empower librarians to have time with students for deep education about what being a good digital citizen and being cyberliterate mean. Kids should understand that any random hit is not necessarily as good as a vetted, authoritative resource.

Stephens: My biggest challenge in pushing students to better content is the teachers. I have so many teachers who are not the best types of searchers, who don’t have the best skills at identifying quality information. The most success I’ve had is when they return to graduate school and their work is scrutinized, and that feedback trickles down to the classrooms and they raise the bar.

From left (left image): Christopher Harris; Wendy Stephens; Jennifer Pfau, ABC-CLIO’s marketing manager of print and electronic products; and Rick Lumsden. From left (right image):Matt Andros, Roger Rosen, and Diana McDermott.

Gregory: Let’s look at primary-source documents. How were teachers taught to use primary-source documents 20 years ago? Now, they’re all digitized but teachers didn’t get any instruction back then on how to use them. So one thing we do, and I know the other publishers and aggregators do, is provide guidance on teaching with documents.

Harris: Improvement also means moving away from textbooks as regurgitators of tertiary analysis. It’s going to be increasingly important to have direct explanations from experts who are able to offer true descriptions, definitions, and reviews of topics, overviews that don’t attempt to analyze, because we expect students to do that.

Lumsden: You just defined an encyclopedia article. For those of us in more traditional areas of publishing, the challenge is to make sure people understand where articles come from, that they’re written by experts.

Staino: We’re very tech savvy and we probably think everyone is moving toward electronic access. But I know some people who still buy print encyclopedias because they don’t have the hardware. What’s your feeling about that?

Gregory: If everybody had unlimited budgets, they’d probably buy both because of the different types of learners we were talking about. When some administrators and librarians have decided to back off print reference and buy online products, four or five years later, budgets are cut and they can no longer buy the online resource. If they had bought print, they’d have some shelf life. You have zero shelf life with 100 percent digital; when it’s cut off, you’ve got 100 percent of nothing. I heard from one of the largest library systems on the West Coast that they put their print encyclopedias out for circulation when they’re a year old.

Stephens: I do exactly the same thing. Print is excellent for equity of access, but also because if a student who’s using it looks up Paul Revere, it says, “See also American Revolution,” and so on. Then I can show them the related topics and controlled vocabulary they need to know. Also, sometimes the databases are just overwhelming and a circulating encyclopedia is much more digestible.

Gregory: You lose something going to digital, in my opinion. Years ago, when we had to write about Rhode Island, we got the “R” volume off the shelf, and on the way to “Rhode Island” saw “Revolutionary War.” A week later, I remember the Revolutionary War, and I don’t know a thing about Rhode Island. You miss that casual learning completely with digital.

Harris: I disagree. For me serendipity means that somebody failed to develop a proper search interface. Serendipity is an excuse that means, “We don’t know how to do fuzzy logic.” I can code serendipity that’s better than serendipitous. We have the ability to start using rich document format and semantic metadata so things will pop up that say, “You’re looking for Rhode Island? Rhode Island was in the Revolutionary War. Find out more about the Revolutionary War.”

Gregory: But with casual learning, you could find something beginning with “R” that’s nothing to do with Rhode Island.

Harris: We coded that. On our library portal is a little button that says, “Go fish.” Kids click on the button and it takes them to a random book. I see on Rosen’s PowerKids site, they have little things on the front page that rotate quite often, and I know World Book and the other encyclopedias do that too. You can digitally craft things to replace serendipity.

Staino: One thing I’ve observed is that with digital, kids become individual casual learners rather than group casual learners, whereas with print, they share more.

Lumsden: The problem isn’t format, it’s user attitude. There are far more opportunities for finding things serendipitously in a digital format than in a book because things that are related are linked.

Planning to catch this year’s American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in Anaheim, CA? If you’re anything like us, you’ll want to make every second count. That’s why we’ve asked seven savvy librarians to give us the skinny on the top five sessions they plan to attend during the June 21–26 event. As you’ll see, they came up with an eclectic mix that’s bound to make nearby Disneyland’s power couple, Mickey and Minnie, a mere distraction.

But ALA isn’t the only meeting that has a lot to offer. Librarians can also take advantage of the International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) conference, which takes place June 24–27 in San Diego, just a hop, skip, and a tank of gas away. According to ISTE’s organizers, the forward-thinking gathering will feature “nearly 20,000 enthusiastic ed-tech professionals and corporate representatives from around the globe.” Sound tempting? Then you’ll want to read why librarian Tiffany Whitehead (“ISTE or Bust”) is skipping ALA in favor of ISTE.

SLJ’s editors will be at both shows. At ALA, look for us at booth #2234, where we’ll offer special discounts to Book Verdict, our new online collection development tool that provides access to more than 300,000 reviews of books and media from SLJ, Library Journal, and The Horn Book. You can also find out more about our August 9 virtual event, “SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books,” and our October 17 ebook summit, now called “The Digital Shift: Libraries, Ebooks, and Beyond.” And don’t miss our popular Spa Day raffle, where three lucky winners each receive a $150 certificate to help ease their weary conference-going bones.

Wherever you land, we hope the following recommendations deliver some exciting new ideas that you can put into action.—SLJ staff

Carl A. Harvey II

School librarian,
North Elementary School,
Noblesville, IN

AASL President’s Program

Saturday, June 23, 10:30 a.m.–noon, Anaheim Convention Center (ACC) 213AB

As the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) current president, I’m probably a little biased, but this session tops my list. Lori Takeuchi, director of research at Sesame Workshop’s Joan Ganz Cooney Center, will share the results of a nationwide survey of more than 800 parents of kids ages three through 10, which reveal how parents feel about raising children in a digital age. Takeuchi will answer audience questions and share in-depth case studies on how parents’ attitudes toward technology, as well as their family values and routines, help shape the experiences of today’s kids. This is powerful information to take back and use in your schools.

Best Websites for Teaching and Learning

Saturday, June 23, 8–10 a.m., ACC 213D

Here’s a great opportunity to find out about some excellent online tools to use with students as AASL unveils its 2011 Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning.

AASL 101

Saturday, June 23, 4–5:30 p.m., ACC 203B

This program is highly recommended especially for those new to ALA’s conference scene. I remember going to my first ALA annual and leaving unsure about the experience. Luckily, I tried it again and was hooked. A chance to attend an AASL 101 back then would have taught me a lot about ALA and AASL—and I would’ve caught the fever even sooner!

Closing General Session and Inaugural Event, Featuring J. R. Martinez

Tuesday, June 26, 9:30–11 a.m., ACC Ballroom DE

While serving in Iraq, Martinez, the author of the upcoming biography Full of Heart: My Story of Survival, Strength, and Spirit, suffered severe burns when his vehicle struck a landmine. During the next three years, he underwent 33 operations and worked tirelessly to recover. Come listen to his inspiring message of perseverance and resilience. We librarians need to embrace Martinez’s attitude—in order to achieve anything we set our minds to.

AASL Awards Luncheon

Monday, June 25, 12–2 p.m., Hilton Anaheim Huntington

Come grab a bite, listen to keynote speaker Carmen Agra Deedy, and celebrate the amazing accomplishments of school librarians as they’re lavished with the recognition they so richly deserve. In these tough economic times, we need to relish the positive rather than focus on the negative.

Melissa Jacobs Israel

Coordinator of library
services, New York City
Department of Education

Libraries in the Cloud

Friday, June 22, 8:30 a.m.–noon, ACC 201B

As more and more libraries move beyond brick-and-mortar spaces and drift into the cloud, librarians need to understand their new roles. This session will give us a greater perspective on the best emerging practices and the pros and cons of cloud computing, and help us learn about productivity tools that we can implement in our schools.

YALSA Teen Advisory Boards—Keeping Teens Interested

Monday, June 25, 10:30 a.m.–noon, ACC 209B

School and public libraries are longtime partners when it comes to reaching teens—and we should continue to keep this diverse audience engaged. I’m curious to find out if there are any lessons that school librarians can learn from our public libraries and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), especially when it comes to keeping teens interested in what we have to offer. Perhaps it will lead to a conversation between New York City’s public library system and our school libraries.

AASL When Worlds Collide: An AASL and Common Core Mash Up

Saturday, June 23, 8–10 a.m., Hilton Anaheim Laguna A

School librarians nationwide need to start building lessons based on the Common Core Learning Standards. In New York City, we’ve aligned our school library Information Fluency Standards with the Common Core Learning Standards and now offer four-day professional development workshops on unpacking Common Core standards, developing lesson plans, and understanding text complexity. It’s imperative to understand the work that’s being done by AASL and school librarians across the country. The Common Core Learning Standards offer opportunities for all school librarians to step up and lead students through critical thinking, informational text, and text complexity.

Critical Thinking in a Digital Age: The Positive Influence of Web 2.0 Tools

Saturday, June 23, 1:30–3:30 p.m., ACC 205B

Social learning and Web 2.0 are powerful tools for student learning. As educators and librarians, we need to embrace them to help students navigate in a digital age.

ALSC Nonfiction Book Blast: Booktalks and Activities for Your Library

Saturday, June 23, 10:30 a.m.–noon, ACC 304AB

The Common Core Learning Standards’s and NYC’s Citywide Instructional Expectations are built on understanding, analysis, and responses to informational texts, which are nonfiction books and factual articles from vetted sources. Use this opportunity to engage students and teachers with booktalks and activities in your library while using the Common Core Learning Standard’s focus on text complexity and informational text. By drawing more users into the library, you’ll instill lifelong learning and reading skills.

Chantell L. McDowell

Teen services librarian,
Charlotte Mecklenburg
(NC) Library

Books We’ll Still Talk About 45 Years from Now

Friday, June 22, 12:30–4:30 p.m., ACC 204A

As a YALSA member and YA librarian, I’ve always wanted to be a part of its book-selection committee. The aspiring writer in me would also like to know what it takes to create quality young adult literature, especially classics that’ll endure for years to come.

Leaders Wanted/LIS Doctoral Program Options Fair: Cultivating Diversity in LIS Education

Saturday, June 23, 10:30 a.m.–noon, Anaheim Marriot Marquis South

Once I’ve completed my doctoral program in leadership studies at New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce University, I’m seriously considering pursuing a second doctorate in library science. Sounds like this is a good place to learn more.

Leading Professional Development That Matters… and Works

Friday, June 22, 12:30–4 p.m., ACC 201B

This preconference seminar takes advantage of the growing library field—and will hopefully offer different professional development models that can enhance my career.

Auditorium Speaker: Teens Making a Difference Featuring William Kamkwamba, Talia Leman, and Gaby Rodriguez

Saturday, June 23, 1:30–2:30 p.m., ACC Ballroom DE

As a teen advocate, I enjoy interacting with kids who want to make a difference or who’ve already made one. I’m looking forward to hearing about the wonderful journeys and choices that have inspired these three young people to stand up and take charge.

Auditorium Speaker: Sapphire

Sunday, June 24, 10:30–11:30 a.m. ACC Ballroom DE

Sapphire is the author of the best-selling novel Push, which was made into the Oscar-winning 2009 movie Precious about an illiterate teen who’s raped by her father and rescued by a determined teacher. It would really be a pleasure to hear Sapphire speak. She’s an inspiration, and I’ve always admired her work.

John Peters

Children’s literature
consultant,
New York City

Science in the Stacks

Saturday, June 23, 10:30 a.m.–noon, ACC 209A

According to ALA’s program guide, this session is “centered around 36 Discovery Exhibits, which provide experiential science learning that’s integrated with traditional library resources.” Intriguing!

Publish or Bust!: An ePublishing Odyssey

Saturday, June 23, 4–5:30 p.m., ACC 207B

In an apparent case of one library providing a new service by catching a cultural wave while it’s on the rise, this session will report on a library-based experiment in the growing area of self-publishing. Though the resulting book was apparently not for children, I imagine the process would be similar no matter the intended audience.

The New Nonfiction: What Is It, and Does It Matter?

Sunday, June 24, 1:30–3:30 p.m., ACC 202B

I review a ton of nonfiction every year, and so I’m always on the lookout for new trends and perspectives on the stuff.

When Miss Rumphius Meets Hugo Cabret: Scaffolding Using Picture Books

Sunday, June 24, 1:30–3:30 p.m., ACC 210C

Unfortunately, this program on making reading more active through evaluating picture-book themes and concepts takes place at the same time as the program listed immediately above it, but if I lace on my sneakers, maybe I can slip back and forth between the two presentations. That sort of thing has never happened to me, but hey, there’s always a first time.

I Want a Truck Book! Reorganizing Your Picture Book Collection to Meet the Needs of Young Patrons and Their Caregivers

Sunday, June 24, 4–5:30 p.m., ACC 210D

Becuase I’ve spent most of my library career working with mammoth picture-book collections and struggling to find ways to make them accessible—to librarians as well as patrons—this program addresses an enduring interest.

ALSC and YALSA Joint Presidents’ Program: The Digital Lives of Tweens and Young Teens

Monday, June 25, 8–10 a.m., ACC 304AB

As a member of the Great Web Sites for Kids committee and a freelance reviewer of apps and ebooks, I expect this program to be chock-full of relevant and valuable new insights into the digital experiences of young users.

John Schumacher

Teacher-librarian,
Brook Forest Elementary
School, Oak Brook, IL

When Worlds Collide: An AASL and Common Core Mashup

Saturday, June 23, 8–10 a.m., Hilton Anaheim Laguna A

Schools around the country are working on implementing the Common Core standards. This session will inspire school librarians to take a leadership role that will help teachers implement the new guidelines.

Think, Create, Share, Grow: Setting the Stage for Collaborative Inquiry

Saturday, June 23, 1:30–3:30 p.m., Anaheim Marriott Orange County Salon 1–2

Michael Stephens was one of my library school professors, and he stressed the importance of “library as place.” Thanks to Michael and my partnership with Iowa’s Van Meter School, I’m drawn to sessions and discussions about library spaces, collaboration, and inquiry-based learning.

When Miss Rumphius Meets Hugo Cabret: Scaffolding Using Picture Books

Sunday, June 24, 1:30–3:30 p.m., ACC 210C

I’m pumped about any session that mentions two of my favorite books. I hope it’ll remind attendees of the importance of using picture books with kids of all ages.

Share the Wealth: Contribute to the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Lesson Plan Database

Sunday, June 24, 8–10 a.m., ACC 205B

I’ve used the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Lesson Plan Database, and now it’s time to contribute to this valuable resource. I am excited to learn more about the process of submitting a lesson.

The New Nonfiction: What Is It, and Does It Matter?

Sunday, June 24, 1:30–3:30 p.m., ACC 202B

I’m looking forward to this session almost as much as the Newbery/Caldecott banquet. A new framework for evaluating nonfiction intrigues me.

Allison Tran

Teen services librarian,
Mission Viejo (CA)
Library

Not Another Boring Vampire Romance: Going Beyond the Norm in Young Adult Paranormal Literature

Saturday, June 23, 8–10 a.m., ACC 209AB

I’m ready to hear something new about the ever-popular genres of paranormal and fantasy YA literature, and this librarian-moderated panel featuring authors Kendare Blake, Ken Oppel, Jackson Pearce, and Cindy Pon sounds fascinating. According to the panel’s official description, it will “give particular insight in how approaching this best-selling genre from a unique perspective as both a reader and a writer makes it even more relevant and interesting to a more diverse audience of teen readers.”

Being a Social Teen Advocate

Saturday, June 23, 4–5:30 p.m., ACC 204C

As an active social media user, I’m always eager to learn new ways to use these technologies to reach my library community. This session, presented by technology expert Linda W. Braun, will discuss how to use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+ to attract library teens. I’m looking forward to the brainstorming part of the session when we all exchange ideas.

Best Fiction for Young Adults

Sunday, June 24, 1:30–3:30 p.m., Hilton Anaheim California D

This is always one of the most talked about ALA sessions, and I always use YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) list as a selection tool for my library’s collection. I look forward to hearing local teens talk candidly about their experiences with the books nominated for the 2013 BFYA list.

Passive Programming That’s Anything But: Reaching Young Adults Subversively

Sunday, June 24, 4–5:30 p.m., ACC 207A

As a budget-conscious librarian who plans a lot of passive programming for teens, I’m always scouting for new ideas. According to this session’s description, “Participants in this program will learn why passive programming is an important aspect of YA service and how to inexpensively implement and maintain these programs.” It’s exactly what I need to spice up my passive programs.

Odyssey Award Presentation and Program

Monday, June 25, 4–5:30 p.m., ACC 213D

Each year the Odyssey Award goes to the producer of the best English-language
audiobook for children and young adults in the United States. I’m absolutely addicted to audiobooks—I love the way a talented narrator can make a good story even more vibrant. I’m looking forward to celebrating the 2012 Odyssey winners, chosen by a committee of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and YALSA members.

Paula Willey

Librarian,
Baltimore (MD) County
Public Library

ALSC and YALSA Joint Presidents’ Program: The Digital Lives of Tweens and Young Teens

Monday, June 25, 8-10 a.m., ACC 304AB

When I talk to kids about their online lives, they ask me, “How come our parents think everyone online is a rapist?” And when I talk to parents, they tell me, “Kids don’t realize how dangerous it is to be online!” I need authoritative information about the way kids use the Internet in order to make good recommendations to them and their caregivers.

The New Nonfiction: What Is It, and Does It Matter?

Sunday, June 24, 1:30–3:30 p.m., ACC 202B

I’ve been reviewing nonfiction for SLJ for four years, and sometimes the life of a reviewer can feel like a lonely one—this upcoming panel sounds like my kind of people! If nonfiction and the criteria for evaluating it are changing, I better brush up on it.

Leaders Wanted/LIS Doctoral Program Options Fair: Cultivating Diversity in LIS Education

Saturday, June 23, 10:30 a.m.–noon, Anaheim Marriott Marquis South

Why not consider getting a Ph.D.? I’ve been a librarian for more than a decade, helping people research what they find interesting… maybe it’s time to turn those skills back on the profession that means so much to me.

Teen Advisory Boards—Keeping Teens Interested

Monday, June 25, 10:30 a.m.–noon, ACC 209B

After reading in a recent issue of SLJ about zombie survival training as a teen program, I realized there are some seriously clever and creative YA services librarians out there. I intend to steal all of their ideas!

Get Them Talking About Books!: Using Protocols to Assist Students with Making Book Choices and Developing a Reading Plan

Monday, June 25, 1:30–3:30 p.m., Hilton Anaheim Palos Verdes B

Kids turn to one another for reliable book recommendations, but booktalking is a learned skill. For example, kids can often be too vague (“Um, I just really liked the book”) or way too specific, reciting whole runs of dialogue without any context. I want to walk away mastering how to teach that to kids.