Industry News

Members of the Association of Library Service to Children celebrated 75 years of the Caldecott Medal this weekend with a welcoming reception Thursday evening honoring authors and illustrators, and a day-long preconference on Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Teacher librarian Joyce Valenza reflects on the 2013 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning, the highly anticipated list chosen annually by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL).

Here in Chicago, AASL’s Best Websites for Teaching & Learning Committee just released its standards-aligned 2013 list. (Don’t miss AASL’s inaugural, Best Apps For Teaching and Learning list, also just released at ALA!) Sites and tools are selected  because they engage users through innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. Honored websites, tools, and resources will provide exceptional value [...]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that when you have easy access to amazing things the relative value you place upon those things diminishes significantly after a surprisingly short amount of time. Case in Point: When I worked across the street from the MOMA for several years it was apparently too difficult for me, even [...]

The American Library Association (ALA) this week launched a preview version of Digital Learn, a free online resource for librarians working with digital literacy learners. The new hub, which will be fully available June 30, follows recommendations released this month from ALA’s Digital Literacy Task Force.

The nominees for the 2013 Teens’ Top Ten have just been announced by the Young Adult Library Services Association. Kids Read Now combats summer slide with a summer reading program focusing on children in first through third grades. Channel One News is expanding its digital distribution so that its education content can be accessed inside and outside the classroom. Chronicle Books celebrates its 25 years in children's publishing with a tween and teen book giveaway, with entries due July 3. A school librarian at Hitchin Boys’ School in the UK has discovered a poem incorrectly attributed to William Blake.

The author argues that nonfiction remains marginal–so marginal that neither ALSC nor YALSA seems to notice their bias. The question is, why?

Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL), an advisory group to the Colorado State Library, is launching the Bell Picture Book Awards, with the first honorees set to be announced on February 5, 2014. The program is designed to celebrate books that foster adult-child engagement around the early literacy practices of read, write, sing, talk, and play.

Tech-savvy younger Americans are more likely than older adults to have read printed books in the past year, are more likely to appreciate reading in libraries, and are just as strong supporters of traditional library services as older adults, a new national report from the Pew Research Center shows. And, according to the survey of Americans ages 16–29, a majority of young adults say it is “very important” for libraries to have librarians and books for borrowing.