Industry News

Speaking at SLJ's Leadership Summit in Austin, TX, last month, ALA President Barbara Stripling implored attendees to demand that their communities assert all students' right to a library.

The National Book Foundation has announced the 2013 Young People’s Literature finalists for the National Book Award. The list includes two previous finalists, Kathi Appelt (2008) and Gene Luen Yang (2006), and first-time finalists Cynthia Kadohata, Tom McNeal, and Meg Rosoff.

You don't have to be in Washington State to get the exciting takeaways from the Washington Library Media Association's (WLMA) two-day conference, being hosted in Yakima, Washington, starting Thursday, October 17. WLMA will again be offering a free virtual broadcast of key presentations from the event.

Tanya Lee Stone's novel about three teen girls' involvement with a "sexy" senior boy, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl, will remain in North Carolina's Currituck County High School library, following a 4-1 vote by the local board of education. The vote, in response to a parental challenge to the book for its sexual content, came after recommendations from both a high school review committee and a district review committee to keep the book.

New York Comic Con is not for the faint of heart. More than 130,000 attendees (many in costume) jammed the exhibit halls on October 10–13, yet in the center of it all were librarians. They came out in force to spread the word about comics and graphic novels and to source the latest titles for their collections.

After three decades as editor of School Library Journal’s Book Review, Trevelyn Jones will retire October 18, leaving behind a legacy of expertise, integrity, and a love of children’s literature that is largely unmatched in the industry. To celebrate her retirement, SLJ reached out to Jones’s industry colleagues to reflect on her contributions.

UPDATE October 18: Here’s the full text of Gaiman’s Speech (via Reading Agency) The Guardian has published an edited version of the lecture the Neil Gaiman gave in London last night. It was the second annual Reading Agency (a charitable organization) lecture and focused on children, reading, literacy, and libraries. We think it’s something many of [...]

Ahead of our exclusive webcast with kid lit authors Kate DiCamillo and Jon Scieszka on October 21—during which they will discuss her latest book, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, and the importance of humor in children's literature—we asked DiCamillo to field a few humorous warm-up questions.

School librarians must be assertive leaders and technology experts, Joel Castro, associate superintendent for the Lubbock, Texas, School District, told attendees at SLJ's annual Leadership Summit in Austin in September. Castro also urged school librarians to work closely with their school principals in order to forge common ground.