Category Archives: Events

ALA Honors Writers for Youth

Over 20,000 librarians and exhibitors attended the American Library Association (ALA) conference in Washington, DC this June. One of its major strands, as usual, was outstanding authors for youth.

The year marks the 50th anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Award, which honors African American authors of children’s literature. Kwame Alexander and Jacqueline Woodson spoke at the King ceremony, which was held at the Library of Congress. A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, written by Claire Hartfield, is the 2019 King Author Book winner. Past recipients of the award were also lauded.

Now in its 21st year, the International Latino Book Awards recognized 261 finalist authors in 95 categories. The books, by and about Latinos, may be written in English, Spanish or Portuguese. The honored authors themselves live in the United States and 18 other countries. The complete list of awardees is available at http://mpoweringstudents.org/awards/.

Attendees were treated to a strong, diverse lineup of speakers from the show’s main stages, including bestselling poet and middle grade author Jason Reynolds. The auditorium speaker series included U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, bestselling Nigerian-American writer Tomi Adeyemi, NBC News reporter Mariana Atencio, sociologist and author Eric Klinenberg (who appeared with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden), Today host Hoda Kotb, comics legend Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler, author Nnedi Okorafor (best known for her African-themed sci-fi novels), and actor and activist George Takei.

For an complete list of ALA youth media awards, go to http://www.ala.org/news/mediapresscenter/presskits/youthmediaawards/alayouthmediaawards.

Children’s Literature Heritage

Celebrate Your Children’s Literature Heritage with a Literary Landmark

2019 marks the 100thAnniversary of Children’s Book Week, an event sponsored by theChildren’s Book Counciland Every Child A Reader.  Since 2015 communities around the country have celebrated Children’s Book Week by dedicating a Literary Landmark plaque a site that has a connection to a children’s author or a particular children book.  The Literary Landmark Register is a project of United for Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.   

Children’s Book Week will be April 29 – May 5, 2019. There are already two landmarks planned in New York State being coordinating by the Empire State Center for the Book.  The 100thAnniversary of Children’s Book Week will be celebrated throughout 2019 so Literary Landmarks can be dedication throughout the year.  Robert McCloskey(Ohio), Walter Dean Myers(New York), Barbara Cooney(Massachuetts) and Margaret Wise Brown(Rhode Island) have all been recognized in past years.

Information about Children’s Book Week may be found at: http://everychildareader.net/cbw/ 

Information regarding Literary Landmarks may be found at :

http://www.ala.org/united/products_services/literarylandmarks

Literacy citizenship conference call for proposals

Literary Citizenship

25–27 September 2019, National Library of Norway, Oslo

Call for papers

The history of the book is one of global and complex encounters, and the book trade has from its very outset been a transnational enterprise. Today, in part due to digitization, the production, distribution and consumption of books are becoming increasingly international, as books are made accessible worldwide. How does this tangle of transnational and transmedial characteristics inform the way we understand and study books and other printed materials? In what ways do local and global conditions shape what may be termed literary citizenship; how the act of writing, publishing and reading can foster social identity and agency?

The concluding conference of Literary Citizens of the World (LitCit), an international research project financed by the Research Council of Norway and hosted by the National Library, will be held in Oslo 25–27 September 2019. The conference is one in a series of events marking the 500th anniversary of printed books in Norway. The first ‘Norwegian’ book was printed in Paris in 1519, in Latin. Today, most ‘Norwegian’ books are printed in the Baltics, and the holdings of the National Library are digitized and made publicly accessible from around the world. The intermediate 500 years of Norwegian book history display similar transnational and transmedial characteristics.

We welcome papers (20 min) that explore aspects of both the local and the transnational nature and impact of the book or other printed materials. Our interests are historical as well as contemporary, and we welcome topics related to Norway, the Nordic countries or beyond, from the 16th century onwards. We also invite reflections on how the history of information packaging and control, (re)distribution, entertainment, reading practices and reading communities can help us to reflect on similar patterns and phenomena shaping society today. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • literary citizenships: reading cultures, readerships, print cultures, the public sphere
  • migrating books: translations, adaptations, transactions, trajectories, exchanges
  • the book industry: book trade, production, promotion, consumption, distribution
  • the materiality of books: print, illustrations, binding, media, digital culture
  • the politics of books: contexts, censorship, copyright, usages of books

We are pleased to announce our keynote speakers:

  • Roger Chartier, Professor of Early Modern European History and Culture, at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Collège de France in Paris and the University of Pennsylvania
  • Ann Thomson, Professor of European Intellectual History at the European University Institute in Florence
  • Daniel Bellingradt, Professor at the Institute for the Study of the Book at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Submission guidelines

Deadline for submission of abstracts (200–300 words): 15 February 2019

Notification of acceptance: 31 March 2019

Paper presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. Please email abstracts, or any enquiries regarding the programme, to litcit@nb.no

Papers from the conference may be submitted for an edited volume, due to be published in 2020/2021.

For more information about the project and the conference, please visit Literary Citizens of the World. Tracing the Transnational Crossroads of Books in Early Modern Norway.

ILA 2019 conference call for proposals

Join the International Literacy Association on June 21–22, 2019, in Las Vegas, NV, for a two-day event that is specifically designed to help practitioners and professionals  recognize and address biases in literacy instruction and create classroom and school environments that are diverse, inclusive, affirming, and culturally sensitive.

Their call for session proposals is now open at https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/events/ila-intensive-nevada-submission-guidelines.pdf  The deadline is December 18.

International Literacy Day

8 September was International Literacy Day. Despite advancements in the global literacy agenda, much remains to be done as 750 million adults still lack basic reading and writing skills. UIL is committed to advancing the literacy agenda, on Literacy Day and on every other day: Read about the freshly launched ‘Hamburg Education Talks’, the first of which took place on 6 September on the theme ‘Illiteracy in Hamburg – Does it really exist?’. Learn about the UNESCO – Microsoft Project ‘Advancing Mobile Literacy Learning’ and explore interesting case studies on literacy in relation to the reintegration of prisoners, poverty reduction, civic participation and improved well-being in UIL’s Effective Literacy and Numeracy Practices Database and other projects.

American Library Association conference

Over 20,000 librarians and supporters attended the American Library Association conference in New Orleans June 23-26. Several sessions informed teacher librarians.

ALA’s Research and Statistics Committee created a research agenda, which can guide IASL research efforts. The four priorities include: measuring the library’s impact; strengthening the library’s adaptive responses to change; supporting diversity, equity and inclusion; and evaluating strategies for staff development.

In 2017 the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) created new standards, which align learner, librarian and program standards (standards.aasl.org). They have a growing number of resource to help teacher librarians implement these standards.

AASL also announced their selection of the best apps and websites for teaching and learning: http://www.ala.org/news/member-news/2018/06/alas-libraries-ready-code-release-beta-collection-2018-annual-conference

YALSA developed a teen literacy toolkit (http://www.ala.org/yalsa/teen-literacies-toolkit), which used the “fake news” phenomenon as an approach to addressing multiple literacies. They discuss culturally-inclusive literacies strategies library staff can use with teens to help them make sense of their world and build a robust set of skills as they prepare to enter college or start careers.

Reported by Lesley Farmer