Behind the Locked Door, part two

With a mere 30 days before ALA Annual starts, the YALSA Excellence in Non-Fiction for Young Adults book award committee is reading reading reading. I’ve read something like 30 books thus far on a variety of topics, and rumor has it that another 10-12 books are due to arrive at any time. The Committee is discussing the books using both e-mail and ALA Connect, assessing them per the charge:

To annually select the best nonfiction title published for young adults between November 1 of the preceding year and October 31 of the current year, available in English in the United States and, if desired, to also select honor titles. The short list of finalists will be announced during the first week of December, with the winning title announced at the following ALA Midwinter Meeting. The winners and honor authors will be recognized at an ALA or YALSA Conference.

Now, that’s a little vague. In determining what’s “best”, we’re looking at text, how the images integrate with the text (and enhance it), what additional materials there are (e.g., a glossary, a timeline or a bibliography) and how the whole contributes to our knowledge of the topic and is marketed to young adults. So, for example, last year’s Turn Right at Machu Picchu or 2010′s Unbroken, while filled with YA goodness, were written as adult books and marketed to adults, were not eligible.

There’s also a question of accuracy. While not explicitly mentioned in our charge (or any YALSA definition of “best”), accuracy in non-fiction is imperative. If there’s a glaring factual error, there may be smaller, less glaring errors. Or errors in areas of the topic about which I have no prior knowledge. Example: if a book tells me that the people of Mexico speak Mexicoan (I’m watching the Conversations with Dead People episode of Buffy as I type, hence that gem), I’m going to question what else I’m missing in the book. Wouldn’t you?

Some of the books we’ve read have had errors. Some have had questionable facts from questionable sources. Some show bias where they perhaps shouldn’t. And some have been clearly written for a younger group (it’s possible the publishers aren’t clear about our age grouping).

Luckily, those are in the minority. Overall, however, the books have been good. We’ve been nominating a number of them (there’ll be an annotated list of all the nominations available for use as a collection development tool – here are previous year’s lists [note: you'll need to log in]). We’ve even had a field nomination. What’s that?

Field suggestions are encouraged. To be eligible, they must be submitted on the official suggestion form. The form will allow for both a rationale and summary of nominated titles. Committee members will be notified of all field suggestions, which are eligible to be considered for nomination by members. Nominated titles must also have a second from a committee member. Only those titles that have been nominated will be discussed at Midwinter and Annual Conference meetings, as well as phone meetings, though a committee member may request that a suggested title be moved to the discussion list and thus treated as a nominated title. Furthermore, all nominated titles must be discussed. To prevent a conflict of interest, publishers, authors, or editors may not nominate titles in which they have a vested interest.

If you’ve read a YA non-fiction book that you think deserves our attention, here’s the form. Don’t forget, however, that we – the Committee – need to second your nomination. Don’t let that deter you, though, because there may be a book (or two) that we haven’t really thought about, or one that we’re on the fence about and your nomination may be the nudge the book needs.

Stay tuned for more from Behind the Locked Door.

Vote! It’s #ALA Election Time

One of the frequent rants here is how the youth services divisions don’t vote in ALA Elections. One of our own, Barb Stripling, is running and she’s not there just to fill the ballot. There are many wonderful ALA Council candidates from AASL, ALSC and YALSA.

This year so many of us are getting involved with the national election, and we’d consider it a dereliction of our duty if we didn’t participate by voting. So why not make this the year that proves ALA’s received wisdom wrong and prove that AASL, ALSC and YALSA members not only vote, they make a difference?

Membership Has Its Privileges

A recent kerfluffle about YALSA’s new policy regarding access to the awards list has broken out – LizB, as always, has the best round-up and analysis.

My thoughts?

I understand YALSA’s wanting to reach out to people who are not currently members, and I understand that they want to increase membership. The question of how expensive ALA (and YALSA) is might be part of the issue about falling membership, it may also be due to librarians losing their jobs and finding work in other fields. That’s food for another post, though.

The problem is that this decision presumes that the people who are looking at YALSA lists are all YA librarians, and that reaching out to them about the value of membership and events is a good thing (the goal, apparently, is to create an e-mail list of all these non-members who look at the website for list information). But what about students who are looking to nominate a favorite book for BFYA or the Excellence in Non-Fiction Award (as committee member on the latter, I’m particularly interested in that!)? Or parents (or grandparents, aunts, etc.) who aren’t blessed enough to have a librarian to guide them to the best new books for them to give as gifts?

Sarah Flowers, on the YALSA blog, says:

The purpose of this change, which is not expected to be temporary, is three-fold. On the one hand, one of YALSA’s Strategic Plan goals is member recruitment. Obviously people who are already coming to our website are candidates to become members. By collecting their email addresses, we can send them information targeted to their areas of interest, and perhaps gain some new YALSA members in the process. The second purpose is to find out more about who is using the website and how, so that we can do an even better job of serving both members and non-members. The third purpose is to identify and cultivate a list of advocates for teen services. Now more than ever we need to reach beyond the library community to engage people in advocating on behalf of libraries. Advocacy and activism is another goal in YALSA’s strategic plan, and organizations such as NTEN (The Nonprofit Technology Network) identify what YALSA is doing—collecting email addresses of those who support our cause—as a best practice for not-for-profits.

In less than two weeks, we have already collected over 1,100 names and email addresses, so clearly a lot of people think that providing this information is a fair trade for what they get from YALSA’s lists. Moreover, these teachers, parents, teens and others can be tapped by YALSA to support the great work that you do. We are proud of the work that you, the members, do for YALSA in creating these lists and awards, and we want to make sure that we’re promoting them—and YALSA—effectively beyond our own membership. YALSA depends on donations, sales from products and fees from CE to support the majority of the services that we provide and the work we do. Without avenues to promote these products and services, YALSA would not have enough funding to continue the same level of service it has been providing.

Let’s go back to one of my examples: someone wanting to nominate a book, or just get an idea as to what’s new and really outstanding for teens now has to give YALSA their e-mail (and it’s going to be every time they look at the lists, not just once) and can be “tapped for potential membership and advocacy”. If this were my parents, they’d go elsewhere for their information and think far less of YALSA. Why? Because they don’t want to be members (why should they join? they’re not in the library world or in the book world, they’re simply trying to get information for their next book purchase). And advocacy or donating? Unlikely that they’d do it, however much they like books or approve of teen services.

Over on the AASL website, they’ve locked down a lot of content on the theory that “membership has its privileges” – mostly this applies to Knowledge Quest magazine. Doug Johnson discusses that here. I do understand that there are reasons for organizations to block (or, more accurately, control access to) content, in part to encourage people to join. But is this the best way? Isn’t it better to have complete access to this stuff so that people see that there’s a value to joining? Creating a barrier for non-members to get information that passively leads to advocacy (as in “if you’re looking for great new books to buy your daughter, there’s this award/list that’s really helpful”) sends people away, not brings them in.

And making this move without telling people or allowing for discussion? For an organization dedicated to open access and freedom of information and sharing of information, that just seems wrong.

2011 Round-up, part two

This year was filled with highlights and a few lowlights – but why dwell on the latter? The most important thing for me this year was learning with, and from, my friends, peers and colleagues. Some are librarians, some administrators, others teachers or “civilians”: my professional life has been made richer by knowing them. Note that I’m not using the overused acronym PLN or PLE, because I think a less jargon-filled world is a good thing.

Not a sacraficial lamb to slaughter

The big buzz at AASL11 was Barb Stripling is running for ALA President. Yay?

Let’s try that again, shall we:

The big buzz at AASL11 was Barb Stripling is running for ALA President. YAY!!

Why the initial “yay?” from so many people? Many people know that she’s a great candidate but we also know that presidential candidates from the youth services divisions rarely get elected (not never, just rarely). Several people murmured that she doesn’t have a chance.

I had the honor of serving on the ALA Nominating Committee in 2010 and I can promise you that Barb wasn’t chosen because the committee really wanted Gina J. Millsap to be the ’13-’14 ALA President and needed someone to run as a sacrificial lamb against her. Trust me when I tell you that isn’t the case. The process is much more complicated and thoughtful than that. So herewith is both a backstage view of what happens and how Barb can have a realistic chance at getting elected.

First, when my committee met we started by looking at past potential candidates – could this be the year they ran? We also divided up the divisions and made plans to call their presidents to get names of people they felt were potential presidential candidates. All those names were then called. It went something like this:
Me: Hi, I’m calling on behalf of ALA’s Nominating Committee. Do you have a few moments to talk?
Potential Candidate: Uh… sure.
Me: Well, this is all confidential, but we’d like you to consider running as candidate for ALA President next year.

At this point, I’d get one of three responses: 1. “God no!”, 2. “Wow. Me?” or 3. “What would it entail?” (no one ever said “God no!” but ultimately there was a “no” response). What does it entail? It entails talking to your spouse/partner/family and your employer, because there will be a lot of travel. It entails participating in a way that you haven’t before, acting as the voice of ALA and American libraries. And it entails raising a campaign war chest of over $10,000.

Yes, folks. The candidate must fundraise for their own campaign and it’s expensive.

Several really qualified, wonderful people backed out after learning what was expected of them as president and as campaigner. Some said an initial “yes” and then backed out for various reasons. The names get whittled down and discussed and re-discussed. My concern was that we choose candidates that had some sort of on-line presence, someone who could speak to the younger, less engaged members of ALA. For each name I checked to see if they had a blog, a twitter feed, a Facebook page, a column in a publication: something that spoke to them having name recognition beyond their little corner of ALA. Other committee members had other concerns, and each was taken seriously. When we finally had a slate of candidates to present, there was much elation.

So the process of asking Barb to run wasn’t easy, and there’s no way of knowing who the other potential candidates were or why they didn’t run. What I do know is that the entire committee felt this was a viable candidate who could run a great campaign with a chance of winning, someone who would make a great president and spokesperson for ALA.

It’s important that the youth services divisions vote – statistically, historically, members of those divisions do not vote even for their own candidates. Why is a mystery. If those members all voted for Barb… but it will take more than just them. Barb needs to be a candidate who appeals to LITA, ACRL, PLA and RUSA, speaking out about their issues and concerns, not just linking youth services issues to theirs. She needs to have a significant presence on the web and at conferences and institutes. She needs to reach out to younger members who do not feel part of ALA (because it’s too large, it’s too expensive to come to conferences, because it’s not meeting their needs in whatever way) and make them feel that they are needed and included and that she speaks to and for them. How? By blogging and tweeting and e-mailing and speaking and doing all the things that we expect from our leaders, but don’t often get from ALA.

It’s not impossible for me to imagine Barb Stripling as ALA President. It is impossible for me to imagine that the Nominating Committee can’t see that as well.

The Role of Reading

The recent twitter effort to get our senators to remember school libraries/librarians during their ESEA discussions made me think about the role of librarians – or, to be accurate, it was one of the things that made me think about our role. 

Not Drinking the Kool-Aid

While at the recent AASL National Conference I had the pleasure of spending time with several people new to the World of AASL. They weren’t new to “Big ALA”, but they’d spent time in other divisions despite being school librarians (I know so many others that belong to ALSC or YALSA and have little to do with AASL, too).

While they enjoyed the presentations and the opportunity to see their peers outside the large ALA conference, they didn’t enjoy AASL. I understand why, but what saddens me is that so few others seem to – or if they do, they’re not interested in changing things. So, why?

• AASL encourages a Cult of Personality in a way that other divisions don’t seem to.  There are a group of Big Names who are definitely deserving of their fame, as they are often sources of inspiration and new ideas.  But there’s a sense that you cannot disagree with them and that citing others doing similar things is somehow disloyal.  Disagreement and some dissension is good for an organization, let alone for humans.  If you can’t take questioning about your ideas, methodology or pedagogy, isn’t that a huge problem? Other division have their Big Names, but the veneration isn’t there.
• AASL is not that welcoming to newbies and outsiders.  I’ve often decried the age issue at AASL’s All-Committee sessions: I should not be one of the youngest in the room.  One of my dining partners said that she’d joined an AASL committee after years in another division and at her first All-Committee session had been soundly ignored by the other, older (both in age and in AASL activity) members.  How is this helping with outreach to other divisions or encouraging new leaders?
• AASL is not growing new leaders.  Despite the wonderful leadership panel, very few of the AASL leadership is actively mentoring and sponsoring younger members, encouraging participation, committee work and leadership.  So few of the Emerging Leaders have actually emerged, and I know at more than one person who is giving more time and attention to another division despite being really good leadership material for AASL.   When I served on the mentoring committee, nothing was accomplished in part because the act of mentoring is difficult and while many members have had great mentors that helped them, they’re not interested in paying that forward.
• AASL is an echo chamber.  I’ve seen it on so many different social media platforms (especially twitter) and in presentations: I cite you, I applaud you, and you return the favor.  Publicly.  One recent tweet wasn’t even responding to Tweeter A’s comments, it was Tweeter B applauding that Tweeter A was tweeting so thoughtfully. And that comment got retweeted!  Why wasn’t that a DM?  Because in AASL, you need to be seen to be following and appreciating the Big Names.

I could go on, but those are the biggest gripes I’ve heard from people who would make great, insightful, productive, innovative, engaging members and leaders of AASL, but they feel so unwelcome in the association that they prefer to spend their time and energies in other divisions (or in some cases, other associations entirely).  That’s really too bad, but they’ve told me they’re not willing to drink the AASL Kool-Aid, to be ignored and discounted by the Big Names and leaders.  At least two won’t attend AASL13, even to present.  The problem isn’t that it’s just a few unhappy voices, it’s that these voices are being heard by others in the other divisions.  That is a huge image problem for AASL, when people other divisions consider to be Names (or even just names) can’t be positive about their experience with AASL members and conferences.

And sadly this lack of caring is institutionalized in the “home office”, which in this case equals those employed by ALA as well as those serving on the Board and in Affiliate Assembly.  There are a few who buck this trend, but when year after year social gatherings (like the ISS Networking Social) are ignored by the current President and when at the National Conference the President doesn’t make the rounds (ok, greeting 3000+ people can be difficult, but so many people have never spoken with the President up close) I can’t help but wonder what’s going on.  I’ve blogged about this before, written e-mails to friends that have been President (or Past, or Elect) and nothing changes.

Will this new post change anything?  I doubt it.  My voice within AASL is too small, and those with bigger voices won’t care.  My hope is that those outside AASL see this and realize that not everyone inside has drunk the Kool-Aid.

You want irony? #AASL gives you irony

The month of September is a big one for school librarians.  The entire month has been designated “Library Card Sign-Up Month” by ALA, which can be a great way for students to meet their local public librarians and to learn how they can be a real partner when doing research for school.

And then there’s Banned Books Week and the new Banned Websites Awareness Day.  ALA’s position (as I understand it) is that any time people are denied access to something, that’s censorship. Will Manley has posted on censorship and what it really means.  And while I’m not convinced that we should support the Citizen’s United decision,  I do think that many school libraries are selecting materials in a way that starts to verge on questionable, although it’s usually described as choosing books of value or merit; yet somehow no one can explain why Michael Moore or Al Franken have more value or merit than Ann Coulter, and I wonder how many are purchasing Cheney’s memoir.

But that’s not the reason for this post.  As this is September, the start of the academic year in the Northeast (my Southern friends started in August), it’s a good time to put all the thinking and reconsidering vis-a-vis program and pedagogy into practice.  I’ve always started my year with the goal of improving the program and introducing new ideas and ways to collaborate to colleagues, many of which I’ve read about during the previous year and spent summer time considering.  It’s also a good time to rededicate myself to being the librarian I wish I’d had in school, or to emulating those current librarians that I admire and hold up as exemplars of good practice.

Most important, it’s time to energetically reject the hallmarks of the Disposable Librarian.  Who is the Disposable Librarian?  This person is an amalgam of traits observed in those with whom the author has worked, the type of librarian who makes me cringe to think of in my profession.

Here’s where the whole irony thing comes in.

Back in 2007, when Alice Yucht and I were co-editors/managers of the AASLblog, we published a post about the Disposable Librarian.  Because the traits were based on real people, we agreed to anonymously publish the post (hoping of course that these people would read and recognize themselves and realize that perhaps these were not the best way to serve their schools and students).  Here’s what the start of the post looked like:

Want to read it?  Head over the cached version, because AASL has deleted the post.  Yes, the same organization that encourages school librarians to create displays of books that have been challenged and to fight filters has deleted a post from its officl blog.  Here’s what you see when you try to get to the post by clicking on a “regular” link:

To quote Alanis, isn’t it ironic?

A brief #ALA11 wrap-up

Yes, ALA11 ended over a week ago, but in my defense there have been a few things going on in my life that have delayed this post.

Before I actually headed to NOLA, things got exciting.  I was mugged – money removed from my wallet by this bandit:

Seriously, I was just walking down the block, heading home, and this was parked on the corner.  I was powerless to resist the lure of a frappe and a cupcake.  Watch out f people!  The next morning, I went to Mile End for breakfast – yummy.  And then my friend Angela and I headed to Terminal 5 at JFK for our flight south.

No sooner had I entered my hotel room than Wendy phoned asking about meeting for drinks before dinner, and if Stephen could join her, Amy and me for dinner. Of course I said yes, and quickly unpacked then ran to meet them at Napoleon House before heading to Bayona for dinner.  The next morning, before heading off to a Super Secret Focus Group, I met Wendy, Amy and Angela for breakfast:

What a great way to get ready for my first presentation on Disaster Preparation for School Librarians (slides here; the video should be on-line at some point).  Then it was off to the event Amy refers to as “the running of the bulls”.  Well, this bull is getting old, and only managed 36 ARCs in 15-ish minutes.  Still, the overall haul from ALA was 53 books:

Then it was back to the hotel and out to Mother’s for dinner with Francey, Amy, Wendy and Deb. Later that night I had my tarot read by Phil, thanks to the folks at Little, Brown during their Smoke and Bone party at   (the ARC is rapidly coming up on my TBR pile)… after which I went “home” and to bed.

Saturday brought my next presentation, To E or Not to E, part of the From Gutenberg to Glogs presentation (with Wendy, Angela and Carla – slides here), then sessions.  More sessions on Sunday, followed by the ISS gathering where I met Kate (with whom I’ll be serving on the YALSA Publications Advisory Board) and Lisa.

Monday, my last day, was also my last presentation, this time on Best Practices for Library Websites for Teens (with Francey and Jody – LiveBinder here).  I then raced back to the hotel to check out and the incredible receptionist suggested that I mail my books home from the UPS Store nearby, rather than dragging everything back to the convention center (the UPS people were amazingly helpful and they gave me a AAA discount!).  Back at the convention center, I attended one last session before heading to the airport with Patty.

Session round-ups and thoughts coming soon – I promise!

Summertime = Conferences + Presentations

I’ve got quite the schedule this summer, and already I’m tired.   The disaster preparation/recovery presentation to ASLA came and went, but if you’re heading to ALA next week, you’ll find me here:

• Disaster Preparedness for School Librarians
• From Gutenberg to Google and Glogs, From Books to Vooks
• Best Practices in Library Websites for Teens

(that’s in addition to the semi-annual ARC hunt, attending several sessions and other professional meetings, of course)

Then in July, it’s off to the Taft Education Centers for a guest appearance at A Whole New Animal? 21st Century Collection Development. Finally, in August, I’m doing a webinar for YALSA, From 140 Characters to 10 Pages: Teens, Social Media and Information Literacy.

Hope to see some of you there!