TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Awards with Rewards:

Implications and

Perceptions

for Collection

Development for Youth

Kasey Garrison, Charles Sturt University, AUS

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

“…but Beyonce had one of the best videos of

all time. One of the best videos of all time!”

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

In libraries for children and young adults…

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Using Book Awards for Collection Development

• Quality Assurance of sorts

BUT…“To automatically rely on award winners for

collection development may mask the necessary

fallibility and idiosyncrasies of individual judges or

judging panels.” (Hateley, 2012, p. 197)

• Censorship issues in judging (Storey, 1992)

• Lack of diversity in some award lists • Newbery (Gilespie et al., 1994); Michael Printz for YA (Rawson, 2011)

• “anticensorship efforts…function much like literary prizing”

(Kidd, 2009, p. 197)

• Ethnic specific awards (USA- King, Belpre, APAAL)

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

The purpose was to investigate

youth librarians’ perceptions of

using award lists for collection

development and to also survey

their collections for the presence

of five children’s book awards.

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Mixed Methodology

Quantitative

•Census demographics on 10 library systems in one

mid-Atlantic state in the USA

•Survey of library collections for five literary awards

(n=221)

•Logistical Regression with demographics and presence

of books

Qualitative

•Interviews with 10 librarians in charge of selection for

youth collections

•Phenomenological perspective on selection process

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Interview Guide Questions

Value

of MC

Lit

Professional

Policies

User

Value

Selectio

n

Sources

Challenges

in

Selection

Total

Questions

Professional

Practice _ 1, 2, 3a 4ai 5-10 4aii 10

Personal

Beliefs 13, 14 _ 4aii 11 12 5

Total

Questions 2 3 2 6 2 15

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Descriptive Stats of Collection

Award

(N)

Mean of

Titles

(percent of N)

Median of Titles

(percent of N)

Mode of Titles

(percent of N)

Range of Titles

(percent of N)

APAAL

(19)

5.81 Titles

(31%)

5 Titles

(26%)

3 Titles

(16%)

0-14 Titles

(0-74%)

Belpre

(65)

19.56 Titles

(30%)

17 Titles

(26%)

17 Titles

(26%)

0-56 Titles

(0-86%)

King

(60)

32.76 Titles

(55%)

36 Titles

(60%)

36 Titles

(60%)

1-60 Titles

(2-100%)

Caldecott

(39)

30.95 Titles

(79%)

34 Titles

(87%)

37 Titles

(95%)

10-39 Titles

(26-100%)

Newbery

(38)

30.92 Titles

(81%)

34 Titles

(89%)

37 Titles

(97%)

10-38 Titles

(26-100%)

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

More Findings

• 10/10 Librarians knew Caldecott, King, Newbery

• 8/10 Librarians knew Belpre

• 3/10 Librarians knew APAAL

•Mirrors the presence of these books in the collections

• 10/10 use award lists for selection

“readers advisory unplugged”

-Dana

“…those [Caldecott and Newbery] are the books people

are going to possibly hear about, read about, so I think

it’s a real disservice to the public if you don’t have

those.”

-Mary

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Publishing Challenges

• Selecting books outside of your own cultural

experiences

“Because of the background that I have, sometimes I

feel like I am not, that I am making assumptions

about what people of a different culture are going to

want that may not be true.” -Leann

“that stamp of endorsement on it.” -Mary

“you still take them with a little grain of salt for the most

part.” -Dana

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Circulation and Who uses the library…

• Awards promoted

• Who decides the quality?

• Caldecott and Newbery vs. Transformers and Dora

the Explorer- what do kids want to read?!

“I have seen that [APAAL] but I have not really ordered

that because we don’t have a lot of Asians in our

community. I have seen it in some readings I have

done, but I have never had to use it,

it would not have been desired here.” -Virginia

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Why?

• Caldecott and Newbery are older awards

•Some titles overlap with King

• All but APAAL given by American Library

Association

“those are the ones that get recognition in the news

so they’re the ones people will be asking for.”

-Renee

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Significance

“In my mind, I am trying to address the needs of

the people who use our library. I would love to have

an award winning collection of beautiful gorgeous

books that won every illustration award possible,

but you know, those are not books that consistently

check out for our patrons.” -Dana

TEACHER LIBRARIANSHIP – SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES – FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Questions?

References available upon request.