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.