If you are like me, you look at award-winning children’s books and wish, “One day I want to be on the Newbery or Printz or (insert award name here) committee.” In 2024, I was honored and thrilled to be placed on the 2025 Newbery Award committee. It was the most amazing and fulfilling experience of my professional career! It was more hard work than I even thought it would be, but the capstone was sitting around a table with my peers, respectfully and consciously choosing what we all thought was a Newbery Award winner. It was thrilling – and even more so – I was lucky to have fourteen of the best people to help make this decision. We have been through an experience few others can claim – and I hope that we will always stay in touch.
How do you get to be on a committee like this? While it’s possible, it is going to require some work on your part. It’s not just being part of numerous webinars and trainings on literature and collections, nor is it taking part in the William Morris seminar at the National Institute (though they both help considerably). You should also make sure that you “play well with others.” Book award committee work involves intense interpersonal work, and the best place to get your chops is in regular committee work.
Committee work helps for several reasons. Working on committees in ALSC other than the award committees shows that you have a commitment to the organization. After all, ALA and its vast permutations cannot function if many of us don’t lend a hand here and there. There are grant programs and proposals to read and evaluate, budgets to put together and meeting minutes to post. Committee work also develops people skills necessary to complete complex committee tasks, like finding examples of exemplary children’s literature. ALA is ahead of the curve when it comes to establishing norms of behavior on committees – and these should be mastered before you try for an award committee. Another benefit of being on a committee is you get to create bonds with like-minded librarians from all over the country! This allows you to build a network of colleagues you can use if you have an idea to bounce or an issue to brainstorm. Online friends can become IRL when you see each other at conferences or have lunch if you travel near their hometown.
While I am a firm advocate for being a member of an ALSC committee, sometimes it can be hard to get on a popular committee. If you are new to committee work or desire to dig right in today, I would suggest looking at some of our Round Tables for committee work as well. Round Tables are smaller than divisions and tend to be focused on interests and passions. Adding a Round Table (RT) to your membership can add an additional $15 per group. They tend to be more nimble than divisions and are thus able to work through issues and projects more quickly. If you’re not sure, there is a quiz on the RT website that can suggest the right one for you. Sometimes RTs have openings on committees that you can jump on immediately rather than waiting for division deadlines. If you have been in the profession less than 10 years, I strongly suggest the New Members Round Table (NMRT). One of their goals is “to structure formal opportunities for involvement and/or training for professional association committee experiences….” NMRT has numerous committee opportunities, including some responsible for annual conference events.
There are so many Round Tables that I don’t have room to mention them all. However I do want to mention two of which I am a member. The Rainbow Round Table (RRT) produces the Rainbow Book List and presents the Stonewall awards to the best books representing LGBTQ+ from children’s books to adult nonfiction annually. The Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) selects winners of the Will Eisner grants and also creates booklists and gives awards to outstanding comics and graphic novels. Maybe in these trying times, you’d like to get involved with the Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT), the aforementioned RRT or the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT). There are many more RTs besides the few mentioned – one is sure to catch your interest, and I know they need members to step up and help with the work.
Having served on several of these Round Tables, I can promise that if you commit to the work, you will help our organization grow stronger and meet new friends. That it improves your chances of getting on one of the Youth Media Award committees is just icing on the cake.
The post How to get on a Youth Media Award committee appeared first on ALSC Blog.
If you are like me, you look at award-winning children’s books and wish, “One day I want to be on the Newbery or Printz or (insert award name here) committee.” In 2024, I was honored and thrilled to be placed on the 2025 Newbery Award committee. It was the most amazing and fulfilling experience of my professional career! It was more hard work than I even thought it would be, but the capstone was sitting around a table with my peers, respectfully and consciously choosing what we all thought was a Newbery Award winner. It was thrilling – and even more so – I was lucky to have fourteen of the best people to help make this decision. We have been through an experience few others can claim – and I hope that we will always stay in touch. How do you get to be on a committee like this? …
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