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The election polls for the 2008 American Library Association’s Elections open March 17, 2008. ALSC members will also have the opportunity to select from the 2008 slate of ALSC Candidates. The ALSC 2008 Ballot will also include proposed changes to the ALSC Bylaws.

The following bylaws change proposals have been published in the March 2008 edition of ALSConnect, our electronic newsletter, and have been sent out on ALSC-L, our association’s main electronic discussion list. Many members have commented about the proposed changes on the ALSC Electronic Discussion List. If you aren’t subscribed and would like to read the discussion threads, you may access the ALSC-L archives through this page. The most comments, so far, have been made in February 2008, so to read those, after selecting ALSC-L Archives, you will need to select the 02 (February) in the 2008 portion of archive box in the top right of the page. Of course, you are welcome to share your thoughts here on the ALSC Blog.

Proposed Bylaws Changes

I. Changes to Nominating Committee

Current wording, ALSC Bylaws X, Sec. 1:

At the Midwinter Meeting of the Board of Directors, the president-elect shall recommend for appointment by the Board a Nominating Committee of not less than three members to select candidates for election the following year. No member of the Board of Directors shall be appointed to this committee.

Proposed new wording:

No later than the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association, the ALSC Vice President/President-Elect appoints a Nominating Committee of four members plus the chair to select candidates for election the following year. No member of the Board of Directors shall be appointed to this committee. Members may serve more than once on the Nominating Committee, but not more than three times, and not more than once in five years, except for chairs, who may serve a chair term within five years of a term as a member of this committee.

Rationale:

It has been practice for a number of years for the Vice President/President-Elect to appoint the ALSC Nominating Committee; this change codifies that practice into our Bylaws. Also, it is desirable that the pool of candidates for this committee be as wide as possible, including candidates with experience. This bylaws change allows those with experience to serve again, but also encourages the appointment of those who have not had the opportunity to serve by placing a lifetime cap on the number of times a member may serve, and spacing the terms across five-year periods, as is done for the Newbery, Caldecott, and Sibert Committees.

II. Changes to Newbery, Caldecott, Sibert, and Wilder Committees

Current wording, ALSC Bylaws VIII, Sec. 2:

The Newbery Award Committee shall consist of the following fifteen (15) members: Seven (7) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than fourteen (14), a chairperson elected annually from a slate of two (2), and seven (7) members appointed by the president.

The Caldecott Award Committee shall consist of the following fifteen (15) members: Seven (7) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than fourteen (14), a chairperson elected annually from a slate of two (2), and seven (7) members appointed by the president.

The Sibert Award Committee shall consist of the following nine (9) members: Four (4) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than eight (8), a chairperson elected annually from a slate of two (2), and four (4) members appointed by the president.

Proposed changes IN CAPS:

The Newbery Award Committee shall consist of the following fifteen (15) members: EIGHT (8) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than SIXTEEN (16), a chairperson APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT, and SIX (6) members appointed by the president.

The Caldecott Award Committee shall consist of the following fifteen (15) members: EIGHT (8) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than SIXTEEN (16), a chairperson APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT, and SIX (6) members appointed by the president.

The Sibert Award Committee shall consist of the following nine (9) members: FIVE (5) members to be elected annually from a slate of no fewer than TEN (10), a chairperson APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT, and THREE (3) members appointed by the president.

THE WILDER AWARD COMMITTEE SHALL CONSIST OF THE FOLLOWING FIVE (5) MEMBERS: THREE (3) MEMBERS TO BE ELECTED ANNUALLY FROM A SLATE OF NO FEWER THAN SIX (6), A CHAIRPERSON APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT, AND ONE (1) MEMBER APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT.

Rationale

Currently, only four committees have any members at all that are elected rather than appointed: Caldecott, Newbery, Sibert, and Wilder; only three are currently listed in the Bylaws. While the Wilder Committee’s membership statement was changed by the Board in 1998 to indicate that 2 members plus the chair would be elected by the membership rather than appointed by the president, this change never made it into the Bylaws.

In addition, given the special administrative and managerial responsibilities of the award committee chairs, the ALSC Board suggests the appointment rather than election of chairs. The number of total positions voted on by the ALSC membership at large would not change.

ALSC is pleased to announce that Henrietta Smith has been selected as the winner of the 2008 Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Smith is professor emerita from the University of South Florida. Over her long and storied career, she has been a teacher, mentor, and inspiration to many children’s librarians and ALSC members and she is a nationally recognized expert in the field of multicultural children’s literature. She has served on numerous ALSC committees, including Newbery and Caldecott, and has long been active on the Coretta Scott King Award Task Force. She has edited two editions of The Coretta Scott King Awards Book: From Vision to Reality, published by ALA Publications. Congratulations, Henrietta!

– KT Horning

Today I participated in the first-ever Bill Morris Seminar, which was recently established to honor the memory of long-time Director of Library Promotion and Marketing at HarperCollins. Bill was the first recipient of ALSC’s Distinguished Service Award back in 1992. Those of us who knew Bill will always remember his great support of youth librarians, and we could think of no better way to honor him than offer training in materials evaluation for new ALSC members and for those with little prior evaluation experience.

The 26 participants were selected by members of the ALSC Executive Committee, based on applications and nominations submitted last fall. These librarians came from all over the U.S., and we found them to be a lively, committed, and enthusiastic group. At the Seminar, they received training from member leaders who had served on ALSC evaluation committees in the past, and each participant read ten assigned children’s books in advance so we could discuss them in small groups in the morning and afternoon.

I sat in on two of the discussion groups and I was impressed by the high level of book evaluation and discussion. Many of these newly active members will soon be appointed to ALSC media evaluation committees, and ALSC will benefit greatly from their future participation. As President-Elect Pat Scales said at the end of the day, “Bill would be in heaven.” I could almost picture him, standing in the doorway, thanking everyone for coming as they left the room.

And, of course, he would already have learned everybody’s name.

– KT Horning

I just arrived in Philadelphia for the 2008 ALA Midwinter Conference. While I’m here, I’ll be keeping you up to date on what’s going on with the ALSC Board, and any other ALSC news that I think might be of interest to members.

I haven’t seen any other ALSC members around yet — first sightings are always fun, so I’ll keep you posted. I’m here earlier than most people to attend the ALSC Executive Committee meeting tomorrow afternoon. For those of you not familiar with ALSC governance, our Executive Committee is made up of the President (Jane Marino); Vice President/President-Elect (Pat Scales); immediate Past President (yours truly, KT Horning); Councilor (Linda Perkins); Fiscal Officer (Sue Ziegler); and Executive Director (Diane Foote). We always meet for a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon at the beginning of conference.

Throughout the year, the Executive Committee deals with the day-to-day things that come up that need attention and, sometimes, a quick decision, but that don’t require consideration from the full Board. At our meeting tomorrow, we’ll touch base on some of the issues or concerns that have come up since we last met, and we’ll decide what needs to be referred to the full Board at one of their three Midwinter meetings. The E. C. meeting helps us to clarify what these issues are and what sort of questions we need to raise for Board discussion. This helps to streamline the Board meetings a bit.

If you’re going to be attending the Midwinter Conference, I encourage you to sit in on at least part of one of our Board meetings. We’ll be meeting on Saturday, Jan 12, 2:00-5:30; Monday, Jan 14, 2:00-5:30; and Tuesday, Jan 15, 2:00-5:30. The first two meetings will take place in the Convention Center, Room 303A and the third meeting right next door in Room 303B. Members might be particularly interested in the Board discussion at the beginning of Session 1 (Sat 2:00 pm) when we’ll be discussing how ALSC can respond to competition from other divisions, and in the discussion at the beginning of Session 2 (Mon, 2:00 pm) when we’ll have a report from the Awards Eligibility Task Force. Both of these discussions are slated to for last an hour.

If you can’t get to the meetings, you can read about some of the highlights right here on the ALSC blog.

KT Horning, ALSC Past President