Due to the ALSC Board of Directors recent action to annually award the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, the 2015 ALSC Nominating Committee is seeking recommendations for candidates for membership on the Wilder Award Selection Committee. This ballot will be voted on in the spring of 2015 and members elected will serve on the 2017 Wilder Award Committee.
Do you work with a youth services professional whose knowledge, skills and experience you admire? Do you have a colleague who can communicate clearly, critically and concisely about children’s literature? Have you served on a committee with an ALSC member who embodies our core values like respect, collaboration and leadership? We want to know about them.
Don’t be shy – if you are interested in one of these positions and possess these qualities, put your own name forward as a possible Wilder Award candidate for the 2015 slate.
The members of the ALSC Nominating Committee look forward to your suggestions!
Please be sure that your nominee’s ALSC membership remains current. Nominees who have let their membership lapse are not eligible for consideration. Also consider encouraging your nominees to nominate themselves, as this provides us with more complete background information.
DEADLINE: Sunday, August 31, 2014
Access the ALSC Nominee Form for 2017 Wilder Committee.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award is given to an author or illustrator “whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.”
During the 2014 ALA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, the ALSC board voted to change the frequency of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from every other year to every year.
There is such richness and depth among the field of children’s literature creators. Making the Wilder Award an annual honor gives ALSC increased opportunity to honor the significant contributions individual authors and illustrators have made over the course of their careers. It will also decrease confusion among ALSC members and others regarding when the award is given. No longer will the question, “Is this a Wilder year?” need to be asked or answered. Every year will be a Wilder year!
History:
The Wilder Award was first given in 1954 to its namesake, Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was awarded every five years through 1980. The frequency was then changed to every three years, which began with the 1983 award and continued through 2001. It became a biannual award starting in 2003 and this schedule will continue through the upcoming 2015 award.
Implementation:
The transition to the Wilder becoming an annual award will begin with a 2016 Wilder Committee. The 2017 committee that was just elected by the ALSC membership in May will be renamed the 2016 Wilder Award Committee. They will begin their work at the close of the 2015 ALA Midwinter Meeting just as all the other 2016 ALSC award committees, and they will work within the newly established Wilder Award one-year timeframe to name a 2016 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award recipient. (Under the biannual schedule, which the current 2015 Wilder committee is following, Wilder Award committees have done their work over two years.)
The Wilder Award will continue to be announced at the ALA Midwinter Meeting award press conference, and to be given at the ALSC Sunday night award banquet at the ALA Annual Meeting, which will be known from now on as the Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder Banquet.
For more information on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, including a list of past recipients, go to: http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/wildermedal
The board decision was in response to the report of the board-appointed Wilder Award Frequency Task Force chaired by JoAnn Jonas and including members Amy Kellman, Martha Parravano and myself.
As always, the board welcomes your thoughts.
Megan Schliesman for the ALSC Board
