My Newbery Year: The Burden and the Boon Jean Hatfield Wichita Public Library

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My Newbery Year The Burden and the BoonJean
HatfieldWichita Public Library
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What to expect from this presentation

• Many questions answered and possibly some secrets
  revealed
• Why is it a burden?
• Why is it a boon?

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What is the Newbery Medal?

• ALA/ALSC Award
• Since 1922
• Named after John Newbery
• Most distinguished book for children ages 0 - 14
• Criteria

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Who is on the committee?

• 14 members and a chair
• 7 members and chair elected by ALSC membership
• 7 members appointed by president-elect of ALSC
• 2007 committee 2 retirees, 3 professors, 2
  school librarians, 3 heads of youth services, 3
  youth services librarians, 1 branch manager, 1
  reviewer

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2007 Newbery Committee
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How Do You Get on the Committee?
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How do you get on the committee?

• Be a member of ALSC
• Must join ALA first (110 per year after 3 years)
• Join ALSC (45 per year)
• Volunteer to be on ALSC committees
• Say yes when asked to run
• Be willing to lose
• Know lots of people, publish, contribute to
  discussion lists, go to conferences, be on
  committees

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What do you do when you find out you are on the
committee?

• tell your boss, co-workers, family and friends
• clear off your bookshelves
• clear your calendar for the coming year
• take vacation early in the year and plan on
  taking off time in December or early January for
  reading
• plan on attending 2 Midwinter and 2 Annual
  conferences

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• make sure you can receive boxes at your mailing
  address
• do some research
• put away your hobbies
• lose 10 pounds
• get organized

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What I did

• Told my boss, co-workers, family and friends
• Arranged to have boxes sent to my mothers house
• Planned my vacation for early March
• Developed spread sheet for tracking books

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• Changed jobs (made sure I could attend
  conferences)
• Moved (decided NOT to unpack my books so the
  bookshelves were cleaned off)
• Talked to friends who had been on the committee
  before and asked their advice
• Stopped reading adult books, going to movies,
  doing crossword puzzles
• Gained 10 pounds

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Learn the Rules!

• Newbery manual
• Confidentiality
• Committee eligibility
• Soliciting books

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F.A.Q

• (You arent the only one to wonder)

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What most people ask me

• How many books did you get and how many did you
  read?

• How did you keep track of them?

• How many times did you meet?

• What was it like to call the winner?

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How many?

• Books received over 600
• Like Christmas!
• Duplicate copies
• Self-published
• Books read, reviewed, looked at once about 500
• Books read, reviewed, looked at twice (or more)
  about 100

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Keeping Track
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For instance
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Other ways to keep track

• Notebook
• Computer files
• Note cards
• Post-its in books
• Stacks and piles

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Other peoples opinions

• Reviews
• Discussion Lists
• Blogs
• Mock Newberys

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The Meetings
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How many times did you meet?

• Met once at 2006 Midwinter in San Antonio
• Met three times at 2006 Annual in New Orleans
• Met 3 days at 2007 Midwinter in Seattle (new
  member)
• Will meet again at Annual conference in
  Washington DC

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The Voting
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Voting procedures

• Proscribed by Newbery manual
• Each suggested book is voted on at least once
• Initial votes (by show of hands) are taken to
  reduce the number of books discussed once taken
  off the table can no longer be discussed
• Nominated books are discussed carefully -
  everyone has a say
• When list is narrowed and members are comfortable
  a ballot vote is taken

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Ballots

• Each member selects 3 choices listed by
  preference
• 1st place 3 pts, 2nd place 2 pts, 3rd place
  1 pt
• Votes tallied and committee looks at totals and
  number of 1st place votes
• Voting continues until one book gets 8 1st place
  votes
• Honor books are those that received the next
  highest numbers (can be more than one natural
  break)

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Its Over - Almost
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The Call

• VERY EARLY in the morning
• Committee goes as a group into a small room to
  make the conference call and committee chair
  knows what to say

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• Are the authors waiting?
• Everyone cries and cheers

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• Committee gets reserved seats at the front of the
  room for announcement program
• Cheers vs. silence

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Personal effects
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Learned some stuff

• Read books and authors I would not normally read
• Saw trends in publishing for kids
• Able to compare genres and styles
• Saw how desperate self-published authors can be

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New Rules (as developed by the 2007 Newbery
Committee)

• RULE 5 Treasure the books always.
• RULE 6 There are no accidents in the universe.
   
• RULE 7 Laughter is very important.  
• RULE 8 Take a nap!
• RULE 9 Enjoy becoming friends!  
• RULE 10 Feel free to break the rules.  

• RULE 1 Keep new friends from the 2007 Newbery
  Committee.
• RULE 2 Revel in what we have accomplished
  together.
• RULE 3 Savor the thoughtful contributions of
  each committee member.  
• RULE 4 Chocolate makes most decisions easier.  

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Some secrets

• It takes a lot of snacks to get through the
  meetings
• Choose your room mates carefully
• Dont spill the beans at parties
• My secret top ten kept changing
• A sense of humor helps, but staying centered
  helps even more
• Remember why you are there

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The Burden

• BIG responsibility the whole world is watching
  and waiting
• The medal winner will stay in print for a very
  long time means for author and publisher
• Takes a huge chunk of time from your life have
  to give up a lot, especially the last two or
  three months
• Cant reveal what goes on in committee hard to
  keep secrets
• Sometimes have to compromise
• Gained another 10 pounds

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What I gave up

• Doing crossword puzzles
• Doing the crypto-quip
• Reading the newspaper
• Reading e-mail
• Going to movies, plays, concerts, etc
• Watching TV (especially basketball)
• Christmas shopping
• A clean living room
• Sleep

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The Boon

• Part of the history of childrens literature
• Get to experience the excitement of letting the
  winners know
• Make new friends
• Get LOTS of new books
• Get lots of invitations to lunch and dinner at
  ALA conferences
• Learn about childrens literature and discuss it
  with people who also love it

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The 2007 Newbery Medal Winner
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2007 Honor Books
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Miscellany

• ALSC decisions
• My favorites (other than the winners)
• School presentations
• What happens to all those books?
• Scrotum-gate

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NY Times article Feb. 18, 2007

• LM-Net
• Blogs and discussion lists
• Editorials
• News articles
• Interviews
• Miscellany

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Any Questions?

• Thank you for coming and stick around for the
  door prize