Competitions
Voting is now open for the Children’s Choice Book Award and will close May 3. Winners will be announced during the 96th annual Children’s Book Week, at the Children’s Choice Book Award ceremony on May 4. For more information about the awards, visit the official website.
Honors, Prizes
This March, finalists were announced for the 27th Annual Lambda Literary Award for achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writing for books published in 2014. Finalists in the Children’s and Young Adult category include Susan Kuklin’s Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out (Candlewick), Robin Talley’s Lies We Tell Ourselves (Harlequinn Teen), and Five, Six, Seven, Nate! (S. & S.) by Tim Federle. The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony on June 1, 2015 in New York City.
The 10 finalists for the second annual NYC Neighborhood Library Awards, founded by The Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Charles H. Revson Foundation, were announced on March 22. The awards celebrate the crucial role of local libraries in serving New York City’s diverse communities and generated more than 13,000 nominations from library users. After being reviewed by a judges’ panel, five recipients will be selected for the grand prize of $20,000 each. The winning libraries will be announced in May. Read the full press release.
Ebooks
On March 17, myON announced the introduction of digital content from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to the myON literacy environment, including Picture Books, Award Winners, Middle School, and High School packages.
OverDrive announced that a record number of schools and districts have made the digital shift successfully in the 2014−15 school year. More than 12,000 schools and districts worldwide now offer digital content via OverDrive, including ebooks, digital audiobooks, and other digital media, an increase of more than 85 percent over 2013−14. Find out more.
Digital reading platform Curriculet announced agreements with Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster to offer thousands of books to schools nationwide. Schools will now have access to nearly 30,000 titles through the reading platform, enhanced with Common Core-aligned layers of questions, annotations, and multimedia. For more information about offered titles, visit Curriculet’s website.
Upgrades, Launches, and Partnerships
The Library Corporation’s (TLC) Library Solution and Library Solution for Schools automation systems now feature Reading Level Integration enhancements. TLC’s Reading Level Integration is a service that pulls data directly from Lexile and Accelerated Reader vendors and associates by ISBN for display in LS2 Staff, LS2 PAC, and LS2 Kids—modules included with every Library Solution and Library Solution for Schools ILS. The system also includes searching capabilities so users can search by an individual reading level or a specified range and see the information directly in their search results. Click here for more information.
Penguin Random House announced the official launch of Brightly, a new online resource that encourages and supports parents’ efforts to raise lifelong readers by providing recommendations from publishers industry-wide and guidance about books and literacy for children at every stage of their life. Parents are further supported by an email newsletter and a robust social media program across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram that encourages active conversation from its community. Visit the Brightly website.
Recently, it was announced that Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will launch a new publishing program based on internationally popular LEGO brands as part of a multiple book, multiyear agreement with the LEGO Group. The line will kick off with three graphic novels, based on the bestselling LEGO properties LEGO NinjagoTM, LEGO Friends, and LEGO BIONICLE. The first book will be released in September 2015. Find out more.
Events
edWeb.net, a professional learning and social network for the education community, and Mackin Educational Resources, a leading provider of print and digital media to preK−12 schools and libraries, are partnering to present a series of free webinars in the online community “Exploring Ebooks for K−12.” edWeb.net provides CE certificates to educators who attend live events or watch the archives. For more information about future webinars, read the full press release.
More Bites
Nonprofit leader and advocate Jon Colman will join the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader as executive director. Colman most recently served as president of the National Down Syndrome Society, which he joined in 2001, leading the premier advocacy nonprofit in its mission to promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with Down Syndrome. He brings to the CBC and ECAR his expertise in strategic planning, advocacy, and fundraising. Read more.
To kick off National Safe Place Week, The Seattle Public Library system became a part of the Safe Place network in King County. As of March 16, all 27 of Seattle’s public libraries are a Safe Place where youth ages 12−17 can ask for help when in crisis. Youth can approach any established Safe Place site, recognizable by a yellow diamond logo, or call 1-800-422-TEEN to receive immediate help. For more information about SPL and King’s County Safe Place program, consult the press release.
As part of its regular member Spotlight series, NetGalley interviewed Mandy Peterson, a media specialist at Schuyer Community Schools. In her interview, Mandy discusses technology in the library and the usefulness of previewing titles. Read the full interview here.
This month, the Reach Out and Read Board of Directors welcomed two new members, Dipesh Navsaria and Susan Hildreth. Dipesh Navsaria is a pediatrician, with degrees in public health and children’s librarianship, while Susan Hildreth has had a more than 30-year-long distinguished career in the leadership of public libraries. Learn more here.