Sibert Committee

With the ALA elections opening within the week, it’s time for me to tell you why I’m interested in serving on the 2011 Sibert Committee. That’s the group which chooses the most distinguished informational books for children published in a given year. I hope that those of you who are ALSC members will consider voting for me.
My credentials are pretty typical … a lifetime of service to children, mostly in school but also in public libraries. In addition I worked as a school collection development specialist for Baker & Taylor, creating collection lists for new elementary, middle and high school libraries in all parts of the country.
During the course of my career the importance of informational books for children steadily grew. This growth began with the whole language reading movement (remember that?) which used materials from the library collection to extend and enhance learning in the classroom. Because of such demand, more and better nonfiction titles and nonfiction series were published making it particularly challenging to spend a limited library budget. Supporting the curriculum on a budget was not the only reason I needed to become a discriminating children's nonfiction buyer. Equally important was satisfying the needs of the students who didn’t like to read fiction without compromising quality. Those kids were constantly on the look out for books on bugs and snakes, dinosaurs and sharks, monster trucks and bats, jokes and riddles, UFOs and vampires, sports and crafts etc. Thankfully my professional career spanned a time when it became easier to find nonfiction that combined accurate content, exciting writing, stunning illustrations/pictures and helpful glossaries and indexes. Today there are so many wonderful nonfiction books published each year that it is a daunting task to choose the Sibert award winner and honor books. Now that I’ve told you why I think I’m qualified to be a member of the Sibert Committee, I leave for my next entry the reasons why I want to be a member.