Event: Pre book week extravaganza at NSW State Library
I recently
attended a one day event at the NSW State Library called Pre Book Week Extravaganza. The main
idea of the event is was to show the books that have been short listed for the Children’s Book Council Awards (CBCA) in
each category and to give ideas and get the creative juices flowing for book
week events that could be done in your library. The event had judges of the
awards speaking about the way the books are selected and why. The different categories for the awards were
explained and each book in that category was summarised. There was also brain
storming sessions on possible book week events with presentation by each group.
The final part of the day was given over to two groups of library staff to
present an idea they had for their book week celebrations. These presentations
were very entertaining, fun and helped to get the creative juices flowing.
This event
was very informative and fun some of the thing I learned include:
- Who the Judges for the awards are, one from each state and territory
- How the judges are selected, selected by the CBCA branch for each state/territory and must match criteria of not being financially invested in the awards and have many years of experience with children’s books and children.
- What the judges do to select the books for the shortlist and awards, must read every single book that is nominated (300 – 400 books) and write a review for each which is circulated to all judges, then they meet to award the winners and short list for each category.
- What the CBCA short list books for this year are, see CBCA website for full list at http://cbca.org.au/Shortlist2013.htm.
- Lastly what the theme for book week is this year (Read across the universe) and got some ideas that could be used in a library for book week celebrations.
This event
is highly relevant to children’s and youth librarians. Firstly we found out
which books made it to the short list for the CBCA awards this year and we got a
short summary of most of the books. This will be helpful when planning book
week events and helpful for readers advisory to children and teens.
Secondly we
learnt about the judging process and the selection process for judges. These
things could be helpful if a parent asks about the judging process or objects
to one of the short listed books. Also if you were thinking about doing some
judging in the future this information is helpful.
This event also relates to
outreach services for children and teens, because during book week where the
winners of the CBCA awards are announced your library can invite local school
classes to come to the library. Where you can present some of the books to the
group, doing this will get more exposure for your library and possibly help to
increase members. Also this will expose children to new authors and
illustrators (Hateley, 2012 ; Lombardo, Bardossy & Pride, 2012).
I found
before I went to the event that I didn’t have much knowledge about the awards
or the judging process of the CBCA awards. Listening to the judges speak at
this event helped me immensely to understanding of these areas. I still think I need to do more research on
how book awards in general help children and teens reading and development, to
accomplish this I will look to journal articles and talking to librarians.
References
Hateley, E.
(2012.) And the winner is ...?: Thinking about Australian book awards in the
library. Australian Library Journal, 61(3), 189-199. Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/searchResults;rs=1;rec=1;action=showResultSet.
LOMBARDO,
C., Bardossy, E., & Pride, R. (2012). Book Repair: A How-To-Do-It Manual
(Second Edition Revised). Public
Libraries, 51(2), 47-48.
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