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[CCBC-Net] Batchelder Award
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From: Annette Goldsmith <ayg>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:51:23 -0500
Thank you so much, Maia (via KT) for this post! I absolutely agree that social networking technology would provide a good focal point for the award, and that we need everything you've mentioned. Of course this must all be done by volunteers in our spare time, because, needless to say, there's no money for this promotion campaign. But we are used to doing a lot with a little, right? And I think there is lots of room for us to draw on the goodwill of the different communities you've mentioned below, as well as our students, middle school and up. In particular I am thinking of student media specialists and public librarians and teachers who could run a mock Batchelder or work on a blog or Facebook page for a class assignment.
It really is a problem to identify eligible books even for those of us who are conversant with the criteria and familiar with the publishing industry. So I'm not surprised that no one (to the best of my knowledge) has done a mock Batchelder award. And for most people, doing the kind of detective work the committee does is just going to be too onerous, since right now, anyway, it's not possible for the committee to make public the list of books received.
That's why we came up with the Best of the Decade option, a mock award to choose your own winner and honor books from previous Batchelder books. This solves the problems of eligibility and availability, and allows participants to share in the same book evaluation process as the committee. Unfortunately it doesn't carry with it the excitement of looking at new books. But, as we know, a lot of people will not be familiar with many of the older Batchelder books, meaning that most of the books will, in fact, be new to them. Anyway, that's what's behind the Best of the Decade idea.
Annette
-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
[mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Kathleen T. Horning Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:03 PM To: CCBC-NET Subject: [CCBC-Net] Batchelder Award
I'm posting this for Maia Cheli-Colando:
Annette,
The main difficulty I see is that "The Batchelder Committee is constrained by the fact that every eligible book is considered a shortlist book, and we are not allowed to publish the shortlist."
I think that if someone were to maintain a perusable list of those books as they were published/announced, that would be tremendously useful to the public. I would highly recommend a colorful and info-filled website
(and a Facebook group page wouldn't hurt either <g>).
We need three parts of participation here, right?
(1) We need the information online, preferably direct from publishers/editors or authors/translators. Without that contribution, it's awfully hard for the rest of us (even folks somewhat "in the know") to follow.
(2) We need invested "leaders" - librarians, booksellers, peace and tolerance activists, whatnot. I think that there will be enough (2) folks if you give us (1). :)
And then you need (3) an interested audience. A comprehensive website would go far towards explaining the Batchelder's appeal to a new crop of folks. You might also reach out directly to peace and tolerance folks
-- UU Churches would be one great place to start; also look for peace choirs and democracy clubs, and cities with strong sister city involvements, etc. I would ask publishers (and not just for kids books) who directly work with foreign titles to include a blurb about the Batchelder and about the website in their newsletter. (I subscribe to several newsletters focused on particular areas of the world, and could see a Batchelder announcement fitting in well there.) I think that your one-sheet draft is a great start... I imagine there are many akin, illustrated glossies that are sent to teachers and libraries? What about getting journalists to pick up the idea in their local papers?
(Yes, we would, especially if we had somewhere to send folks. I think there are a number of full and part-time journalists on CCBC and childlit, for starters.)
Back to websites... the ALA page linked from the draft memo is useful but not outreaching - I think it wouldn't pull you inwards if you weren't already well engaged. So perhaps a separate site, that has (a) information on past winners (cover, photo of author, synopsis, excerpt, and author/translator/editor interview if possible), (b) a section on running your own mock Batchelder, and (c) an area for submitting new FWIT listings via form would be cool. It could become quite interactive
- might even increase the amount of info available to the committee. :) And you might even find a few folks who would blog periodically on titles they were reading throughout the year.
I hope that the award does grow in visibility! It only came on my radar a few years back, and that was due to an invested editor who put effort extra effort into getting a work out to the academic community.
(Thanks, Cheryl!)
All the best to you and the committee, Maia
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:51:23 -0500
Thank you so much, Maia (via KT) for this post! I absolutely agree that social networking technology would provide a good focal point for the award, and that we need everything you've mentioned. Of course this must all be done by volunteers in our spare time, because, needless to say, there's no money for this promotion campaign. But we are used to doing a lot with a little, right? And I think there is lots of room for us to draw on the goodwill of the different communities you've mentioned below, as well as our students, middle school and up. In particular I am thinking of student media specialists and public librarians and teachers who could run a mock Batchelder or work on a blog or Facebook page for a class assignment.
It really is a problem to identify eligible books even for those of us who are conversant with the criteria and familiar with the publishing industry. So I'm not surprised that no one (to the best of my knowledge) has done a mock Batchelder award. And for most people, doing the kind of detective work the committee does is just going to be too onerous, since right now, anyway, it's not possible for the committee to make public the list of books received.
That's why we came up with the Best of the Decade option, a mock award to choose your own winner and honor books from previous Batchelder books. This solves the problems of eligibility and availability, and allows participants to share in the same book evaluation process as the committee. Unfortunately it doesn't carry with it the excitement of looking at new books. But, as we know, a lot of people will not be familiar with many of the older Batchelder books, meaning that most of the books will, in fact, be new to them. Anyway, that's what's behind the Best of the Decade idea.
Annette
-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
[mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Kathleen T. Horning Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:03 PM To: CCBC-NET Subject: [CCBC-Net] Batchelder Award
I'm posting this for Maia Cheli-Colando:
Annette,
The main difficulty I see is that "The Batchelder Committee is constrained by the fact that every eligible book is considered a shortlist book, and we are not allowed to publish the shortlist."
I think that if someone were to maintain a perusable list of those books as they were published/announced, that would be tremendously useful to the public. I would highly recommend a colorful and info-filled website
(and a Facebook group page wouldn't hurt either <g>).
We need three parts of participation here, right?
(1) We need the information online, preferably direct from publishers/editors or authors/translators. Without that contribution, it's awfully hard for the rest of us (even folks somewhat "in the know") to follow.
(2) We need invested "leaders" - librarians, booksellers, peace and tolerance activists, whatnot. I think that there will be enough (2) folks if you give us (1). :)
And then you need (3) an interested audience. A comprehensive website would go far towards explaining the Batchelder's appeal to a new crop of folks. You might also reach out directly to peace and tolerance folks
-- UU Churches would be one great place to start; also look for peace choirs and democracy clubs, and cities with strong sister city involvements, etc. I would ask publishers (and not just for kids books) who directly work with foreign titles to include a blurb about the Batchelder and about the website in their newsletter. (I subscribe to several newsletters focused on particular areas of the world, and could see a Batchelder announcement fitting in well there.) I think that your one-sheet draft is a great start... I imagine there are many akin, illustrated glossies that are sent to teachers and libraries? What about getting journalists to pick up the idea in their local papers?
(Yes, we would, especially if we had somewhere to send folks. I think there are a number of full and part-time journalists on CCBC and childlit, for starters.)
Back to websites... the ALA page linked from the draft memo is useful but not outreaching - I think it wouldn't pull you inwards if you weren't already well engaged. So perhaps a separate site, that has (a) information on past winners (cover, photo of author, synopsis, excerpt, and author/translator/editor interview if possible), (b) a section on running your own mock Batchelder, and (c) an area for submitting new FWIT listings via form would be cool. It could become quite interactive
- might even increase the amount of info available to the committee. :) And you might even find a few folks who would blog periodically on titles they were reading throughout the year.
I hope that the award does grow in visibility! It only came on my radar a few years back, and that was due to an invested editor who put effort extra effort into getting a work out to the academic community.
(Thanks, Cheryl!)
All the best to you and the committee, Maia
-- Kathleen T. Horning Director Cooperative Children's Book Center 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park St Madison, WI 53706 Phone: 608-263-3721 FAX: 608-262-4933 horning at education.wisc.edu http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ _______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-netReceived on Tue 24 Feb 2009 04:51:23 PM CST
