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For 2023-2024 School Year
From the Iowa Association of School Libraries (IASL) comes the latest Iowa book award winners for school year 2023-2024. IASL, a subdivision of the Iowa Library Association, advocates for strong school library programs in all Iowa schools and provides leadership, education, and support for its members.
An annual project of IASL, the Iowa Book Awards Program promotes literacy and the love of reading by involving the students themselves in voting for their favorite book across various age groups. Iowa students read a number of books within a category and then vote for their overall favorite. So thanks to IASL and some very ambitious young readers, here are the just-announced Iowa Book Award Winners for 2023-2024:
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The Goldfinch Award (grades K-3) The 2023-24 winner is The Couch Potato by Jory John with 5,380 votes
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The Iowa Children’s Choice Award (grades 3-6) The 2023-24 winner is Better With Butter by Victoria Piontek with 949 votes
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The Iowa Teen Award (grades 6-9) The 2023-24 winner is War Stories by Gordon Korman with 98 votes
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The Iowa High School Book Award (grades 9-12) The 2023-24 winner is You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen M McManus with 36 votes
The Iowa Book Awards Program is a nice opportunity for youth services staff at public libraries to work with local teachers and school librarians in cross-promoting this program. Your local team can encourage youngsters to get out the vote when the chance rolls around again next school year. Plus: this year’s winners, along with all the honorable mentions past and present, make good purchases for youth collections.
Find information on this year’s winners, plus trailers, previous-year winners,
and more resources all at the page linked below.
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12 Months To Better Library Data
This is an ambitious online series of classes and with something for everyone. 12 Months To Better Library Data includes curriculum from the Research Institute For Public Libraries, also known as RIPL. For seasoned library managers, for students of statistics, for all library staff who love to gather and analyze numbers, this multi-part series is sure to be valuable and loaded with CE credits. And bonus--it's free!
Made possible by funding from the Mellon Foundation, 12 Months To Better Library Data teaches how to use statistics to better serve your community. The curriculum is based on these steps involved in conducting a program evaluation:
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Identify the purpose of your evaluation
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Plan your evaluation
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Collect data
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Analyze data
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Use data for management, program improvement, strategic planning, and advocacy
The first quarter of this series launched in March, but the second quarter is just ahead with the next grouping of classes showing below. And you can always go back and pick up recordings of any classes you may have missed. Here’s the next round, with topics that sound perfect for including community input into strategic plans:
Michelle Andersen, Director of Atlantic (IA) Public Library, shares this testimonial: “I want to recommend these RIPL classes. I was able to attend one of their mini-conferences a few years ago and I learned so, so much! Highly recommended !”
All classes are intended to be interactive; attendees are asked to come ready to participate in a variety of learning activities, some of which will occur in small group discussions in breakout rooms. These webinars will be recorded, and the recordings will be available within two business days of each session. But to receive the link to any of the recordings, you must first register for the webinars. Please contact info@ripleffect.org with questions.
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Wild New World May 9-23
Sponsored by OverDrive, the Big Library Read program is an opportunity to connect your local readers with book lovers around the world as they read and discuss the same book at the same time without wait lists or holds. It’s a worldwide digital version of a local book discussion club.
The next opportunity for your library’s readers to join the fun is this very week when the title will be Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America by Dan Flores. Point your patrons to Bridges beginning on May 9 through May 23 to download the book. And point yourselves to The Big Library Read website for social media graphics, marketing materials, and a press release to help with local promotion. Wild New World will be available for simultaneous use in Bridges in both eBook and e-audiobook formats May 9-23.
From the Big Read website “In thrilling narrative style … Flores celebrates the astonishing bestiary that arose on our continent and introduces the complex human cultures and individuals who hastened its eradication, studied America’s animals, and moved heaven and earth to rescue them. Eons in scope and continental in scale, Wild New World is a sweeping yet intimate Big History of the animal-human story in America.”
Here are just a few ways to get your library’s readers excited about OverDrive’s Big Library Read and to encourage their participation:
- Download free marketing materials at the button below and use #BigLibraryRead on social media
- Join readers from around the globe for a Q&A with Dan Flores, author of Wild New World on May 23 at 11:00AM CST. This is a free webinar and another opportunity for a watch party at your library
- Readers have a chance to win a Big Library Reads prize pack including Beats Headphones, a Stanley French Press Travel Mug, a copy of Wild New World, and 50 trees planted in their honor through the Arbor Day Foundation. Point your readers to #biglibraryread on social media from May 9-23 to enter this drawing; winners will be selected on May 23, 2024.
Wild New World will be available for simultaneous use in Bridges
in both eBook and e-audiobook formats between May 9-23.
Much more at the button below.
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Director Roundtables Begin This Week
Starting tomorrow May 7th and continuing throughout the merry month of May, there are 17 Director Roundtable dates and locations to choose from. The link below is the best place to see all of them at a glance and remind yourselves--and ourselves--of where we're all headed. Safe travels 😊
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