Young Adult Services Webliography
(Virtual) Libraries and Librarians
The Internet Public Library:
http://www.ipl.org/
Developed and maintained by the University of Michigan, the first virtual
library on the Web is a well organized site that offers not only links to Net
sites on subjects ranging from Arts and Entertainment to Style but also
IPL-developed resources like the “A+ Research and Writing Guide.”
The Chico High School Library Helpful Bookmarks:
http://dewey.chs.chico.k12.ca.us/index.html
Chico (CA) High School Librarian Peter Milbury, co-founder of
LM_NET, created this site. If you’re wondering why Peter has garnered a
national reputation as the Internet guru of the school library world, visit
this site and discover the reason. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the
page and visit his “Sites Selected Especially for Educators.”
Librarian’s Index to the Internet: www.lii.org
From the U.C. Berkeley Sunsite: Search more than 900 subject areas
Young Adult Librarian’s Help/Homepage: http://yahelp.suffolk.lib.ny.us/
Created by Patrick Jones, author of Connecting Young Adults and
Libraries, this site is now maintained by Tracey Firestone of the Suffolk
(NY) Cooperative Library System. Find information about journals,
organizations & associations, YA literature, and more.
Virtual YA Index: http://www.suffolk.lib.ny.us/youth/virtual.html
And if you’re looking for a directory, with links, to public libraries that
maintain their own young adult/children’s web pages, you’ll find dozens
at Virtual YA Index. This site is also maintained by Tracey Firestone.
Especially for Educators
The Blue Web’n Learning Sites Library:
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
Lessons, activities, projects, resources, references, tools, and more.
Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site: http://www.carolhurst.com
(includes some advertising)
The Doucette Index from Canada’s University of Calgary:
http://www.educ.ucalgary.ca/litindex/
Provides access to books and websites that contain useful teaching suggestions.
Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators:
http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/
This is a highly acclaimed, well-organized list of subject sites that are,
according to Schrock, updated daily.
Young Adult Services Fundamentals Spring-Summer 2004 - This material has been created by Michael Cart for the Infopeople
Project [infopeople.org], supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services
and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any use of this material should credit the author and funding
source.
Publisher Pages
Most publishers now have home pages filled with useful information about their books
and authors, including how to arrange for author visits; e.g.
The Teacher Connection. www.bdd.com/teachers
Bantam Doubleday Dell (now Random House) -- offers special teacher
resources through this site
Children’s Book Council Members List:
www.cbcbooks.org/member/memlist1.htm
Every U.S. publisher of YA books is represented and links will take you directly
to all of those who maintain home pages. An invaluable resource
Looking for Authors?
In today’s technological world, writers can run but they can’t hide. Most of them don’t
want to, of course, and increasing numbers are offering home pages with more
information about themselves, their work, and their pets than you may wish to know.
Even for those who don’t, however, the Internet offers amazing amounts of information
about authors and their books. Here are some of the best sites if you’re in search of
authors:
Author & Illustrator Links: http://www.cbcbooks.org/links/authlink.htm
The Children’s Book Council offers links to a number of authors’ home
pages.
Authors and Illustrators on the Web:
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/authors.html
This is part of the Children’s Literature Web Guide site, which is also well
worth a visit.
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI):
http://www.scbwi.org/
The only professional organization for children’s book writers and
illustrators offers links, through its site, to the web pages of dozens of its
members.
Literature for Young Readers
The Internet Public Library: http://www.ipl.org/teen/
Many of the sites listed above offer wonderful links to sites devoted to
young adult literature. I particularly recommend
Booklists for Young Adults on the Web:
http://www.seemore.mi.org/booklists/fiction.html
Maintained by librarian Maggi Rohde, this site offers links to hundreds of
lists of fiction and nonfiction titles.
Children’s Literature Web Guide:
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html
Reference material, features, links, and more.
Young Adult Services Fundamentals Spring-Summer 2004 - This material has been created by Michael Cart for the Infopeople
Project [infopeople.org], supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services
and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any use of this material should credit the author and funding
source.
Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Children’s Literature Resources:
http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/index1.htm
Written and maintained by Smith, a children’s book author, and her
husband, this encyclopedic site features more than 160 pages and links.
Kay E. Vandergrift’s Special Interest Page:
http://scils.rutgers.edu/%7Ekvander/
Maintained by the Rutgers University professor, this indispensable site
contains a wealth of material about children’s and young adult literature
AND their authors, past and present.
Overbooked: http://www.overbooked.org/
Though principally targeted at adult readers, this site does offer some good
children’s book links.
Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!
http://tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/jen/
Reviews and subject/thematic lists that are, indeed, out of the ordinary.
Written by Jennfier Hubert, a young adult librarian, they have
extraordinary appeal for teens.
Teenreads.com: www.teenreads.com/
Contains reviews by teens, information about authors, message boards,
etc. Also publishes an online newsletter.
Young Adult Books: http://yabooks.about.com
Authors, reviews, annotated booklists and more.
Magazines and Journals
A number of professional magazines and journals have home pages. Here are the
essential ones:
The ALAN Review: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/alan-review.html
The journal of The Assembly on Adolescent Literature of the National
Council of Teachers of English
Appraisal: http://www.appraisal.neu.edu/
This nonprofit quarterly publication reviews current science books for
children and teenagers. A yearly subscription includes four issues online
and an annual CD-ROM edition with all issues full-text and indexed.
Booklinks: http://www.ala.org/BookLinks/
Connecting books, libraries, and magazines, this ALA/Booklist magazine
publishes bibliographies, essays, and reviews linking books on a similar
theme.
Booklist Online: http://www.ala.org/booklist
Indexes the magazine and its features.
Young Adult Services Fundamentals Spring-Summer 2004 - This material has been created by Michael Cart for the Infopeople
Project [infopeople.org], supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services
and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any use of this material should credit the author and funding
source.
The Bookwire Index: http://www.bookwire.com/
This site provides access to Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and
School Library Journal. It also claims to offer “the book industry’s most
comprehensive and thorough online information source.” Great for
browsing.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books:
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/bccb
The Horn Book: www.hbook.com
America’s oldest magazine about books for youth goes online.
Video Librarian: www.videolibrarian.com/
Organizations and Associations Online
AASL: http://www.ala.org/AASL The American Association of School
Librarians
ALAN: http://english.byu.edu/ALAN/ NCTE’s Assembly on Adolescent
Literature
ALSC: http://www.ala.org/ALSC The Association of Library Service for
Children
CLA: http://www.uta.edu/soe/CLA/ The Children’s Literature Assembly of the
National Council of Teachers of English
ChLA: http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/chla/ChLAHome.html The Children’s
Literature Association
IRA: http://www.reading.org The International Reading Association. Be sure to
check out its Network on Adolescent Literature
NCTE: http://www.ncte.org The National Council of Teachers of English
YALSA: http://www.ala.org/yalsa The Young Adult Library Services
Association
Websites about Young Adults
Adolescence Directory Online. Center for Adolescent Studies. Indiana
University
http://education.indiana.edu/cas/adol/adol.html
Annie E. Casey Foundation. KIDS COUNT (annual survey of youth at risk)
www.aecf.org/
The Search Institute. This independent nonprofit organization specializes in
material about youth development and youth developmental assets.
www.search-institute.org/
Young Adult Services Fundamentals Spring-Summer 2004 - This material has been created by Michael Cart for the Infopeople
Project [infopeople.org], supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services
and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any use of this material should credit the author and funding
source.
The State of our Nation’s Youth. An annual survey prepared by the Horatio
Alger Association.
www.horatioalger.com/pubmat/surpro.htm
YALSA’s Professional Development Center.
www.ala.org/yalsa/professionaldev/professionaldevelopment.htm
Talk About It
Thanks to the Internet, none of us any longer lives and works in splendid isolation. There
are a number of listservs that provide opportunities for discussion and assistance for all of
us who work with young adult literature. Here are a few:
YALSA-BK: This is maintained by the Young Adult Library Association.
Librarians are joined by authors, editors, publishers, and – yes – young adults
themselves in some of the liveliest and most engaging conversations online. To
subscribe sne an e-mail message to listproc@ala1.ALA.org with the following
command as the first line of text: subscribe yalsa-bk first name last name
CCBC-Net: This one is maintained by the School of Education at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. To subscribe: send an e-mail message to
listserv@ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu Subj: sub ccbc-net your firstname last name
CHILDLIT: This is from Rutgers University. To subscribe: send an e-mail
message to majordomo@mail.rutgers.edu with the following message:
subscribeCHILDLIT your e-mail address
LM_NET: This list principally serves the needs of library media
specialists/school librarians. To subscribe send an e-mail to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU with the following message: SUBSCRIBE
LM_NET Firstname Lastname
KIDLIT-L: An international forum for those interested in the study and teaching
of children’s and young adult literature. To subscribe send an e-mail to
listserv@bingvmb.bitnet Leave subject line blank. Include this message:
subscribe Kidlit-L First Name Last Name
PUBYAC: Designed for public librarians. E-mail to listserv@nysernet.org
Subject line: blank. Message: subscribe PUBYAC First Name Last Name
Prizes and Awards
There are now more prizes and awards than you can shake a medallion at and new ones
appear every day. A comprehensive guide, CHILDREN’S BOOKS: AWARDS &
PRIZES published by the Children’s Book Council, lists 213.
Clearly, not all such honors are created equal and the best, typically, are presented by the
American Library Association; e.g., ALSC presents the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott
Medal, the Robert F. Sibert Award (the newest award, this is presented to the most
Young Adult Services Fundamentals Spring-Summer 2004 - This material has been created by Michael Cart for the Infopeople
Project [infopeople.org], supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services
and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any use of this material should credit the author and funding
source.
distinguished informational book for children), the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and – in
association with REFORMA – the Pura Belpre Award, which is presented biannually to
Latina/Latino writers and illustrators. (The Americas Award, presented by the Cooperative
Children’s Book Center [CCBC] at the University of Wisconsin, also honors Latino literature.
Check out its website at www.uwm.edu/Dept/CLACS/outreach_americas.html)
YALSA presents the Michael L. Printz Award and the Margaret A. Edwards Award
Both ALSC and YALSA publish annual “Best” books and media lists. Current and
retrospective lists – as well as the awards cited above – are available online at the
Associations’ respective homepages (www.ala.org/alsc and www.ala.org/yalsa)
ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table and Coretta Scott King Task Force are the
co-presenters of the Coretta Scott King Awards (www.ala.org/srrt/csking/)
Among the prestigious non-ALA awards are:
The National Book Awards, presented annually by the National Book
Foundation (for a list of winners go to
www.publishersweekly.com/NBF/docs/awards.htm)
The Boston GLOBE-Horn Book Awards (www.hbook.com/bghb.shtml)
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin
presents the recently established Charlotte Zolotow Award, named in honor of
the legendary author and HarperCollins, to the author of the year’s best picture
book text.
The Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction
(www.scottodell.com/sosoaward.html)
The National Council of Teachers of English presents The Orbis Pictus Award
for the best informational book for young readers (www.ncte.org/elem/pictus/)
The International Board on Books for Youth presents the prestigious Hans
Christian Andersen Medal (“the little Nobel Prize”)
(www.ibby.org/Seiten/04_andersen.htm)
The British Library Association presents its Carnegie and Kate Greenaway
Medals (the equivalent of our Newbery and Caldecott Medals, respectively)
(www.la-hq.org.uk/directory/medals.html)
A complete list of winners and honor titles can be found at the Bulletin of the
Center for Children’s Books website @
www.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/bccb/awards01.html
Young Adult Services Fundamentals Spring-Summer 2004 - This material has been created by Michael Cart for the Infopeople
Project [infopeople.org], supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services
and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any use of this material should credit the author and funding
source.