Type: Standing
Membership: 15 members, including Chair, plus 1 Consultant (Editor of Booklist's Books for Youth) and 1 Administrative Assistant.
Qualifications: YALSA members who must be able to attend both the Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference of ALA.
Term of Office: Chair: one year. Members: one year, with possible reappointment for one additional year.
Function: To select from the year's publications those adult and teenage books significant for young adults; to annotate the selected titles.
Procedures: See "Policies and Procedures for the Best Books for Young Adults Committee."
History: The committee was originally the Association for Young People's Librarian's Book List Committee (1952). It was renamed the Book Selection Committee (1954), and later the Committee for the Selection of Significant Adult Books for Young People (1963). It became the Best Books for Young Adults Committee in 1966. The committee's policies and procedures are examined from time to time by an ad hoc committee. Most recently the Board approved major recommendations for change at the Atlanta Annual Conference, July, 1991. In 1994 a history and compilation of Best Books for Young Adults was published by ALA Editions. Entitled Best Books for Young Adults: The History, The Selections, The Romance, it was written by Betty Carter and used at the preconference, "Here We Go Again. . .25 Years of Best Books," which was held at the 1994 Annual Conference in Miami Beach.