Home   The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)  About YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

About YALSA

Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Committee Description

Date of Establishment: Midwinter, 1995

Date of Completion: Continuing

Membership: 15 members, including the chair

Qualifications: YALSA members who must be able to attend both the Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference of ALA.

Term of Office: Two years

Function: To annually prepare one to five annotated list(s) of approximately twenty-five recommended paperback titles, selected from popular reading/genre themes or topics.

Procedures: See "Policies and Procedures for the Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Committee."

History: When Baker and Taylor discontinued support for the publication of the Genre Lists in 1994, the Board of Directors voted to create a new committee with some of the same elements of the Genre Committees. The new committee was approved by the Board at Midwinter, 1995 and a Board committee, with Judy Druse, Michael Cart and Joel Shoemaker as members, created the guidelines and presented them to the Board at Annual, 1995. The first committee members were appointed by Deborah Taylor, Vice-President, President-Elect in Fall, 1995. Their first meeting was at Annual, 1996. ALA Publishing agreed to publish the lists in bookmark format. The first lists will be produced by the end of Midwinter, 1997. The Board voted to change the name from Popular Reading to Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults at the 1997 Midwinter Meeting. The Board voted to allow the chair to request review copies from publishers at the 1998 Midwinter Meeting.