What Does That ALSC Committee Do?

What is an ALSC Committee?


ALSC Committee Survey Results 2018

In 2018, the ALSC Organization & Bylaws Committee surveyed ALSC committee chairs on the duties, skills, and communication necessary for the individual work of the committee. The results of the survey are below.


Priority Groups:

  1. Child Advocacy
  2. Evaluation of Media
  3. Professional Awards and Scholarships
  4. Organizational Support
  5. Awards
  6. Partnerships
  7. Professional Development

Priority Group I: Child Advocacy

Advocacy and Legislation Committee

  • Virtual Committee: Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: Greater than 4 hours a month
  • Busiest time of the year: January, February, March
  • Committee Communication: ALA Connect, Conference Calls, Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: NA
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: The Committee is working on an advocacy webinar and partnering with the Public Awareness Committee on a program for the ALSC Institute.
  • Other information: Members are expected to actively engage on social media (esp. Twitter) and should be familiar with using hashtags and retweeting. Members are expected to share information and resources related to advocacy from their personal accounts, particularly during National Library Legislative Day. Committee members are required to participate in the ALSC blog by posting at least twice throughout the year. Committee members are also expected to contribute to the advocacy column for the ALSC journal, Children and Libraries. Blog and writing for the column are on a rotating schedule with committee members signing up in advance. Members are also required to actively participate in committee business via email and attend all meetings.

Early Childhood Programs and Services Committee

  • Virtual Committee: No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings as needed
  • Consistency of time commitment: 3-4 hours a month
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, Video Conferencing (Skype, Google Hangouts), Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: The Babies Need Words Everyday Initiative and a four-part webinar series. 
  • Other information: 

Intellectual Freedom Committee

  • Virtual Committee: No 
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting
  • Consistency of time commitment: 2-3 hours
  • Busiest time of the year: January, June
  • Committee communication: Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Revising content of “Kids, Know Your Rights” pamphlet and promoting its publication in comic version. 
  • Other information: Willingness to blog

Committee: Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers

  • Virtual Committee: Yes, we meet virtually once every two months. Project teams may meet more frequently.
  • Meetings at Conference: N/A
  • Consistency of time commitment: Flexible depending on the capacity of each individual member. Estimate 3-4 hours per month.
  • Busiest time of the year: Varies throughout the year depending on chosen projects. Members can choose how much and when to work on certain deliverables.
  • Committee communication: Primarily through email as well as ALA Connect, Video Conferencing (Zoom, Google Hangouts), and Google Docs.
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Work with like-minded organizations and individuals to promote services and programs for underserved children and their caregivers in library communities. The committee is responsible for writing monthly blog posts tailored to the committee’s focus and mission (generally 1-2 per member, per year). Members contribute to and review resource toolkits focused on underserved communities (generally at least one section per year). Members may be responsible for coordinating and facilitating interaction with other ALSC members, such as We Are ALSC chats or webinars. 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing:  A series of dynamic toolkit pages to support library and library-adjacent professionals in serving traditionally marginalized or underserved populations. In addition to the toolkits, we have created supplemental blog posts with additional resources, and also published articles in Children and Libraries related to our work. We continue to collaborate with other ALSC committees, organizations, and individuals to directly impact underserved communities.  
  • Other information: The committee is passionate about reaching underserved children and their caregivers through innovative programs, services, and partnerships. We are proud of leveraging the expertise and interests of our individual committee members to share more resources with the professional community.  We encourage ALSC members of all levels and experience to join in our work or apply for committee service. 

Public Awareness Committee

  • Virtual Committee: No 
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting
  • Consistency of time commitment: 2-3 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: Email, Zoom
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Working with ALSC office, other ALSC committees, and ALA Washington office. 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Our collective responsiveness to timely resources such as the Peace Unity Kindness booklist. 
  • Other information: Desirable skills include experience blogging and marketing.

School-Age Programs & Service Committee

  • Virtual Committee: No 
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings as needed 
  • Consistency of time commitment: 2-3 hours a month
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, Email, Google Docs, Slack
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work:
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: We developed a non-fiction/fiction pairing tween booklist that is well-rounded, diverse, and current: Mismatched Pairs
  • Other information: We meet monthly for one hour via Slack chat to discuss ongoing projects, as well as at the All Committee meeting during conferences. We rely on strong programmers and communicators and members who are able to volunteer extra time to do research, reach out to colleagues, and work within subcommittees. A healthy sense of humor is a plus!

Priority Group II: Evaluation of Media

Excellence for Early Learning Digital Media Committee

  • Virtual committee?: No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting
  • Consistency of time commitment: 1-2 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work:
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing:
  • Other information:

Notable Children's Books Committee

  • Virtual committee?: No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings for review and discussion
  • Consistency of time commitment: > 25 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year: November, December
  • Committee communication: Conference Calls, Email, Google
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work:
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Publishing a polished and useful booklist of Notable titles as well as creating an environment where respectful, thoughtful discussion is modeled, practiced and valued.
  • Other information: There is a great deal of reading required of members. Members should expect to be inundated by books and will require strong organizational skills to both keep up with the reading and the sorting/storing of books. That said, knowing the full year's publishing is fascinating and educational so the rewards are high. Members should feel comfortable with Google docs and similar cloud-based communication. Members are required to write concise annotations so writing skills, and a desire to improve one's writing are a plus. Members who are comfortable asking questions, communicating regularly with the chair and other committee members, growing their own skills as book critics, and getting to know the ALSC definitions related to Notable books will find themselves deeply satisfied and engaged in this good work. 

Notable Children's Digital Media

  • Virtual committee?: Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: 3-4 hours per month.
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, Video Conference (Skype, Google Hangouts), Conference Call, Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work:
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Our quarterly lists of notable digital media. 
  • Other information: Now that the Notable Children’s Digital Media has expanded their charge to include apps, it's important for committee members to be well-versed and comfortable using apps across multiple platforms. 

Notable Children's Recordings Committee

  • Virtual committee?: No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings for review and discussion
  • Consistency of time commitment: > 25 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year: January, May, June, November, December
  • Committee communication: Video Conference (Skype, Google Hangouts), Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work:
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: The 2018 NCR committee has gone above and beyond in seeking out titles that were not submitted by producers and evaluating them for inclusion on our Notable list.
  • Other information: You will spend a lot of time with headphones on. Listening during your commute does not tend to be enough listening time to get all assignments done. There is a significant ramping up period in which new members will be doing research to learn the correct critical terms and how to identify examples of each.

Priority Group III: Professional Awards and Scholarships

Distinguished Service Award Committee

  • Virtual committee?: Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: < 1 hour per month
  • Busiest time of the year: December
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, Conference Calls
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Inviting nominations from membership; preparing nomination documentation
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: After lengthy discussion, our group came to a unanimous decision; one of our members worked on the guidelines for future ALSC Distinguished Service Award Committees
  • Other information: It was valuable to have members with a wide range of experience within ALSC, so they had a ready roster of worthy nominees that had made substantial contributions to ALSC.

Grants Administration Committee

  • Virtual committee?: Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment:
  • Busiest time of the year: February, October, November
  • Committee communication: Video conference (Skype, Google Hangouts), Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work:
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing:
  • Other information: It helps if committee members are fairly comfortable with online work tools like Google Docs, etc.

Scholarships Committee: Melcher and Bound to Stay Bound

  • Virtual committee?: Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: Intensive work for 1-2 months
  • Busiest time of the year: March, April, May
  • Committee communication: Email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work:
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing:
  • Other information:

Priority Group IV: Organizational Support

Budget Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: The Budget committee holds its own meetings twice during conferences
  • Consistency of time commitment: 
  • Busiest time of the year: January, May, June, July, December
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, Email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Reviewing and updating the Budget Committee Manual
  • Other information: 

Local Arrangements Committee

  • Virtual committee? Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: < 1 hour per month.
  • Busiest time of the year: March, April, May, June
  • Committee communication: Video conference (Skype, Google Hangouts), Email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: 
  • Other information: 

Membership Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings as needed
  • Consistency of time commitment: 2-3 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year: January, June
  • Committee communication: Email, Slack
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Developing the ALA Annual ALSC 101 session and staffing ALA annual booth with AASL and YALSA
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: The ALSC 101 session has become a great way to connect with old and new members and highlights all of the ways that someone can get involved with ALSC (beyond simply committee work). Also, we started hosting member dinners at conferences which has been a great way to connect.
  • Other information: There is an ongoing time commitment because of we send postcards each month to new members and we have monthly meetings. ALA Annual and Midwinter require more attention since there are obligations. Marketing experience and communication experience is a plus for this committee since this committee is involved in getting the word out and for being the first "face" a new member "meets" through physical and online communication.

Nominating and Leadership Development Committee

  • Virtual committee? Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: 
  • Busiest time of the year: March, April, May, June, July, August, September
  • Committee communication: Email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Networking regionally, locally and statewide to recruit/encourage/obtain names of nominees
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: 
  • Other information: Writing/Communication, Diplomacy

Organization and Bylaws Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: All-committee meeting
  • Consistency of time commitment: 1-2 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, Conference Calls, Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Updating the What Does that ALSC Committee Do? on the ALSC website.
  • Other information: The work can be sporadic and frequently has very short deadlines.

Program Coordinating Committee

  • Virtual committee? Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: 
  • Busiest time of the year: September, October
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, Conference Calls, Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: 
  • Other information: This committee requires a high level of organization, using spreadsheets, critical evaluation, group discussion and decision making.

(Charlemae) Rollins President's Program Planning Committee

  • Virtual committee? Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: 
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: 
  • Other information: 

Website Advisory Committee

  • Virtual committee? Yes
  • Meetings at Conference: NA
  • Consistency of time commitment: Work is irregular, but generally 3-4 hours in the fall and spring.
  • Busiest time of the year: February, March, April, October, November, December
  • Committee communication: Video conference (Skype, Google Hangouts), Email, Google Docs
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: We are really excited to review the new ALSC website and suggest structural and content-related improvements.
  • Other information: As found in the committee's function statement: WAC provides direction, guidance, and support regarding the currency and relevance of content on the ALSC website and the organization of content therein to ensure positive user engagement with the site. The committee works with ALSC staff and committees to ensure that content on the ALSC website addresses ALSC priorities set forth in the Strategic Plan.

Priority Group V: Awards

Batchelder Award Selection Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings as needed
  • Consistency of time commitment: > 25 hours per month    
  • Busiest time of the year: January, October, November, December    
  • Committee communication: Email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: 
  • Other information: The Batchelder Award Committee is charged with selecting the most outstanding translated book of the year. In addition to expertise in evaluating high quality children's books, familiarity with international children's literature is highly desirable for members of this committee. Experience with evaluating translated books is also valuable.

Belpré Award Selection Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings as needed
  • Consistency of time commitment: > 4 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year: May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, Email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: We have just started our year of evaluating eligible titles.
  • Other information: Members need to be prepared to read, analyze, and discuss both illustrations and text and to assist with organizing the annual Celebración of the winning titles and promoting these titles. Members also need to seek out eligible titles as not all titles will be sent to them by publishers.

Caldecott Award Selection Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: Meetings other than all-committee meeting
  • Consistency of time commitment: >50 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year: June, July, August, September, October, November, December
  • Committee communication: Email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: 
  • Other information: Ability to LISTEN to and respect the input of others; diplomacy; ability to set goals (daily, weekly, monthly) and prioritize; stick-to-itiveness; critical analysis of pictures and words, EXCELLENT written and verbal communication skills, patience, word processing and excel spreadsheet abilities.

Children's Literature Legacy Award Selection Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: Meetings other than all-committee
  • Consistency of time commitment: > 50 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Established calendar for one-year time frame.
  • Other information: Broad knowledge of children’s literature

Geisel Award Selection Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings as needed
  • Consistency of time commitment: Irregular
  • Busiest time of the year: January, September, October, November, December
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: 
  • Other information: 

Newbery Award Selection Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: Meetings other than all-committee
  • Consistency of time commitment: >50 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year: January, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
  • Committee communication: Email, Private email, not work email because of confidentiality and FOIA
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Establishing a consistent level of communication and timely response by committee members
  • Other information: To be successful and complete all the reading required for this committee a member must be willing to set aside personal time for reading in a consistent way and guard that time from encroachment from everything else demanding attention.  It's difficult to catch up once you get behind.  It's challenging rereading and notating books during the holiday season, so it's important to share the time commitment needed with friends and family, especially if the Midwinter conference falls early in January.  Committee members must love, respect, honor and delight in children's literature. You could quickly become resentful of the time needed for all the reading and reviewing if you aren't 'all in'.  It's an honor to serve, but a huge responsibility as well.  It helps immensely if committee members have experience in, and love, working with children and their caregivers.  It's a joy to work with a group of children of varying ages and the award year's books.  Their perceptions, thoughts and insights are invaluable and inform how I read and evaluate the books.  Book reviewing experience, of any kind, is a plus, but even those without this can develop this skill with practice.  Good listening and interpersonal skills, patience and honoring every book nominated are a must when working with a large group that is sequestered for hours at a time. It helps that every committee member is working toward the same goal: selecting the very best book for children.  It's a tremendous experience, very fulfilling and a highlight of a librarian's life!

Odyssey Award Selection Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings as needed
  • Consistency of time commitment: While the slowest months (the start of the year and late summer) might dip below 25 hours a month, the volume at the beginning and end of the year merits listing this committee as >25 hours per month.
  • Busiest time of the year: January, October, November, December
  • Committee communication: ALA Connect, email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: 
  • Other information: Prospective members should know that as audiobooks are increasingly delivered digitally, the 2018 committee has had to navigate multiple audio formats, downloading and storage methods, and that this trend will, in all likelihood, continue. Comfort with technology is a big plus for serving on this committee.

Sibert Informational Book Award Selection Committee

  • Virtual committee? No
  • Meetings at Conference: All Committee meeting and additional meetings as needed
  • Consistency of time commitment: > 50 hours per month
  • Busiest time of the year:
  • Committee communication: Email
  • Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
  • The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Choosing the 2018 Sibert Medal winners!
  • Other information: You will need to read as many informational texts as you can find during the year. This includes books sent to you, but also seeking out titles that the committee does not receive. You do not need to have an expertise in nonfiction in order to serve on this committee, but you should have an open mind about topics for consideration and formats for informational books.

Priority Group VI: Partnerships

AASL/ALSC/YALSA Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation

Virtual committee? Yes
Meetings at Conference: NA
Consistency of time commitment: 3-4 hours per month.
Busiest time of the year: January, February, March, April, September, October, November, December
Committee communication: ALA Connect, Email, Google Docs, Slack
Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Creating a toolkit for beginning school and public library partnerships
Other information: Submit one blog post during the year, attend monthly or bi-monthly meetings

Building Partnerships Committee

Virtual committee? No
Meetings at Conference: All-committee meeting + additional meetings
Consistency of time commitment: 1-2 hours per month.
Busiest time of the year:
Committee communication: ALA Connect, Video conference (Skype, Google Hangouts), Email, Google Docs
Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Building Partnerships Committee works together in subcommittee groups between face-to-face conference meetings to accomplish various tasks, such as researching and creating tools on best practices for library partnerships. Members also share responsibility of writing a monthly ALSC Blog entry.
The Chair is proud of accomplishing: We created a new list of innovative local, state and national organizations whose resources complement or support Youth Services, which is being updated regularly.
Other information: Members currently meet for an online chat every other month.

QuickLists Consulting Committee

Virtual committee? Yes
Meetings at Conference: NA
Consistency of time commitment: 2-3 hours per month
Busiest time of the year: November
Committee communication: Email, wiki
Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
The Chair is proud of accomplishing: At the request of the ALSC President we created two lists in response to the 2016 Election - Working Together for Justice and Unity. Kindness. Peace.
Other information: Knowledge of recent K-8 books is a plus, ability to work independently and asynchronously, thoughtfulness and ability to read and follow directions.


Priority Group VII: Professional Development

Children and Libraries Advisory Committee

Virtual committee? Yes
Meetings at Conference: NA
Consistency of time commitment: irregular, but less than 1 hour per month
Busiest time of the year:
Committee communication: Conference Calls, Email
Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
The Chair is proud of accomplishing: It's rewarding to be able to give helpful input to the journal editor and be a (small) part of the process of putting it together.
Other information: Although this is an "editorial" committee, members are not required to edit journal articles, just advise. Editing and writing are options, if committee members are interested, but are not required.

Children and Technology Committee

Virtual committee? Yes
Meetings at Conference: NA
Consistency of time commitment: 1-2 hours per month.
Busiest time of the year: November
Committee communication: Email, Monthly Slack chat.
Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Writing 1 - 2 blog posts each year on pertinent topics. This could include reaching out to other professionals. Reviewing the ALSC Digital Resources page and researching replacement articles. New for 2018 will be reviewing the application to the Media Mentorship Leadership Award.
The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Reviewing and updating the ALSC Digital Resources page and restarting the webinar series.
Other information: Due to the different time zones, not all members are able to join the monthly meeting. Someone who is comfortable with asynchronous work and able to follow through on assignments would do well on this committee.

Education Committee

Virtual committee? Yes
Meetings at Conference: NA
Consistency of time commitment: 1-2 hours per month.
Busiest time of the year: 
Committee communication: ALA Connect, Email, Google Docs, Google Hangout chat
Extra duties for members beyond committee work: 
The Chair is proud of accomplishing: In 2017, the Education Committee developed two webinars. The first was about how to successfully write and submit a proposal to teach an ALSC course or webinar. The second was about opportunities to become involved with ALSC and how to participate actively in ALSC.
Other information: Committee members should be proficient with Google programs, namely Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Hangouts. The Education Committee uses these programs to communicate and develop projects.

Managing Children's Services Committee

Virtual committee? Yes
Meetings at Conference: NA
Consistency of time commitment: 1-2 hours per month
Busiest time of the year:
Committee communication: Video conference (Skype, Google Hangouts), Email, Google Docs
Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Blog point person, working with Membership Committee, working with ALSC Mentoring Groups
The Chair is proud of accomplishing: Two different multi-part webinar series related to managing children's services
Other information: Our work is highly project-based, so it's important for members to be willing to volunteer for projects, take on things they may have to research or learn more about, and be willing to jump in and go with the flow.

Special Collections and Bechtel Fellowship Committee

Virtual committee? No
Meetings at Conference: All-committee meeting + additional meetings
Consistency of time commitment: Not consistent
Busiest time of the year: January, October, November, December
Committee communication: ALA Connect, Conference Calls, Email
Extra duties for members beyond committee work: Promoting the Bechtel Fellowship to other ALSC members.
The Chair is proud of accomplishing: The committee created a series of ALSC Blog posts with interviews of past Bechtel fellows.
Other information: Committee members should be familiar with or be willing to learn about special collections of children’s literature.