Winners named for Book Wholesalers Inc./YALSA Collection Development grants

Contact: Stephanie Sherrod


312-280-2515


ssherrod@ala.org


For Immediate Release


April 2002

Winners named for Book Wholesalers Inc./YALSA Collection Development grants

Two public librarians, Taralee Alcock of Tuzzy Consortium Library, Barrow, Alaska, and Willie Braudaway of Val Verde County Library, Del Rio, Texas, have been named winners of the Book Wholesalers, Inc./YALSA Collection Development Grant, an award administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

The grant, $1,000 donated by Book Wholesalers, Inc., is for collection development and is given to YALSA members who represent a public library and work directly with young adults ages 12 to 18. The grant award was announced at the ALA Midwinter Meeting held January 18-23 in New Orleans.

Tuzzy Consortium Library represents the northernmost community in North America - Barrow, Alaska, populated mostly by Inupiat Eskimos. "We are a public recreation space in a town where there are very few public spaces, a limited amount of options for recreation and an ample amount of inhospitable weather, " said Alcock.

The grant will be used to build a recreational print collection for teens, which will enhance the summer reading program and target at-risk teens.

The second award is being given to the Val Verde County Library, a community on the Mexican-American border with a 75 percent Hispanic population. According to Braudaway, the library plans to "collaborate with a number of local youth groups and community service organizations to attract more young adults to the library," and will work with their own Young Adult Advisory Board to create a plan of action. They intend to use the grant to launch their first teen summer reading program centered on the theme "Who Am I?"

The committee is very pleased to be awarding two grants to libraries in such diverse communities, representing different geographic regions, a confirmation of YALSA's commitment to reaching teens throughout the United States.

The YALSA Publishers' Liaison Committee has the responsibility for the selection of the Book Wholesalers grant winners on an annual basis. This year's committee members are: Judy T. Nelson, chair, Pierce County (WA) Public Library; Barbara Blosveren, Stratford (Conn.) Library Association; Theresa Borzumato, Random House (N.Y.); David Gale, Simon & Schuster (N.Y.); Eva-Maria Lusk, Spokane (Wash.) County Library; Suzanne Manczuk (N.J.); Susan Rosenzweig (R.I.); Amelia Schwartz, New York Public Library; Jody Sharp, Harford County (Md.) Public Library; and Jan Staudemeyer, Wauconda (Ill.) Area Library.