YALSA announces YA Galley participants
Contact: Nichole Gilbert
312-280-4387
For Immediate Release
December 19, 2002
YALSA announces YA Galley participants
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is proud to announce the 15 YA Galley participants for 2003-2004.
Teen voting groups for YA Galley Teens Top Ten (TTT) 2003-2004 are the Teen Advisory Board led by Mari Hardacre and Karen Nesius Roeger from Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Ind.; Mary Hennessey's Teen Review Board at East Lansing (Mich.) Public Library; Mary Long's Teen Advisory Board and Readers R' Us at Wilson Middle School, Plano, Texas; Nadean Meyer's MLHS Booktalkers at Medical Lake (Wash.) High School; and Tracey Thomas's Teen Advisory Council at B. B. Comer Memorial Library, Sylacauga, Ala.
Other participating YA Galley teen groups are advised by Susan Bantz at Germantown (Ohio) Public Library; Kristin Fletcher-Spear at Glendale (Az.) Public Library; Regina Krieger at Fairfield (Conn.) High School; Sarah Latimer at Leon County Public Library, Tallahassee, Fla.; Amy Long at Harford County Public Library, Bel Air, Md.; Tina Nolen at Ashland (Ala.) City Public Library; Connie Pappas at Skyridge Middle School, Camas, Wash.; Pam Rykken at Johnson County Library, Overland Park, Kan.; Jeanne Schmitzer at Putnam County Library, Cookeville, Tenn.; and Diane Tuccillo at Mesa (Az.) Public Library.
YA Galley facilitates teens' access to advance reading copies of young adult books. In exchange, teen readers evaluate these books for the book's publishers and the teen voting groups develop TTT, an annual teen-selected list. The TTT consists of the top ten new books for young adults. Teens in the voting groups can nominate any book published from November 2002 to October 2003.
"I am very excited that YA Galley will continue as a permanent project," commented YALSA President Caryn Sipos. "This project benefits everyone involved, teens, librarians and publishers of young adult books!"
In addition to TTT, Teen Hoopla (
www.ala.org/teenhoopla.com) also will conduct a vote for the ten best new young adult books. An on-line vote will take place during Teen Read Week 2003. Any teen may vote for their favorite book from a list of books that have been nominated by the five TTT voting groups.
Originally a pilot program for three years, YA Galley will continue on as a permanent YALSA project beginning in 2003. Every two years YALSA's YA Galley Committee will accept applications from YALSA members who are advisors of teen book discussion groups in school and public libraries. Fifteen groups are selected to serve a two-year term. For more information about Teen Hoopla, YALSA, or becoming a librarian member of YA Galley, please contact the YALSA office by e mail:
yalsa@ala.org, or phone: 800-545-2433 ext. 4391.
Scarecrow Press, the publisher of the
Voice of Youth Advocates (
VOYA), provides corporate sponsorship for this initiative. Prospective publishers can get more information about YA Galley or applications by contacting coordinator Cathi Dunn MacRae at
cmacrae@voya.com, phone (301) 459-3366 ext. 5700.
