Michael Cart wins first YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Achievement Award
Contact: Stephanie Kuenn
Communications Specialist, YALSA
(312) 280-2128
skuenn@ala.org
For Immediate Release,
February 12, 2008
Michael Cart wins first YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Achievement Award
CHICAGO -The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), named Michael Cart the inaugural winner of the YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Achievement Award.
The $2,000 grant, given every other year, recognizes a YALSA member who has demonstrated unique and sustained devotion to young adult services through substantial work in several initiatives.
In nominating Cart, Amy Alessio, Teen Coordinator at the Schaumburg (Ill.) Township District Library, noted that "Michael has gone to great lengths many times to help our association achieve excellence." A YALSA past president, Cart helped establish the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, chaired several Best of the Best in Young Adult Literature preconferences, and even developed "Rush Hour," a journal aimed at older teens. Cart is extensively published, with both fiction and nonfiction on his resume, and conducts workshops in public and school libraries on new young adult literature and services. He also develops and hosts television programs and podcasts about those subjects.
"It is hard to think of a better advocate for our profession. Michael has promoted literature for young adults through personal and professional means," Alessio wrote.
Cart said, "I'm seldom at a loss for words but the honor of this award has, for once, left me speechless. Being privileged to share in YALSA's amazing history of advocacy for young adults, for library service to them and for young adult literature has been the most rewarding aspect of my long professional career. I hope this award might inspire others to join YALSA in its ongoing and always invaluable work."
Wayne Smith, president of the Greenwood Publishing Group, noted the publisher was proud to sponsor this award. "We are happy to recognize achievement in young adult library services. Helping to foster a love of books and reading in the young is key to setting the stage for literate and thoughtful generations to come."
The next recipient of the YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Achievement Award will be named in 2010.
For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos and audio books for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to
www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390; or e-mail:
yalsa@ala.org.
