à YALSA awards Baker & Taylor Conference Grants to Kinast, Geary
Contact: Stephanie Kuenn
Communications Specialist
312-280-2128
NEWS
For Immediate Release
January 26, 2010
CHICAGO — The Baker & Taylor Award Committee of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), awarded the 2010 Baker & Taylor/YALSA Conference Grants to Barbara Kinast and Carol Anne Geary. Each receives up to $1,000 to attend the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. this summer.
The Baker & Taylor Conference Grant is awarded for first-time attendance at an Annual Conference. The recipients must be members of YALSA and must have between one and 10 years experience working with teenagers.Â
Since 2006, Barbara Kinast has been library media specialist for the Isaacs Bildersee Intermediate School in Brooklyn, N.Y., a school labeled as “high-needs.” She has worked to align the collection with New York learning standards and to infuse technology into her program. She organized book clubs, which use the
Goodreads.com site to share book reviews and comments, and has hosted a young adult fiction writer. She received several grants supporting the promotion of reading in her school and, according to her supervisor, has “created a culture of reading in her school.”
“I am beyond thrilled with this honor,” Kinast said. “Thanks to Baker & Taylor and YALSA for making my professional development dreams come true by giving me the opportunity to attend the ALA Annual Conference for the first time!”
Carol Anne Geary is youth services librarian at the Sutton (Mass.) Free Public Library. Since 2001, Geary has worked at the library. She attends all available professional development opportunities and is earning a professional degree. As the sole person responsible for services for children and young adults in her library, she has built up the YA collection and provided a variety of programming. Geary designed the teen space and found funding from a local bank for furniture. She formed a teen advisory committee, which works on collection development, develops programming, coordinates with other youth programs and runs a successful YA book discussion group. According to her library director, “you could not pick anyone for this award who would better utilize the programs, ideas and contacts made at such an important conference as ALA to better serve this library, community and teens than Carol Geary.”
“I am so excited about this opportunity to attend my first national library conference,” Geary said. “Without this scholarship, I would not have been able to participate and am looking forward to the educational opportunities at the conference and learning more about YALSA and how to get involved.”
The YALSA Baker & Taylor Award Committee members are: Kathleen T. Isaacs, chair, children’s literature specialist, Pasadena, Md.; Wanda E. Jones, Martin Luther King Memorial Library, Washington, D.C.; Ritchie A. Momon, Kansas City Public Library, Independence, Mo.; Amanda L.S. Murphy, Warren-Trumbull County (Ohio) Public Library; and Kenneth Petrilli, New Rochelle (N.Y.) Public Library.
Applications for the 2011 Baker and Taylor grant can be found at
www.ala.org/yalsa/awards&grants. Applications are due Dec. 1.
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.
