LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction

LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction – May 2020 Report

The group met 4-6 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
As a committee, we have met six times since Midwinter — April 9, April 30, May 21, June 18, July 9, and August 6 via Zoom, and are in touch in between via Connect and Slack. Independently, we are making our way through both publisher submissions (with 150 evaluations submitted as of August 7) and other titles we have identified as potential for the three lists that make up the Notables.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

Second Activity
Tis group has been very conscientious in attending online meetings, especially considering we have a wide range of time zones, from Maritime Canada to Pacific island.s. Past-chair and current administrative assistant Dena Heilik is in touch with publishers to solicit submissions, and we have designated Jodi Purcell as chair-elect.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
We are moving to the stage of finalizing the lists, and will be reading intensively over the next few months as well as creating the annotations for the website. We will notify publishers after the Youth Media Award announcements.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
WE are very grateful for the Zoom platform availability, it has been indispensible.

Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
Since we were not able to conduct an author program at Annual, we are hoping that we can showcase the list in the future via a virtual event.

Additional comments or concerns:
Thank you for all of the communications regarding the transition to CORE.

Submitted by Wendy Stephens on 08/07/2020

LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction – December 2020 Report

The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Final list selections completed for the three Notables Lists
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Annotations written for the lists
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Third Activity
So much reading!
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Reaching out to publishers to make sure contact are still correct, orienting new committee members, beginning 2020 pub year reading and evaluation, update website with 2020 lists and place them in Cognotes during Midwinter.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
It would be great if we had a replacement for Mark Beatty so we had someone to bounce ideas and questions off of without having to bother Jenny all the time.

Additional comments or concerns:
Because we are on a different timeline than the rest of LITA committees (Feb – Jan), often our processes fall through the cracks (committee appointments process especially)

Submitted by Dena Heilik on 01/09/2020

LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction – May 2019 Report

The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Discussed bylaws and committee makeup
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Second Activity
Discussed books read so far this year and reaching out to publishers for specific books
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Continue reading books that fit the criteria

Submitted by Dena Heilik on 05/29/2019

LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction – February 2019 Report

The group met 4-6 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Discussed and decided on books that would make up the 2019 Notables Lists
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Added new members to the committee
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Third Activity
Voted on procedural and recordkeeping changes, created a publisher contact documents as well as others, moved everything over to the LITA Google Drive.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Fourth Activity
Started meeting to discuss reading progress on books for inclusion in the 2020 Notables Lists
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Fifth Activity
Di Herald stepped down as chair, Dena Heilik stepped in.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
More discussions around the 2020 titles

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
More support and timeliness in adding new members to the committee. Since we're on a different cycle than the rest of the committees we need to have Jan/Feb intake process streamlined.

Submitted by Dena Heilik on 04/18/2019

LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction – December 2018 Report

The group met 4-6 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Google Hangout 10/29/18

At this meeting everyone updated what books we had read, and we began to identify books that the whole committee should read.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Second Activity
Google Hangout 11/14/18

Continued discussion of books and criteria for addition to the list.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for

Third Activity
Google Hangout 11/28/18

Continued discussion of books and criteria for addition to the list.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for

Fourth Activity
Google Hangout 12/6/18

Continued discussion of books and criteria for addition to the list.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Fifth Activity
Google Hangout 1/2/19

Final decision on books placed on the list. Assignment of annotations for the list books. We will meet once more 1/15/19 to decided on the final annotations, set the list and prepare for Midwinter.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
We will be making changes to help streamline and relate the process of reading and selecting books. The Committee will be turned over for the new chair. We will also talk to publishers at ALA, and begin reading books for 2019. Also we will bring onboard new committee members.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
We would like a better understanding of how members of committees are selected. Are we allowed to recruit? Can we pass on names of people we think would be good members. It will help us plan for next year more effectively.

Submitted by Thomas Allen on 01/14/2019

LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction – September 2018 Report

The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
We held a teleconference meeting (mid September) to discuss what books everyone has been reading and talk about the various aspects that need to be considered in choosing the books which will receive awards.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Second Activity
We had some discussion over ALA connect of two judging issues we having struggles with. One is should we give the award to a book that is part of a series, even if you would need to read other books to understand it. Also included this is discussion of if we need to establish a Series Award.

The second issue is dealing with books that were previously either self-published, or published somewhere else first. For example a book published in England in 2017, but not in America until 2018.

We will decide on these two positions and write them into the judging criteria going forward.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
We had a phone meeting Monday, October 29th to finalize the considered books, and mover towards preparing a short list. We will consider all picture books with a score of 18, and all middle grade and young adult books with a score of 22 for the award. We will meet again the 2nd or 3rd week of November to further winnow down the list.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Finalizing the list and choosing the winning work in each category.

Submitted by Thomas Allen on 11/01/2018