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Book & Media Awards Ceremony and Reception – 2016 Midwinter Meeting

Book & Media Awards Ceremony and Reception
Sunday, January 10, 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Boston Park Plaza, Grand Ballroom A

For the first time, the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced during this Midwinter Meeting event by the selection committee’s inaugural chair, Nancy Pearl, reflecting the new calendar for these awards. As always, RUSA will unveil this year’s Notable Books List, Reading List, Listen List and Outstanding Reference Sources selections, the Dartmouth Medal for excellence in reference, the Sophie Brody Medal for Jewish literature, the Zora Neale Hurston Award for achievement in promoting African-American literature and the Louis Shores Award for book reviewing. Join us for this celebratory evening as we announce the best books and resources of the year and a chance to win some of this year’s best books! All MW attendees are welcome, no tickets required. The event is from 5-7pm, Boston Park Plaza, Grand Ballroom A. The event is sponsored in part by NoveList. More information about these awards can be found at www.ala.org/rusa/awards.

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RUSA Selects 2016 Spectrum Scholar for Internship!

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has selected Patricia Valdovinos, a 2016 Spectrum Scholar is seeking her MLIS degree at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an Intern with RUSA, Valdovinos will work for a year and a half with RUSA’s vice-president/president-elect, Alesia M. McManus, Director of the Howard Community College Library, Columbia, MD. Valdovinos will also receive $3,000 to support travel expenses to attend the American Library Association’s (ALA) Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference.

Valdovinos received her Bachelor of Arts in Chicana/o Studies with minors in American Indian Studies and Education Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2014. During her undergraduate education she was a Ronald E. McNair Research Scholar where she researched how performance, such as spoken word, theatre, etc., affected incarcerated Latina/o youth.

“As a Chicana who has been a part of a variety of spaces, I am excited to expand my knowledge and experience with reference and resource sharing within diverse communities, more specifically, communities of color as the 2015 RUSA Spectrum Scholar Intern. This is an incredible opportunity where I will be able to share my perspectives, while also learn from others in the information world.”

RUSA selects one Spectrum Scholar each year to receive the $3,000 travel grant and work with RUSA’s vice-president. The ALA Spectrum Initiative provides $5,000 scholarships to students from the following underrepresented groups: African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino and Native American. More information about the Spectrum Initiative is available at www.ala.org/spectrum.

RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. RUSA supports excellence in the delivery of general library services and materials, and the provision of reference advisory, and resource sharing for all ages, in every type of library. Please visit our website at http://www.ala.org/rusa/.

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Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Shortlist Announced!

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The American Library Association today announced the six books shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, awarded for the previous year’s best fiction and nonfiction books written for adult readers and published in the United States. The two medal winners will be announced by selection committee chair Nancy Pearl at the RUSA’s Book and Media Awards event at ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits in Boston on Sunday, January 10.

2016 shortlisted titles include:

Nonfiction

“H is for Hawk,” by Helen Macdonald, published  by Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, and distributed by Publishers Group West.

“Hold Still: A Memoir in Photographs,” by Sally Mann, published by Little, Brown, and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

“The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World,” by Andrea Wulf, published by published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, LLC. New York.

Fiction

“The Book of Aron,” by Jim Shepard, published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, LLC. New York.

“A Little Life: A Novel,” by Hanya Yanagihara, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, LLC. New York.

“The Sympathizer,” by Viet Thanh Nguyen, published by Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, and distributed by Publishers Group West.

This is the first time the Carnegie Medal winner announcements will be made at Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits, reflecting a new calendar for the awards, with the shortlist announced in October, the winners in January, and the popular celebratory event continuing at ALA Annual Conference each year. Winning authors each receive $5,000, and the four finalists each receive $1,500.

The awards, established in 2012, recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year and serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by the American Library Association and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers.

The Medals are made possible, in part, by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York in recognition of Andrew Carnegie’s deep belief in the power of books and learning to change the world, and are co-sponsored by ALA’s Booklist Publications and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA).