ALSC Grants for Children's Librarians

ALSC Award and Grant Applications Due Soon!

November 14, 2011 by Dan Rude

The deadline for most awards and grants on Thursday, December 1, 2011, so time is running out! ALSC gives away $82k a year in awards, grants, and scholarship. To apply for these one of these awards and grants, please visit the ALSC Professional Awards page. Below is a list of awards and grants:

Awards

ALSC Distinguished Service Award honors an individual member who has made significant contributions to and an impact on, library services to children and ALSC. The recipient receives $1,000 and an engraved pin at the ALSC Membership Meeting during the ALA Annual Conference.

The Penguin Young Readers Group Award provides a $600 stipend, provided by Penguin Young Reader’s Group, for winners to attend their first ALA Annual Conference. Applicants must have less than 10 years of experience as a children’s librarian and work directly with children.

The Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Award was established with funding from Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, in honor of Maureen Hayes, to bring together children and nationally recognized authors/illustrators. This award provides $4,000 to fund an author/illustrator visit to a library.

Grants

Bookapalooza! Each year the ALSC office receives almost 3,000 newly published books, videos, audiobooks and recordings from publishers for award consideration. After the awards are given out, ALSC selects three libraries to receive a Bookapalooza collection of these materials (estimated to be worth $10,000 each) to be used in a way that creatively enhances their library service to children and families.

Louise Seamen Bechtel Fellowship provides a $4,000 stipend to allow a qualified children’s librarian to spend a month or more reading at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, which contains a special collection of 85,000 volumes of children’s literature published mostly before 1950.

ALSC/BWI Summer Reading Grant provides $3,000 in financial assistance to a public library for developing outstanding summer reading programs for children.

ALSC/Candlewick Light the Way Grant was formed in honor of Newbery Medalist and Geisel Honoree author Kate DiCamillo. The award consists of a $3,000 grant to assist a library in conducting exemplary outreach to underserved populations through a new program or an expansion of work already being done.