ALSC Gives Green Light to Bloggers

Should members of the Newbery, Caldecott, and other children’s book award committees be allowed to blog? The answer is yes.

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has clarified its conflict of interest and confidentiality policy, stating that members of award committees who run or participate in social networking sites, including blogs, wikis, and electronic discussion lists, are allowed to blog. That is, as long as they don’t “engage in any discussion about their ALSC award committee work, or about the status of eligible books in relationship to these awards during their term of committee service,” says the updated policy.

In short, the same rule that applied before now extends to the electronic world. Even reviewing books is allowed, although members of award committees are often advised not to review titles eligible for the committee they sit on. “It’s left up to the judgment of the committee member,” says ALSC President Kathleen Horning.

The news came a little late for Elizabeth Bird, a children’s librarian at New York Public Library, who served on the 2007 Newbery award committee. Back in October 2006, ALSC asked Bird, who writes about and reviews children’s books on her blog, A Fuse #8 Production, to remove all reviews of Newbery award contenders. Bird, who works in the central children’s room at the Donnell branch, obliged.

Under the updated ALSC policy released in February, Bird and others like her can blog away. In fact, committee members “are urged to discuss books under consideration with others throughout the year to obtain a variety of critical opinions,” say the rules. “However, it is important to remember that, in these discussions, committee members may express their own opinions, and may not quote the opinions of other committee members or indicate in any way which books are under consideration.”

To be sure, Nina Lindsay, a librarian at Oakland (CA) Public Library and chair of the 2008 Newbery committee, won’t be continuing her blog, Nina’s Newbery, this year.

Indeed, the rapid speed at which a blog can reach thousands of people has made some people nervous. Roger Sutton, editor-in-chief of the Horn Book, who has his own blog, Read Roger, says the whole controversy is a generational problem. “The people who didn’t grow up with this technology look at it and feel threatened,” says Sutton, 50. “If we didn’t have a blog and Web site at Horn, I’d feel threatened, too.”

Sutton, who’s currently on the 2008 Caldecott committee, threatened to resign when he was told to refrain from blogging about books that were eligible for an award committee.

Horning agrees that blogging is more informal “so people who grew up with instant messaging and blogging feel more comfortable with the tone,” says Horning, 50. “People of my generation [feel] there is a tone of professionalism in reviews. But blogs are less formal and more conversational, and people see it as a lack of professionalism. Maintaining confidentiality on an award committee is an aspect of professionalism.”