  From
Your Editor
Welcome to the new look autumn issue of Youth Library Review
— affectionately referred to as eYLR. As promised our YLG
designer, Andy Thomsen, has been working hard to give the electronic
edition a makeover. Please use the Feedback
button on the navigation bar at the top of the screen to let Andy
and I know what you think. I really appreciated the positive comments
people sent me in response to the new layout of the spring issue.
As well as changing the look of the autumn issue, I have also
changed it’s focus, making it much more news orientated:
as you can see from the titles of the ‘buttons’ down
the left hand side of the screen. I
have also introduced three new sections that I would like to make
a regular feature of this issue.
Carnegie/Greenaway News: The core of this section will
be a synopsis of the year’s Media
Coverage of the Carnegie/Kate Greenaway Medals, and the Carnegie
Medal Winner’s Acceptance
Speech. The idea for the former came about when I saw people
at Conference 2000 crowded round the newspapers the morning after
the Carnegie/Kate Greenaway Awards. It made me think that maybe
a wider audience would be interested in how the Ceremony and Medals
are reported and by whom. If you are interested in reading the
newspaper articles quoted, you will find most of them on the individual
papers’ websites.
New Links: This is where YOU recommend the websites you
have found indispensable for your work, or just great fun for
the children you work with. This is especially suited to the electronic
edition as Andy can build in links to those sites. So let me know!
News from the LA: I have long suspected that not enough
people are aware of the full range of work done on our behalf
by Jonathan Douglas, Library Association Professional Adviser
Youth & Schools Libraries; I hope to rectify this by including
a report from him in each autumn issue.
To help you find all the articles in this autumn’s issue,
we have listed them in alphabetical order down the right hand
side of the screen. There are, however, several items I would
particularly like to draw your attention to:
This edition’s Through
the Chair’s Eyes is especially important as it features,
among other things, two developments that impact directly on the
work of YLG. The first, and perhaps most important, are the implications
for YLG regional groups of the unification in April 2002 of the
Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists:
to form the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
(CILIP). The second is the revision of the judging criteria for
the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals. The Revised
Criteria for both Medals is reproduced in this issue, and
I hope this will help make those nominations a little easier,
come February 2002.
I am also able to bring you our Chief Executive, Bob McKee’s,
vision for the future of CILIP in his article Building
for the Future. This vision includes both engaging with a
"wider constituency of interest", namely colleagues
from other professions; and reaffirming "our mission as a
profession" to give people access to knowledge.
For those of you unlucky enough to miss this year’s YLG
Conference, held at
Loughborough University between 21st-23rd
September, I have included the key papers for you to read. Unfortunately,
David Murray’s highly provocative talk was only available
as a PowerPoint presentation, so could not be included: you really
did need to be there! I have, though, been able to bring you John
Dunne’s paper More or Less?
Delivering a Best Value library service for children, which
is a very honest assessment of the impact of the Best Value review
in Hampshire, and Lesley Sim’s paper Social
Inclusion — targeting social need an excellent, and full,
exploration of what is meant by inclusion. I had to include the
Saturday morning debate Specialist
or Generalist?, Chaired by none other than Mr Bob McKee. It
was a thought-provoking debate, with very valid points being made
both for and against the need for Children’s Specialists.
Margaret Snook - Head of Community Services, Greenwich, put forward
a passionate argument in support of Children’s Specialists,
while the very brave Andrew Stevens, Manager, Westminster Libraries,
made an eloquent case for the ‘opposition’. The motion
was carried in favour! I am also delighted to be able to include
Beverley Naidoo’s Carnegie Address, One
Fragile World, delivered at the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway
Dinner on the Saturday night: we were all spell-bound.
The following five articles really are ‘must reads’:
please look at these if nothing else, though of course I would
rather you looked at everything!
Jonathan Douglas’ report on the Library Association’s
Early Years Survey is a
fascinating insight into library services’ under-5’s
provision in different authorities in England, and unlike many
reports, it is also a pleasure to read.
Carol Taylor’s talk on the Read
On Write Away! project, given at this year’s UmbrelLA
Conference, really made me wish I had been there. Cathy Petersen,
the YLG Rep, mentions in her report that Carol was inspirational
and she’s right!
LaunchPad has been instrumental in developing some amazing projects,
but the Chatterbooks
project, in partnership with Orange, is one of the most exciting
yet, encouraging the formation of reading groups in 50 authorities
all over the country.
Writing from Wales by
Bethan Hughes describes just the kind of innovative project I
am always delighted to be able to share with you. Please note
this article also appeared, earlier this year, in the Welsh Library
Association’s journal, Y Ddolen.
In Annie Dalton’s Libraries
Save Lives!, a talk given at a wonderful evening at Egmont
books, we are given an amazing insight into what makes a reader,
as well as a writer. Please, please read this, if only for affirmation
of why you are in this profession!
Now for my regular call for copy! In the last spring issue I
featured three different projects that took services to under-5s
‘Beyond Bookstart’. This spring I would like to focus
on reading groups: Family, Teenage, Chatterbooks or any other
reading groups you are involved with. Please let me know now
if you are interested in writing an article for me. Of course
I would also like to include news, and photos, of all
the projects you are involved in, as well as reports of YLG
training days and evening events you have attended. For my part,
I hope to bring you an interview with Anne Fine, our new Children’s
Laureate, as well as Beverley and Lauren’s views on what
it is like to be Medal winners.
The copy date for the spring issue is February
16th 2002, but please start sending
me copy now, or just let me know if you have an idea for
an article — I shall be delighted to hear from you. Thank
You.
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