National Book Awards and My Using Awards Lists as a RA Tool Reminder

Last night the National Book Awards were announced. Here is the link to see all of the winners, watch the awards presentation, and more.

Click here to explore the winners and nominees

As regular readers know, I love book awards because they are a great RA and Collection Development Tool. But not just the winners, the long lists too.

I talk abut using awards lists as a RA Tool frequently, which you can see here. And here is the link to the very first time I write about it.

But specifically, the National Book Foundation should be a resource to you for more than just the award winners. I wrote about  the National Book Foundation's entire website as an excellent resource a few weeks ago here. Here is an example from that post: they have every year very clearly archived and searchable. You can see every nominee, even the long lists. And, they have provided clips of the specific speeches by the winners at the bottom of the page. Click here for 2017 to see what I mean.

With no more Nobel Prize, The National Book Award is the first big prize of the year. Congrats to all the winners.

Also, if you have some time I would highly suggest clicking here so you can watch the entire awards banquet including Isabel Allende's speech as she received the Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award. Also, this link leads to a video of a mass reading from the day before by all 25 finalists. I would even send that video out to your patrons on social media. Especially target your Teens with the readings by the YA nominees. Seeing authors read from their works is a privilege that many don't get to experience in person, but the National Book Foundation brings this marquee event to everyone, anywhere through this video.

I hope this post helps you to help a patron today or in the future. I have gotten some new readers recently and I think this post is a good time to remind you all-- new and old followers-- that here on the blog, I don't try to be the first to alert you to news. Rather I take what is going on in the book world and give you the tools to use it to help readers through the public library. Everyone has the NBA winners on their websites today, but I am here to show you how to make those awards, the buzz, and the resources it creates work for you and, most importantly, you readers.