Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: RUSA Adult Books and Media Awards including the Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

Yesterday, RUSA announced all of the Adult Books and Media Awards winners. 

Before I get to the links too the current winners, I want to remind you all that the entire backlist for all of these awards are available with one easy click on the RUSA Books & Media Awards Landing page here. The 2026 winners will be added soon, but 2025 and previously are all there, organized by award.

Remember, all of these awards lists are created by adult librarians from across the country, who do the work to create them over the course of the entire year as a committee. Their goal is to choose titles that are excellent choices for general adult audiences. These are the best of the best of 2025. These are titles you need to make sure your library owns.

The lists below encompass literary fiction, genre fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, audiobooks and more with backlist access to all awards here.

First up is the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. You can click through to see the winners for this year, pervious years, and get information about the ceremony at ALA Annual.

Second, is the less prestigious, but in my opinion much more useful and fun, RUSA CODES Reading List awards. From the site:

Established in 2007 by the CODES section of RUSA, The Reading List seeks to highlight outstanding genre fiction that merit special attention by general adult readers and the librarians who work with them.

The Council, which consists of twelve librarians who are experts in readers’ advisory and collection development, selects one book from each of eight different categories. The eight genres currently included in the council’s considerations are adrenaline titles (suspense, thrillers, and action adventure), fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, and relationship fiction. However, the Council is constructed in such a way to be adaptable to new genres and changes in contemporary reading interest.

This year's winners are not up on the awards page website yet, but the announcement can be found here. As it says above there are 8 categories-- all genre based! Each category has a winner. That titles gets an annotation [which you can use to book talk the title to a patron] and 3 readalikes. There is also a short list of other titles as well. 

This means that for each of the 8 categories you have 8 titles that you can trust for each genre. That is 64 genre titles at your fingertips just this year alone! And then, take into account that the Award homepage goes back to 2014, and, well, try not to explode with genre resource happiness.

Also, it is VERY important to note that these are genre titles picked NOT by genre specialists, rather by general adult services librarians. That's what I love about this list. It reflects what is most appealing to a wide audience, not just hard core fans of each genre.

The rest of the awards are listed below:

• 2026 Notable Books List: "The Notable Books Council, first established in 1944, has announced the 2026 selections of the Notable Books List, an annual best-of list composed of 26 titles written for adult readers and published in the US including fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The list was announced today during the Reference & User Services Book & Media Awards Virtual Ceremony."
• Announcement of this year's books
• Backlist access

• 2026 Listen List: "The Listen List Council of the Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has released the 2026 selections of the Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration. This year’s committee evaluated 340 titles with a total listening time of more than 3,496 hours.  The final deliberation produced a list of twelve winners. This award highlights extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by a general adult audience and the librarians who advise them. "
• This one features annotations and listen-alikes
• Announcement of this year's audiobooks
• Backlist access

• 2026 Sophie Brody Medal: "The Sophie Brody Medal is given to encourage, recognize and commend outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. Works for adults published in the United States in the preceding year are eligible for the award."
• Announcement of this year's Medal winner and shortlist honor books
• Backlist access

Thinking About Genre by Matthew Galloway via RUSQ

In the latest issue of RUSQ, my colleague Matthew Galloway has a great article about genre and how it can be a hinderance to helping readers. 

Click here to access the full article but here is the abstract:

Thinking About Genre  

Matthew Galloway 

Abstract

I work in a non-Dewey library that essentially uses a combination of BISAC and simplified language to organize our shelves to create an easily browsable collection. While my area of selection is adult fiction and probably the least different from Dewey libraries, traditional genres can still be a conundrum.

It’s not that I don’t know genre conventions—I have fifteen years of library experience, have

volunteered for numerous genre award committees, and even write reviews for Library Journal.

The puzzle arises from the conflict between  publisher, public, and library views on genre. We can

probably add vendor ideas as well, not to mention the numerous public figures who have their

thoughts on how genre ought to be divvied up.

He takes a very popular title to illustrate his main point. From the article:

Take a novel like Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I think most libraries would agree this lives most comfortably on a general fiction shelf. It has an octopus that narrates chapters and is certainly human-like in his intelligence and thought patterns, but he isn’t magical, and there isn’t special technology that allows him to communicate with anyone in the book. It’s a delightful conceit. There are numerous reviews from the public that label this a mystery, and, indeed, the publisher includes “FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Cozy / Animals” as one of the BISAC subject headings. Though I haven’t seen those same reviews use FICTION / Magical Realism or FICTION / Fantasy / Humorous to describe the book, marketers chose to add those alongside categories I feel are more useful for readers’ advisory: FICTION / Animals, FICTION / Friendship, FICTION / Family Life / General.

Galloway goes on to use a few other very popular books with wide cross genre appeal as examples as well. And then he discusses how genre language is both helpful and not as we work with human readers. It is an article that everyone who works with readers needs to read. Don't worry, it is extremely practical but well researched and just the right length. You will not be overwhelmed here.

The article's focus-- always thinking about the reader in front of us and why that person is seeking that book or why we think they should read it-- is important.

I also really love his point that a book's "genre" can change over time, even though the book never changes. His examples are great but we all have even more from our time working with readers.

I see some room for this article to be turned into a conversation starter to display question. I am not sure what the question would be yet but there is definitely something there. Maybe you will come up with a conversation starter inspired by this article and then you can share it with me.

Click here to access to PDF to read what I am talking about.

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: RUSA Books and Media Awards and Bonus, YALSA Alex Awards

 This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool. 

On Sunday,  RUSA presented their Books and Media Awards, including the most prestigious prize The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction. Below are the individual links for the lists a winners with the ACM titles singled out. For each award I will also explain what it is for, but note, these are all the best and most readable titles for a general adult audience. 

I cannot stress enough how important these awards are to us as we help our patrons. These books were picked as excellent by our peers-- people who do the job of connecting books with readers through the public library. I have served on the ACM committee and have many friends who have served on all of the others below. These choices are from a consensus of people who understand readers and what they are looking for in their leisure reads. This is not a popularity contest. These books represent proven winners. And as such, you can trust all of these books to appeal to your patrons. You should own them and add them proudly to displays and lists for years to come. 

Please go to the excellent RUSA Book and Media website which has a link for each award with the current winners displayed and very easy backlist access. That backlist access is here, but please note, you need to use the links below for Sunday's winners until they update the main page.

First up, The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction. The Carnegie Awards, established in 2012, serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by ALA and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers.Please go to the ACM website for the finalists, long list, and backlist, but the 2025 winners are: 

Fiction:
Percival Everett
James
(Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC)

In an astounding riposte, Everett rewrites Huckleberry Finn as the liberation narrative of the enslaved man Huck befriends. Determined to rescue his wife and daughter, James takes the story in a completely different direction than the original, exemplifying the relentless courage and moral clarity of an honorable man with nothing to lose.

Nonfiction:
Kevin Fedarko
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
(Scribner)

Centering his own lifelong relationship with the Grand Canyon, from reading about it as a child through his time as a clumsy canoe guide, Fedarko shares his canyon-spanning hike, replete with steps, missteps, and arguments along the way. He particularly inspires in detailing the ancestral history of the land and some of the Indigenous individuals who continue to fight against overdevelopment and ever-booming tourism.

All the other awards are for multiple titles.

• 2025 Notable Books: An annual best-of list composed of  titles written for adult readers and published in the US including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. 26 titles this year.
• 2025 Sophie Brody Medal Winner and Honor Books: Given to encourage, recognize and commend outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. Works for adults published in the United States in the preceding year are eligible for the award.
• 2025 Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration: This year’s committee evaluated 257 titles with a total listening time of more than 2,724 hours. The final deliberation produced a list of 12 winners. This award highlights extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by a general adult audience and the librarians who advise them. Each of the 12 winners has three "listen-alike" as well.[Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay made the list!]
• The 2025 Reading List: An annual best-of list comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers. Winning titles are also presented with readalikes. A shortlist of honor titles, up to 4 per genre was also announced. This year the committee chair said that while the books came from every genre, there was a common theme uniting this comfortable and cozy titles-- found family. I do love how one committee does all of the genres because of outcomes like this-- a theme across all for he reading. The genres are: Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Relationship Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction. [The Horror winner was Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle.]

Again, please peruse all of the winners from last night here. And explore the rich and easily searchable backlist of titles here. That excellent and easily searchable database of current and past winners will be updated later this week. It is a site you should have bookmarked at all times because there are many choices for a broad adult audience.

Finally, on Monday morning as part of the Youth Media Awards, the Alex Awards, identifying the 20 best adult books for teens were announced. Here is the link to the list of all of the Youth award winners including the Alex award titles.

Yes this award is given to adult books with the idea that they are good for a teen audience, but I have used this award for years to identify high interest titles that I can use as sure best for adults. The Alex Award is also always more genre fiction friendly than general adult awards meaning I have a wider range of titles than typical "literary" awards. 

The Alex Award winners, past and present [use that backlist] are one of my go-to resources for "sure bet" titles for my adult patrons anytime. These are titles I know will be compelling and interesting. Click here  to access the backlist. Put all of the winners on display. You don't have to identify them as "for teens," just  make it a library worker award winners themed display. Put up these titles, past titles, and other titles by the winning authors as simply, "Sure Bets." The resulting display will be diverse in every way by default.

Back to the 2025 award specifically. It is not on the homepage yet, but again,here is the full list. One of my favorite books of the year made the list-- I Was a Teenaged Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones. You can click here to read my STAR review of this amazing title about a male-female teenaged friendship and of course, a tale that upends the Slasher Genre as we thought we knew it.

That's the end of this long but helpful post. Congrats to all the books and authors who got awards from the library world over the last few days and a big thank you to the library workers who volunteered their time to serve on these committees. As someone who has been on the ACM, I know how hard this work is, but I also know how rewarding it can be as well.

Tomorrow, we will take a short break from awards lists with a guest post about "unshelving" your collections. 

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: RUSA Books and Media Award Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

Saturday morning the top awards for Adult Books and Media were awarded at LibLearnX in Baltimore, including the most prestigious prize The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction. Below are the individual links for the lists a winners with the ACM titles singled out. For each award I will also explain what it is for, but note, these are all the best and most readable titles for a general adult audience. 

Please go to the excellent RUSA Book and Media website which has a link for each award with the current winners displayed and very easy backlist access. That backlist access is here, but please note, you need to use the links below for Saturday's winners until they update the main page.

The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction: The Carnegie Awards, established in 2012, serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by ALA and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers.

Please go to the website for the finalists, long list, and backlist, but the 2024 winners were: 

Fiction: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Perry and Nonfiction:We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America World by Roxanna Asgarian

The other awards are for multiple titles.

• 2024 Notable Books: An annual best-of list composed of  titles written for adult readers and published in the US including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. (Includes both ACM winners) 
• 2024 Sophie Brody Medal Winner and Honor Books: Given to encourage, recognize and commend outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. Works for adults published in the United States in the preceding year are eligible for the award.
• 2024 Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration. This year’s committee evaluated 293 titles with a total listening time of more than 2,838 hours.  The final deliberation produced a list of 13 winners. 
• The 2024 Reading List: An annual best-of list comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers. A shortlist of honor titles, up to 4 per genre was also announced. The genres are: Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Relationship Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction

Again, please peruse all of the winners from last night here. And explore the rich and easily searchable backlist of titles here. That excellent and easily searchable database of current and past winners will be updated later this week. It is a site you should have bookmarked at all times because there are many choices for a broad adult audience.

Now get out there and suggest some great reads to start your week.

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Carnegie Medal Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

I have a soft spot in my heart for the Carnegie Medal Selection Committee because last year, I was a part of that group.

Unfamiliar with this award? From the website:

The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, 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 winners (one for fiction, one for nonfiction) are announced at an event at the ALA Midwinter Meeting; winning authors receive a $5,000 cash award. For more information on award seals, please visit the ALA store.

A longlist comprised of no more than 50 titles is released in the fall. Six finalists, three fiction and three nonfiction, are announced in November.  The winners are announced at the RUSA Book and Media Awards Ceremony in January.  All honored titles are nominated by the members of the selection committee. The awards do not accept submissions.

Part one of the selection committee's assignment is to select a long list of no more than 50 titles. 

Here is that official long list announcement:

Forty-five books (21 fiction, 24 nonfiction) have been selected for the longlist for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The six-title shortlist—three each for the fiction and nonfiction medals—will be chosen from longlist titles and announced on November 14, 2023. The two medal winners will be announced by 2024 selection committee chair Aryssa Damron at the Reference and User Services Association’s Book and Media Awards livestreaming event, premiered during LibLearnX in Baltimore on Saturday, January 20th at 9:45 a.m. Eastern time. A celebratory event, including presentations by the winners and a featured speaker, will take place at the 2024 ALA Annual Conference in June 2024 in San Diego. Carnegie Medal winners each receive $5,000.

Share your favorite Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence longlist titles on social media using the #ALA_Carnegie hashtag!

Click here to see all of the titles.

Now the hard part begins for the committee as they must whittle down these 20+ titles in fiction and nonfiction to 6 titles-- 3 fiction and 3 nonfiction. That announcement will be on November 14th as noted above.

And finally, like all of my awards lists post, I need to remind you about the backlist. The Carnegie Medal homepage has access to the winners, short list, and long list titles going all the way back to 2012 and up to the present all with one click. All of these titles make for excellent suggestions and the 6 annual short list titles all have an annotations for you to use to suggest them to readers immediately. 

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: RUSA Book and Media Awards Edition Includes Genre Picks!

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

Last night the top awards for Adult Books and Media were awarded including the most prestigious prize The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction (I was on this selection committee). Below are the individual links for the lists a winners with the ACM titles singled out. For each award I will also explain what it is for, but note, these are all the best and most readable titles for a general adult audience. 

Please go to the excellent RUSA Book and Media website which has a link for each award with the current winners displayed and very easy backlist access. That backlist access is here, but please note, you need to use the links below for last night's winners until they update the main page.

The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction: The Carnegie Awards, established in 2012, serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by ALA and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers.

Please go to the website for the finalists, long list, and backlist, but the 2023 winners were: 

Fiction: The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka and Nonfiction: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong 

The other awards are for multiple titles.

• 2023 Notable Books: An annual best-of list composed of  titles written for adult readers and published in the US including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. (Includes both ACM winners) 
• 2023 Sophie Brody Medal Winner and Honor Books: Given to encourage, recognize and commend outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. Works for adults published in the United States in the preceding year are eligible for the award.
• 2023 Listen List: The Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration. This year’s committee evaluated 293 titles with a total listening time of more than 2,838 hours.  The final deliberation produced a list of 13 winners. 
• The 2023 Reading List: An annual best-of list comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers. A shortlist of honor titles, up to 4 per genre was also announced. The genres are: Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Relationship Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction

Again, please peruse all of the winners from last night here. And explore the rich and easily searchable backlist of titles here.

Now get out there and suggest some great reads to start your week.

Watch the RUSA Book and Media Awards Live From Anywhere

As promised, I have the news about how to watch the RUSA Book and Media Awards, including the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction for which I was on the selection committee. Details below. See you on Facebook Sunday late afternoon.  

And I will be back Monday with the links to all the winners.

 

Join us for this popular event as we unveil the year’s best in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, audiobook narration, and reference materials, featuring the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. This highly anticipated event is sponsored by NoveList, Booklist and RUSA. Winners are hand-picked by our expert selection committees that work closely with adult readers. Their tireless efforts narrow down hundreds of finalists to curate the highly regarded “Best of” lists used by librarians, publishers and booksellers nationwide.

The 2023 RUSA Book & Media Awards Ceremony Recording will premiere during the ALA LibLearnX on Sunday, January 29, 4:00pm to 5:00pm Central in the LLX Marketplace Studio Stage. The ceremony will also be streamed live on the RUSA Facebook page. Additionally, you can follow updates of the ceremony on Twitter.

 

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: ALA Adult Awards Part 1-- Carnegie Medals and RUSA CODES Reading List

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

Last night and then this morning, the American Library Association gave out their book and media awards. For the next couple of days I am going to be highlighting the ones that are most useful to you as you help readers.

Today I am going to start with just two, but there are many more here [and I will write about them tomorrow]. And the two I am highlighting are the most useful to you, not only because of the categories but also because the awards list themselves contain readalikes and annotations and more! Also backlist access is sublime. But I digress...

First up is the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. While you can click through to see the winners, what I love about this award is that Booklist is in charge of creating resources for the award. So if you click here you can find the shortlist, the longlist, and essays by all 6 of the finalists [3 fiction, 3 nonfiction] with further reading suggestions, both ones that pertain to their specific books and authors they enjoy in general. It is a great example of why awards lists are your best tool to help readers.

The Carnegie Medal site and the RUSA site also have easy backlist access to past winners with annotations, so you can build displays and make suggestions with ease. 

Second, is the less prestigious, but in my opinion much more useful and fun, RUSA CODES Reading List awards. From the site:

Established in 2007 by the CODES section of RUSA, The Reading List seeks to highlight outstanding genre fiction that merit special attention by general adult readers and the librarians who work with them.

The Council, which consists of twelve librarians who are experts in readers’ advisory and collection development, selects one book from each of eight different categories. The eight genres currently included in the council’s considerations are adrenaline titles (suspense, thrillers, and action adventure), fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, and relationship fiction. However, the Council is constructed in such a way to be adaptable to new genres and changes in contemporary reading interest.

This year's winners are not up on the awards page website yet, but the announcement can be found here. As it says above there are 8 categories-- all genre based! Each category has a winner. That titles gets an annotation [which you can use to book talk the title to a patron] and 3 readalikes. There is also a short list of other titles as well. 

This means that for each of the 8 categories you have 8 titles that you can trust for each genre. That is 64 genre titles at your fingertips just this year alone! And then, take into account that the Award homepage goes back to 2014, and, well, try not to explode with genre resource happiness.

Also, it is VERY important to note that these are genre titles picked NOT by genre specialists, rather by general adult services librarians. That's what I love about this list. It reflects what is most appealing to a wide audience, not just hard core fans of each genre.

Click through to look at the current genre award winners. And then go to the main Reading List web page for backlist access back to 2014. Just a quick perusal of these lists will give you a sense of where each genre is from a public library standpoint. I will be posting the specific, Horror information on the other blog.

NoveList State of RA Webinar is FREE and Today!

Reposting today because the webinar is TODAY!!!! I will be there. Will you?

FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2021

RA Survey Results Available and a Webinar to Dive Deeper

A few months ago, I posted about a new national survey on RA Practice here. It was sponsored by Library Journal, NoveList, RUSA CODES, LibraryReads and ARRT. Click here for that post.

Click here to read the article

Well today the results document went live on the LJ site. Click here to access it immediately. There is A LOT of data, charts, narratives, and quotes. It is very comprehensive and absolutely fascinating. 

Please look at it. There is much to digest but it is an excellent overview of boots on the ground, average RA Service as it is happening all over the country. 

But again, there is a lot to digest, even for me, even as someone who has seen portions of the report before it went live. So read it today, go back to it in a week or so, but also, sign up for the NoveList webinar which I have linked here and below. It is on August 18th and it is FREE. The assembled parties will break down some of the data and discuss things in more detail.

I am signed up and will be there. Hope you can join us too. But in the meantime, click here for the report.

Click here to register

 

Libraries are always evolving to meet the changing world and needs around them; however, helping readers is a constant, essential service. Does your library offer a readers’ advisory (RA) service? Have your RA efforts changed over the last year during COVID? Do you ever wonder how your RA service compares to that of libraries across the US?  

In this session, we’ll explore the findings of the State of Readers' Advisory 2021 survey, conducted by Library Journal and sponsored by RUSA CODES, ARRT, LibraryReads, and NoveList. Join Danielle Borasky (NoveList), Amy Dittmeier (Blue Island Public Library), Michelle Morris (Fort Worth Public Library), Carolina Saldivar (Denver Public Library), Barry Trott (Williamsburg Regional Library), and Jessica Trotter (Capital Area District Libraries), as they share insights, trends, and inspiration from the survey.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021
2-3 pm ET

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER