By Kellie Tilton

Paid a visit to The Bean while in Chicago!

Hi, all! Kellie Tilton, UCBA Librarian, here to tell you a bit about how I spent my summer vacation. As luck would have it, I was lucky enough to have two pretty major library-related trips this summer. This is all about the first one.

Back in February, I told you about my trip to the American Library Association’s MidWinter Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. While there, my fellow committee members on the Young Adult Library Services Association’s (YALSA) Alex Award and myself were tasked with selecting ten winners of our award. It was so rewarding to see the amazing feedback based on the list we talked, debated and voted on.

At ALA’s Annual Conference this past June, the 2017 Committee gathered again to honor those award winners. We were lucky enough to have six of our ten authors in attendance and they were all charming, wonderful and hilarious in the speeches they gave. After that, there was a massive author signing. It was an amazing end to over a year of work.

Our fabulous authors signing their fabulous books!

One of our winners gives an Alex Award shout out in the new printing.

Simultaneously, I was also meeting with the 2018 Alex Award Committee. (Committee appointments are two years long!) Once again, we gathered in a hotel conference room to discuss the massive amount of books we’ve been reading, all with the aim to award the 10 best with the Alex Award next year. I’m looking forward to experiencing the entire whirlwind again!

If you’re interested in seeing the our ten winners, the list is here!