Document Type

Article

Peer Reviewed

1

Publication Date

4-1-2013

Scholarship Domain(s)

Scholarship of Discovery; Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The goal of this research project was to determine if the role of Newbery winning titles in today’s libraries is changing, or if those titles are still held above other titles because they won the prestigious Newbery Award. To answer this question, preliminary research was compiled and a survey was sent to librarians in the state of Illinois. The finding of the research showed that, while many librarians still considered Newbery award winning titles to be a worthwhile contribution to their libraries, there were some who were beginning to question the award and the titles that were chosen. One of the main reasons the award was questioned was because the winners were chosen by adults, rather than young adults, who were the intended audience. The more recent winning titles were also not popular with the readers, so they were not being checked out of the libraries. The results of the survey showed that, while librarians may be less likely to weed a Newbery award winning title than another title, their main desire was to fill the library with titles that the patrons would use, even if those were not the Newbery titles. The participants were split almost fifty-fifty over whether they would weed a Newbery award winning title, which shows that the award still carries the prestige for many of the librarians. In the future, it would be interesting to see if these statistics change or remain the same.

Comments

Honors Capstone Project completed in 2013 for Olivet Nazarene University.

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