Carnegie Medals Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Covers of the six books on the shortlist for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in fiction and nonfiction: Martyr!, James, Cinema Love, A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, and Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV

ALA Announces 2025 Carnegie Medals Shortlist

November 13, 2024

The two medal winners will be announced at 10:30 a.m. Mountain on January 26, 2025, at the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Book and Media Awards’ virtual event, held during ALA’s LibLearnX conference in Phoenix. The 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction shortlist titles include: Fiction Martyr! (Knopf) By Kaveh … Continue reading ALA Announces 2025 Carnegie Medals Shortlist →

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction 2024 winners: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters and We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian.

2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced

January 20, 2024

The selections were announced during ALA’s 2024 LibLearnX conference in Baltimore January 20 at the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Book and Media Awards event, sponsored by NoveList. In The Berry Pickers, an Indigenous Mi’kmaq family is picking summer blueberries in 1962 Maine when their youngest child, 4-year-old Ruthie, disappears. Her 6-year-old brother, Joe, … Continue reading 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced →

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in fiction and nonfiction 2024 shortlist, with covers of The Berry Pickers, Denison Avenue, Let Us Descend, The Great Displacement, The Talk, and We Were Once a Family

ALA Unveils 2024 Carnegie Medals Shortlist

November 14, 2023

The two medal winners will be announced at 9:45 a.m. Eastern on January 20, 2024, during the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Book and Media Awards virtual event, held during ALA’s LibLearnX conference in Baltimore. The 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction shortlist titles include: Fiction The Berry Pickers, by … Continue reading ALA Unveils 2024 Carnegie Medals Shortlist →

Book cover art for the 2023 Carnegie Medal winners

2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced

January 29, 2023

The selections were announced during ALA’s 2023 LibLearnX conference January 29 at the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Book and Media Awards event, sponsored by NoveList. Otsuka’s The Swimmers takes place in an underground pool, and a collective “we” reports the comings and goings of the titular swimmers—regulars who have established their schedules, lanes, … Continue reading 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced →

Newsmaker: Rebecca Makkai

By Donna Seaman | January 3, 2023

Your first novel, The Borrower, features a children’s librarian and a bright, book-loving 10-year-old. What are your thoughts on the current spate of book challenges in libraries? I’m always so flummoxed by the book-banning discussion because, first of all, what does someone think is going to happen when they try to ban a book? It … Continue reading Newsmaker: Rebecca Makkai →

ALA Unveils 2023 Carnegie Medals Shortlist

November 15, 2022

The 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction shortlist titles include: Fiction Greenland, by David Santos Donaldson (Amistad). While working on a historical novel about British author E. M. Forster’s Egyptian lover, Mohammed el Adl, writer Kip confronts his own trauma and alienation. Donaldson delivers a psychologically acute portrayal of a queer Black … Continue reading ALA Unveils 2023 Carnegie Medals Shortlist →

2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced

January 23, 2022

The American Library Association (ALA) has selected The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu (Little, Brown and Company) by Tom Lin as the winner of the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance (Random House) by Hanif Abdurraqib as the winner of the … Continue reading 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced →

ALA Unveils 2022 Carnegie Medals Shortlist

November 8, 2021

The 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction shortlist titles include the following: Fiction The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade (W. W. Norton & Company). Amadeo Padilla filled the role of Jesus during the re-creation of the Crucifixion as part of Holy Week. He also has heavy burdens to bear in his real … Continue reading ALA Unveils 2022 Carnegie Medals Shortlist →

Colson Whitehead (Black man with braided hair pulled back, wearing leather jacket, looking just up and to the right)

Newsmaker: Colson Whitehead

By Donna Seaman | September 1, 2021

Will the experience of having The Underground Railroad turned into a 10-episode miniseries for Amazon affect your writing? No, I don’t think it will affect my writing. It felt very separate. They optioned it five years ago, so it was always on the backburner, and occasionally I would talk to Barry Jenkins, the director, but … Continue reading Newsmaker: Colson Whitehead →

2021 Carnegie Medal Winners for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced

February 4, 2021

The selections were announced February 4 at the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Book and Media Awards virtual event, sponsored by NoveList. McBride’s novel takes place in a vibrant, multicultural 1969 Brooklyn neighborhood, and introduces readers to Cuffy “Sportcoat” Lambkin, the titular deacon and least likely of heroes. When Sportcoat shoots Deems Clemens, the … Continue reading 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced →

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction 2021 Shortlist

ALA Unveils 2021 Carnegie Medals Shortlist

November 17, 2020

The 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction shortlist titles include: Fiction A Burning, by Megha Majumdar (Alfred A. Knopf). After witnessing a gruesome train station attack during her walk home to the slums, Jivan responds to a Facebook post. Days later, she has been beaten, jailed, and accused of terrorism. Majumdar’s debut … Continue reading ALA Unveils 2021 Carnegie Medals Shortlist →

Longlist for 2021 Carnegie Medals Announced

October 26, 2020

“This was unquestionably a challenging year for all the obvious reasons,” said 2021 Selection Committee Chair Bill Kelly in an October 26 statement. “And yet, in the end, reading proved to be just the balm one needs to sustain us, to give hope and strength and resilience in the face of an oppressively uncertain future. … Continue reading Longlist for 2021 Carnegie Medals Announced →

Latest Library Links

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John Warner writes: “I understand what people mean when they invoke the term ‘institutional neutrality,’ but I don’t know how it’s workable in today’s world. Higher education institutions are built upon a foundation of actual values, values that are, by definition, not neutral. The Kalven report, the Rosetta Stone of institutional neutrality produced by a faculty committee at the University of Chicago in 1967, is not a call to make all work emanating from an institution ‘neutral,’ but is instead a call to make the atmosphere for scholarly inquiry and debate as free as possible.”

Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 15
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Angela Hursh writes: “Ever wondered how your library’s email performance compares to others? Benchmarks help you understand how well your emails perform in key areas and identify opportunities for improvement. They also allow you to compare your email marketing performance, set goals, and stay on top of trends. However, the lack of industry benchmarks for email marketing metrics specific to libraries has been bugging me. Metrics from similar industries don’t fully capture the unique aspects of promoting a library. To help libraries accurately measure their email effectiveness, we’ve created the first-ever library email benchmark report.”

NoveList, Oct. 22
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Rachel Hendrick writes: “Students and library vendors are pushing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in higher education, but there are very few resources that help librarians and scholars separate the wheat from the chaff. Luckily, we here at Choice love a good assessment rubric. (In fact, we made a PDF of our assessment rubric.) Even the least tech-savvy of us can use a very simple AI literacy framework to think critically about whether an AI application is worth your time.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Nov. 13
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Rowana Miller writes: “In my experience, many young library-goers identify as storytellers but not writers. These are the kids who draw Captain-Underpants-style cartoons, who craft meticulous Minecraft universes, and who plot elaborate Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, but who believe that ‘writing’ is limited to five-paragraph essays. But when children draw the connections between their natural storytelling proclivities and the written word, they can become self-motivated to develop the communication skills that will help them for the rest of their lives. Libraries, I believe, are uniquely positioned to help children make this connection.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 15
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ALA has reopened its search for an executive director in partnership with executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. A committee of ALA member leaders will oversee the search. The selected candidate will succeed Interim Executive Director Leslie Burger, who was appointed in November 2023. “We are excited to embark on our search for a new executive director,” said ALA President Cindy Hohl. “This leadership position is critical as we navigate the years ahead. We seek candidates who have knowledge of the library community and the urgent issues we face.”

ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Nov. 14
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Emily Weak writes: “Something I always hear from hiring managers is that they want to build a resilient, diverse workforce. Sometimes we say we want a resilient workforce, but what we mean is that we want staffers who are willing to go above and beyond, or to do more with less. These concepts are deeply entrenched in librarianship, but I think we’re beginning to see how they can cause problems. Instead of trying to hire people who will do more with less and who will thrive amid adversity, let’s think about resilience as an organizational feature.”

American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.
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Elisabeth B. White writes: “How can librarians ensure their instruction materials are as accessible as possible? One way is through Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, a set of best practices to improve teaching and learning and create inclusive and equitable educational experiences for all students. The guidelines include three principles that instructors must provide via multiple means: engagement (the ‘why’ of learning), representation (the ‘what’ of learning), and action and expression (the ‘how’ of learning). However, to create a truly equitable educational experience, school library workers need to consider accessibility principles as well.”

American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.

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