Reposted from the KASL Blog...

Almost every state has it’s own children’s or YA or both book award. Some states have several. State Book Awards

For Kentucky, we have the Bluegrass Award. The Kentucky Bluegrass Award may be old hat for most of you, but some of you may not know what I am talking about.  Each Spring we anxiously await for the new list of KBA nominated books so that we can acquire them in our libraries for the next school year so that our students can vote for their favorites. One thing I love about this award is that the kids choose the winners.

There are committees that review and pick a list of newly released books for various age levels. The lists are then shared with Kentucky School Librarians for them to promote in their schools. Students get to vote for their favorites until April 1st. After April 1st, the votes are tallied and each level has a winner.

There are 4 grade levels of lists for students to vote from. K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

School librarians have been very creative in how they promote these books to encourage students to read the books and vote. Some make book trailers for the books to share with their students, some have special KBA book displays in their library, some even go classroom to classroom talking about the books on the KBA list for that year. Some school librarians have even created cute bookmarks with age appropriate voting ballots on them to encourage students to read and vote for the books. If you have ever attended the KLA/KASL Fall Conference or the KASL Summer Refresher, then you had an opportunity to attend a session on the new books or how to promote the KBA in your school.

Narrative History of the Kentucky Bluegrass Award

For many years, Dr. Jennifer Smith at Northern Kentucky University was the head of this well oiled machine called the KBA.  She has passed the torch on to the KASL board to fill her shoes. We thank Dr. Smith for the years she has dedicated to the time and hard work she has put forth in promoting and organizing the Kentucky Bluegrass Award.  KASL recently nominated a KBA Coordinator Chairperson to oversee the committees of the KBA.  2016-2017 will be a transition year, so please be patient as we reorganize.

The final voting date is coming up soon, Friday, April 1st. Submit your votes via the KBA tally web site.

​The winners will be announced the following week of April 4, 2016.

Emily Northcutt is the school library media specialist at LeGrande Elementary School in Hart County.
This year I’ve had the privilege of working with the Next Generation Instructional Design project organized by The Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky. I’ve found through the work we have done so far in my NGID group, that my experience as a school librarian over the last 15 years has allowed me to contribute in valuable ways to our project. I am the only school librarian in a group of 49 educators from across the state who are part of the NGID network, but I would love to see that number grow! Our work is based on the Common Assignment Study, which is a collaborative project between The Fund and The Colorado Education Initiative with support from the Kentucky Department of Education, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other partnering groups. On The Fund’s website, the vision for NGID is described as follows:

KASL is welcoming 2016 by calling your attention to our newest outreach effort! 

We have published a newsletter for many years, but we will now be using a blog called "My Favorite Room in the School" to highlight exciting things going on around the state and to keep you informed about issues that impact school libraries.

Past issues of the newsletter can still be found through the links in this post and our blog can be easily accessed through the button on the sidebar of this page. Our first post is all about what some adventurous Kentucky school librarians have been doing with makerspaces!

We look forward to interacting with you throughout the new year! 

As the school year winds down and school librarians’ thoughts turn to personalized professional development, KASL is here to help you out! Check out the Conferences & PD page for information on the 2015 Summer Refresher which will be held on July 14th at McCracken County High School in Paducah, KY. 

OR you can go directly to registration by clicking HERE!

We hope to see you there!

For ease of updating and use, the KASL website has moved to a new host and has a new look! 

However, just because we've had a makeover doesn't mean that you've lost access to our past newsletters.

Please see below for links to all the newsletters that were featured on our former site.

• Spring 2015
• Winter 2015
• Fall 2014
• Summer 2014
• Winter 2014
• Fall 2013
• Spring 2013

All issues of Kentucky School Library Media News can be found on the Kentucky Department of Education website by clicking HERE.