Are you ready? The ALA Youth Media Awards will be presented in Philadelphia at the ALA Midwinter Meeting on Monday, January 27, starting at 8 am Eastern! With this exciting event just around the corner, the Hub bloggers thought it would be fun to share how we celebrate these prestigious awards.![shutterstock_102813506 [Converted]](https://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ala_book_awards.jpg)
Mia Cabana: This year I am getting ready for the YMAs by helping some friends (Lori Ess and Betsy Bird) make graphs and charts for the live YMA pre-show they will be hosting through School Library Journal.
Cara Land: The past few years I’ve been at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, so I try to always attend the awards ceremony in person. There’s something really exciting about actually being there when you can be. In the past I’ve tried to livetweet the event, but my fingers aren’t nimble enough to catch all the honorees and I get way too distracted amidst the cheering!
Becky O’Neil: Last year was the first time I did two new things: watched the livestream and watched Twitter. It was so fun! I had a couple co-workers with me, and we were geeking out over both. It was fun to watch some of the tweets actually get ahead of the livestream, and send out our own excited tweets, feeling like we were part of the fun, even from a library workroom in Ohio. :)
Sharon Rawlins: For the past 10 years I’ve been lucky enough to actually be at the awards in person – sometimes as part of an award committee sitting in the front – and in-between committees – in the audience. Either way, being there in person is an amazing and unforgettable experience. But, if I wasn’t able to be there live, the next best thing would be to watch the livestream of the event. Since I’m the only youth services person in my department, I would go to another library where there’s a group of youth services librarians just as interested in the event as I am and make a party of it! I try to tweet the winners as they are announced and afterward, frantically ILL any of the winners I haven’t read (usually more than I’d like).
Jennifer Rummel: I love how it’s one big book party. I watch the livestream and then broadcast the news live via our library Twitter feed, and this year I’ll add a post afterwards to our Facebook page.
Join in: Please comment and tell us how you celebrate!
~ Jennifer Rummel, currently Reading Murder with Ganache by Lucy Burdette
My initial years as a public librarian, I would wait by the phone for our ALA-goers to call back with the news (from the PAY phones in the conference centers). When I was a school librarian and the announcement used to coincide with Dr. King holiday, I would park at a bookstore and annoy the booksellers with my constant, “did you get the press release yet?” After the conference was pushed back, the kids and I would watch the live stream at the school library’s circ desk computer. Back at the public library now surrounded by streaming computers and instantaneous feeds, it’s almost as good as being there. (Although I did get shushed by a co-worker last year because I kept squealing as books were announced.)