Answers about the changes coming to CLAU
This is a process, so please be patient with us! As decisions are made, more information will be posted. If you don't see your question yet, feel free to send us an inquiry through the Contact Us form.
1. What is changing?
The Children’s Literature Association of Utah (CLAU) is pleased to announce that beginning in May the Utah Library Association (ULA) and the Utah School Library Association (USLA (formerly ULEMA) will be taking over the administration of the Beehive Book Award. Over the next year a committee with representative from both ULA and USLA will be working to make the transition. For the beginning of the year, CLAU and ULA will be jointly overseeing the process and then beginning in April 2025 ULA will take over and continue forward. As part of the transition there are going to be several changes that have been thoughtfully considered by a transition committee that had 14 members as well as the leadership of CLAU, ULA, and USLA. Changes include a restructuring of the award categories to make them aged based, a step that puts the award in line with many other state awards. Also, the award timeline is being collapsed to make the award cycle fit mostly within a school year assuring that kids and teens can read, vote, and hear of the winner within a shorter time frame. Lastly, the awards procedure is being opened so that everyone including all members of ULA and USLA as well as interested members of the Utah community will have the opportunity to be involved by nominating books, giving feedback on nominated titles, and providing support to market and promote the award.
2. What are some of the limitations that make this change necessary?
CLAU has been and always will be a very small volunteer organization. Board and committee members have put in countless hours of their own time to make the Beehive Book Award a reality. In the past four years it has become increasing difficult for CLAU to find and maintain the kind of workforce needed to oversee the award. While the board has tried to get new participation it has been very difficult, and a lot of the work has been falling onto a few people who have been carrying the load of the Beehive for years. It was becoming clear that continuing with such a small organization was not a long-term solution. Also, with the recent laws and book removals in our state the scrutiny on books and book recommendations has become more intense. Because CLAU was suggesting books to kids and teens and working with the schools these efforts could impact CLAU directly. The liability that the Board individually would take on to fight such efforts if this was to be directed at CLAU was something we do not have the capacity either financially or personally to take on.
3. Why ULA and USLA?
After doing an in depth look at the administration of all the other state awards it became clear that nearly 90% of the other states use their state library association, state school library association, state library or a combination of all these groups to administer the award. Seeing this helped us to identify these organizations as good ones to approach. ULA and USLA as the two library associations that most of our current members are a part of (i.e. in our survey we found that 85% of those who responded were also members of one of these two organizations), this seemed a logical place since most of CLAU seemed to already be participating here. ULA and USLA can give legitimacy to the award with organizations that are visible parts of the community and advocacy landscape of Utah. These organizations also offer a legitimate path for many to participate as part of their work assignments since many have authorizations from their organization to participate in these groups for professional citizenship and development.
4. Why make changes?
The Beehive Book Award has changed and developed over time for example changing categories and the number of books on the short list. Times of big changes like this are a great time to really look at things and see if they are working. Our transition team got a lot of feedback and looked at the way that other states administer awards and decided that some changes were in order. We anticipate these changes will make the award more accessible to a wider audience, make it easier for libraries and school to promote, and help make the processes for deciding the award more open so that a wider range of individuals can participate. We are excited for these changes but also realize that they may not work or that more changes will be needed as we make the transition official, but rest assured that we will always look closely at our options and work to make the best possible decision for everyone.
5: What does this mean for CLAU and its assets?
The CLAU Bylaws have long had language in them that envisioned a reality where CLAU might need to be disbanded. The CLAU Board and the ULA Board have been abiding by these bylaws which gave the Board authority to make these changes. A memorandum of agreement has been drawn up and will be signed by the CLAU President and ULA President to make the change official. At the time of this signing CLAU will be disbanded and any assets that remain will be transferred to ULA and earmarked to be used to promote and administer the Beehive Book Award.
6: What does this mean for my CLAU membership?
As of now, all memberships have been extended until the transition of the Beehive Awards is complete, and CLAU is disbanded.
7. Why new categories?
Times of change are always a good time to look critically at processes to assure that they work now and will be viable into the future. So, we began the process of change with this critical eye. In our study we found that the current award categories were strongly focused on readers’ grades 3-8, with the lower and upper grade ends having fewer books directly addressing these readers. Also, some areas such as nonfiction and poetry were not represented at the lower and upper grade ends since books here were only for grades 3-8. Additionally, in our research it was found that nearly all other state awards give awards in grade bands and nearly none have specific format categories. In order to align ourselves with other state awards and to make sure there was more equal representation for readers and genres we decided to change the categories. We hope the new categories will make it clear what audience is being targeted and that each grade band will have the exact same amount of books allowing libraires and readers to find just the right books for them.
8. When will the new categories take effect?
The 2025-2026 awards that have been announced and will be read and voted on by students from April 2025-April 2026 will be in the previous categories. The 2026-2027 awards will be the first to have the new categories applied.
9. Why the new timeline?
Again times of change are always a good time to look critically at processes to assure that they work now and will be viable into the future. In looking at the processes we wanted to make sure that the timeline accurately aligned with the needs of ULA and USLA as well as the needs of school year constraints and budget year considerations. In the end we made very few changes to the timeline. The reading and voting timeline will change very little. The awards and the new lists will be announced in May. Readers will have from May to April to vote. This timeline is only about one month different than the current timeline. The major change to the timeline will the vetting and list making process which will now happen form January to April.
A general overview and timeline is:
January-February: Nominations for books to be considered for the Beehive Book Award will be open to create a nomination pool that will then be vetted. Nominations will be open from January 1 to March 1. During this period, anyone can recommend books for consideration.
January-April: During this period nominations will be vetted for their fit of the awards criteria and feedback on nominations will be sought from organization membership and other participants. At the end of this vetting the committee will review and narrow down the nomination pool into voting master lists in each division. The final master lists will be completed by May 1.
May-May: Master Lists will be distributed to schools and libraries for voting. Votes will be due by April 15. The Selection Committee will tabulate votes and declare a winner, which will be announced around May 1st.
A general overview and timeline is:
January-February: Nominations for books to be considered for the Beehive Book Award will be open to create a nomination pool that will then be vetted. Nominations will be open from January 1 to March 1. During this period, anyone can recommend books for consideration.
January-April: During this period nominations will be vetted for their fit of the awards criteria and feedback on nominations will be sought from organization membership and other participants. At the end of this vetting the committee will review and narrow down the nomination pool into voting master lists in each division. The final master lists will be completed by May 1.
May-May: Master Lists will be distributed to schools and libraries for voting. Votes will be due by April 15. The Selection Committee will tabulate votes and declare a winner, which will be announced around May 1st.
10. When will the new process begin?
The new timeline will begin and the associated processes will begin in January 2026.
11. How long will the CLAU website stay up?
As long as the transition is happening the CLAU website will stay up. When the transition is complete the website will move to the ULA website. At this time all the materials (including the past lists, book kits, and other materials) and context for the Beehive Book Award will still be available through this new website. The only change to the website will be some visual changes and the URL.
12. How will I get the new nominee lists?
The new lists will be available through both ULA and USLA as well as the ULA hosted website.
13. Will the voting scales change?
No the voting scales will not change.
14. How will I turn in votes after this year?
Votes will be collected though the website in much the same way as they are now. We anticipate that the system will look and feel very much the same as it does now.
15. How can I be involved?
One of the exciting things about this change is that involvement will be much more open. People will be able to participate in the nominating and vetting process no matter their membership or affiliation. Now in order to be on the committee to nominate and vet books you must be a CLAU member. However moving forward anyone in the state will be welcome to participate in this process. We hope everyone will actively participate!
16. What if I'm not a member of ULA or USLA, but want to be involved?
As noted, everyone can be involved with the nominating and vetting processes. These processes will be open on the newly hosted website. We will also have a selection committee which in the short term will be for members of ULA or USLA. The role of the Selection Committee is to oversee the administration of the award, which includes collecting nominations to create a nomination pool, vetting nominations and collecting feedback on that pool, using feedback to produce a master list for each division, and overseeing the voting procedure as Utah children and teens read and vote on the master lists. Committee members will also work to raise awareness and participation in the award by promoting and marketing the award to their respective organizations. The structure of the new awards allows us to add nonmembers to this committee and in the future we may open this, however as we build the structure of the new processes we will only have members on this committee.
17. What will the new committee structure be?
The Beehive Book Award Selection Committee is a standing committee under the auspices of the Utah Library Association and it is overseen by the ULA Executive Committee to provide specialized guidance and support to this Association-wide operation. The committee will be composed of a minimum of 12 individuals representing both associations: 2 co-chairs, 8 committee members, 1 secretary/marketing manager, 1 secretary/web presence manager. At the discretion of the co-chairs the committee members numbers may be increased as needed. Each year the acting ULA President and the acting USLA President will appoint one member of each organization to co-chair the committee. Committee chairs may serve for as long as their respective presidents and Boards deem appropriate. The co-chairs will then recruit and appoint 4 members from each of their respective organizations, one representing each of the four award divisions. Committee members should be assigned to represent an award division so experience and background for that division will be considered essential for service. These members' roles are outlined as part of the procedure below with service happening mostly in January-May, participants will need to be available during this timeframe. Additionally, the co-chairs in consultation with their respective presidents and boards, will appoint a secretary/marketing manager & web presence manager for the committee. These individuals will be drawn from the membership of either organization. The role of these committee members will be to communicate with the organizations' memberships as needed for nomination and vetting procedures, to work with each organization's marketing team to promote and disseminate the award information, and to maintain the web presence and forms. Committee members may serve for as long as the co-chairs deem appropriate with an eye towards ensuring that all association members are considered for service every year.
18. How will I get spine labels?
We are still working out some details, and spine labels is one of them. At this time we will not be providing spine labels but we are looking at how we can provide this structure into the future.
19. Will there still be an award announcement event?
Again we are still working out the details. As of now we know the main awards announcement will happen at the ULA annual conference in May. We do not know what this will look like or who it will be open too. We are aware many in the community would like to participate as we are critically looking at how we can best structure this or if we will offer other awards announcements.