2023 Cardinal Cup Committee: Seeking Members

Are you a history buff?  Do you enjoy reading new juvenile and young adult literature? Apply to be a member of the 2023 Cardinal Cup Award Committee!  (Don't know your region? Here is a list and map: https://vpl.virginia.gov/directories/virginia-library-regions-libraries-by-region-and-map/)

Applicants must be willing to make the time commitment to read and discuss the books submitted for consideration, as well as attend physical and/or virtual meetings. Complete the application linked below and return it to Vanessa Salo, Cardinal Cup Committee Chair, by October 31, 2022.

The Cardinal Cup honors two distinguished biography, historical fiction or American history books for children and young adults. Presented since 1983, the Cardinal Cup Committee’s goal is to promote reading about America’s past; to encourage the quality writing of United States history, biography and historical fiction for young people and to recognize authors in these disciplines. Read more and see previous winners here.

The Cardinal Cup Committee selects the winning titles. The committee has ten members: a chairperson and vice-chairperson (selected by the previous year’s committee), one person from each VLA region (total of six persons) selected by the current chair, the past chair of the previous year’s Cardinal Cup Committee and the outgoing chairperson of Youth Services Forum. All committee members must be members of VLA. Members may be employed by public libraries, schools or any type or bookstores; they may also be unemployed or retired.

You may nominate yourself or a colleague for consideration. Persons selected must be willing to commit a large amount of personal time to read and evaluate books; committee members may receive over 200 titles. Members will also have to attend daytime meetings which may be exclusively online or a combination of online and in person. Persons who serve on the committee should be knowledgeable of literature for young people and have book evaluation experience. Cardinal Cup Committee members are expected to present programs at the annual VLA and, possibly, VAASL conferences, so a supervisor must sign this application, indicating he or she will allow the person to attend the conferences and will assist with the member’s expenses.

Update to VLA Awards

This year the VLA Executive Committee voted to change the names of two of the Association’s awards, both previously named after historical Virginians. The Cardinal Cup (nee Jefferson Cup) continues to honor a distinguished biography, historical fiction, or American history book for young people. Renaming the cup after our state bird empowers VLA to engage broadly with history while still remaining true to our Commonwealth identity. The Advocacy Award (nee George Mason Award) honors individuals, libraries, or other organizations distinguished for advocacy of libraries and/or information access. This name change clarifies the purpose of the award for both nominators and award winners.

The Executive Committee identified all awards named after individuals, and selected these two for renaming. While Jefferson and Mason were both foundational figures in the early history of the Commonwealth and the country, neither has a specific link to the Virginia Library Association. In addition, both have complex biographies that are exclusionary to a growing portion of our membership. We chose to retain Donna G. Cote’s name for the Librarian of the Year Award, in recognition of her long and dedicated service to Virginia public libraries; and the Clara M. Stanley Scholarship will remain in honor of Ms. Stanley, who served on the VLA Professional Associates Board for more than a decade.

Many thanks to the dedicated members of our award and scholarship committees and juries, the Executive Committee, and the VLA Council for their careful consideration of and input into award names. The committees and juries do excellent work recruiting and evaluating award nominations every year. Congratulations to our 2022 award winners, and we look forward to seeing nominations for 2023.

Thank you, Prof. K.T. L. Vaughan, MSLS, EdD, 2022 VLA President

(Please give us grace over the next couple of months as we update the VLA website, forms, and other details.)

-September 28, 2022