Foundation Dollars Send Library Staff to BookExpo America

This summer, a team of four Collection Management Team librarians from Madison Public Library traveled to New York City for 2019’s BookExpo America. A grant from Madison Public Library Foundation’s annual fund made this professional development opportunity possible. 

BookExpo America is the largest annual book trade fair in the U.S. for librarians and other book lovers to learn about authors, new books and the latest trends. 

Youth Services Librarian Karen Lucas is responsible for selecting picture books, children’s nonfiction, young adult fiction and many others. Lucas attended BookExpo sessions that focused on race in storytelling, children’s publishing trends, the future of books and other innovations in the world of publishing. “I’m still mulling everything I learned and considering how to hone my own best practices in collection development,” she says.

Librarian Kathy Kube — who selects adult nonfiction, Wisconsin publications and other services for the library — learned about the industry and discovered upcoming titles that might interest publishers and library patrons through various sessions including “The State of Independent Publishing” and “The Year of the Woman in Books in 2018, 2019 and Beyond.”

 “I am grateful that the foundation enabled some of the Collection Management Team to attend the 2019 BookExpo,” she says. “It is a joy to see so many new stories being told via books. I am looking forward to reading and sharing these stories.”