BTW News Briefs

Walter Dean Myers Named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

On January 10, Walter Dean Myers, the author of more than 100 books and a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award and two Newbery Honors, will succeed Katherine Paterson as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The announcement of the two-year appointment was made this week by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who noted that Myers has chosen "Reading Is Not Optional" as his platform.

The New York Times observed that Myers’ appointment “represents a departure from his predecessors and is likely to be seen as a bold statement. His books chronicle the lives of many urban teenagers, especially young, poor African-Americans. While his body of work includes poetry, nonfiction and the occasional cheerful picture book for children, its standout books offer themes aimed at young-adult readers: stories of teenagers in violent gangs, soldiers headed to Iraq, and juvenile offenders imprisoned for their crimes.”

The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature was founded in 2008 by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children’s Book Council (CBC) and Every Child a Reader, the CBC foundation.

Online Holiday Sales Jump 15 Percent

Online sales between November 1 and December 26 totaled $35.3 billion, up 15 percent compared with the same period last, according to data from the research firm comScore. The New York Times noted that this “greatly outpaced overall U.S. retail sales, which grew 3.8 percent, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.”

This was the second holiday season that Cyber Monday was the biggest online-shopping day of the year. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, Americans spent $1.3 billion online, up 22 percent from the year before, according to comScore, which observed that until last year the biggest Web-shopping day was closer to Christmas.

Six University Presses Sign With Ingram’s CoreSource

The University of New Mexico Press, University of South Carolina Press, and Indiana University Press are the most recent university presses to select Ingram Content Group’s CoreSource for their digital asset management and distribution needs. They also joined the University Press of Florida, University of Virginia Press, and Wesleyan University Press in electing to use Ingram's CoreSource Plus option to manage the business relationship with re-sellers in addition to asset distribution.

Presses already using Ingram’s CoreSource platform are Princeton University Press, University of Michigan Press, University of Pennsylvania Press, University of California Press, University Press of Kentucky, and others.