Improved Networking for CILIP Carnegie & Greenaway ‘Shadowing’ Groups Thanks to ALCS Sponsorship

LONDON - In the second year of their three-year sponsorship deal with CILIP, the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society’s (ALCS) support has enabled CILIP to introduce major developments to the Medals shadowing scheme website. These developments provide improved networking for shadowing groups who are now able to connect to each other with more room on the site to exchange news and views about what’s going on.

“We’re delighted that our support has made these developments possible,” says Barbara Hayes, ALCS’ Deputy CEO. “The improved networking reflects the current trends on social networking sites and helps ensure the CILIP Carnegie & Greenaway ’shadowing’ website remains as popular as ever with young readers.”

ALCS continues to promote a schools copyright competition via the Medals’ website and has updated their two copyright education packs available to download from the resources section. Developed by educational writer, Susan Elkin, the packs offer lesson plans and fun ideas to introduce young people from 5 - 18 to copyright and intellectual property rights. The packs help them understand why these rights are important, how they benefit from them and how, by respecting these rights, they help writers in all mediums to continue writing.

“It’s increasingly important that young people understand the issues of copyright and intellectual property especially when using the internet,” continues Barbara Hayes. “Our partnership with CILIP helps us engage a wider audience of young people with these issues. It is vital that the ‘internet generation’ understand what’s at stake when they are copying and using other people’s work and the damage that can be done if they do not respect writers’ copyright and IP.”

Responding to CILIP’s primary research amongst shadowing groups, and the National Literacy Trust’s research into reading incentives, both of which showed how important social networking was to young people, the Carnegie & Greenaway ’shadowers’ now have a larger platform on which to construct an identity for their group and personalise their pages. Groups can see a selection of neighbouring groups in their area and have the option to add other registered groups as ‘friends’ to their page. They can also indicate ‘what they’re doing now’ by updating their status and captioning their photographs.

Groups can link to past winning books via the ‘A Step Back in Time’ function, while the ‘Spotlight On’ feature highlights a favourite author or illustrator. They can upload their own video, write a blog, design polls and questionnaires, select their favourite three books on the ‘Reading Barometer’ and showcase their ‘Star Review’.

Following the announcement of the shortlists for both medals on 24 April, registrations for the CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway shadowing scheme have rocketed to over 90,000. Between the shortlists’ announcement and the winners’ ceremony on 25 June, 3,500 reading groups have read all the shortlisted titles, discussed them and decided their own choice for the best books of 2009. There have been animated discussions, strongly held opinions and friendly disagreements at home, at school, in the library and on the internet. The shadowing scheme not only involves reading; it sparks all kinds of creative activity around books including drama interpretations and video making, cookery, discussions about multiculturalism in literature and now copyright as well.

Notes for Editors

About ALCS: ALCS collects fees on behalf of the whole spectrum of UK writers: novelists, film & TV script writers, literary prize winners, poets and playwrights, freelance journalists, translators and adaptors, as well as thousands of professional and academic writers who include nurses, lawyers, teachers, scientists, and college lecturers. All writers are eligible to join ALCS: further details on membership can be found at www.alcs.co.uk

The Society collects fees that are difficult, time-consuming or legally impossible for writers and their representatives to claim on an individual basis: money that is nonetheless due to them. Fees collected are distributed to writers twice a year in March and September. Since its inception, ALCS has distributed over GBP200 million to the nation’s writers.

CILIP CARNEGIE & KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

CILIP - The Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information professionals and knowledge managers. CILIP annually funds and administers the Carnegie Medal awarded for an outstanding work of fiction for young people and its sister award for an outstanding work of illustration, the Kate Greenway Medal.

For further information on the shortlists, the winners and the ’shadowing’ scheme please see www.ckg.org.uk.

For further information on CILIP please see www.cilip.org.uk

Contact information: ALCS, The Writers’ House, 13 Haydon Street, London EC3N 1DB Tel: +44(0)207-264-5700; email alcs@alcs.co.uk. Website: www.alcs.co.uk

Source: ALCS

Media Contact: Becca Wyatt: +44(0)1798-867-117, +44(0)7801-061-420, ALCS, Alison Baxter: +44(0)20-7264-5700