Professional Awards & Grants

Please click on the individual award or grant for application information. For information about scholarships, please click here.

Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship

This fellowship provides up to a $7,500 stipend to allow a qualified children’s librarian to spend a month or more reading at the University of Florida’s Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, which contains a special collection of 85,000 volumes of children’s literature published mostly before 1950.

Children's Literature Lecture Award

The Children's Literature Lecture award honors an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children's literature, of any country, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site.

The Penguin Random House Young Readers Group Award

This award provides a $600 stipend, provided by Penguin Young Readers Group and Random House Children's Books, for up to four winners to attend their first ALA Annual Conference. Applicants must have fewer than 10 years of experience as a children’s librarian and work directly with children.

ALSC Baker & Taylor Summer Reading Grant

This $3,000 grant provides financial assistance to a public library for developing an outstanding summer reading program for children.

The Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Award

This $4,000 award was established with funding from Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, in honor of Maureen Hayes, to bring together children and nationally recognized authors/illustrators by funding an author/illustrator visit to a school or public library that has not before had the opportunity to host one.

ALSC Distinguished Service Award

This award honors an individual member who has made significant contributions to and an impact on, library services to children and ALSC. The recipient receives $2,000 and an engraved pin at the ALSC Membership Meeting during the ALA Annual Conference.

Light the Way: Library Outreach to the Underserved Grant

This $3,000 grant is sponsored by Candlewick Press in honor of author Kate DiCamillo and the themes represented in her books. The grant will be awarded to a library with exceptional outreach to underserved populations in efforts to help them continue their service.