CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
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MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday 28 January 2004
For immediate release  (Please copy to online discussion lists)

CILIP IS OFFICIAL PARTNER IN WHITBREAD BOOK AWARDS FOR THIRD YEAR

Youth Libraries Group represented on Children's Book Award judging panel 

Colin Brabazon, Chair of CILIP's Youth Libraries Group, was among over 400 guests specially invited to the Whitbread Book Awards 2003 presentation ceremony in London yesterday.  Colin, who is Head of Children's Library Services with North Lincolnshire County Council, was invited by the Whitbread organisers to join fellow judges on the Children's Book Award Panel, which finally declared The Fire Eaters, by David Almond (Hodder Children's) winner in the Children's category.

This is not the first time that Almond has been honoured both by Whitbread panellists and by children's librarians.  In 1998, his first novel Skellig won not only the Whitbread but also the Carnegie Medal - now run by CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

As Chair of this year's CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards judging panel, Colin was well placed to help his fellow Whitbread panellists - actress Jenny Agutter, author Gillian Cross, BBC Television presenter Lizo Mzimba and young judges Niral Panchal (age 10) and Jacquie Peate (12) - with the finer points of judging technique.

"This is an outstanding book and an outstandingly beautiful one too," the Panel judges concluded.  "Few authors can map the topography of the human heart as well as Almond.  He has the exquisite ability to describe the nature of love and the constant wonder of being alive."

Outright winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award 2003 was Mark Haddon for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Jonathan Cape).  Commenting on the book's unlikely hero - a 15-year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism - Haddon perhaps unconsciously acknowledged the debt that most authors owe to libraries.  It would not have been possible to develop the character by "getting a big book out of the library," he said, but by treating him as a human being.

Winners of major book awards can frequently see both sales and library loans climb as a result.  Introducing the 2003 Whitbread Book Awards, Whitbread PLC Chairman Sir John Banham pointed out that last year's outright winner, Samuel Pepys: the Unequalled Self, by Claire Tomalin ended up in the overall best seller lists for the year.  With reading one of the UK's most popular social and cultural pastimes, special reading events such as the BBC's Big Read "delivered some extraordinary sales figures and library-borrowing statistics during the course of the year," he concluded.

Contact:        Tim Buckley Owen, Head of External Relations.
                Tel: 020 7255 0652.     Email: [log in to unmask]

Notes to Editors

CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers, with around 22,000 members working in all sectors, including business and industry, science and technology, further and higher education, schools, local and central government, the health service, the voluntary sector, national and public libraries.  Visit www.cilip.org.uk <http://www.cilip.org.uk> for details.

The Whitbread Book Awards actively promote the enjoyment of reading, working in partnership with amazon.co.uk, CILIP, the National Reading Campaign and the Booksellers' Association.  The Whitbread Book of the Year title was introduced in 1985.  Further information on the Awards is available at www.whitbreadbookawards.co.uk.

The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for distinguished illustration in a children's book.  The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the British Library on Friday 9 July and will receive their Awards from Whitbread Children's Book Award Panellist Lizo Mzimba.  Further information is available at www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk.

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