Lower School Librarian on Voting Committee for ALA Youth Media Awards

This was her first year of a two-year appointment on this nine-person committee that reviews apps, podcasts and websites designed for ages 2 to 8, which were either created this year or incorporated a significant change from last year.

 

Ms. Alegre said, “I really enjoyed being on a committee of professionals discussing strengths and weaknesses of particular digital media, making a strong choice for the year’s best and supporting it with a press release.”

 

The app that won the Excellence award on Monday, January 27, was “Molly of Denali." To create this amazing app (and the television program and podcast that go by the same name) PBS hired 60 native indigenous Alaskans as designers, producers, voice artists and more to ensure authenticity. Ms. Alegre explained, “Every native character voice was recorded by a native person and every tree and totem was designed by a native person.”

 

Two honors titles were also named by the committee:

 

• Seek, produced by iNaturalist that takes allows budding naturalists to learn more about flora and fauna through image recognition technology.

 

• States of Matter produced by Tinybop, Inc., which introduces children to the basic principles of solids, liquids and gases.