Policies

Charge

To select from the year’s publications, books that reflect gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans-gendered/queer-questioning (glbtq) experience for young people from birth to age 18 and to annotate selected titles.

Purpose of the List

The list presents books published in the past 18 months with commendable literary quality and significant authentic glbtq content that are recommended for young people from birth through eighteen years of age.  Both fiction and nonfiction shall have readable text and format appealing to children and/or teens.  Although the list attempts to present a variety of reading tastes and levels, no effort will be made to balance the list according to subject, area of interest, age, or genre.

Audience

The list is prepared for the use of young adults themselves, and annotations will be written to attract the YA reader.

Eligibility

To be considered for the list, a book must be published within the assigned calendar year or between July 1 and December 31 of the previous calendar year.  Eligibility of books originally published outside the United States will be determined according to the original publication dates in the United States.  Books must be distributed in the United States during the period of eligibility to be considered for the list. Revisions of previously published titles will be considered if the revision is to such an extent as to make the book substantially different from the previous edition. Any book removed from nomination at the beginning of the first ALA Midwinter Meeting is eligible for nomination during the following year if it meets the eligibility requirements.  Any book nominated and discussed at ALA Midwinter Meeting will be ineligible for nomination during the following year.

Voting

Much of the discussion of the books will be carried out electronically.  Project members will nominate titles, discuss nominations, and participate in straw polls electronically prior to the ALA Midwinter Meeting.  The results of this straw poll will be compiled and disseminated to the members of the Project within a week.  The final discussion and selection will be conducted at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Decisions will be reached by consensus, meaning that each member accepts the decision.  If the group cannot come to consensus, the decision will be made with no more than one person dissenting.  For a book to be put on the list, at least five members must have read the book and agreed with its inclusion.  Consideration for the final list is not based on a certain number of fiction or nonfiction titles, nor is it based on a certain number of titles for different age groups. Only members attending the Midwinter meeting will be allowed to vote. Members can only vote on books they have read. After the final discussion and selection, titles are then annotated by the committee. These annotations must be completed before the end of the last meeting of the committee.

Nominations

All Project members will nominate books; all field submissions must be nominated by a Project member.  Members shall read the books before nominating them.  Nominations shall be sent electronically to all members of the Project and are to be received by October 31.  Field submissions must be provided by September 30 to be considered for nomination.

Membership

The Project consists of nine members, appointed by the Chair to a two-year term which is renewable for a two-year consecutive term. Each term begins at the conclusion of one Midwinter and ends at the conclusion of Midwinter at the end of the term.  Following two terms (four years), a one-year hiatus is required before a member is eligible for re-appointment.  Reappointment is not automatic, but instead is based upon participation. In order to serve on this Project, Members are expected to actively seek books, nominate and read nominated books, attend all committee meetings at ALA Midwinter conferences, and belong to both GLBT-RT and SRRT.  Potential member names will be provided to the chairs of both GLBT-RT and SRRT.  The Project will make every attempt to maintain gender parity.

Chair/Chair-elect

The Chair and Chair-elect share the privilege and responsibility of reading, nominating, discussing, and voting for books with the Project members.  In addition they share the following responsibilities as mutually agreed upon:  attend to all business matters, maintain an accurate database of all nominated titles, communicate frequently with members regarding nominated books; report to OLOS, GLBT-RT, and SRRT as needed; provide publicity regarding the Project and its bibliographies; facilitate Project discussion; communicate with publishers regarding the mission of the Project; and request preview copies of books for committee members. The Chair has sole responsibility for publisher contact.  During the year following service as Chair, the Past Chair will serve as a resource to the new Chair but will not be required to be considered a Project member.

The Chair will serve in this position for one year.  The Chair-elect will be selected from the membership of the Project, becoming the Chair upon completion of one year of service as Chair-elect.  The Chair-elect will coordinate an authors’ breakfast to be held in even years at the ALA Annual Conference.

Assistant

The function of the Assistant include the following: to maintain electronic sites for the Project, help with publicity, and represent the Project in ALA/SRRT.

Comments from Observers

All Project meetings will be open to ALA members and persons with guest badges. Persons with guest badges may speak if recognized by the chair.  Before the committee discusses each suggested title, an opportunity will be given to observers to make short comments about the books (two minutes or less per observer); the Chair reserves the right to cut short the discussion if necessary. Publisher’s representatives are requested to refrain from participating in discussion or asking for comments about their own books.

Availability of Lists for General Distribution

Following its last meeting, the committee will provide the ALA Public Information Office with the final list of selected titles. PIO will make the full list available as a press release. The press release will be posted at the Project MySpace and Facebook pages and made available to GLBT-RT and SRRT for their websites.  The list will also appear in a spring issue of Booklist, and various sources will be used to publicize the list such as magazines directed toward teens, GLBTQ issues, and library professionals.

Affiliation within ALA

The Rainbow Project is a joint undertaking of GLBT-RT and SRRT with Project membership determined by the committee members and submitted to both GLBT-RT and SRRT for vetting with specification that Project members be members of both these round tales and with the expectation of continued monitoring by OLOS.   Rainbow Project Policies and Procedures will in no way conflict with the by-laws of GLBT-RT (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/glbtrt/governance/index.cfm) and SRRT (http://www.libr.org/srrt/bylaws.html#taskforces).

Procedures

Nominations

Nominations will be submitted in the following format:

Author.  Title.  Illus. by (if applicable).  Year.  Pp.  Publisher, price.  (ISBN-13).  Gr.

The person submitting a nomination should carefully check the bibliographic information for accuracy.  A one- or two-sentence annotation, suitable for publication with the list, should be included with all nominations.  If the primary character(s) is (are) not glbtq, a brief explanation should be included detailing why the title should be considered for the list.

Straw Poll

This nonbinding vote indicates the status of books within six weeks before the ALA Midwinter meeting.  All Project members are to vote Yes (I’d vote for this at this time), No (I would not vote for this at this time), ? (I am ambivalent about whether this should be on the list), and NR (I haven’t read this book).

After the results of the straw poll, a book may be withdrawn by the person who nominated the title.  If someone wants to keep that title on the list for discussion, that person must indicate this.  If no one wants to do that, the book is dropped.

Midwinter Meetings

The purpose of the meetings at Midwinter is to determine and prepare the final list.  At the first meeting, members vote for each book on the nomination list, again Yes, No, ?, and NR.  Those with all “No” votes are not considered for the list; books with all “Yes” votes are considered to be on the list.  Following this vote, each book is discussed until consensus is arrived.  Books needing more readers will be postponed until a later meeting.

During the last meeting at Midwinter, the committee will jointly prepare final annotations, verify bibliographic information, and write the introduction for the list.

Project meetings last approximately ten hours over a three-day period from Saturday afternoon through Monday morning.  Members are also encouraged to attend the GLBT-RT All-Committee Meeting, the SRRT All-Task Force Meeting, the GLBT-RT Steering Committee meetings, and the SRRT Action Councils.

Followup to Midwinter

The Chair/Chair-elect will complete the publicity of the final list and identify new Project members, ensuring that these have been submitted to the GLBT-RT and SRRT chairs.  After the nine members have been identified, the Chair will contact publishers with information about the Rainbow Project and its current members.

ALA Annual

Members are to attend GLBT-RT and SRRT meetings.  In even years, the Rainbow Project will sponsor a breakfast on Sunday from 10:00-12:00.

October 31

Midnight is the deadline for Project nominations.

December

Project members will participate in a nonbinding vote on all titles on the nomination list.

Throughout the Year

Members will record the books that they have received or ones that they wish to receive on a Project database.