QR Codes in action (with Mock Caldecott session)

Since 2002, I have had the pleasure of working with a College of Education professor and her children's literature class facilitating a Mock Caldecott session at the beginning of each fall and spring term. Prior to the panel discussion, students  have spent several class periods studying picture books, elements of genre and illustrator's artistic style; evaluating the titles presented during our meeting provides opportunity to put these tools (so to speak) to use.

I select titles that are new to the library, meet basic Caldecott terms and criteria (picture book, year published, and illustrator citizen or resident of United States), and generate a collection with a variety of artistic styles and representation of new and well-known illustrators. This year's resource packet featured a list of titles explored, Caldecott terms and criteria and About the Caldecott Medal, and Caldecott Confidential, a great article from the School Library Journal web site, and the Caldecott section from my Children's Literature Award Book Resource LibGuide. The panel designated Grandpa Green, by Lane Smith, as their winner (you can read more about the Mock Caldecott session here).

Time to tour the IRC before to the panel and peruse collections after completion is scheduled into the visit. The biggest draw after class is routinely our new book area, this year it was split with the QR code literature rack. Several students were intrigued by the different colored codes, armed with cell phones, bar code reader apps, and instruction, they happily checked out several of the resources - including the QR code on their LibGuide