Alaska Association of School Librarians (AkASL)

Battle of the Books

THE HISTORY OF BATTLE OF THE BOOKS IN ALASKA

The original idea for Battle of the Books came from a radio program sponsored by the Chicago Public Library in the early 1940's. Joanne Kelly, a student participant in the radio show, became a school librarian in Urbana, Illinois. While she was there, she reconstructed the radio show from memory for use in her library.

Many years later another Chicago area school librarian, Roslyn Goodman, found her way to Kodiak, Alaska, bringing the Battle of the Books idea with her. She used it in Kodiak in the 1981-1982 school year and word of the program spread. In 1982-1983, Hermon Hutchens School in Valdez received a Merit Award from the Department of Education for their Battle of the Books program and Battle of the Books soon spread to Anchorage, Fairbanks, Valdez, Tok and Northway. Winning teams from Northway and Tok participated in an interschool audio-conference Battle.

Thanks to Linda Barrett's (Anchorage School District) suggestion to hold inter-school and inter-district Battles via audio-conference equipment and Pat Thurman's (Fairbanks North Star Borough S.D.) enthusiasm and organizational efforts to promote a statewide program, librarians from Dillingham, Kodiak, Valdez, Tok and Fairbanks met via audio-conference on May 19, 1983 to make plans for Alaska's first statewide audio-conference competition. Fourteen school districts around Alaska participated in the program in April 1984. By 1984-1985, twenty-six districts were involved in the program. In 1988-89 there were fifty-one Alaskan districts participating and several out-of-state districts requested Battle of the Books packets. Although the number of participating districts varies from year to year, overall interest in this exciting program remains high.