Selected Community Outreach & Service Activities
Dr. Naidoo is the former director and co-founder of the National Latino Children’s Literature Conference, which he developed as a way to help educators and librarians learn how to meet the informational, reading and cultural literacy needs of Latinx children, young adults, and their families. The NLCLC is now held at the University of Texas San Antonio.
Jamie is actively involved in numerous professional associations such as the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking (REFORMA), and the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY). He has served on several prestigious national and international book award committees including the Caldecott, Mildred L. Batchelder, Pura Belpré, and Américas awards and regularly reviews children’s and young adult materials for professional journals.
As a result of his associations with book award committees and children’s publishers, Dr. Naidoo receives thousands of new children’s and young adult books each year for the Joan Atkinson Review Collection of Youth Literature. Students enrolled in his youth courses often have the opportunity to evaluate these materials and publish their reviews on SLIS’s Crimson Review of Children’s and Young Adult Literature. At the end of each calendar year, Jamie donates many of these brand new books to school libraries in the Black Belt region of the state via the program he created in 2009 entitled SLIS Book Bonanza for the Black Belt. To date the program has donated over $230,000 in new children's and young adult books to these schools.
Below is a selected listing of some of his other service activities. More information is available on his CV.
Leadership:
Literary Award & Evaluation Committees:
Professional Association Work (Exclusive of Literary Award & Evaluation Committees):
Editorial Board Work:
Jamie is actively involved in numerous professional associations such as the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking (REFORMA), and the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY). He has served on several prestigious national and international book award committees including the Caldecott, Mildred L. Batchelder, Pura Belpré, and Américas awards and regularly reviews children’s and young adult materials for professional journals.
As a result of his associations with book award committees and children’s publishers, Dr. Naidoo receives thousands of new children’s and young adult books each year for the Joan Atkinson Review Collection of Youth Literature. Students enrolled in his youth courses often have the opportunity to evaluate these materials and publish their reviews on SLIS’s Crimson Review of Children’s and Young Adult Literature. At the end of each calendar year, Jamie donates many of these brand new books to school libraries in the Black Belt region of the state via the program he created in 2009 entitled SLIS Book Bonanza for the Black Belt. To date the program has donated over $230,000 in new children's and young adult books to these schools.
Below is a selected listing of some of his other service activities. More information is available on his CV.
Leadership:
- Immediate Past President, Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), July 2019 - June 2020. (National)
- President , Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), June 2018 - June 2019 (National)
- Elected Vice-President/President Elect, Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), April 2017 - June 2018. (National)
- Member, Board of Directors, United States Board on Books for Young People (ALSC/ALA liaison to the Board), January 2017 – January 2019. (National)
- Member, Board of Directors, Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), June 2012 – June 2015. (National)
- Member, Executive Board, REFORMA, October 2009 – 2011. (National)
- Appointed 2010 - 2011 Chair, REFORMA’s Children’s and Young Adult Services Committee, July 2010 – July 2011. (National)
- Appointed 2009 - 2010 Co-Chair, REFORMA’s Children’s and Young Adult Services Committee, October 2009 – June 2010. (National)
- Chair and Director, National Latino Children’s Literature Conference, University of Alabama, August 2009 – 2017. (National)
- Appointed 2009-2010 Co-Chair, Youth Special Interest Group, Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), January 2009 – January 2010. (National)
- Children’s Book Review Editor, REFORMA, September 2007 – 2012. (National)
Literary Award & Evaluation Committees:
- Invited Committee Member, 2011-2025 Medallion Committees for outstanding contribution to the field of children's literature, University of Southern Mississippi Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival, 2011 - Pres. (National)
- Appointed Committee Chair, American Library Association’s 2017 Batchelder Award, July 2015-July 2017. (National)
- Invited Literary Prize Judge, 2015 Kirkus Prize – Young Reader’s Literature Category (largest literary prize in the United States), Kirkus Media LLC, May 2015 - October 2015. (National)
- Appointed Committee Chair, American Library Association and REFORMA’s 2012 Pura Belpré Award, September 2010 - 2012. (National)
- Appointed Committee Chair, Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs’ 2010 Américas Awards, 2010 – 2011. (National)
Professional Association Work (Exclusive of Literary Award & Evaluation Committees):
- Appointed Committee Member, Diversity Research Grants Advisory Committee, (Sub-committee of ALA’s Committee on Diversity), American Library Association, November 2015-July 2017. (National)
- Children’s Book Evaluation Facilitator, 2016 Bill Morris Seminar: Book Evaluation Training, Association for Library Service to Children, American Library Association Midwinter Conference, January 2016. (National - invited)
- Session Moderator/Facilitator, 22nd Biennial Congress of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature, Worcester, United Kingdom, August 2015. (International)
- Appointed 2015 ALISE Youth SIG Liaison to ALSC, January 2015-January 2016. (National)
- Appointed Co-Chair, ALSC CBC Day of Diversity Symposium Planning Committee, Association for Library Service to Children, September 2014 – February 2015. (National)
- Appointed United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) State Ambassador, October 2013 – Pres. (National)
Editorial Board Work:
- Editorial Board Member, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature, Peer-Reviewed Journal of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) published by Johns Hopkins University Press, October 2018-Pres. (International)
- Editorial/Advisory Board Member, Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal hosted by St. Catherine’s University, April 2017- June 2022. (National)
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Children’s Literature, Peer-Reviewed Journal of the Children’s Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), March 2017-Pres. (National)