ALSC Bloggers

ALSC Blog Manager

Mary R. Voors, the ALSC Blog Manager, is also the manager of the Children’s Services department of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana where she has the opportunity to work with one of the greatest groups of people in the world. She loves reading picture books, early chapter books, YA fiction & nonfiction, and the occasional book written for adults. Mary has served on a variety of ALSC committees including the Newbery committee, the ALSC International Relations committee, the Great Web Sites committee (chair), the BWI Summer Reading Program Grant committee, and the Notable Children’s Books committee. Mary aspires to be a triathlete, but would be satisfied with running a mile in under eleven minutes.

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Staff Liaison

Dan Rude is the Staff Liaison to the ALSC Blog. As Marketing/Membership Specialist at ALSC, he has the privilege to work with some of the best children’s librarians in the world on a day-to-day basis. He has an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and has worked as both a librarian and a teacher. His interests outside of librarianship are reading (of course), biking, traveling, and stamp collecting. His chess game is improving, ask any of the 15-year olds who have defeated him recently.

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Bloggers

Abby Johnson is the Children’s and Outreach Services Manager at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library in New Albany, IN. After receiving her MLS from Indiana University’s School of Library and Information Science in 2006, she worked at the Barrington Area Library in Barrington, IL before returning to her hometown of Louisville, KY to accept the position at NAFCPL. She loves being a librarian because she does something different every day, from reading stories to answering reference questions to buying books for the collection. You can also find her blogging at Abby (the) Librarian – http://www.abbylibrarian.com.

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Amanda Ellington is an Assistant Branch Manager at the Lexington Park Library in St. Mary’s County Maryland. Amanda taught Reading & Language Arts as a first career. After teaching for 8 years and earning her Masters degree in Educational Leadership, Amanda left the classroom and came to work at the Lexington Park Library in 2009. Now instead of grading papers, giving tests and reading from textbooks, she shakes her sillies out, hangs out with puppets and recommends awesome books to kids of all ages! During her time at the Lexington Park Library she has created cozy spaces, Active Learning Centers and Portable Learning Centers in the Library.  In 2012, she was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker for creating Active Learning Centers for her library  system on a budget. She also contributes to her county’s Picture Book Blog at www.kidsbookblog.net.

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Amy Koester is the Children’s Librarian at the Corporate Parkway Branch of the St. Charles City-County (MO) Library District. She leads under-twos programs, preschool outreach, and school-age programming at her branch, and she is particularly passionate about science programming and early literacy initiatives. She also spends her time managing juvenile collections, making the children’s areas accessible and fun, helping folks at the reference desk, and coordinating an army of teen volunteers. She once wore a tutu, a la Lucy Bear, for a Peter Brown author event at her library. Amy blogs regularly at http://showmelibrarian.blogspot.com, and you can find her on Twitter @amyeileenk. She enjoys picnics, gardens, and museums in her spare time.

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Angela Reynolds is Head of Youth Services for Annapolis Valley Regional Library, a small, rural library system in beautiful Nova Scotia. She has been a children’s librarian for over 15 years, in Kentucky, Oregon, and now, Canada. She still does the occasional storytime, works with youth services staff, develops storykits, manages the children’s and YA collection, and gets to play with glue and glitter on a regular basis.
When not reading or listening to books she spends her spare time sewing, gardening, and bellydancing. Follow her on Twitter @annavalley, or find her library at www.valleylibrary.ca/teens.

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Carolyn S. Brodie is the current ALSC President. For the past 23 years, as a professor and administrator in the Kent State University School of Library and Information Science (Kent, Ohio), she has had the incredible and unforgettable experience of teaching and working with hundreds of graduate students as they prepared to become children’s, young adult and school librarians. She began her career in Arkansas as a second grade teacher in the classroom next door to her mom who instilled in her a love of teaching and of picture books.

Cen Campbell is a children’s librarian at the Santa Clara County Library District and the Mountain View Public Library, and a children’s digital services consultant at LittleeLit.com. She has driven a bookmobile, managed branch libraries, developed innovative programs for babies, young children and teens, and now helps other libraries incorporate digital media into their early literacy programming. She attended the California State Library’s Eureka Leadership Institute in 2008 and now serves on the ALSC Children & Technology committee. Cen’s 6 word biography is: “Bust paradigms and make it happen.”

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Elisabeth Gattullo is the Collection Development Coordinator at Darien Library (CT). As a child she was fond of climbing dangerously high trees, reading, and acting out scenes from her favorite stories, often simultaneously. Now she leads storytimes for pre-walkers, teaches a Little Clickers technology class for 3-5 year olds, and restrains herself from purchasing every new fantasy series that’s published. She spends her days weeding books no one wants to read and writing reviews of books she thinks everyone should read for her library’s website. In her spare time you can usually find her at brunch or the movie theater. She is a strong subscriber to the belief that “the book is always better than the movie.” She can be found on twitter @LiswithanS.

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Eva Mitnick is Acting Manager of Youth Services at the Los Angeles Public Library. When Eva has a bit of free time, she runs a little, reads a lot, and blogs at http://evasbookaddiction.blogspot.com.

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Heather Acerro is the Head of Children’s Services at Rochester Public Library (MN) where she is building an innovative, dynamic and interactive space for children to learn, collaborate and create. She writes reviews for School Library Journal, serves on the board of The Reading Center: Dyslexia Institute of Minnesota  and is the current chair of the ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee. When she isn’t at the library doing cool stuff, she is a singer in a rock and roll band, a runner, a reader, a mom, a kickboxer, and a maker of things.

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Jeanette Larson is the former youth services manager for Austin Public Library. Since 2006 she has been working as an independent consultant and trainer. She teaches for the library school at Texas Woman’s University and presents workshops for libraries around the country. Jeanette is the author of Hummingbirds: Facts and Folklore from the Americas and a number of professional books for librarians. Jeanette and her husband live with their cats and two schipperke dogs in Pflugerville, TX, a small town north of Austin.

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Jennifer Schultz is a youth services librarian with the Fauquier County Public Library in Warrenton, VA. As a senior studying Family, Child, and Consumer Sciences at Louisiana State University and planning to earn a master’s degree in social work, she accepted a part time job as a page/circulation assistant with the East Baton Rouge Parish Library. After a year of full-time library work and putting off the dreaded GRE exam, she entered again the hallowed halls of LSU (Go Tigers!) to learn about storytelling, children’s services, and readers’ advisory. Despite some bumps along the way, she has discovered that youth services librarianship in public libraries is a nearly perfect blend of her family social services education/background and her love of storytelling and children’s literature. She enjoys dance, musical theatre, zoos and aquariums, playing her new chromaharp, and all things New Orleans and Cajun (not the same thing!). Her New Year’s resolution is to take up knitting.

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Katie Salo is the Youth Services Manager at the Melrose Park Library in Melrose Park, IL. She began at the Melrose Park Library in 2006, and took over the youth department in 2008. While she loves working with youth of all ages, her favorite groups are preschoolers and teenagers because they are constantly changing and always keep the library guessing. She has mad skills with felt and scissors and can also be found blogging regularly at Storytime Katie.

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Kiera Parrott is the Head of Children’s Services at the Darien Library (CT). She spends her days picking books for storytimes, playing with new technology, sweeping up spilt glitter, uniting kids with great books, learning silly new fingerplays, reading, booktalking, cleaning up more glitter, weeding crusty old books, ordering shiny new books, making book lists, planning programs, doing class visits, trying to get that stuff (what is it? glitter glue??) off the chairs, chatting with kids, parents, and caregivers, and trying to fight off the encroaching crazy with good humor and deep-breathing. She can be found online at http://libraryvoice.org or on Twitter @libraryvoice. In her spare time, Kiera enjoys watching bad movies, singing karaoke, and practicing American Sign Language.

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Lisa Taylor is a senior youth services librarian at the Barnegat Branch of the Ocean County Library in NJ. In addition to being a librarian, she is a wife, mother, and Phillies fan – not necessarily in that order, particularly during baseball season. She loves to work the service desk, with reader’s advisory topping her list of favorite tasks. You may also find her blogging at the popular Shelf-employed. She is an audiobook reviewer for School Library Journal and currently serves on ALSC’s Oral History Committee.

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Mary Fellows is a former ALSC President (2011-12). She works with the bright people who serve kids, teens, and families in 29 public libraries in the capital region of New York. As Manager of Youth and Family Services at Upper Hudson Library System, she presents and coordinates training, writes and manages grants, advocates for youth services on state and local levels, consults on library issues, and communicates the value of youth services whenever and wherever she can!

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Meg Smith is Branch Manager of the Hope Mills Branch of the Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center in Fayetteville, NC. In addition to her work supervising a talented staff at a busy community library, Meg reviews children’s books for School Library Journal. Involved with the Youth Services Section Board of the North Carolina Library Association, Meg also works with librarians across her state as a Youth Services Mentor with the State Library of North Carolina. Besides the library, her favorite place to spend her time is Disney World (she was even married there with Mickey and Minnie Mouse as honored guests at her reception), and she and her husband now love to share that magical experience with their young daughter. You can read updates about her library system at www.cumberland.lib.nc.us.

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Renee Grassi is the Head of Children’s Services at the Glencoe Public Library in Glencoe, IL. After receiving her MLIS at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, she worked at the Deerfield Public Library in Deerfield, IL for four years. She was recognized as a 2012 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her expanding services and advocating for children with special needs and their families in public libraries. Renee is also an active member of the Illinois Library Association. She currently lives in Chicago with her two cats, Sanchez and Gus. You can follow her on Twitter @MissReneeDomain.

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Stacy Dillon is currently the Lower School Librarian at The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin Highschool located in New York City’s Greenwich Village. She has been a librarian for 14 years working both in public libraries and in the school setting. She loves the challenge of getting the right book into the right hands of the right kid! Stacy is passionate about children’s literature, and has been blogging about it since 2005! She is currently on ALSC’s Light The Way Grant Committee and the Newbery Committee. You can find her online at Welcome to my Tweendom.

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Committees

The 75th Anniversary Caldecott Task Force is charged with overseeing the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott award, celebrated July 2012-June 2013. This oversight will include offering webinars related to the Caldecott Award; developing an online picture gallery of past Caldecott-related photos; encouraging Caldecott-related program proposals for the 2012 Institute and Annual Conference 2013; creating a Caldecott celebration-focused CAL issue; supporting a 2013 ALSC preconference at Annual Conference 2013; and exploring additional celebration options for the 2013 Newbery-Caldecott banquet.

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The ALSC Advocacy and Legislation Committee addresses advocacy issues central to the ALSC Strategic Plan. Our charge is to provide tools and information to empower members in support of grassroots efforts on behalf of libraries, children and families. We serve as a channel of communication on legislative and advocacy matters among the ALA Legislation Committee, Division Leadership and its members. Our goal is to inform, educate, motivate and empower!

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The ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee was established in 1974, and consists of seven members each serving 2-year terms and led by a committee chair. The committee’s charge is to advise ALSC on matters before the office for intellectual freedom and their implication for library service to children and to make recommendations to the ALA Intellectual Freedom committee for changes in policies involving library service to children and to promote in-service and continuing education programs in the area of intellectual freedom for those who select library materials for children. For more information, contact Heather Acerro, this year’s committee chair.

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Library Services to Special Population Children and Their Caregivers is charged to speak for special population children and their caregivers. To offer leadership in discovering, developing and disseminating information about library materials, programs and facilities for special population children and their caregivers; to develop and maintain guidelines for selection of useful and relevant materials; and to discuss, develop and suggest ways in which library education programs can prepare librarians to serve these children and their caregivers.