Brace yourself, Washington, D.C., there are a whole bunch of librarians coming your way! I love going to conference in big cities and seeing ALA librarians everywhere you look. When I checked into my hotel today, I noticed that I have a special librarian key card—The Princess in Black. How cool is that? Not to mention, it was very fun to laugh with the somewhat shell-shocked staff as they commented on just how many librarians they’ve seen already. And this party is just getting started!
I’m getting ready to go the opening general session where author Jason Reynolds will be speaking. What an awesome way to open up the conference! After that, it’s the exhibit opening, and meeting up with friends. In the next few days, I’m looking forward to hearing author Tomi Adeyemi speak, and I’m also planning on attending the Leadership & ALSC Meeting, where we’ll get a chance to hear some new thoughts from Kathleen Campana, J. Elizabeth Mills, Marianne Martens, and Claudia Hines about media literacy, computational thinking, and family learning.
There are many programs that focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I couldn’t be more excited to learn all that I can. I’m especially interested in attending “Talking with Kids about Race,” which is a how-to workshop. And then there’s the Charlemae Rollins Presidents Program, “Subversive Activism: Creating Social Change Through Libraries, Children’s Literature, and Art,” which looks really amazing, too.
I could go on and on…ALSC 101, the Caldecott-Newbery-Legacy Banquet…yay! It’s going to be quite a conference. Bring it on!