Stepping Outside Your Bubble at ALA Annual in DC

ALA Annual Conference is just around the corner –  June 20-25th 2019 in Washington, DC! Thousands of library professionals, publishers, book creators, and more will be headed to our nation’s capital to learn, celebrate, and explore with other colleagues in libraryland. There will be a variety of amazing opportunities for ALSC members to attend professional development workshops and network with each other. There have been several ALSC blog posts with suggestions on places to eat, visit, and a call from our ALSC Blog Editor, Mary Voors for volunteer bloggers during conference.

However, I want to highlight a few meetings and events within ALSC and beyond that you might want to consider if you plan to attend ALA Annual. Your ALSC Board of Directors will also be hard at work in our multiple board meetings, considering various items to move our Association strategically forward. I’ll emphasize a few of those later in this post as well.

ALSC @ 2019 ALA Annual in Washington DC  & Other Events of Interest at Conference

• ALSC President’s Program. Are you interested in stepping outside your bubble and truly seeing and serving those in your community? If so, I look forward to seeing you at my Charlemae Rollins’ President’s Program: Subversive Activism: Creating Social Change Through Libraries, Children’s Literature, and Art. In this program, award-winning speakers Yuyi Morales, Dr. Nicole Cooke, and Dr. Janina Fariñas  will lead a dynamic discussion on how we can create programs and collections where all truly means all. Dr. Karin Perry will document the conversation with her sketchnoting. This exciting event has been planned by the program co-chairs Dr. Marianne Martens and Johanna Ulloa.

 

• Friends of ALSC Reception. If you have free time on Saturday of Annual, consider pre-registering for the ALSC Member Reception hosted by the ALSC Membership Committee and funded by Friends of ALSC. This is a great opportunity to network with other children’s library, literature, and literacy enthusiasts.

 

• ALSC Membership Meeting. The ALSC Membership Meeting will be held on Monday of Annual and provides updates on ALSC initiatives, honors our Distinguished Service awardee Maria B. Salvadore, and presents an opportunity to learn more about forthcoming bystander intervention training offered by ALA as well as how ALSC members can be EDI advocates within children’s library services and our Association.

 

• Awards Celebrations and the ALSC Honors Preconference. Annual is all about celebrating outstanding children’s print and digital media. Here is a list of free ALSC awards ceremonies for conference attendees: 2019 Pura Belpré Award Celebración; 2019 ALSC Awards Presentation of the Batchelder, Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media, Geisel, and Sibert awards, and Odyssey Award Presentation. Tickets for other ALSC awards events can also be purchased: The ALSC preconference “With Gratitude: Honoring Stories”  celebrates the winners of the 2019 Batchelder, Caldecott, Geisel, Newbery, Pura Belpré, and Sibert Honor Books.  The Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy Banquet on Sunday evening honors the 2019 winners of these awards and is a grande opportunity meet many of the who’s who in children’s publishing.

 

• ALSC Goodness Abounds at ALA Annual. There are a many more ALSC sponsored and co-sponsored events at Annual. For a full listing ALSC events @ conference click here.

 

• Coretta Scott King Awards Turn 50. There are a number of activities at Annual celebrating the 50^thAnniversary of the Coretta Scott King Awards. From a gala and a social to programs featuring strategies for connecting communities with these amazing titles, there is something for everyone! More information about these events are available here.

 

• EDI Events, Programs, and More at Annual. ALA’s Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services (ODLOS) has created a Guide to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Events at Annual. While not completely comprehensive, the guide is a great starting point for members wanting to network with others like themselves or engage in professional development and learning opportunities to make their libraries welcoming for all.

• ALA Organizational Effectiveness Meetings @ Annual and Online.  The ALA Steering Committee on Organizational Effectiveness (SCOE) will be presenting preliminary recommendations at several meetings during Annual conference. These recommendations are based upon input from ALA members and suggest various redesigns to ALA governance structure and member engagement in Divisions, Roundtables and Special Interest Groups. In Person at ALA Annual in Washington, D.C Dates and times (in ET) for the sessions at Annual are listed below. They will be held in Washington Convent Center, Room 103B.

1. Saturday, June 22, 12:00pm – 1:30pm
2. Saturday, June 22, 2:30pm – 4:00pm
3. Sunday, June 23, 12:00 pm – 1:30pm
4. Sunday, June 23, 2:30pm – 4:00pm
5. Monday, June 24, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

A virtual webinar will be available on July 8th at 1pm Central for those unable to attend Annual or these meetings. Information on how to register is available on the SCOE ALA Connect community. Note: ALA Member login is required.

ALSC Board Work at Annual

The finalized ALSC Board agenda and documents for Annual will be posted this week on the ALSC website here (Note: When clicking on the documents you’ll be directed to ALA Connect where your ALA login will be required for viewing.)As a reminder, these meetings are open to conference attendees and a great opportunity to learn more about the bigger picture of all that ALSC’s committees and taskforces are doing, as well as some of the important and pressing concerns facing the Association. What will the Board will be discussing?

• ALSC Strategic Plan Review
• Diversifying ALSC Revenue Streams
• Potential new ALSC whitepaper on outreach
• ALSC Student Gift Memberships
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force Extension
• ALSC Awards Program Review
• ALSC Process Committee Co-Chairs
• Funding of Coretta Scott King Award Committee Members to attend Morris Seminar
• ALSC Equity Fellows Program
• Collecting the History of ALSC
• Research Agenda for ALSC

Please note that the Awards Program Review agenda item will be held in Executive Session due to partnership, sponsorship, and other privileged information that requires confidential discussion. I realize many ALSC members may not able to attend the Board meetings during conference, but having access to the aforementioned documents allows you to stay updated on policies, issues, and discussion topics influencing the work of the Association. ALSC’s work and success stems from committee activity and the passion and engagement of the individual members reflected in many of these reports.

A Sincere Thank YOU

I hope to see many of you at ALA Annual in June.  As this is my final blog post as ALSC President (President Elect Cecilia McGowan will be seated at the end of the ALSC Board Meeting II on Tuesday of ALA Annual), I would like to earnestly thank the ALSC Board for their conscientious deliberations, the ALSC staff for their diligent dedication and unwavering commitment, and the many actively-engaged ALSC members for their time and talent. Collectively, you are all helping move our association forward as we strive to engage communities to build healthy, successful futures for all children.

 

Warmly,

Jamie

 

Jamie Campbell Naidoo

ALSC President

2018-2019