#ALAAC2022 is on! Are you unable to attend and wondering how you can keep up with all that’s going on at this American Library Association conference? We’ve got you covered!
Let me be among the first to offer special thanks to the conference bloggers who will be reporting for the ALSC Blog on what’s happening at this “live and in-person” conference. Here are some of the people who will be writing about their experiences:
Alicia K. Long (she/her) is the Access Services Supervisor at the State College of Florida Libraries and is also an Adjunct Instructor at the University of South Florida, School of Information. At this return to an in-person ALA conference she is looking forward to reuniting with colleagues in person. At the conference, she will be found munching on chocolate, always chocolate.
Aryssa Damron (she/her/hers) is a children’s librarian with the District of Columbia Public Library System. She’ll be attending ALA Annual Live and In-Person and is excited to get to meet so many ALSC members in the flesh as we learn and explore today. She’ll also be moderating an author panel on Saturday and attending the Carnegie Awards Ceremony–so say hi if you’re there! If she could read one book for the first time again, it would be The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. It’s her favorite Newbery winner of all time!
Ashley Bressingham (she/her) recently joined the New Rochelle Public Library in New Rochelle, NY as their Librarian II/Children’s Room Assistant Supervisor. She’s excited to be attending her first ALA Annual Conference and to see fellow librarians in-person again! She’s most looking forward to meeting the rest of the Emerging Leaders Team K members that worked on the Welcoming and Engaging Students in ALSC and Children’s Services project. As a child, she wanted to grow up to be a princess, gain superpowers, or be on Broadway.
Crystal Faris (she, her, hers) leads the Youth & Family Engagement Team at Kansas City Public Library which includes staff working in the branches, in outreach, and with the Digital Media Lab. She’s most looking forward to attending the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet and hearing those speeches in person. Crystal has never met a piece of dark chocolate she did not like, has ballet season tickets with her son, shares a career with her daughter, and travels whenever possible with her husband.
Corinthia Price (she, her, hers) works at The Green Vale School in Old Brookville, NY as a Librarian. She will be attending the ALA Conference in person and looks forward to networking with fellow independent school librarians. The book she could read over again is: Letters to my daughters by Maya Angelou.
Jennifer A. Peterson (she/her/hers) is a Youth Services Librarian at the Indian Trails Public Library in Wheeling, IL. She is attending live and in person and is most looking forward to being in Washington, DC and meeting everyone from the Programming Coordinating Committee in person. If she could read one book for the first time again, it would be Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary. She remembers reading this as a child, and it quickly became a lifelong favorite. Another would have to be And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, because now that she knows what happens, it’s hard to “unsolve” the mystery!
Katie Clausen (she/her) is the Early Literacy Services Manager at Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, IL. Her specialties include discovery-based play, picture book analysis, and storytime best practices. During ALA, she will be munching on Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish, and is thrilled to attend The Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy Banquet. If she could read any book again for the first time, it would be The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld.
Mary Voors (she/her/hers) is the ALSC Blog manager. She looks forward to working with a great team of Conference Bloggers at this conference. She is particularly looking forward to attending the Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy Banquet as well as the Newbery 100 celebration. And, of course, she welcomes the opportunity to see colleagues from around the country in this return to an “in-person” conference. Her favorite conference snack is anything combining salty & sweet – though she knows she should probably be focusing more on eating protein.
Meg Beade Stowe (she/her/hers) is a Youth Services Librarian at Kitsap Regional Library. She is currently serving on the Early Childhood Programs and Services Committee and is an incoming co-chair for this committee. She is looking forward to all the early learning programs at ALA and wants to attend as many as possible. She is also looking forward to the Newbery100! Celebration and hopefully seeing a few favorite authors and illustrators, too. As a child, she wanted to be a Marine Biologist when she grew up. Now that she has a Masters in Library and Information SCIENCE, she finds it funny that she works at a library system on a peninsula so water is all around her.
Melinda Sandkam (she/her/hers) is a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee Knoxville School of Information. She is actively searching for a position in public libraries as her passion is to serve the community. She was a guest blogger for #PLA2022 virtually and is excited to be attending her first live ALA conference since Midwinter 2020 in Philadelphia. She is looking forward to meeting other ALSC members at the Friday event. Her favorite snack is anything with dark chocolate including hot chocolate!
Paula Holmes (she/her/hers) has served in a variety of volunteer capacities for the Association for Library Service to Children (a division of the American Library Association) and is currently the Co-Chair for ALSC 2023 President’s Program and a member of the ALSC Budget Committee. She also serves on the USBBY 2023 Dorothy Briley Lecture Committee and is a contributing blogger to World Kid Lit. Paula is currently taking ballet to improve her interpretative dancing, creating tiny collage art, reading translations of children’s literature, and attempting to learn Finnish. She’ll be munching on Mango Fruit Leather at Conference but Twizzlers are her favorite. You can follow her on Twitter at @qsprite.
Rebecca Ballard (she/her/hers) is the Regional Children’s Services Coordinator at the Athens Regional Library. She is attending the ALA Conference in person and is looking forward to the amazing speakers and meeting her ALA Emerging Leaders group in person! As a child, she wanted to be a singer, a teacher, and an astronaut, all at the same time.
In defiance of her childhood dream of providing the voice for the next big Disney movie, Sara Beth Coffman (she/her/s) has managed to grow up to be a library services specialist serving youth and children at the Chattanooga Public Library. Also a freelance writer and reviewer, her work has appeared on the ALSC and YALSA blogs, and other outlets such as Chapter 16, The Southern Review of Books, and Library Journal. After several years of virtual conference attendance, she is looking forward to being in-person at ALA Annual, hoping to run into new friends and familiar faces. She previously served as YALSA’s Member-Manager for The Hub and is a member of the 2023 Morris Award Committee.
Soline Holmes (she/her/hers) is a librarian and the Library/Technology Department chair at Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, Louisiana. Soline is excited to be back in person at ALA and is looking forward to the Newbery/Caldecott banquet and ALSC’s Newbery 100 Celebration! on Saturday, June 25. She is a Member-at-Large for ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable. She also serves on the Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award committee, is a board member of the New Orleans Information Literacy Collective (2021-22 Chair), and is a Teaching with Primary Sources Network Mentor. She has given presentations on graphic novels, Mother Goose and STEM, Primary Sources, and Global Education at local and national conferences. Soline also co-authored, with Alicia Schwarzenbach, an article about graphic novels as informational texts for Children and Libraries and was interviewed for Book Links about how to best use graphic novels in the classroom. Most recently, she was selected for and honored to participate in ALSC’s Bill Morris seminar. Look for Soline as the moderator of a session of the GNCRT’s Friday Forum about Comics Challenges.
In the coming days, check the ALSC Blog for Conference photos and information. You can also check in on Twitter – just track the hashtag #ALAAC22. Are you hoping we’ll cover a particular session? Let us know in the comments below!
(Post updated 6/25/22)