This is only the second ALA event during which I’ve volunteered to live blog for ALSC. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Public Library Association conference last spring and that’s where I first dipped my toe in live blogging waters. While admittedly a little stressful – when isn’t it a little stressful putting your words out into the world? – I enjoyed collecting my thoughts and reflecting on my experiences in this way. So, when the ALSC National Institute came around this year, I decided what the heck, let’s give it a go again!
Live blogging at an ALA event or blogging for ALSC in general is just one way you can get involved and contribute your voice to what ALSC offers back out to all of us working in and with libraries. At yesterday’s ALSC 101 session before the opening dinner, we learned about the many other ways to get involved with ALSC. The team facilitating the session created an entertaining personality quiz to help us all “find our ALSC home”. Questions ranged from “Are you decisive?” to “What’s your ideal vacation?”. Participants added up different point values for their answers (A=1; B=2, etc.) and then took a look at the second page to see which Priority Area their point values matched with:
- Advocacy
- Organizational Support
- Youth Media Lists & Awards
- Professional Awards & Scholarships
- Professional Development
ALSC has a great many committees that vary broadly in their scope, time commitment, and work. There were questions about what it is actually like to volunteer on an ALSC committee and the best advice the session facilitators offered was to reach out to the committee chairs of any committee that catches your eye and ask them to tell you about what that specific committee does, how they do it, and how much time and effort it takes to get it all done.
The most exciting piece of the ALSC 101 session for me was not the ALSC 101 Kahoot (which was fun, no doubt!) but instead was the announcement that the ALSC Mentorship program is returning! I was thrilled to hear this because this program means a lot to me. When I first entered the exciting, glamorous, and occasionally unexplainably sticky world of children’s librarianship, participating as an ALSC mentee was an important part of getting my feet underneath me. Later I had the pleasure of also participating as a mentor. I’ve missed contributing to the community of children’s services in this way while the program has been on hiatus. One of the tidbits that definitely caught my attention was the information about the program potentially offering two tracks – one for early career folks new to libraries and/or children’s services and one for mid-career folks who may be looking for some mentorship as they enter or consider taking next steps into leadership or supervisory roles. If you’d be interested in participating as a mentee or a mentor, definitely fill out this form to make sure you get all the updates as the reinvigorated mentorship program makes its hopefully triumphant return!
One more note for you about live blogging before I wrap up my first post of the con. As we learned from our high-stakes ALSC 101 Kahoot, the ALSC Bloggers are not a committee. But they are a group of voices all dedicated to sharing information and supporting everyone’s commitment to working with children, families, and caregivers in their communities. ALSC Blog Manager, Mary Voors, gives all the conference live bloggers such clear guidance, encouragement, and support throughout the process which makes doing this a little less intimidating and a lot more fun. So, the next time you’re headed to conference and see the call go out for ALSC live bloggers for the event, consider tossing your voice into the mix!
Guest Contributor Kate Brunner (she/her) is Youth & Family Services Principal Consultant at the Colorado State Library. At ALSC Institute, she is looking forward to co-facilitating a session on Saturday about Colorado librarians’ work developing early literacy library services for informal/licensed-exempt childcare providers. Having been engaged in a seven-year project called Growing Readers Together has led to learning a lot about Colorado’s informal providers, their information needs, and how we can train library professionals to better support them. A fun fact about Kate is that, although it wasn’t until mid-life that she consciously realized her dream job was in public libraries, she created her own classification system for her personal library when she was in elementary school. She only let friends borrow her books if they signed them out in her lending ledger. Kate’s little Beatrix Potter books still have penciled “call numbers” inside their front covers! The opinions expressed in this blog post are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect those of her employer.
Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.