The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) announces the release of a new white paper, “Media Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth.” This paper was written for ALSC by Cen Campbell, Claudia Haines, Amy Koester, and Dorothy Stoltz and adopted by the ALSC Board of Directors on March 11, 2015. The paper explores the role of children’s librarians as mentors of digital media and calls on youth service librarians to support families in their intentional, appropriate, and positive use of media.
ALSC’s next Community Forum will be held on Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 2pm Eastern/1pm Central and will also serve as a virtual release party for this white paper. Members are invited to logon to learn more about the paper, discuss its implications on the field, and share experiences as media mentors in their own communities.
ALSC is committed to assisting members as they explore this media mentor role in their own communities. Therefore, ALSC is offering two past webinars free to members through July, 2015 and has made available a collection of examples of current media mentorship practice. ALSC has also invited Lisa Guernsey, Director of the Early Education Initiative and the Learning Technologies Project at New America, to speak at Leadership & ALSC program at ALA’s Annual Conference to discuss the idea of media mentorship and implications on early childhood learning.