In his book The Great Good Place, author Ray Oldenburg talks about the importance of having a space that is neither work or home, but a third place that serves as a location for the community to come together and gather. For many people and communities, that place is a public library. I saw this first hand when I worked at a public library, and it is one of the things I miss most about working in that environment. Patrons would come in, bring recipes they were experimenting with for others to try; talk with one another about movies and tv shows they recommended; play mahjongg. When I started at my school and was asked what kind of library I wanted to build, I knew I wanted to work to try and create our own version of a third place. I envisioned a place that wasn’t a classroom or an…
Author: Alyson Feldman-Piltch
Keeping them Reading with Winter Book Bingo
One of the biggest challenges for me since COVID-19 has been keeping my students engaged in reading. My position was created at the beginning of last school year, and as we built what is now our new Learning Commons, I worked hard to get students excited about the incoming collection of books and the ability to stop by and pick out whatever book they wanted. Shortly after our space opened, COVID became our new reality, and I tried to keep kids engaged with reading through our Academy Book Mobile and other initaitives. I knew all along though, that part of the appeal and excitement about our new space was being able to be browse the shelves. Unfortunately, it is something we just can’t safely offer at this time. So, I’ve been working on curating an eBook collection that students can safely peruse and reflects what they want to read, while…
Multiculturalism & Diversity: What and Why 2.0
Hello, ALSC Readers! I promise, I am not being lazy and recycling old posts, but last month’s refresher post on Collection Resources (check it out here) brought in a few suggestions of additional resources, both online and offline. In researching some of these resources, and a few others shared with me by a teacher, I noticed that some of the sites used the words “multicultural” and “diverse” interchangeably, when they should not be. In 2014, I authored my first guest blog post for ALSC entitled: “Multiculturalism & Diversity: What is the Difference, and Why it’s Important”. In the post I wrote about the difference between diversity and multiculturalism, and the important role authenticity plays in a story’s perspective. In citing works by both Rudine Sims Bishop and Jacqueline Woodson, I offered the following definition: Multicultural literature can be a mirror, a window, and a sliding glass door 1: it can be…
Updated: Children’s Librarians Are Experts at Building Collections That Reflect Their Communities
In November 2018, I wrote a blog post for ALSC that shared a list of diverse booklists and blogs; resources that could help us as librarians build the best collections for our communities, and went beyond what is typically highlighted outside the Youth Media Awards each year. I thought it was time to update that list. Those of you who read the initial post years ago will see that all of the original sites are still there. If they’ve ceased publication or are no longer updated, I have made note of it. I didn’t remove anyone, as their archives may be of use to someone building a collection, or creating a bibliography. As with last time, if something is missing, please add it in the comments- I will update the list as comments are made. Additionally, please let me know if you think a resource should not be on this…
Back to School: School Library Visits in 2020
Tuesday marked our first day of the 2020-2021 school year. For a large population of our students, this is the first time they have returned to campus since March (some returned for our Summer Program), and many are eager to see the library, as it only opened a mere few days before we transitioned to virtual. One of the things that has been important to me throughout this experience, is encouraging students to continue to explore books and develop a love of reading for fun. To me, one of the best ways to encourage this love is to allow my students time to just be in the space; looking through the collection and hanging out in our bean bag chairs. This year, for obvious reasons, I’m trying a different approach, and bringing the library to them through “Virtual Learning Commons Visits”. Thanks to Zoom and a device called the Owl,…
ALA Virtual 2020
I will be honest, initially, I was not excited for ALA Virtual. As much as I love attending conference, Virtual Conferences are not my thing.
Silver Lining
I know I had planned on providing an update on our Book Mobile (which is going great!) and our upcoming plans for the Summer, but I think given all that is going on in the world, I wanted to share a moment that made me smile.
(School) Library in the Time of Corona
By the time this post is published, my school will have started our 4th week of Distance Learning, and like so many of you I am still adjusting.