It doesn’t matter how far from my own schooling I get–every year as students head back to school, I feel an excitement at the prospect of learning something new myself. This autumn, there are plenty of opportunities to explore something new within the realm of library service to children, or libraries more generally. ALSC National Institute The ALSC National Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, is taking place in a few weeks, from September 29-October 1. Institute is one of my all-time favorite learning conferences–its schedule includes terrific general sessions with amazing speakers, as well as educational programs led by practitioners across the country. Some of the things I’m looking forward to: Big Ideas session with Dr. Nicole A. Cooke – Dr. Cooke’s work has touched on so many topics, all intersecting in some way with information literacy and social justice. I’m excited to hear what Dr. Cooke has to share…
Author: Amy Koester
Meet Your ALSC Board: 2022-2023 President Amy Koester
Monthly, we will profile current ALSC Board members. We hope to offer information about the people who work to guide the organization so that you can feel more comfortable in reaching out to them with your concerns, questions, or comments. This month, we invite you to meet the ALSC Board President for 2022-2023, Amy Koester.
Our Neverending Network to Serve Children through Libraries
This is my first ALSC Blog post as the 2022-2023 ALSC President, and I am so excited to kick off this year of sharing, collaboration, and communication with library folks serving youth! My library energy levels are freshly refilled after attending the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. It really “refills my cup,” so to speak, to see my place in an ongoing network of youth library folks–to see the people and work that have been here before me, the people entrenched in the work alongside me right now, and those coming up in the profession and keeping the cycle going. It is invigorating to see how wave after wave of youth-focused library workers work together, support one another, and keep the vision of better lives for all children at the center of our work, always striving to support the needs of our communities. At the conference, I was able…
Bystander Intervention at #alscmm19 #alaac19
At the ALSC Membership Meeting on Monday morning, fellow ALSC Board member Elisa Gall and I gave an introductory presentation on the topic of bystander intervention. The topic of bystander intervention is important for all library workers, both in the context of the spaces in which we work and serve our communities and also in the context of our participation in professional spaces like a conference. Elisa and I focused our content on how to apply bystander intervention principles in a professional space—a particular need given past and continued harassment of colleagues in these conference spaces. What is bystander intervention? “Bystander intervention” refers to the actions we take in order to keep spaces free from harassment and hate—something we all have a responsibility to do. Harassment is purposeful and repeated conduct that is unwanted and known to be offensive. Harassment, in the context of this introductory training, is different from…
Forthcoming “Statement of Appropriate Conduct” for the ALSC Institute #alamw18
The 2018 ALSC Institute in Cincinnati will have a clear Statement of Appropriate Conduct/Community Guidelines including procedures for members and attendees to report behaviors in violation of those guidelines.
Collaboration for Learning: Notes from the Public Libraries & STEM Conference
I was recently able to represent ALSC at the Public Libraries & STEM Conference in Denver, CO. The conference was kept very small–around 160 people total–and thus was very concentrated, with plenty to learn from and discuss with colleagues from libraries, STEM organizations, and other institutions with missions for informal learning. And while the small size necessary means that the participant pool was limited, the takeaways weren’t. I particularly want to share with you one of my major takeaways: the library as a single element in a larger learning ecosystem. Note: I tried visual note taking at this conference. Since my handwriting isn’t always great, I’m transcribing text in the captions of images. Here’s what I learned and have been itching to share: There were several goals of the Public Libraries & STEM Conference, but one in particular resonated with me immediately: to figure out what STEM/STEAM in public libraries…
What does an author think of Día?
As part of the lead-up to formal Día celebrations in April, I had the privilege of interviewing an author of multicultural and multilingual books for children–the inimitable Pat Mora herself, author and founder of Día! Ms. Mora is an outstanding advocate for youth literacy, and the books in her body of work are a joy to share with families any time of the year. It was my pleasure to ask Pat Mora a few questions. Q: You’re the founder of Día, and you’re also an author of children’s books. How do these dual roles affect how you think about Día? Pat Mora: My first published book was A Birthday Basket for Tía, 1992. I quickly became aware how many children did not have books in their homes and how many families, particularly non-English speaking families, had not embraced their literacy role. I also became aware that many book buyers of…
Thinking about STEAM as Pop-Up Programs
One of my goals for programming at my new library is to increase the frequency of pop-up programs in the youth area. We offer a great range of formal, specific-place/specific-time programs every quarter, but I’ve been thinking about whom these types of programs engage. I’m still learning the demographics of youth and families at my new job, but I do have the feeling that the Venn diagram circles of kids who come to the library and kids who come to programs are not wholly overlapping. Why not provide pop-up programs, then, that can take place in the open, without registration restrictions or time requirements, on days and at times when lots of kids are in the space? And why not structure these pop-ups around STEAM activities, which kids are hugely enjoying? Here are five potential pop-up programs, one for each STEAM content area. These pop-ups would be facilitated and supervised by a…