In just a few minutes, the ALA Youth Media Awards will begin. The excitement is palpable!
Author: Kim Alberts
Young Children, New Media, & Libraries @ #alamw15
This afternoon I attended a session called “Young Children, New Media, & Libraries Survey” presented by Amy Koester and J. Elizabeth Mills. Back in August of 2014, ALSC, LittleeLit.com, and the iSchool at the University of Washington conducted a survey where they asked public librarians how they use new media with youth in their libraries. To put the survey into perspective, the definition of new media is technologies and the definition of young children is age 0 to 5. We each received an infographic with the results and some were pretty surprising! Here are some of the highlights: A total of 415 libraries participated and user populations ranged from less than 5,000 to over 1,000,000 Of those libraries, 71% use at least one type of new media in programming with young children The most popular type of new media used are tablets, 91% of which are iPads 58% of those…
20 Titles to Diversify Your Collection @ #alamw15
This afternoon, I attended 6 different Ignite Sessions. They were all great, but one of them that stuck out for me was by Angie Manfredi. She presented “20 Kids/Teen Titles to Diversify Your Collection Today” and gave us a great list of books to add to our collections. Here they are in no particular order: Imani’s Moon by Janay Brown-Wood I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel Knockout Games by G. Neri Some Assembly Required by Arin Andrews Rethinking Normal by Katie Rain Hill Maddi’s Fridge by Lois Brandt The Zero Degree Zombie Zone by Patrik Henry Bass A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman Sweetest Kulu by Celina Kalluk Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown The Year of the Fortune Cookie by Andrea Cheng Stranger by Sherwood Smith Jacob’s New Dress by Sarah Hoffman Dreaming in…
It’s All In How You Say It @ #alamw15
I sat in on the Leadership & ALSC Meeting this morning, which was overall informative and inspiring. Jenna Nemec-Loise gave a presentation entitled “It’s How You Say It: Using Value-Based Language for Elevator Speech Awesomeness.” She spoke about the importance of how we advocate for our programs and services at the library. Jenna stated that we should be using the Elevator Speech method with not only our patrons, but our administration and board of directors too. The purpose is two-fold. We want the people we are pitching to say: Tell me more! How do you do that? She then spoke about something called Value Based Language (VBL), which is language that shifts emphasis away from the programs and services that we do and put it on to the kids and families that we impact. Here’s the formula for writing a good VBL: I help (insert audience) (insert verb phrase) at…
Youth Media Awards #alamw14
It’s time!
HMH Books for Young Readers Dinner #alamw14
Tonight I was lucky enough to attend the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers dinner and spring 2014 book preview. I got a first-hand look at some of their brand new titles. Some of the ones I am most excited about are: Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won – This looks like it will be a cute picture book about how the power of a good hat can brighten up any bad mood. Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins – Steve Jenkins is a perennial favorite of mine and this book about animal vision looks just as fascinating as his other works. Barbarian Lord by Matt Smith – This upcoming graphic novel about Norse mythology has some beautiful artwork and the story sounds appealing to boot! A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier – Set in 1918 during the influenza epidemic, this book was described as being “Anne…
School-Age Programs and Services Committee @ #alamw14
This morning, I met with ALSC’s School-Age Programs and Services Committee. I’ve served as a member of this committee for a couple of years now, and I absolutely love it. Each committee member is dynamic and knowledgeable and our projects really don’t ever seem to feel like work. We discussed a range of things at the meeting, which included past and possible future projects. We specifically talked about updating some of our booklists, such as our Best Books for School-Age list. We would also like to publish more articles for Children and Libraries on programs/services that are relevant to you. Any topics/projects you would like to see from the committee? Leave them in the comments!
Leadership & ALSC: Show and Tell #alamw14
Bright and early this morning ALSC leaders and members alike gathered together for Leadership & ALSC. President Starr LaTronica opened up the session with a “Show and Tell” of the new and exciting things going on in ALSC. Here are the highlights: Charlemae Rollins will be presenting the ALSC Presidents Program, entitled “The Ripple Effect: Library Partnerships That Positively Impact Children, Families, Communities, and Beyond” at ALA Annual in Las Vegas on June 30th. ALSC will be holding Community Forums on Common Core Collaboration in February and March. Registration for Dia! (Diversity in Action) Day programs is now open. Everyday Advocacy is a fairly new site that is a resource for librarians for “both day-to-day advocacy and crisis advocacy”. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s a great site! Registration for the ALSC Institute on September 18th to 20th in Oakland, California is now open! Steve Shenkin is presenting the Opening Session and special events…