Hello ALSC members and prospective members! I’m thrilled to be serving you as your new president! What a whirlwind ALA Annual was! So many great programs, books, author sightings and engagement with members and conference attendees. A few of the outstanding programs were The Newbery/Caldecott/Legacy Banquet with heartfelt speeches by the winners, The Coretta Scott King 50th Anniversary Breakfast and the Charlemae Rollins President’s Program ‘Subversive Activism: Creating Social Change Through Libraries, Children’s Literature and Art featuring Dr. Nicole Cooke, Dr. Janina Fariñas and acclaimed author/illustrator Yuyi Morales. The conference also featured Leadership & ALSC, and the Monday morning membership meeting and Awards presentation. Your board met two times during the conference. A few highlights of the meetings: A Task Force will be formed to look into diversifying and developing new revenue streams for ALSC. The Strategic Plan is nearing the 2020 completion and the board will be deciding soon…
Category: ALSC Board
Stepping Outside Your Bubble at ALA Annual in DC
ALA Annual Conference is just around the corner – June 20-25th 2019 in Washington, DC! Thousands of library professionals, publishers, book creators, and more will be headed to our nation’s capital to learn, celebrate, and explore with other colleagues in libraryland. There will be a variety of amazing opportunities for ALSC members to attend professional development workshops and network with each other. There have been several ALSC blog posts with suggestions on places to eat, visit, and a call from our ALSC Blog Editor, Mary Voors for volunteer bloggers during conference. However, I want to highlight a few meetings and events within ALSC and beyond that you might want to consider if you plan to attend ALA Annual. Your ALSC Board of Directors will also be hard at work in our multiple board meetings, considering various items to move our Association strategically forward. I’ll emphasize a few of those later…
Looking Ahead – to Summer: ALA Annual, Leadership Development, and EDI Work
Spring is here in full bloom and summer is just around the corner. When many of you think of summer, I’m sure you begin to get excited about all the wonderful programs, outreach activities, and events that you’ve planned as part of your library’s summer reading or summer learning programs. The opportunity to engage with diverse children and their families during these events is indeed something to look forward to! Another exciting event this summer is the ALA Annual Conference and the potential for networking, professional development, and celebrating award-winning children’s media. 2019 ALA Annual in Washington DC – Happenings and General Information Annual Conference will be held June 20-25th 2019 in Washington, DC, are you attending? There will be a variety of opportunities for attendees to attend educational programs, free awards ceremonies (such as the 2019 Pura Belpré Award Celebración and the 2019 ALSC Awards Presentation of the Batchelder,…
2019-20 ALSC Board of Directors Candidates
In an effort to help ALSC members make an informed decision before they vote, this morning’s blog post consists of statements from the six candidates standing for election to the ALSC Board of Directors.
Christine Caputo: 2019-20 ALSC Vice President/President Elect Candidate
In an effort to help ALSC members make an informed decision before they vote, the blog posts this morning and this afternoon consist of interviews with the candidates for ALSC 2019-20 Vice President/President-Elect, Kirby McCurtis and Christine Caputo. Each candidate was given ten questions and submitted written answers. This afternoon’s interview is with Christine Caputo.
Kirby McCurtis: 2019-20 ALSC Vice President/President Elect Candidate
In an effort to help ALSC members make an informed decision before they vote, the blog posts this morning and this afternoon consist of interviews with the candidates for ALSC 2019-20 Vice President/President-Elect, Kirby McCurtis and Christine Caputo. Each candidate was given ten questions and submitted written answers. This morning’s interview is with Kirby McCurtis. 1. What do you consider the most important role of the ALSC President? To me, the most important role of the ALSC president is to provide bold vision and leadership. The president must be receptive to the needs of members, library staff, and the children we serve. Leveraging our diversity, and being ever mindful of inclusion, the President should work collaboratively with the Board, Executive Director, and membership to ensure we are working toward the core values, vision statement, and directions as laid out in the Strategic Plan. 2. What skills & strengths would you…
Meet Your ALSC Board: Sujei Lugo
In this regular feature, we profile 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. To continue this series, we invite you to meet ALSC Board member, Sujei Lugo. Why did you join ALSC? Do you belong to any other ALA divisions or roundtables? I’ve joined ALSC to connect with other youth library workers and learned about their projects, work and experiences. I got more involved with ALSC acting as REFORMA representative for different committees and working groups. I’m grateful for mentors like Oralia Garza de Cortés, Loida Garcia Febo, and Dr. Claudette S. McLinn for their words, support and guidance in navigating ALA and ALSC leadership spaces. In addition to ALSC, I’m also a member of REFORMA and the ALA International Relations Committee-Américas…
Unpacking Midwinter: Updates from the Midwinter ALSC Board Meetings & Other Meetings
Hello everyone! I hope that you are staying safe and warm wherever this post may find you. I also trust that those who attended Midwinter have finally all made it back home without further incident, particularly those of you who were stranded at airports waiting for flights, any flights, that would get you home. Since midwinter there has been considerable unpacking – literally and metaphorically. Some of you are unpacking suitcases full of books, posters, and other exciting finds from the exhibits, along with meeting notes and your conference clothes. Many people have also been unpacking all those thoughts swirling around in your head from networking, engaging sessions and keynotes, committee meetings, encounters with colleagues, and the barrage of online conversations related to the Youth Media Awards (YMAs) and the much needed conversations about walking the walk to ensure everyone is treated equitably and humanely. The latter stemming from multiple…