I went to a grown-up pre-conference at the 2022 PLA Conference: Actively Anti-Racist Service to Leisure Readers (check out our PLA 2022 live blogging here!). Many times when choosing conference sessions, I look for content specific to youth librarianship. It’s what I know, it’s what I do. But here’s your sign to look outside our youth librarian box now and then. Although the presenters, Robin Bradford, Alene Moroni, and Becky Spratford are experienced in adult services, everything they said translates easily to youth collections. I want to share my takeaways advocating for diverse books in your collections.
Category: Blogger Abby Johnson
ALSC Blogger Abby Johnson
The Children’s Author Panel of My Dreams at #PLA2022
Thursday morning I had the absolute pleasure of sharing breakfast with a room full of librarians and listening to four stellar authors speak about their books. I tweeted that it was the author panel of my dreams: Dhonielle Clayton, Alex Gino, Rex Ogle, and Traci Sorrell.
Braille Enhanced StoryWalks® at #PLA2022
Y’all know I love the StoryWalks® at my library, but you know what could make them better? Increased accessibility for those with disabilities! In this morning’s session Braille Enhanced StoryWalks®, we learned about adding Braille text to StoryWalks®. The Library of Michigan and the Michigan Braille and Talking Books Library partnered to make this happen for dozens of library districts in their state, serving millions of residents.
Pilgrimage to Powell’s at #PLA2022
Portland, I am in you! I arrived Monday night and attended an amazing pre-conference yesterday (more on that later). And of course my colleagues and I had to make a pilgrimage to the City of Books, Powell’s Books.
Circulate Hotspots at Your Library
Does your library circulate hotspots to your community? Ours is just about to. Like many libraries, we were lucky enough to receive an Emergency Connectivity Grant. This provided funds for us to purchase 150 hotspots and 20 Chromebooks to circulate to our county. I know many libraries have circulated hotspots for years, but this was brand new to us. Here’s what we thought about as we got our hotspots ready for our community.
#ALAYMA Announcements Oh My!
This morning a few of my colleagues and I tuned in to the livestream of the Youth Media Awards and oh my goodness! So many fabulous books were honored, including a few books of my heart. And I look forward to reading the ones I haven’t yet read. A few books of my heart were honored this year and it was so amazing to hear their titles called! In particular, my colleagues knew that I was really rooting for Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. Just last week, I suggested it for my library’s LGBTQ+ book discussion. I told our leader that I was going to go ahead and put in the ILL requests before it got bombarded with shiny stickers and no one would loan it to us for awhile. Yay for me that I did that because boy howdy did it get bombarded! Another book…
Collection Development at the End of the Fiscal Year
How do you wind down collection development as you reach the end of your fiscal year? Ours just ended, so I wanted to share some of the activities and strategies we use for getting through this last bit of the purchasing year.
Food Pantry Storytime
Earlier this year, my library opened a food pantry as one of the services we offer. It’s been a huge success, a lot of work but a huge payoff for our patrons. Last month, I hosted a food pantry storytime to help promote our pantry. I don’t get to do storytime too often anymore and it was a lot of fun. Here’s what we did!