Greetings from Austin! It’s exciting to be here at SXSWedu for what the organizers call an “annual celebration of innovations in learning”! As an evolution of the cultural festivals and conferences begun 30 years ago here in the Texas captial, SXSWedu brings thousands of educators together for keynotes (Temple Grandin kicked off the day today), workshops, summits, playgrounds, a policy forum, mentoring, and networking to share and develop their passions and talents for making the future brighter for kids. And that’s where ALSC comes in! As we work together to create a better future for children through libraries, our position in the education ecosystem is a vital and transformative one, so that’s why Executive Director Aimee Strittmatter and I have come to share the story of the essential role that libraries play in early, out-of-school, and informal learning, and to benefit from the wisdom of our colleagues in other organizations who…
Category: Blogger Andrew Medlar
Moving Forward into March
In March the wind / blows down the door and spills my soup / upon the floor. It laps it up / and roars for more. Blowing once / blowing twice blowing chicken soup / with rice. –Maurice Sendak, Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months (HarperCollins,1962) While thoughts turn to a marvelous March ahead, I do have to say that it was a pretty fabulous February! I began last month in Tucson, at the Educational Book & Media Association Annual Meeting where publishers and distributors come together to learn and do business. It was an honor to serve on a panel continuing the call for greater diversity in materials for our kids and to take this vital message to do what I believe is the necessary next step of putting dollars and cents behind the case for doing what we know is the right thing to do. It…
A Magnificent Midwinter #alamw16
I’m excited to share some of my adventures from Midwinter a couple of weeks ago and update you on the ALSC Board’s work together in Boston. Kicking things off on Thursday, I attended an Information Policy Workshop with our veep, Betsy Orsburn, and our Executive Director, Aimee Strittmatter. As one of the key elements of ALA’s Strategic Directions, learning more about this important area was very insightful and you can learn more about the day here. Friday began with the happy task of welcoming attendees to the 2016 Bill Morris Seminar: Book Evaluation Training, which is held every other year thanks to the generosity of the William C. Morris Endowment. The Morris Seminar provides mentoring in children’s media evaluation techniques, and I couldn’t be more grateful to this year’s spectacular co-chairs Deborah Taylor and Sylvia Vardell and to all of those who shared their experiences and wisdom with attendees, one of whom, Lisa…
Welcome to 2016 & See You at Midwinter!
Cheer, cheer, cheer the year, A new one’s just begun. Celebrate with all your friends, Let’s go have some fun! Clap, clap, clap your hands, A brand new year is here. Learning, laughing, singing, clapping, Through another year. –Anonymous (to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”) Happy New Year, everyone! Seeing out the old year, one of my final presidential activities of 2015 was also one of the most interesting. I was very happy to represent ALSC at the “Breakthroughs in Parent Engagement and Early Literacy” forum, presented by New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, sponsored by the Joyce Foundation, and held here in Chicago at Erikson Institute’s Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center. It was led by Lisa Guernsey and Michael Levine, authors of the book Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens, which Lisa talked about when she presented the keynote at…
On the Road Again, Reaching Out
One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow . . . [and] no one could wait for the holidays to start. –J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone As the days get shorter and colder in the northern hemisphere and the holidays arrive, it’s been a busy season! A couple of weeks ago I was in Denver (where it’s already snowed about as much as at Hogwarts) reaching out to those gathered for the LENA Research Foundation conference (#lena2015), the theme of which was “Parents Have the Power: Solving the ‘early catastrophe’ through science and parental investment.” It was an ideal opportunity to share the work ALSC is doing with Babies Need Words Every Day and in our partnership with PLA on Every Child Ready to Read, and I joined a panel with a pediatrician, health policy professor, and early learning innovator to…
Fight for School Libraries! #ESEA
Calling all Everyday Advocates! The fight for school libraries is real, and it needs you to make a difference. Congress is poised to act definitively on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) very soon. According ALA’s Washington Office, we could know as early as next week if watershed language for school libraries, included in the Senate’s Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177), makes it into this federal education bill. This means there is important work for all of us to do! The last time Congress passed an education bill they left out school libraries and our kids’ futures can’t afford for that to happen again. As soon as the Washington Office learns what is in the new compromise bill language, they will be posting an alert to the Legislative Action Center with instructions for how you can help (including talking points you can use to call, email, and Tweet…
A Transformative and Thankful Fall
“Maggie darted about like a black-stockinged bird, in search of wood for the fireplace. She and her grandmother lived at the edge of a lonely cranberry bog in New England, and the winds were cold at the edge of the sea.” —Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin (Parent’s Magazine Press, 1971) So begins one of my very, very favorite books ever, set at this time of the year when we give thanks–and there’s been much to be thankful for so far this fall. At the beginning of October I traveled to Ohio to visit my childhood library in Trotwood with my very own children’s librarian Tish Wilson, now assistant director for Youth Services at Dayton Metro Library. And even though the building has been renovated and expanded and my old elementary school is now just a big field next door, I was happy to see that the convenience store where we…
Media Mentorship & AAP’s New Digital Media Guidelines
If you haven’t heard the big news, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has just released updated findings in regards to the use of screen time by young children which emerged from their recent Growing Up Digital: Media Research Symposium. I’m excited to report that the AAP findings fully support ALSC’s position as outlined in the Media Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth white paper adopted by our Board of Directors back in March. More than ever, families and children will be turning to libraries and youth services staff for help in navigating the digital landscape and in making sound, developmentally appropriate decisions on media use. Your professional association is here to help you rise to the occasion and embrace the role of media mentor with the white paper and other resources that offer helpful ways for you to respond to your families. ALSC resources available to support you in meeting this…