In my household, #ALA11 is known as “Librarians Gone Wild” and I think the name does really fit! It’s hard to put into words how wonderful this experience has been so far, but I think the greatest part of it has been making connections with people whose work I’ve read – authors, bloggers, friends on GoodReads, librarians on list-serves, reviewers. On the first day, I walked into the exhibit hall’s graphic novel artist’s lane because I knew my students adore graphic novels. I’m quite a shy person, not very good at asserting myself into conversations, so I was waiting patiently to say hi to Raina Telgemeier, the author of our most popular graphic novel Smile, when she saw me and shouted, “Mary Ann! Hello!!!” and gave me a huge hug. I’ve never met Raina or her husband Dave Roman before, but I’ve shared my enthusiasm for their stories on my…
Category: ALA Annual 2010
My First ALA Annual Conference: Reflections from a Penguin Award Winner
I have had an incredible week at the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington DC. By the fifth day, I got out of bed at 7:00 am and hobbled to the bathroom on swollen feet. I cursed my shoes and decided that fashion be damned, I was wearing my dirty running shoes to the conference that day. Certainly there was little time for running or working out in the swanky gym at the Grand Hyatt. My husband and I arrived by train on Thursday and after a night without sleep, I was ready to get settled and unpacked in our hotel room. Early to bed, I arose the Friday morning refreshed and headed to the preconference, Drawn to Delight sponsored by ALSC at the Corcoran Gallery. This was a delightful day. One of the best conferences I have ever attended, I was able to spend time with Timothy Basil Ering,…
Nuts about the Newbery
I love books: reading them, talking about them and writing about them. I really LOVE great books which is why I am Nuts about the Newbery, so nuts that I have read every book that ever won the medal. Knowing that much about me will tell you why I am STILL smiling from the amazing adventure I had last week. I went to the 2010 American Library Association Annual Conference in DC. If you have never gone I am here to tell you, GO! I had the most amazing time, met tons of my favorite authors/heroes, got several (lots) of new books, learned tons at sessions on topics like poetry and blogging, and had an AMAZING, magical evening at the Newbery/Caldecott Gala. For the Gala I wore my purple poof dress. Before the event even started, I got to meet Grace Lin and Jerry Pinkney. I now have a set…
To Thrive on Change: A Student Perspective of ALA Annual
Being a part of the 2010 ALA Annual Conference was incredible. The energy and sheer scale of the conference was at times overwhelming, and I was so fortunate to be able to experience it as both an attendee and a volunteer through the Student to Staff program working with ALSC. At the ALSC preconference “Drawn to Delight,” I recorded the dynamic Timothy Basil Ering improvise a landscape in ink and acrylics. I was struck by his words as well as the artwork forming in front of my lens; he delighted in spontaneity and insisted that mistakes were just opportunities for change. As wet ink dribbled down the paper, his eyes lit up in recognition of not an irreversible error but a chance to turn a landscape into a waterscape. What a great lesson for me as a conference attendee! As the weekend flew by, I found a willingness to adapt…
ALA Language
Language. How we acquire it, and what we do with it once we have it. This was the theme for my ALA 2010 experience. As always, the Charlemae Rollins President’s Program on Monday morning was the best session I attended. It opened with the wonderful storyteller, Lucia Gonzalez, and then went on to the fascinating research of Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl. Her comments and revelations had me thinking for days about stories and the sounds of language. How fitting that the day before I braved the heat for a quick trip to the Digital Bookmobile to be part of the community recording of “The Wizard of Oz”, and then later on Monday to listen to the dulcet tones of the Odyssey Award winners. It is all about language, and what we do with it. It is all about how we put together those words and how the sounds of those…
Mixing business and pleasure
Could there possibly be another profession whose members throw themselves into their jobs with as much zest and joy as librarians do? Every ALA conference I attend convinces me that we are truly blessed among all professionals. My first ALA was in San Francisco in 1987 — I was a new college graduate and had been accepted to what was then known as UCLA’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. My mom is a librarian and I literally grew up in libraries (was even brought to a few library school classes at Berkeley as an infant), but I had never encountered librarians en masse. The tote bags! The swag! The sensible shoes! The sheer enthusiasm of everyone I talked to! I was hooked. Countless ALAs later, I’m still hooked on the excitement of our annual conference. Even after more than 20 years, there’s always something to learn and plenty…
Highlights of One ALSC-er’s Annual Conference
Everybody has a different conference experience. Some folks run around from event to event and class to class, while others peruse the exhibit floor to learn about new releases, meet authors, and get up to date on the latest technology. Some folks are die-hard book cart drill team fans, and others are inspired by the words of the leaders in our field. But one thing united all of these choices of activities: you could find someone else from ALSC wherever you went! My own Annual started this year with a quick train ride from NYC, and I soon arrived at the ALSC Happy Hour that was held at Gordon Biersch, right down the street from the Convention Center. While I wish I could have attended the pre-conference “Drawn to Delight”, enough ALSC-ers at the happy hour had attended and were more than happy to fill me in on the day’s…
Taking Libraries into the Community: Beyond Brick Borders
I’m back home after a whirlwind of a long weekend in D.C. and it’s strange indeed to be wearing a sweater against the cool and overcast weather here in Venice, CA after that astonishing and record-breaking D.C. heat. Here’s a report on the first ALSC program I attended this weekend. Please find handouts and more information under the program name on this page. Taking Libraries into the Community: Beyond Brick Borders: Presented by Shawn Brommers of South Central Library System in Madison, Wisconsin; Mary Fellows of the Upper Hudson Library System, and Evelyn Walkowicz of the Henderson District Public Libraries in Las Vegas, NV. Ms. Brommers discusses a variety of community programming, including: Motheread/Fatheread – literacy program using children’s books to teach adult (parent) literacy; for example, working with incarcerated dads. Reach Out and Read – bringing books and early literacy info, through pediatricians and clinics, to new parents Think…