You know you should go to the ALA Annual Conference. It’s on your to-do list, right? Your professors and colleagues tell you it’s a great experience and you drool over the list of literary and library celebrities that will be appearing. But then you think, it will be so expensive! There’s the airfare, the hotel, not to mention juggling school, work, and all the other things in our busy lives. Well, I’m here to tell you to do it! The benefits of the conference are well worth the time and energy. There’s nothing like seeing how the ideas and theories in our textbooks are applied by real people in the real library world. The ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim was my first. I was excited, yet intimidated. So many people, sessions, booths, venues! I felt completely overwhelmed. Luckily, I happened upon a mentor who took me under her wing and…
Category: ALA Annual 2012
Coming Soon… #ala12
I have a friend who will not read any book that she has purchased, she is saving them for retirement. (Hi BW!) I am kind of the same way, but about galleys. I don’t know why. Maybe because there is no due date, I don’t know my reasons, but I always REALLY want to read them. So upon returning from ALA a few weeks ago I promised myself that I would read MOST of the galleys that I brought back with me. So far, I have been doing pretty well. Here are some of the highlights: Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers by Dav Pilkey (August 28, 2012) Drama by Raina Telgemeier (September 1, 2012) Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead (August 7, 2012) Bartholemew Biddle and the Very Big Wind by Gary Ross (November 13, 2012) Mr. Terupt Falls Again by Rob Buyea (October 9, 2012)…
Spotlight on the Schneider Award
I bet we librarians can name dozens of Caldecott, Newbery, and even Printz award winners at the drop of the hat. Because of their longstanding history and prestige, these awards are quite visible in our librarian community. There are other awards, like the Schneider Family Book Award, that may not have an extensive history as the Caldecott or Newbery. However, that doesn’t mean that their significance to the world of children’s literature should be overlooked. The Schneider Family Book Award is a newer addition to ALA’s Media Youth Awards. This award honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. Each year, three awards are presented for the best Teen, Middle School and Children’s Book. This year at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, three books were awarded with this high honor: Close to Famous by…
Thinking About Your Children’s Spaces #ala12
Think about the community where you live. How many spaces are there in the community for adults? I’d guess there are lots: Starbucks, shopping centers, restaurants, theaters… Now think about how many spaces there are specifically for children. Maybe the YMCA, the play place at the fast food establishment, a park or two. How awful is that, that kids don’t have more spaces in which they can really engage? Why not make the library one such destination? Sunday morning at ALA started with a program titled “Where the Wild Things Are: Children’s Learning and Discovery Spaces.” The program featured some rock stars of library design, including Kimberly Bolan Cullin (who recently wrote a children’s space checklist for DEMCO) and Kim van der Veen of Burgeon Group, LLC. The panelists acknowledged that not all libraries can afford to completely revamp their children’s spaces, so they pointed out some simple, cost-effective strategies for…
#ala12 Through a Different Lens
I have been attending ALA meetings and conferences for many years now. I have tried to be active in ALSC and have taken on different roles in different committees. What Annual has often meant to me in the past was a whole lot of committee meetings. Sure, I tried to get out onto the floor and talk with some publishers and discover new books, but the main thrust of my attendance was my committee. This year, I looked at Annual through a new lens. I was on the outgoing side of my Newbery tenure this year, and as such I have yet to commit to another committee! Anaheim meant celebration for me. But it also gave me an opportunity to look at my time at Annual in a different light. Without hours of committee meetings, I was free to explore the sessions that were being offered. And what happened because…
#ala12 Savor the Flavor
What was the ALA conference at Anaheim like? Sadly, since the blog was down during conference, all the microblogging I could do was through Twitter. Still and all, it helped me focus on the fun, adventure, learning and camaraderie that is always part of our ALA conferences. Below is just a taste of some of my ALSC tweets in my week in Anaheim. Savor the flavor! Emerging Leaders Poster Session — It was standing room only as people browsed through and talked to the leaders about their projects. Team E worked with ALSC in developing a mentorship project. Using their slick online tool, I discovered my ideal mentor would be Batgirl — swoon. Friday Night Exhibit Openings (pictured above). Yes it is just like that — crowds, clamor, arcs, swag, noshing and more. I managed to pick up a bit of swag and arcs, run into old friends and get…
#ala12: I Want a Truck Book! Reorganizing Your Picture Book Collection
Once in a while, a conference session will light a spark that stays with you beyond the time spent listening to the speakers. I Want a Truck Book! has stayed with me, as I think about this fascinating presentation time and time again. Gretchen Caserotti, Deborah Cooper and Tali Balas Kaplan shared their experiences reorganizing their children’s collections to meet the needs of young patrons. Each approached the challenge of reorganizing their collections to help children find books intuitively and easily. They shared their experiences working with public and school libraries. As Tali Balas Kaplan wrote here in the ALSC Blog, “Successful systems have clear logic and the different pieces are connected in ways that make sense to people who’re using the system.” But the Dewey organization of books by an intricate subject matter system and author’s last name does not make intuitive sense to our young children or their…
Toys in the Library #ala12
Having toys and play at the library is certainly a timely topic: the revised Every Child Ready to Read includes play as one of the five practices to promote early literacy. ALSC sponsored a program at ALA on this topic entitled “You Want Me to Circ WHAT?! or How to Best Utilize Toys as a Literacy Tool in Programs and as a Fun Part of Your Lending Collection.” Toys are a great, child-approved way to integrate play into the library, and this session had quite a few ideas for making that happen: No space is too small for incorporating toys into the library. Whether you have a room, a playhouse, a closet, a table, or just a bit of space under some shelves, you can add toys successfully. Wall panels work really well, too. Adding toys is not a “go big or go home” scenario: a small selection of toys is just…