Thanks to the kind people at ALSC and Penguin Young Readers, I was able to travel to my first ALA Annual Conference this summer. Tennessee to Nevada travel would generally not be in my public library’s budget, so I was thrilled to have received a stipend help with the cost of attendance. (Thanks again, Penguin!) Here are my top Annual Conference tips from a newbie. Stay at a conference hotel. I made the mistake of not booking my hotel the moment I knew that I was going to attend. (I was lost in the chaos that is summer reading planning). Transportation in Vegas was a challenge and those free shuttles would have been helpful. Fringe benefits of staying at a partnering hotel include: being surrounded by other attendees, sharing non-shuttle transportation costs, and being in closer proximity to social events. It is okay to travel alone. I went non-stop the…
Category: ALA Annual 2014
What’s So Funny? Or How I Met Jon Scieszka Three Times in One Day
There were many things that made me laugh in Las Vegas at ALA Annual this year. There were zany, homemade costumes worn by street performers and sky high food prices (an $18 burger? You can’t be serious), but the best laughs were found inside the Las Vegas Convention Center. This being my first ALA Annual, I had spent a lot of time in advance researching which authors and illustrators would be visiting the publisher’s booths in the exhibit hall. When I looked at my final list, I realized that many of these picture book icons had one thing in common: they all wrote or illustrated humorous books that I love to use in Storytime. Following are my experiences in just one day of ALA Annual in which I met these talented people and ways in which you can use their books in preschool or family Storytime. Jon Scieszka (1st time)…
Sharing iDías : Diverse Programming at Your Library
One great initiative that the Public Awareness Committee works to promote is El día de los niños/ El día de los libros (Children’s Day/ Book Day), which was founded in 1996 by Latino children’s author Pat Mora. Día is a special way for libraries to emphasize the importance of advocating literacy to children of all backgrounds while also encouraging families and children to connect with multicultural books, cultures and languages. Exposure to diversity on a regular basis is very important for children and the public library is poised as the perfect space to provide diverse encounters. You can read more about why nurturing cultural diversity in your library is important by reading Jamie Campbell Naidoo’s wonderful ALSC white paper The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children. At the recent ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Naidoo and Debby Gold of the Cuyahoga County Public Library…
Top Ten Things You May Have Missed in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, the city of distractions, proved to be an entertaining and exciting location for my first Annual Conference. With so many wonderful restaurants, an energetic exhibit hall, and lots of great meetings and sessions to attend, it was very easy to miss out on something. The following list highlights 10 things you might have missed at Annual 2014: 1. The Long but Super Fast Registration Line! With over 18,000 people attending ALA Annual in Las Vegas, it is no surprise that the registration lines got a little long. As nervous as I was when I first stepped into the line, it went incredibly fast! The staff did a fantastic job getting everyone in and out, all of our questions answered, and communicating their excitement for the conference. Thanks ALA staffers for your hard work leading up to and during the conference! The Banned Book Video Booth The energy and…
Beware of Open Manholes: An Interview with Daniel Handler
I had the opportunity to meet with Daniel Handler at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas last month to ask him a few questions about Intellectual Freedom and some other stuff. Do you have a favorite banned and/or challenged book? What is it? Well, Lolita is one of my favorite books in the world, so that would be my favorite in terms of the literary quality of the work being challenged. But the fact that there are forces keeping Lolita out of the hands of young people doesn’t sound like the most dire battle I’ve ever heard in my life. In my neighborhood in San Francisco, the closest library to me is the Castro branch which has a wide assortment of books for queer youth, both fiction and non-fiction. They always have a little flyer about how many times this has been challenged or where it’s been challenged and…
Experience the Book & Media Award Acceptance Speeches
The 2014 ALSC book and media award acceptance speeches evoked plenty of emotion. Some were funny and warm. Some were emotional and informative. You can read them yourself on the ALSC website! Download a copy of the PDF of each of the speeches: Batchelder [PDF – 1 MB] Belpré [PDF – 2.3 MB] Caldecott [PDF – 2 MB] Carnegie [PDF – 1 MB] Geisel [PDF – 1.4 MB] Newbery [PDF – 2 MB] Sibert [PDF – 1.1 MB] You can also watch reaction videos from the 2014 ALA Youth Media Award winners. Videos of the award speech presentations and inspiration videos that concluded the banquet will be posted soon.
Inclusion of ALSC Award Titles on the Notable Children’s Book List
Occasionally ALSC members wonder why ALSC award titles are automatically added to our list of Notable Books for Children. The ALSC Board periodically considers issues such as this to make sure we’re shepherding our awards and lists of recommended media appropriately. At its Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, the ALSC Board reaffirmed the policy that all award and honor books chosen by ALSC book award committees will be automatically included on our Notable Books list. I am writing as a member of the Board because we wanted to share a summary of our discussion and thinking. It was the consensus of the Board that the Notables list represents our division and, as such, should include the books cited by our award committees. Although some have argued that the Notables list should only include titles chosen by the Notable Books Committee itself, the Board sees the list as a cooperative effort…
Behind the scenes at the Pura Belpré Award Celebracií³n #alaac14
The Pura Belpré Award Celebracií³n is always my favorite event at ALA. The award is given to an illustrator and a writer whose work “best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.” I was a committee member back in 2010, and I try to help with the event each year because I love spending time with my friends from REFORMA (The National Association to Promote Library And Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking) and CAYASC (Children’s and Young Adult Services Committee). It’s always really fun to meet the award recipients, too, of course! This year’s decorations were especially beautiful. Committee member Armando Ramirez provided bright purple papel picado which he had custom designed with Pura Belpré’s image on every sheet of the delicate paper. Armando also brought his collection of beautiful rebozos to adorn the tables. Since…