Around 8:00 a.m. PST on June 26th, 2015, I sat at a Starbucks, downing as much coffee as possible before my first day at ALA Annual began. As I anxiously flipped through Facebook, a theme spread like wildfire through every post: Marriage equality is the law of the land! Love wins! SCOTUS FTW! I could hardly believe my good fortune to be in what felt like the center of the universe for this landmark decision. Awestruck, I gathered up my things and headed to a 3.5-hour preconference: Rolling Out the Rainbow Carpet: Serving LGBTQ Communities. Later that same day, I heard Roberta Kaplan give the opening keynote speech. Two days later, I donned my rainbow regalia and watched the San Francisco Pride Parade. In addition to all of that amazingness, my conference experience was made special in the following ways: Attending a preconference. I gained so much in the way…
Category: ALA Annual 2015
The Value of ALA Annual: Reflections from a First Time Attendee
This summer my husband and I packed up, threw a couple of dogs in our car, and moved from Texas to Massachusetts. I had resigned from my amazing job as an elementary librarian in Coppell, TX and accepted the Media Specialist position at Shrewsbury High School (just outside of Worchester, MA). Our summer was spent looking for houses, attempting to understand the foreign language that is real estate, and playing Tetris with all of our belongings. On the bright side, between packing, driving, and across country flights, I have finished a record number of audio books. In the middle of all this, I flew to San Francisco for my first ALA Annual conference. I fortunately received a Penguin Young Readers Award, an award that is given to support 4 members of ALSC who have fewer than 5 years experience in the library to attend their first ALA Annual. This experience…
Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet Videos
The award acceptance videos from the 2015 Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet are now available. These speeches took place at the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. Below are the three videos from each of the winners. You can also watch the video of the full banquet (running time 1 hour 45 minutes 54 seconds). Enjoy! Kwame Alexander – Newbery Speech Dan Santat – Caldecott Speech Donald Crews – Wilder Speech
Program-a-looza!
Last month’s ALA Annual conference saw the arrival of a mostly school-age sibling to Guerrilla Storytime and YA Smackdown. On Sunday and Monday morning, Amy Forrester, Kahla Gubanich and Mary Pearl of the Denver Public Library and Multnomah County Library’s Danielle Jones gathered youth services librarians in the Networking Uncommons for a speedy discussion of easy, inexpensive programming for children from birth to age 12. At Monday’s session, each participant offered an outline of a successful program, including crucial details such as accompanying snacks and the best ways to reuse old supplies. (This is how I learned some Minecraft enthusiasts enjoy perler beads. Thanks for the tip, Aaron!) The Denver Public Library contingent plans lots of passive programs–including animal science activities and a spy training event–which may require a bit more set-up but can appeal to kids of all ages, last for hours, and be reused. Danielle shared her preschool success with an…
2015 ALSC Book & Media Speeches Now Online
The ALSC award acceptance speeches from the 2015 ALA Annual Conference are now available from the ALSC website. Speeches includes the winners of these 2015 awards: Batchelder Belpré Caldecott Carnegie Geisel Newbery Sibert Wilder Each of these is available as a downloadable PDF. For a full list of 2015 ALSC Book & Media Award winners please see the ALSC website.
The party that was Caldecott
The place: San Francisco. The occasion: ALA Annual. The party: Caldecott. From January 2014 – January 2015, I studiously studied. I looked at over 500 picture books, and along with 14 other intrepid souls, decided which of those were the most distinguished. Our committee is incredibly proud of our list of books. And this year at ALA annual, we got to celebrate with the distinguished artists in the class of 2015. Starting with a great street party for Melissa Sweet (which included yummy tacos & a baby shower), and then the next night a dinner with all 6 honor winners, followed the next evening by “Dinner with Dan”, and then Sunday the Caldecott-Newbery-Wilder awards banquet, it was a wild and fun ride! But it wasn’t just fine dining. At each of these events our committee got to have some quality time with the illustrators that we honored. And we felt…
Somewhere over the Rainbow
It was a wonderful time to be in San Francisco. Libraries, a cultural embodiment of inclusion and acceptance, happily shared in the celebrations honoring equality. In this past year, with our focus on diversity in all its aspects, materials, services and our own ranks, it was particularly fitting that we would be at the center of this latest piece of good news. Rainbows were everywhere. I am struck again and again by the passion of our members. Library work is more a calling than a profession and in this digital age, our work is more vital and less understood. In my presidential year, I was particularly gratified that children’s librarians are embracing their role in helping families determine how and what media to use to help children learn and thrive. The leadership discussion of the ALSC white paper on media mentors was a highlight of the conference for me. The…
Free books, receptions, networking, and more at #alaac15
#alasc15 is officially done! I can’t believe another conference has wrapped. It’s an event that I look forward to all year long! There is no better opportunity to reconnect with grad school friends, committee/group members, and meet new friends!! Takeaways from this year: Book fever/ Book FOMO were real conditions! Even though it was not my first exhibit, I felt myself (along with my peers) get swept up with book fever or FOMO (fear of missing out)! I kept grabbing books like a Black Friday shopper! As my conference roomie pointed out, the exhibit hall felt like the arcade scene from Percy Jackson– you could lose time and life force as you walked along! After shipping back three boxes– I realized next time I need to have more discretion and pack an empty suitcase! Award Receptions: I won a scholarship this year to attend #alaac15 from the Freedom to Read…