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…
Category: ALA Midwinter 2016
Youth Media Awards Tween Round-Up
With all the whooping and screaming and unbridled enthusiasm during the Youth Media Awards announcements, the hundreds of librarians in the room at ALA Midwinter might have been mistaken for a group of shrieking tweens. But no! Few if any actual tweens graced the room that morning and none of the awards target that slippery upper elementary, middle school-ish group in particular. Good news for tween readers and the librarians and teachers who serve them: Many of the wonderful titles celebrated earlier this month suit tweens perfectly. Immediately after the announcements, members of the School Age Programs and Service Committee met to go over all the newly-minted winners and honorees, identifying titles for independent reading and/or classroom use. If you work with tweens, these books might just be the next great reads for your kids. These include novels, pictures books, comics, and audiobooks, both fiction and nonfiction. Because some were…
#ALAMW16 – the British overview by @HelenSwinyard
Hi everyone. I am a school librarian from Britain who visited the #ALAMW16 as a first -timer this month. I found the conference enlightening and inspiring. Here is my overview of the weekend (without the tint of jetlag). Why did I take part in ALA Midwinter? In the first instance, because an American librarian suggested it. I thought it would be exciting to see what is happening in the US in libraries, and try to get lots of good ideas to bring back to the UK. What were the highlights? The Youth Media Awards! It was my 35th birthday and we got up so early, to get in the queue. It was worth it for a 5th row seat, and I met some lovely librarians in the queue too! It was wonderful to be part of something with such a buzz. I loved how all the committee members were honoured,…
5 Things You May Have Missed from #alamw16
Don’t you just love all of the conference liveblogging that happens here on the ALSC Blog? We at the Public Awareness Committee certainly do–it’s a great way to keep in the loop if you can’t be at a conference, or even if you’re attending but have to be choosey about where you spend your time. There are always so many interesting and important things happening at conferences, it can be hard to keep up with everything. So, to help everyone continue to be as informed as possible, here are… 5 Things You May Have Missed from #alamw16 1. ALSC is working with First Book for a Día initiative, and First Book is offering ways to make sure libraries with an e-rate of 90% and/or serving communities with 70%+ students eligible for free/reduced lunch have access to low cost or free books. That’s excellent, multicultural books in the library and in the hands of…
How the Morris Seminar Changed My View on Awards
It began immediately after the Youth Media Awards were announced on Monday. Quiet whispers to friends and colleagues: “I was surprised by this committee’s choice” and “Why wasn’t this title selected?” and “How could that title have won?” and “My pick didn’t win and it should have!” While I’ve often heard this kind of discussion after the announcement, I haven’t always had the words to articulate a response. But this year’s announcements for me were colored by a very new and different experience — on Friday, I had the great privilege of attending ALSC’s 2016 Morris Seminar. Here are some of the things I learned: Every book has faults. It’s about what book rises to the top of the pile. Only discuss the books on the table. You can’t talk about books from previous years. When you read independently, you read in a vacuum. The committee as a whole is…
Top Rainbow Reads for Kids
This weekend I had the most incredible book discussion experience of my life. No joke. I had the joy of meeting with 9 wonderful and incredibly smart people to decide on the best LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) books for kids and teens that were published between July 2014 and December 2015. You can find the entire list on the Rainbow List site; I am going to highlight the top books for kids through grades 6 here. The final list includes over 40 titles and of these we selected a top 10. Top ten titles are indicated with an *. I know that book budgets are not limitless, so if you can’t buy all of these titles for your collection, a good place to start is with anything on the top 10 list: Gracefully Grayson, The Marvels (who are we kidding, you already have this book!), and Sex is…
#ALAMW16 Illustrated Morris Seminar Wrapup
I had a mind-blowing time at the Bill Morris Seminar in Boston. The gist of it is: you take a room, fill it with librarians from all over the country at varying times in their librarian and ALSC careers, and then have incredible people lecture them on book evaluation and put them into discussion groups to apply what they’ve learned. Here is my illustrated wrap-up of the day, with wise words from KT Horning (sometimes reading the words of out-sick Martha Parravano), Thom Barthelmess, Mary Burkey, Kevin Delecki, Randy Enos, Junko Yokoto, and other participants. All original artwork copyright 2016, Lisa Nowlain Lisa Nowlain is the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Fellow and Children’s Librarian at Darien Library in Darien, CT (you can be the next one! Apply by April 1 at www.darienlibrary.org/mcgrawfellowship) She is also an artist-type (see more at www.lisanowlain.com).
Reflecting on ALA Midwinter #alamw16
I’m all packed and ready to catch a plane back home, tired but re-energized & excited to begin to utilize some of the resources and information I’ve learned while at ALA Midwinter in Boston. Reflecting on the highlights of the conference, I think of: The information I learned at the ALSC Collection Management Discussion Group session and the decision to create a Facebook page for the group; this will surely be a good place for ongoing discussions. The announcement of Pat Scales as the 2016 recipient of ALSC’s Distinguished Service Award. A former middle school and high school librarian and a passionate advocate for children’s intellectual freedom, it was exciting to see her receive this well-deserved award. Sitting in on book discussions Visiting the exhibits and talking with vendors The number of ARCs in my suitcase which I will bring back to my library to offer to excited young readers…