Category: ALA Virtual Conference 2020

Another session I attended today at ALA Virtual Conference was called Civic Duty? Libraries and the Disenfranchised. The speakers were Katharine Ellera, an international legal advisor on enfranchisement, Nicole Porter from The Sentencing Project, and Leslie Purdie, who works in a prison library. The presentation was packed with facts, which I couldn’t write down quickly enough. But I’ll give some highlights here: Disenfranchisement isn’t only about not having the legal right to vote. It’s also about barriers to voting. Many differrent groups around the world face barriers such as: people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, indigenous peoples, internally displaced persons, those with criminal convictions, women, ethnic minorities. In America, many states don’t even allow international observers, which is a huge red flag. There are undue obstacles for many segments of the population. A lot was said about the disenfranchisement of people convicted of a felony — in many states that’s…

It’s always good to hear “Maria” from Sesame Street! Sonia Manzano was talking about her new picture book with National Geographic Kids, A World Together. It’s a book about empathy, with photographs of kids from all over the world. Our world is surely interconnected. She mentioned the song they used to sing on Sesame Street about “Co-operation makes it happen….” Working together is the best way to go — but now it’s seen as a sign of weakness. Children mimic the behavior of denigrating co-operation. It’s more important than ever to show the value of co-operation. This is her first book working with photographs, so she reflected on the power of images. She remembered her own fascination with photos of Puerto Rico when she was a kid. Her parents were from there, but she’d never been. Photos bring depth. She hopes it helps kids not to be fearful of kids…

I attended a session at ALA Virtual Conference today called Are the Kids Okay? How Librarians Can Use Literature to Help Kids Navigate Socioemotional Stress. The moderator was Kelly Jensen, and the panelists were three young adult authors who have all experienced mental illness and write about teens with mental illness. I. W. Gregorio has written None of the Above, and her new book is This Is My Brain in Love. Ashley Woodfolk has written The Beauty That Remains, and her new book is When You Were Everything, about a friendship break-up. Adib Khorram has wrtten Darius the Great Is Not Okay, and his new book is Darius the Great Deserves Better. The panelists were asked what influenced them to write books dealing with mental health. IG: She saw her 10-year-old daughter dealing with some of the same things she had. She wanted to write a story about anxiety and…

Today I attended a session called Herstory through Activism: Women, Libraries, and Activism at ALA Virtual Conference. The moderator was Sherre Harrington, and panelists were Emily Drabinski, Dalena Hunter, and Teresa Y. Neely. The occasion is the 50th anniversary of ALA’s Feminist Task Force. Each panelist spoke separately, then they answered some questions together. They pointed out that workers in the library field are mostly women, but the leadership is mostly men. And libraries are racialized spaces — overwhelmingly white. Women of color who do work in libraries tend to be in the lower-paid positions. They talked abot the history of activism in libraries, and work of specific librarians to document African American history. They talked about how Black women experience a doubling of oppressions. And neither feminist organizations nor black liberation movements really saw them. Teresa Neely talked about the Cumbahee River Collective of 1974-1980. They articulated that if…