Speaking on two panels at PLA 2026 meant missing sessions I genuinely wanted to attend. Making Space for Teens at the Library was one of them. Fortunately, Jade Parks of Downers Grove Public Library and Athens Moreno of Carol Stream Public Library uploaded their slides and resource packet to the conference portal, where attendees could access them through the mobile app. The materials reward close study. Parks and Moreno identify three recurring problems in teen librarianship: teens are underserved, library space and resources are limited, and behavioral incidents involving teens receive disproportionate attention. Their answer is a service design plan libraries can use now, even without a renovation. Parks and Moreno define space more broadly than furniture. In their model, space includes staffing, signage, scheduling, collections, passive programming, volunteer structures, and digital community. The broader definition shifts the whole conversation. It moves attention from square footage alone to the decisions…
Category: PLA 2026
Making Space for Teens in the Library
At #PLA2026 today, presenters from Downers Grove Public Library and Carol Stream Public Library talked about teen spaces in the library. They started by sharing common problems they identified when it comes to teens in the library:
Rooted in Inclusion: All Abilities STEAM Learning with Community Gardening
Today at #PLA2026, the Cobb County Public Library shared its community garden program with conference attendees. They were faced with a big, empty, grassy spot in front of their building and decided to do something to benefit both their patrons and the environment by turning it into a garden. Nature programming always catches my eye, and while Cobb County has a large garden, their ideas and programs are scalable for libraries of any size! To get things started, they partnered with a local master naturalist and applied for, and received, a gardening-related grant. From there, things blossomed! Access and inclusion are very important to them. They pointed out that patrons in apartments do not have access to grassy areas where they can dig in and plant things, and a garden at the library allows them to get their hands in the dirt! To promote accessibility, they included tall raised beds that accommodate patrons with mobility limitations. They also ensure that there are plenty of plants with…
#PLA2026: Children in the Middle of Migrant Family Service
In Serving Migrants at Ground Zero, adult services framed the session, but children appeared in almost every example. They waited with parents for city ID cards, read bilingual comics while adults filled out forms, listened to storytime in hotel kitchenettes, entered local schools without supplies, and needed swimsuits and locks for a public pool. Fatma Ghailan and Rosemary Kiladitis were unable to attend, so Tejas Desai and Marco Castillo of Queens Public Library and Lauren Comito of Brooklyn Public Library carried the session. Their accounts showed how far library service can stretch when families arrive under unstable conditions and public systems do not communicate clearly. Children’s service belongs in the middle of this response.
#pla2026 – Advocacy and Public Policy
Today’s focus was about advocacy and public policy which is something that I’ve recently become interested in. I decided to attend sessions that focused on the advocacy that my fellow librarians are doing so that I can take ideas back to my library and try to implement.
#PLA2026: Ann Patchett, Kate DiCamillo, and the Reading Lives Public Libraries Build
At the Author Lunch with Ann Patchett and Kate DiCamillo, the conversation moved quickly beyond admiration and craft talk. DiCamillo began by reflecting on Minneapolis during the past winter and on the neighbors and librarians who helped keep families fed, housed, and supplied with warm clothes. She thanked librarians for standing on the frontlines of civil liberties and public life. Her opening remarks placed books within community care rather than apart from it.
Going Beyond Storytime at #PLA2026
Coco Pacheco from Downey City Library led a fabulous presentation at #PLA2026 about how to expand storytime by incorporating STEM, movement, art, and sensory activities. She shared that their storytime attendance has skyrocketed in the last few years after changing the format from doing a craft after storytime to doing various activities. Here are some ideas I gathered of activities to do after storytime that aren’t crafts: dancing, bubbles, parachute play, process art (stamping with rubber ducks, sticking small items on contact paper), playing with toys, puppets, building with boxes, sensory bins, and decorating cupcakes. I appreciated that the session was very interactive! We did a scarf song, bilingual song, and sound & motion drawing. Thanks to Coco, and I hope you all can incorporate some of these ideas into your storytimes! All photos courtesy of Conference Guest Blogger, Jen Pace Dickenson Jen Pace Dickenson (she/her/hers) is the Youth Services…
How to Bring Nature to Your Library #PLA2026
Do you have a green thumb? No? No problem! Do you have an outdoor space at your library? Also no? Still no problem. You can absolutely bring nature into your library with no gardening expertise or green space required. Here’s something surprising that I learned at #PLA2026. The Trust for Public Land states that about 1 in 3 people, including 28 million children, don’t have a park within a 10-minute walk of home! And yet, we know that nature play supports creativity, builds sensory skills, strengthens social-emotional development, and even improves focus and physical health. That’s a pretty compelling case for bringing a little more green into our spaces. The good news? It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. The Austin Public Library has embraced this idea in big and small ways by creating outdoor StoryWalks®, a nature playground, and programming around birds, bees, and bats (oh my!). They’ve…