Blogger Children and Technology Committee

Accessible Tech for Youth at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library

This post is by guest blogger Ivy Kuhrman, the Young Adult Librarian at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library in New York City. The ALSC Children and Technology committee invited Ivy to write this piece to share information about the Andrew Heiskell Library’s innovative use of accessible technology in their youth services. The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library provides free library services to patrons living in New York City and Long Island who are blind, low vision, or otherwise unable to read standard print. In addition to free and accessible reading materials in both braille and audio formats and a robust calendar of library programming for all ages, we offer access to a wealth of accessible technology for patrons at the library and beyond!

Commitment to Client Group

Commitment to a Library for ALL

Libraries are for everyone! All are welcome at the library! If you work in any type of library, especiallypublic libraries, you most likely have heard or seen this message. As a member of the ALSC Program Coordinating Committee, I find it incredibly meaningful to play a role in selecting sessions that are presented at the annual library conference and to have the opportunity to review conference proposals with an equity lens. Every year librarians and educators from all over the country earnestly attend the ALA conference to hear about how they can positively grow and impact their communities and I sincerely believe that attendees will appreciate the diverse and inclusive ALSC sessions that will be presented in Chicago this upcoming June. Among those sessions will be, “Transforming Everyday Spaces: Deepening Equity in Early ChildhoodLearning” presented by Elizabeth McChesney. As the liaison for this program, I would like to encourageconference participants…

Awards & Scholarships

Art as a Mirror: Maureen Hayes Award Broadens Children’s Horizons

Children from dominant social groups… have suffered from the lack of availability about others… They need books that will help them understand the multicultural nature of the world they live in, and their place as a member of just one group, as well as their connections to all other humans. . . If they see only reflections of themselves, they will grow up with an exaggerated sense of their own importance and value in the world—a dangerous ethnocentrism. Rudine Sims Bishop, “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors.”

Guest Blogger

2023 Children’s Literature Lecture

ALSC is proud to announce that the 2023 Children’s Literature Lecture will take place at University of Dayton, Ohio on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 in the Kennedy Union Ballroom. Author and illustrator Bryan Collier will give the 2023 Children’s Literature Lecture. The event will start at 6 P.M. with a reception and the lecture starting at 7 P.M. After the lecture, a book signing will be available.