A child can be celebrated at home and still lose confidence in a school hallway. Billy Porter’s ALA Annual Main Stage appearance featured Songbird in the Light, written by Porter with Chris Clarkson and illustrated by Charly Palmer. The picture book follows a child whose voice is loved at home, mocked at school, and strengthened through the encouragement of a choir teacher. The conference program described the book as a story about learning to love yourself.
Category: Guest Blogger
New and Retired Members Unite at #ALAAC26
On Sunday night, there was a joint reception co-hosted by the NMRT (New Member Round Table) and the RMRT (Retired Member Round Table). As a new ALA member, I was invited to attend. I appreciate that these groups are based on tenure and interest, rather than age, as even though I’m joining the ALA later in my career, there’s a lot I don’t know about libraries yet!
#ALAAC26: Apple Accessibility and the Help That Travels
In public libraries, technology support sometimes moves through a relay. Parents sometimes ask on behalf of children. Adult children may ask for parents. Caregivers may carry steps home for later, while staff members may prepare colleagues for the next patron. When the question involves accessibility, access depends on a setting someone can use and an explanation someone can repeat.
Everybody’s talking about AI at #alaac26
AI has been a topic of discussion for years, but increasingly, I’m hearing school librarians and librarians working with children and teens who are interested in ways we can educate users about how to use AI tools safely and ethically.
Expand Your Collection with the Right Indie Titles
At #ALAAC26, publishers of all sizes share their latest releases and favorite backlist titles; however, not every publisher participates. To ensure your community isn’t missing out on books that they’ll love, you may need to expand your search and update your collection development policy to be more responsive… If you aren’t sure where to start, I attended a session called Indie Titles, Fair Chances: A Selector’s Toolkit for Smart Picks that introduced an assessment tool to help librarians choose independently published (“indie”) titles wisely. The presenters were Beth Reinker and Ann Lehue from Ingram Library Services. Indie Title Assessment for Libraries Their assessment includes six categories, with a few suggested cues/signals for each, including: 1. Core bibliographic and metadata integrity 2. Subject access and discoverability metadata 3. Evidence of editorial and production quality 4. Distribution and supply-chain signals 5. External validation and use signals 6. Policy and risk alignment The presenters noted that…
#ALAAC26: Dr. Jill Biden and the Door Before the Answer
Dr. Jill Biden’s ALA Annual conversation offered a youth-services reminder. A young person may need the library before feeling ready to enter.
#ALAAC26: At the Printz Awards Celebration, Listening for Teen Readers
The 2026 Michael L. Printz Awards Celebration honored books, authors, committee work, publishers, families, and literary communities. As a teen services librarian, I listened for the readers behind the speeches.
Elizabeth Acevedo at #alaac26
After listening to Elizabeth Acevedo’s voice so many times through Libby, it was a pleasure to hear 15 minutes of a live conversation with Kevin King.