Category: Uncategorized

Guest Blogger

#alsc26 Attendee Highlight: Q&A with Ariana

| Jen Woo|Leave a comment
A librarian with a beige head covering and dark blue shirt, smiling and looking directly at the viewer.

In my continuing series on tips from random ALSC National Institute attendees, our fourth interview is with ALSC President, Ariana. Here’s her take on 10 rapid fire questions. My goal in this series of “Attendee Highlights” is to interview random ALSC Institute attendees and get their take on conference tips and tricks, including their takeaway from the day. But also, I’m hoping to share other little tid-bits of random answers pertaining to librarianship. My hope is to highlight members who are attending the conference and get their feedback. (Feature image at top of page is courtesy of guest blogger, Jen Woo.) Today’s Conference Blogger is Jen Woo (she/her/hers). Jen is the Family Engagement Coordinator at San Francisco Public Library (the unceded Ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples). With ten years of youth services librarianship, she is most looking forward to the Bill Morris Seminar, meeting folks, sharing ideas and later…

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Guest Blogger

#alsc26 Attendee Highlight: Q&A with Steve

| Jen Woo|Leave a comment
Male with pulled back hair and wearing glasses and Pokemon emblem on polo shirt stands in front of a Pokemon Club vertical flag.

In my continuing series on tips from random ALSC National Institute attendees, our third interview is with Pokémon Club representative, Steve. This is his first ALSC Institute. Here’s his take on 10 rapid fire questions. Find out more about the AASL and ALSC partnership in Pokémon Clubs and how you can get involved. My goal in this series of “Attendee Highlights” is to interview random ALSC Institute attendees and get their take on conference tips and tricks, including their takeaway from the day. But also, I’m hoping to share other little tid-bits of random answers pertaining to librarianship. My hope is to highlight members who are attending the conference and get their feedback. You can read the first interview here. and the second interview here. (Images are courtesy of guest blogger, Jen Woo) Today’s Conference Blogger is Jen Woo (she/her/hers). Jen is the Family Engagement Coordinator at San Francisco Public Library (the…

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Blogger Aryssa Damron

Celebrating the 140th Birthday of the Statue of Liberty

| Aryssa Damron|Leave a comment

On October 28, 2026, America will mark a big milestone for a big lady: the 140th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. A shining beacon of freedom, independence and our country’s historical alliance with France, this anniversary falls during America 250 and offers libraries and schools around the country a chance to teach this commemorative event in a fun, engaging way that brings the symbol that so many know into focus. 

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Blogger Ariel Barreras

The Return of Pokémon Club!

| Ariel Barreras|Leave a comment

This summer, I took a break from Pokémon Club at my library to host a creative writing class for middle-grade children. While they had a blast with the writing class, one question kept popping up over the course of the summer: “When does Pokémon Club come back?” They were excited to hear that I was bringing it back this September! In this post, I will share some new additions to my library’s Pokémon Club. Organization of Pokémon Club In my previous posts about the program, I shared how I had different activity stations. Each session had at least three game stations, one craft station, and a watch party station. The program participants enjoyed having a variety of activities to choose from. However, in the sessions that had a smaller attendance, there would be an uneven amount of children at the stations. This time around, I will try working with just…

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Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

Sometimes, It Works

| ALSC Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers|Leave a comment

In the spirit of reunification and the inclusion of teens into the charge of the Library Services to Underserved Children and their Caregivers Committee: Many years ago, when I was regularly doing outreach to juvenile detention centers as a teen librarian, I arranged a summer schedule with an intake center nearby. The site served teen boys who were waiting for their placements—they might be released to their parents or assigned to a non-secure or secure detention facility. The center was very short-term; the boys were there no more than a week so planning programming meant something that was contained to that hour-long visit but couldn’t be the same week-to-week because there would be some overlap. That year, the summer reading theme was Get a Clue/You Never Know (I did say this was many years ago!) and as I struggled to come up with an activity for my first visit, I…

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Blogger Maria Trivisonno

A Tribute to Dolly

| Maria Trivisonno|2 Comments

Libraries lost a staunch and much beloved ally with the death of Dolly Parton on August 25th.  Parton founded her Imagination Library in 1995 in honor of her father.  Though she considered him the smartest man she ever knew, he never attended school and therefore never learned to read.  Robert Lee Parton lived to the year 2000 and loved that little children called his daughter the “book lady.” 

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Blogger Eleanor Howell-Shryock

Building Better Business Partnerships for Storytime

| Eleanor Howell-Shryock|Leave a comment

Every month, I partner with a local business and head to their gymnastics studio to lead a brief storytime that kicks off an hour of free play. From its inception, this program has been a smash hit, with some months reaching the capacity of the studio space! The genesis of Gymnastics Storytime? Jealousy. When trying to reschedule storytime to better align with staffing needs, I was running into a bit of a problem. Families are busy, and almost everyone was busy on the same day. As I spoke with folks about dates and times, it became clear that everyone was doing gymnastics, and they were doing it for free, in the town over, with a story-reading included. Our town has its own gymnastics studio, but I’ve never heard it mentioned in the busy schedules of younger children. Well, that seemed like a big opportunity to me! I reached out to…

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Uncategorized

Intellectual Freedom at ALA: Formal Sessions and Informal Conversations

| ALSC Intellectual Freedom committee|Leave a comment

ALA’s Annual Meeting in Chicago in June is becoming a distant memory as Summer Reading takes up most of my time and brain, but It is clear from attending several education sessions at ALA, as well as having casual chats with other conference goers, that the fight to maintain access to information and books that tell ALL stories is ongoing and we all need to stay informed. Librarians, authors, illustrators, publishers, and all others who value reading widely and providing access to accurate and unbiased information are winning some battles. But unfortunately, the list of challenged books continues to grow, with nonfiction titles growing in numbers as well as anything with queer content. This message was presented in an education session sponsored by the ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee, details of which were covered by School Library Journal.

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