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2019 Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award Honoree Spotlight on Pop Pop Pop’s Lexi’s World
In February, the ALSC Children and Technology Committee blog post presented the criteria for the newest Youth Media Award, the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award [EELDM]. It also featured the 2019 winner, PBS’s Play & Learn Science and the first of two award honorees, Tinypbop’s Coral Reef. Today I want to take you through the second honoree, Pop Pop Pop’s Lexi’s World, to highlight some of the features that stood out to the committee particularly related to the award selection criteria. The Skills Required to Navigate and Explore the Media Should Be Developmentally Appropriate and Suitably Challenging for the Intended Audience In order for an application to receive the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award, the media must make the navigation and exploration developmentally appropriate and suitably challenging for the intended audience. Lexi’s World offers the child a simple provocation—a keyboard, a girl named Lexi, and a…
The Urgency of History: How Librarians Prepare Kids for Their Times.
Please join us in Washington, D.C. at the ALSC panel The Urgency of History: How Librarians Prepare Kids for Their Times. The panel includes Gennifer Choldenko, Varian Johnson, Marissa Moss, Sharon Robinson, and Elizabeth Partridge. Check out the details below.
1876 Club – An Interview with Courtney Young and Andrew Medlar
Often it can be uncomfortable to think about or talk about the end of one’s life. None of us really wants to consider our own death, let alone how we want our assets handled after we are gone. However, such conversations are not only important but necessary. We may think that only celebrities or wealthy people need to worry about estate planning, but if you own a home, have a savings account, a life insurance policy, or even a few stocks, no matter how small, you should have an estate plan. While each person has their own considerations for such planning, I’d like to share an idea, a new program created by ALA. Named for the year of ALA’s founding, the 1876 Club is a planned giving program for ALA members under 50 years old. Planned giving, often called legacy giving, is a way to leave a specific amount of…
ALSC Preconference Program – It’s not too late!
One of the most exciting things about attending an ALA conference is having the opportunity to meet the creative and interesting people who bring us outstanding books for children. From the Newbery/Caldecott/Legacy Banquet to the Pura Belpré Celebración, attendees can hear the inspirational stories of the honorees and stand in receiving lines to shake their hands and say a few words. Those who serve on award committees sometimes have the pleasure of spending some quality time with the authors and illustrators and these are moments that they always treasure. But what about those authors, illustrators and publishers whose books have silver medals on their covers? They are just as creative and interesting and spending time with them can be just as inspirational and fun. Every other year, ALSC organizes a preconference honoring the silver medalists and giving attendees the opportunity to spend time chatting with these honorees. Most of the…
Self-Care During Summer Reading
Summer is officially here! After months of preparation, children’s departments across the United States have reached our busiest time of the year. I would like to take a few minutes to encourage all of us to remember that while we want to attentively serve our patrons, it is also SO important to make sure we are giving ourselves self-care.
Early Literacy Outreach with Local Head Start Centers
Early literacy workshops in our libraries are a great way to inform parents about the five early literacy practices and how to use them with children as they become ready readers, but what do we do about families with young children who do not typically come to the library? How can we reach them? We go to where they are!
The Mentor Connection, Finding the Next Distinguished Service Award Winner
I am certain many, if not all of you reading this blog can think of an individual who had a profound impact on your future direction in children’s services. A person whose interest, support, and encouragement you have always remembered and been grateful for in your life. It might have been a person who gave you the freedom to develop programs that hadn’t been done in your community and that freedom made the difference for children who didn’t know what a library could mean in their lives. Such an individual should be recognized by our profession with a Distinguished Service Award.