Tag: guest blogger

Guest Blogger

#alsc26 Being a Social Manager Influencer (Middle Manager)

| Jen Woo|Leave a comment
Arms of five people stretched out forming a circle with fists.

In 1941, the “middle manager” was born. Well, at the very least, there was a defining name for the challenging work of being in the middle, between administration, policy makers, and a team of staff who do the frontline work in the Library. Merriam-Webster defines middle management as: management personnel intermediate between operational supervisors and policymaking administrators. Attending Leading from the Middle: Building Consensus Through Influence, Not Authority, by Kristin Williamson and Emily Williams, resulted in three personal reactions: With entertaining gifs portraying middle management (similar to but more awesome than these gifs), Williamson and Williams challenged future middle managers, current middle managers, and soon-to-be-retired middle managers in the room to make five commitments. I invite you to be my accountability partner in building positive relations at the Library by: Not a middle manager? Never fear! You too can have a positive impact on your workplace community and be known…

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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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Institute 2022

We Are All Musicians at #alsc22

| Robin Gibson|Leave a comment

The last education sessions just ended and what a way to wrap things up! Staff Sergeant Philip Espe’s “Wake Up Your Musicianship for More Inclusive Storytimes” was energizing and joyous. Philip had us all on our feet and singing in 3 languages (English, French, and Spanish). He noted that we can model positive musical practice for our community and that the opportunity to make music together is precious. He emphasized that every voice is beautiful (work against that negative American Idol effect) and music is better when it comes from a live person. Philip referenced the APALA rubric for evaluating AAPI literature (that I blogged about yesterday) and encouraged us to evaluate music in the same way that we evaluate literature. He shared criteria: melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics and text. And he noted that cultural responsiveness is foundational: music is an expression of culture, and your communities deserve to hear…

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ALA Annual 2022

Taking Advantage of Schedule Changes at #alaac22

| Paula Holmes|Leave a comment

The last time I was at an in-person conference was ALA Midwinter January 2020 in Philadelphia, PA. I am excited to return to an in-person conference but feeling a bit of trepidation. My itinerary for this conference is a bit over enthusiastic. My intensive DC conference planning is packed full reconnecting with mentors, mentees, friends, committee members, translators, publishers, and of course authors, while trying to go to programming and go to the ALSC Awards on Monday morning to see the presentation of my favorite award – The Mildred L. Batchelder.

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Guest Blogger

So You Just Attended a Conference. Now What? with #ALSC20

| Charlie|Leave a comment

Every time I get a chance to take in ideas from other library staff, be it at an in-person conference, virtual conference, webinar, book, or blog, I leave positively bustling with ideas. For about a day. Then the problems and doubts begin to set in. My manager says no. I don’t have the budget. We don’t have the space. I don’t know enough about this topic to do this. There are so many ways we need to improve.

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Guest Blogger

Finishing out #ALSC20 with Muslim Representation, Institute Trivia, and Edible Book Hilarity

| Rebecca Ballard|Leave a comment

The awesome afternoon continued with a panel on Muslim Representation with educator and author Marian Hassan, teacher-librarian Ariana Sani Hussain, librarian Madeline Tyner from Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), and moderator Katelyn Martens-Rodriguez. Muslims are a huge percentage of the global population, and are located all over the world; they are also the most ethnically diverse faith community. The CCBC is a research and evaluation library, and one of its research studies is on diversity statistics in youth literature. The panelists noted that Muslims are most often portrayed in the media in a negative light, while Muslim youth are revered by Islamic adults. Hussain noted that YA and children’s books with Muslim representation are generally more positive than adult titles, but there are fewer titles in general, and many are not created by #OwnVoices. Representation provides windows, mirrors, sliding glass doors, and prisms. It builds positive identity and can be…

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