Tag: Social Justice

Blogger Jonathan Dolce

Boost Your Summer READing!

| Jonathan Dolce|Leave a comment
comic image of sun with face and sunglasses, peering around edge of screen

Boost Your Summer READing! Summer READing programs are in full swing, but there’s no rest for the fearless folks of Youth Services! Here to keep those fires burning and your marshmallows roasting is a smorgasbord of HOT news, and cool free stuff. Dive in, enjoy and catch the wave! All Things Comics! Celebrate the Fourth by Watching Batman Punch NazisComics published during WWII sure are full of flag waving and fascist bashing. They’re far from perfect, but Batman punching Nazis is swell. New Ms. Marvel Author Samira Ahmed Discusses Her Plans for Kamala Khan — the first female South Asian writer to tackle the Muslim superhero comic book character Kamala Khan. In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, the author discussed her plans for the character. Ahmed says that Ms. Marvel “looms large in my familial culture.” In fact, in her group chat with her South Asian cousins, they often use the acronym…

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Guest Blogger

Intergenerational Book Clubs: How to use reading to raise social justice awareness

| Guest Contributor|Leave a comment

We are living in complicated times. There’s plenty we can reflect on about 2020 and its impacts on our families, our professions and our relationships. And with the arrival of 2021, the conversations have only become more complex. Explaining the world to our children and our students is no easy task. In order to set up our students for success, we need to seek out culturally and linguistically diverse viewpoints. 

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Blogger Jonathan Dolce

19 Positive Summer Reading Activities During COVID

| Jonathan Dolce|2 Comments
chalk board with words what's your story

Adapt If COVID has taught me anything, it is to keep in mind the one-word slogan of Navy SEALS: Adapt. We are public librarians. We adapt. We adapted during the digital age to maintain our relevance. COVID is not going to stop us. Irrespective of where you are right now, summer reading has boiled down to three options: passive, curbside or virtual. We remain in the unique position of being able to touch the lives and hearts of our community. We have a responsibility to remain positive, and to disseminate hope. Read on to see how 19 positive summer reading activities during COVID can make the difference. 1 – Radio I’ll never forget growing up the impact just one radio station had on my hometown. The station was 45 minutes away by car, but everyone in my school knew it; always had it on. You couldn’t see the DJs, but…

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ALA Virtual Conference 2020

#alavirtual20 Tracie D. Hall, ALA Executive Director, calls for a “legacy of justice”

| Amalia E. Butler|Leave a comment

During the #alavirtual20 Opening Session, ALA Executive Director, Tracie D. Hall, called upon libraries to “Let our legacy be justice.” Attendees were  invited to “ explore the constructs of the library as both the vehicle and driver of justice as both a means to justice and an arbitrator.”  Hall stated, “There is something about justice that demands that we take sides; that we make intentional decisions about whether we were at the side of justice or opposite.” She asked, “What is our responsibility to justice when we consider that literacy and educational attainment are two of the key contributors to economic self-sufficiency, and that their absence contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline, high unemployment, and cyclical poverty?” She went on to share and reflect upon her personal professional journey to librarianship as well as the historical contexts of the role of justice within the library field and ALA.  Hall then outlined…

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ALSC Board

Black Lives Matter: ALSC’s Call to Action and Endorsement of BCALA and ALA Recent Statements

| Cecilia McGowan|Leave a comment

Dear ALSC Members and Friends, I am writing to you today on behalf of the ALSC Board of Directors.  Along with the ALA Executive Board, the ALSC Board endorses BCALA’s statement condemning increased violence and racism towards Black Americans and people of color and stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, BCALA, and those working for racial justice and dismantling racial capitalism and white supremacy in all of its forms.

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Blogger Jonathan Dolce

Risking Everything: explaining migration and internment

| Jonathan Dolce|Leave a comment

Risking Everything For freedom, a new life, or just a chance at life, people worldwide migrate.  Be it climate change, political strife, or economics, we live in an age of mass migration.  How we react to it as information professionals and caretakers of our community’s children is critical.  Daily, we are being tapped for explanations for these crises as well as internment.  This tugs at our heart strings, and reminds us of US’ origins and populations fleeing religious persecution in 17th century Europe. Or fleeing famine during the Irish Potato Famine. Internment Explaining internment to grade-schooled aged children can be difficult at best.  But one selection that can help illustrate the feelings behind this: The One and Only Ivan.  There’s even a movie of it, but here’s the book trailer:                                        …

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