With every conference, I like to give a shout out to ALSC’s Membership Committee. From planning informal gatherings to coordinating and participating in other engagement opportunities, this committee truly blows me away. For Midwinter, the committee planned a Pre-YMA ALSC Mixer, which you can read about in Abby’s blog post. Amy Seto Forrester and Allison Knight from the committee also participated in a virtual student networking session in the “Librarian Lounge”. Amy and Allison offered their insight on children’s services and gave advice to students pursuing their MLIS degrees. So much of the welcoming events and initiatives come from the creative minds of those on the Membership Committee and I am grateful to experience their passion for youth services and ALSC. If you are a member interested in volunteering for an ALSC process (non-book award) committee, please fill out a volunteer form as ALSC Vice-President, Lucia Gonzalez, will be making…
Tag: volunteer
Find Your ALSC Home
Allison Knight is a Branch Manager at MidPointe Library System in southwestern Ohio. She’s met many wonderful people through her service with ALSC and appreciates how committee work connects dedicated librarians from all over the country. Outside of work, she enjoys going on walks with her family, taking pictures of her daughter and cat, and playing in the garden. This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competencies: I. Commitment to Client Group, V. Outreach and Advocacy, VI. Administrative and Management Skills, and VII. Professionalism and Professional Development.
ALSC Learning and Networking
ALSC always has a learning or networking opportunity for you! ALSC Institute In case you missed it, National Institute registration has opened! This fall, children’s librarians, youth services staff, and others interested in library service to children will gather in Minneapolis, MN for ALSC’s two and a half day conference. The conference, themed “Dive In: Engage, Amplify, Activate” will be held October 1 – 3, 2020. The early bird deadline is June 29, but I would recommend registering as soon as possible. Education programs and descriptions are available on the ALSC website and a full list of keynote speakers will be announced soon. Our “Breakfast for Bill” program panelists will include: Bao Phi , Minh Lê , Cheryl Minnema, and Kalia Yang! ALSC Webinars ALSC has a bunch of live webinars coming up! With topics ranging from advocacy to babies in the library, you’ll want to register for one of these upcoming webinars. If you cannot attend…
All Are Welcome Here: Celebrating Global Diversity and Getting Involved with ALSC
All are welcome here! I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase before. We seem to be using it more and more in an attempt to indicate that our library spaces are inclusive. Some recent children’s books proclaim “all are welcome here,” and feature a mosaic of diverse children and families. There is a song that goes one step further stating, “all are welcome here, as we are.” Lofty goals for any children’s librarian; but do we put those words into action in our services and programs? Do we REALLY mean that everyone is welcome as they are? Do we embrace one type of diversity in the library but overtly (or covertly) shun other types of diversity by using the excuse that X type of diversity cannot be understood by children or Y type of diversity is only in the name of being politically correct? In addition to thinking about welcoming all…
A New Year of ALSC Opportunities
Illustration credit: vecteezy.com Happy New Year! Let me be among the first to wish each and everyone of you a happy, healthy, safe, productive, and peaceful 2019! The first day of the year is always a great opportunity to reflect upon the past year and look ahead to the future. We’ve had an eventful year at ALSC in 2018 and look forward to a new year with stronger involvement from our members as we work to engage communities to build healthy, successful, futures for all children. 2018 Highlights Many of the highlights from the past year can be found in the most recent ALSC 2017-2018 annual report published in late December 2018. The period for the report is the fiscal year September 2017 through August 2018. A few other ALSC highlights from the past year include: A bold new logo representing the continued growth of our organization A memorable 2018…
We LOVE Our Volunteers
Love is in the air! Can you feel it? I hope you can all feel the love that ALSC has for you. We are an association that could not function without the hard work, dedication, and passion of our volunteers. This past weekend many of our members were volunteering their time, talent, and treasures to conduct face-to-face committee work. At the same time, our virtual committees have also been hard at work sharing their same gifts to move the work of the association forward. Throughout the year, both groups are committed to the mission of ALSC. For all this work, I say thank you! Each year, I send out many Valentine’s Day cards to family and friends as an unexpected gesture to let them know I love and appreciate them. Although I can’t personally send each and every one of you a physical card, please consider this post my virtual…
Archived Webinar: Get Involved with ALSC!
On Wednesday, November 8, Vice-President/President-Elect, Jamie Campbell Naidoo, led us through “Get Involved with ALSC: Navigating Opportunities within the Organization.” This fun, free, and informative webinar helped members and prospective members learn different ways to get involved with our organization…and as a 6-month-old employee, it also helped me! Communication within ALSC. Get in on this “ALSC goodness!” There are many different outlets for communication within ALSC. One of my favorites has been ALSC-L, our listserv. As Jamie mentioned, you do NOT need to be a member of ALSC to join ALSC-L. This listserv is an outlet where individuals with questions or recommendations related to library service to children can communicate. The amount of knowledge sharing that happens on this listserv has been super helpful for me as a person learning more about librarianship. It fascinates me when a subscriber posts that they are looking for a book in which they…
Volunteer for an ALSC Committee in January!
January is a great time to submit your committee volunteer form In February, as your Vice-President/President-Elect, I will start working on appointments to the “process committees”: not the media evaluation (Priority Group II) or award (Priority Group V) committee , but more or less everything else. So January is a great month to submit your online committee volunteer form, which I introduced last month. Tell Me More! Please share details in your open-ended questions about skills, experience and knowledge you will bring to your committee work, and your specific interests in serving, especially if you have preferences among the the committees you’ve checked off. Also take a moment to complete your profile in ALA Connect. It is a helpful place to share work and education history. Reapplying, and the process Appointments take some time to fill and replacement slots do open year round due to resignations or other conflicts….