As Priority Group consultant for the Child Advocacy group, I work with seven committees, one discussion group and one task force in ALSC. The official job of these groups, as drily stated in the ALA Handbook, is to \u201chelp identify, evaluate and make recommendations to ALSC on issues and services concerning children on local, state and national levels\u201d\u009d. <\/p>\n
But the way I look at it, they are some of the most \u201ccreative sparks\u201d\u009d in ALSC – you see a lot of programs and publications sponsored by these folks. They really advance excellence in youth librarianship and model that excellence nationally. They are also masterful collaborators with ALA committees, other youth divisions and PLA. It would take an entire blog a good two months to go through everything these great members do, so I\u2019ll try to highlight a few of the things that each group has recently been doing!<\/p>\n
Early Childhood Services and Programs Committee<\/b> \u2014 these folks have been active programmers and collaborators within ALSC and ALA. Their most recent program was \u201cBabies and Books Beyond the Library,\u201d\u009d presented at the 2007 annual conference. They were also a driving force in the creation of the Early Literacy Task Force and have been collaborating for many years with their early childhood colleagues in PLA. They are hard at work creating more programs, writing articles and agitating for early literacy!<\/p>\n
Intellectual Freedom Committee<\/b> \u2014 always on the forefront of IF issues, they just finished a wonderful new downloadable publication, \u201cKids Know Your Rights!\u201d\u009d and sponsored a great program at 2007 annual: \u201cA Sticky Issue: Is Labeling a Form of Censorship?\u201d\u009d They work hard coordinating their efforts with the Freedom to Read Foundation; the ALA IF committee and IF office and the youth divisions IF efforts. This is a hot committee with lots of action and the ability to \u201cdo good\u201d\u009d! <\/p>\n
International Relations Committee<\/b> \u2014 this committee finished a near Herculean task over the past few years of developing a great bibliography: \u201cGrowing Up Around the World.\u201d\u009d These recent books reflect contemporary life by authors who have spent substantial time in each country. Now they are working on disseminating the lists as well as keeping them continuously updated.<\/p>\n
Legislation Committee<\/b> \u2014 another active committee that works closely with legislative efforts throughout ALA. Besides outstanding programs (this year: \u201cLibraries + Lobbying = Success!\u201d\u009d), they had a wildly successful presence on Capitol Hill during conference where congressional representatives were photographed for Read posters and ALSC handed out packets of information. This committee has spearheaded legislative alerts and efforts that advocate for children and libraries as well as larger efforts such as the re-authorization of Head Start. I salute them!<\/p>\n
Library Service to Special Population Children and Their Caregivers Committee<\/b> \u2014 another rockin\u2019 group! This year they sponsored the ALSC\/ASCLA pre-conference, \u201cThe Underserved 20% – Children\u2019s Teens and Adults with Disabilities\u201d\u009d; helped develop the ALSC\/Candlewick\/Kate DiCamillo \u201cLight the Way\u201d\u009d award and worked to really make their presence on the ALSC wiki a reality.<\/p>\n
Preschool Services Discussion Group<\/b> \u2014 a great group that brings interested ALSC members together to share tips, ideas, books, songs and common solutions. Their twice-a-year gatherings are lively, informative and always fun!<\/p>\n
School-Age Programs and Service Committee<\/b> \u2014 this fairly new committee has been re-gathering itself with plans for programs; collaborations and plans to focus on the great services being offered for this age group by ALSC folks around the country. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n
Public Awareness Committee (formerly the @your library Campaign Task Force)<\/b> \u2014 After a highly visible and successful launch to the \u201c@ Your Library\u201d\u009d campaign, this group has just emerged as a full-fledged committee. The group\u2019s goals are to advance the public awareness of various ALSC initiatives and work with the ALA Public Info office and create great programs for conferences. <\/p>\n
Early Literacy Task Force<\/b> \u2014 formed about a year ago, the task force\u2019s task \u201d\u009dis to create an ‘umbrella’ initiative to address the on-going needs of librarians, libraries, and young children in the area of early literacy support, advocacy, and education.\u201d\u009d They are working hard to address a number of initiatives including \u201cBorn to Read\u201d\u009d and \u201cEvery Child Ready to Read\u201d\u009d to make sure that involvement and materials remain relevant and available to members.<\/p>\n
I think from the above, readers can see why this “Child Advocacy” umbrella really fits the committees and groups within our priority area. These committees not only have a “best practices” focus but a real “jump-in-and-get-your-feet-wet-and-dirty” emphasis that brings real muscle to all our work with children. \u00a0I urge members to volunteer to become active on these committees. \u00a0You’ll meet \u00a0– and become- movers and shakers; make life-long friends with colleagues from around the country from all size libraries and you will have the true satisfaction of knowing that you have made a real difference for youth and libraries beyond the sphere of your own work place!<\/p>\n
-Marge Loch-Wouters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Priority Group consultant for the Child Advocacy group, I work with seven committees, one discussion group and one task force in ALSC. The official job of these groups, as drily stated in the ALA Handbook, is to \u201chelp identify, evaluate and make recommendations to ALSC on issues and services concerning children on local, state and national levels\u201d\u009d. But the way I look at it, they are some of the most \u201ccreative sparks\u201d\u009d in ALSC – you see a lot of programs and publications sponsored by these folks. They really advance excellence in youth librarianship and model that excellence nationally. They are also masterful collaborators with ALA committees, other youth divisions and PLA. It would take an entire blog a good two months to go through everything these great members do, so I\u2019ll try to highlight a few of the things that each group has recently been doing! Early Childhood…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[7,11,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-call-to-action","category-priority-group-i","category-committees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}