{"id":15974,"date":"2017-06-23T19:11:16","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T23:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=15974"},"modified":"2017-06-25T09:42:57","modified_gmt":"2017-06-25T13:42:57","slug":"storytime-saves-world-alaac17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/storytime-saves-world-alaac17\/","title":{"rendered":"Storytime Saves the World \u2014 #alaac17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Storytime Underground<\/a> held its first ever guerilla preconference earlier today at the Harold Washington Library. The theme for the morning? Children\u2019s librarianship is social justice work. And it can save the world. Don\u2019t believe me? It\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

Soraya Silverman-Montano\u2014one of Storytime Underground\u2019s Joint Chiefs\u2014began by sharing her experience growing without a frame of reference for her Malaysian heritage or her mother\u2019s Muslim religion. Even though she read a lot, Silverman-Montano didn\u2019t see herself or her mother reflected in the books she read as a kid. Now Silverman-Montano leads \u201csocial justice storytimes\u201d to make sure children won\u2019t have that same experience.<\/p>\n

These storytimes\u2014planned around themes like kindness, empathy, respect, and sharing\u2014highlight books by diverse authors and\/or about diverse characters. I particularly connected with this storytime model because, in my own storytimes, I\u2019ve been struggling to match diverse books with themes. As Silverman-Montano shared some her plans with us, I scrambled to put as many titles on hold as I could.\u00a0If you, like me, now want\u00a0to try a “social justice storytime,” start with the Storytime for Social Justice Kit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the keynote, attendees split into three breakout groups. My group tackled the question of how to build resources to support LGBTQIA+ communities at our libraries. (Fun fact: I couldn’t get enough of this topic so I stayed in the group for the second breakout session later in the day.) Each of our libraries had varying degrees of administrative support toward LGBTQIA+resources and programs but I think the conversation\u00a0can be summed up by the idea that inclusivity carries more weight when patron (and not-yet-patron) voices are actually involved in the conversation. Whether by collecting comment cards, encouraging patrons to speak directly to administration, or keeping a running log of offhand suggestions at the desk, we can find ways to elevate the voices of those in our\u00a0communities\u2014whether LGBTQIA+ or any minority\u2014who aren\u2019t being heard. When creating catchy program names, we can also remember that the language we use matters. And, whenever possible, we can tie programming to the mission statement\u2014that\u2019s our key to administrative support.<\/p>\n

There was so much more to the preconference\u2014delicious pizza, Storytime Underground\u2019s signature Guerilla Storytime, a tour of the newly renovated Thomas Hughes Children\u2019s Library\u2014but I can\u2019t possibly cover it all here. Want to know more? Search #storytimesaves and see all the amazing tweets from other attendees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Storytime Underground held its first ever guerilla preconference earlier today at the Harold Washington Library. The theme for the morning? Children\u2019s librarianship is social justice work. And it can save the world. Don\u2019t believe me? It\u2019s true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"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":[913,151,136],"tags":[638,602,1165,117,678],"class_list":["post-15974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ala-annual-2017","category-live-blogging","category-storytime-2","tag-diverse-books","tag-diverse-programming","tag-social-justice","tag-storytime","tag-storytime-underground"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15974","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\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}