{"id":27602,"date":"2022-07-05T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=27602"},"modified":"2025-04-14T14:54:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T18:54:52","slug":"our-neverending-network-to-serve-children-through-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2022\/07\/our-neverending-network-to-serve-children-through-libraries\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Neverending Network to Serve Children through Libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is my first ALSC Blog post as the 2022-2023 ALSC President, and I am so excited to kick off this year of sharing, collaboration, and communication with library folks serving youth! My library energy levels are freshly refilled after attending the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. It really \u201crefills my cup,\u201d so to speak, to see my place in an ongoing network of youth library folks\u2013to see the people and work that have been here before me, the people entrenched in the work alongside me right now, and those coming up in the profession and keeping the cycle going. It is invigorating to see how wave after wave of youth-focused library workers work together, support one another, and keep the vision of better lives for all children at the center of our work, always striving to support the needs of our communities.<\/p>\n\n\nRead more: Our Neverending Network to Serve Children through Libraries<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n

At the conference, I was able to hear from many long-serving members of our profession and association\u2013those with decades\u2019 deep pools of knowledge and ongoing contributions. One was Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen, who not only accepted the ALSC Distinguished Service Award<\/a> at the ALSC Membership Meeting, but who also shared accessible and customizable \u201cHatchlings\u201d materials for a pre- and neonatal expansion of the early literacy program Mother Goose on the Loose<\/a>, as part of a panel session with Maryland library folks piloting the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that same Membership Meeting, I was able to briefly catch up with conference friends I hadn\u2019t seen since January 2020 or before, and I was able to hear from one of my career contemporaries doing absolutely vital work to support families on their unique journeys healing from trauma: Megan Emery Schadlich, who developed The Healing Library<\/a> with a team including a licensed clinical social worker, and who has made these resources openly available for any library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I heard from some of the newer and upcoming voices in our profession, including the team of four Emerging Leaders who worked on an ALSC-sponsored project exploring ways to engage student members<\/a>. These library workers, although newer to the profession, bring so much energy, passion, and new perspective to our collective work, and it\u2019s a privilege to support them in any ways we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in this, my first blog post as president, I encourage you to think about your own place in this ongoing network, and to hopefully find energy and action in the knowledge that you\u2019re part of something meaningful that spans many decades into the past and well into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a moment to think about the people who have come before you in this work\u2013your teachers, your mentors, that committee chair who recommended you for another opportunity, that person who you never spoke to but whose webinar changed the way you think about your work. Consider reaching out to those who helped pull you up in your career, if you can\u2013let them know how their work has made yours possible. Think about how you can play a similar role for those newer than you in librarianship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about the people doing this work with you, right now. Has it been a while since you checked in, even just to say hello? It really felt amazing at the conference to say these casual hellos again, but they need not be in person at a conference to be meaningful! Reach out to your cohort, whoever and wherever they may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And think about the people more junior to you in this work\u2013the folks just starting their careers, or thinking about library school, or even some of your teen volunteers who just feel a comfort being in the library. Consider letting even just one of those folks in your sphere know that you\u2019d love to support them on their continued journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our profession is strong because of this neverending network of people taking on the work of serving children through libraries. It\u2019s a privilege to be a part of this work, and I look forward to accompanying you over this next year as ALSC President.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my first ALSC Blog post as the 2022-2023 ALSC President, and I am so excited to kick off this year of sharing, collaboration, and communication with library folks serving youth! My library energy levels are freshly refilled after attending the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. It really \u201crefills my cup,\u201d so to speak, to see my place in an ongoing network of youth library folks\u2013to see the people and work that have been here before me, the people entrenched in the work alongside me right now, and those coming up in the profession and keeping the cycle going. It is invigorating to see how wave after wave of youth-focused library workers work together, support one another, and keep the vision of better lives for all children at the center of our work, always striving to support the needs of our communities. At the conference, I was able…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"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":[2412,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ala-annual-conference-2022","category-blogger-amy-koester"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27602","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\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}