Dan Rather and The Fonz

The real glamour at ALA Anaheim involves authors (and being able to blog about them while sitting next to the hotel pool under a palm tree!).  Between meetings and workshops, there are opportunities to listen to a range of celebrity authors, and Anaheim has been a joy.  I’ve been able to sit in on a panel discussion on the role of science fiction and fantasy featuring Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, and attend talks by Sherman Alexie (True Adventures of a Part-Time Indian), and journalist Dan Rather.  My morning concluded with a presentation by Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler about their new series Ghost Buddy, which is aimed at middle grade readers, and apparently has a ghostly character that talks just like The Fonz.   Some of these presentations are a call to action, such as Rather telling us that we need to help bring awareness to the role giant corporations now play in controlling what news is reported in the U.S.  Others are reminders of the importance we play in broadening the world of our youngest patrons, as Martin described how his mind was blown when he was able to escape from the 5 block world he inhabited as a young boy living in a Bayonne NJ housing project by reading Robert A. Heinlein at his local library.  Winkler and Oliver spoke movingly about how the best children’s fiction has an emotional component that kids can relate to on a deep level.  But, I think my favorite was Sherman Alexie telling us that we are in charge of organizing all the knowledge that ever existed.  He said that he amazed when you go to a library and badly describe the type of book you are looking for, and the librarian says “I have the perfect book” and s/he does.  He said if librarians really knew how powerful they were they would be incredibly conceited!  Oh, and I have a great photo of the Fonz.

Busy Morning at Affiliate Assembly

The second round of AASL Affiliate Assembly started with a regional meeting.  Massachusetts belongs to Regional 1, which is comprised of the New England states.  We began by creating a Google doc we can use to streamline communications among state organizations both to collect necessary information and to share concerns and commendations.  We also had brief conversations about managing ipads and apps in schools and teacher evaluations and how they impact school librarians. 

Announcements:

·         AASL Library Task Force discussed initiatives to advocate for school library programs at the national level.  There is a huge push right now to ensure school libraries are included in ESEA funding.  We are also being asked to identify administrators in each state who can assist in national advocacy efforts. 

• ·         Chris Harris reported out on work being done on e-books.  ALA has e-content blog that covers what is going with e-books and all new development at http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/e-content .   The  e-content group is also developing tip sheets about managing e-books in your library and talking points about using e-books.
• ·          AASL has formed a retirement SIG that is getting very active. 
• ·         Fall Forum—Transliteracy and the School Library Program.  Details are at http://www.ala.org/aasl/conferencesandevents/fallforum/fallforum
• ·         Banned website awareness day, October 3, 2012:  http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslissues/bwad/bwad
• ·         NASTEMP:  National Association of State Media Professionals—looking to connect to state organizations representing school libraries to coordinate state level information--http://nastemp.wikispaces.com/;  one big initiative is to work with directors of school library programs at the district level
• ·         Beyond Words, Allison Cline:  provides grants for public school libraries affected by disasters (begun in response to Hurricane Katrina) but now expanded to any disaster
• ·         ALA Washington Office expressed commitment to working on school library advocacy; have developed many documents that they will share for state advocacy efforts
• ·         National Center for Literacy Education—group affiliated with National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is now looking to work with AASL

Elected officers to run AASL Affiliate Assembly

We voted to commend several excellent national programs fostering literacy, developing library leadership, using primary sources, and providing professional development in innovative ways.  Valerie Diggs and I discussed reviewing these models to see how some may be adopted for use in Massachusetts.

AASL voted to as the AASL board to:

·         take actions to improve communications and orientation for members of the affiliate assembly

·         to form a task force to look into the research and implications of moving from Dewey organization of collection to organizing collections by genres

·         to charge the AASL Research and Statistics Committee to create a comprehensive school library studies database

Susan Ballard challenged each librarian present to submit a lesson plan to the L4L database this summer.

Best Websites for Teaching and Learning

One of the best moments for school librarians each year at ALA is hearing about the best websites for teaching and learning.  The committee selecting these websites looks at the best free tools available to help educate students.  To read about the criteria used and link to the best sites for 2012, look here:

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/894866-312/aasl_unveils_top_25_websites.html.csp

Critical Thinking in a Digital Age

Critical Thinking in a Digital Age:  Presentation from Gwinnett County Schools in Georgia about why social media tools are great for working with elementary (and older) students to help them think critically.  Lots of good ideas for creating projects where kids have to create new products to show what they’ve learned getting away from fill in the information projects.  A great emphasis on “Google-proof” questions.   There were wonderful ideas for using a variety of tools and many good ideas for projects.  Presenting team really emphasized using Twitter to connect with other librarians and teachers using technology to share and connect.  Great stuff at this wiki:  http://criticalthinkingala2012.wikispaces.com/

Cooney Center on Digital Research and Children

Presentation from Lori Takeuchi of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop focusing on their new research into the lives of kids aged 5 to 11.  Kids at this age are developing their basic skills in reading and mathematics they will need to access content.  This is also when they first begin truly using digital media independently.  Cooney Center is looking at how digital media impacts kids—especially those from low income and minority families.  One of their studies is called Family Matters and looks at how digital media is used by families in terms of what families are sharing, how they are sharing, what limits they are putting on their children.  Findings include:

• Older parents control access more than younger parents
• Parents often share what THEY are interested in online, not kid-friendly content
• Parents talk about what they most like to do with their children—and top choices are not sharing digital content or games; watching TV, reading print, playing board games

Other study they are just publishing is called Co-Viewing and it is a look at how and when parents are sharing e-books.  Just starting to look at this.  Parents believe some features of e-books are actually useful in helping their children learn to read (e.g., audio features), but do not believe things such as games or video are useful.  Some parents who have e-readers do not share books with their children for a variety of reason—some nostalgic, some practical (they can break them!).  More research is needed to see impact of ebooks with kids…for example, will it bridge gap with low income and ELL kids who need a more print-rich home environment.  Are phones appropriate for accessing books, as more families have these.   Lots of implications for talking to families about using digital media.  For complete reports:  www.cooneycenter.org  Go to Reports and Initiatives

AASL Affiliate Assembly--what does it do?

The American Association of School Libraries (AASL) Affiliate Assembly meets twice during the ALA annual meeting.  Two delegates from each state (Judi Paradis and Ann Perham represent Massachusetts and Valerie Diggs is on the Board of AASL) meet with delegates from throughout the country to offer commendations for excellent programs and to discuss concerns brought up by delegates.  These are vetted by the AASL board and then brought to the assembly for discussion and voting.   At our Friday night meeting , we split into groups to discuss three major concerns:

·         A perceived need that AASL affiliate members need improved means of communication, especially as we are trying to collaborate on projects across distance

·         State organizations are being asked for advice on reorganizing school library collections by genre (the bookstore model) instead of by Dewey Decimal, and would like some direction from AASL about what to recommend to members

·         A proposed project that would assemble a comprehensive database of school library research in one common format that could be easily searched and understood by library stakeholders; this came about when Pennsylvania School Library Association was asked for this by their state legislators and school administrators and discovered that this did not exist in one easy-to-find place

I sat with the group working on this final concern and we worked to come up with a specific action to be voted on at our Sunday meeting that we believed would lead to the development and ongoing maintenance of a user-friendly, searchable database of school library research that will help members make the case for funding and supporting school library programs.

ALA Anaheim--Diversity Town Meeting

The ALA  Diversity Town Meeting  is an opportunity for the ethnic affiliates and GLBT round table to report about how they are supporting their communities.  The meeting provides information about how librarians that belong to these communities or serve these communities.  It was apparent that these groups are excellent resources for materials about their communities (especially AILA and GBLT Round Table).  Many groups (especially REFORMA and AILA) continue to stress family literacy initiatives.

Lots of discussion about the responsibility of librarians to the many groups that make up their patron communities:  How do we recruit a more diverse population of librarians?  How do we sensitively address needs of our patrons and serve their needs?

Some ideas that might be useful:

• At state conferences—think about a panel on diversity offering input from these groups to talk about sensitively reaching out to their communities? 
• Be sure that school librarians serving schools with large populations from particular communities (e.g., Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Native American, GLBT) know that they can join these affiliates on behalf of their patrons even if they are not themselves members of those communities

One nice feature of the meeting this year was lots of discussion about how to involve members and grow leadership.  Some of the ideas that resonated with me included:

• Membership needs to be fun and members need to be engaged—many spoke about the need to provide members with opportunities to get involved in a way that is safe and increase comfort levels as they become involved—this is the best way grow leaders
• When the same people continue to do everything, there is a risk of alienating the new members—there is a tendency in some organizations to ask the people that you know and that you know are capable to do the work;  there can also be a tendency to put out the call for help in a very general and generic way and then complain when no one steps up.  Burn out can be a real issue when the same people do the same things for too long.

• The ALA  Diversity Town Meeting  is an opportunity for the ethnic affiliates and GLBT round table to report about how they are supporting their communities.  The meeting provides information about how librarians that belong to these communities or serve these communities.  It was apparent that these groups are excellent resources for materials about their communities (especially AILA and GBLT Round Table).  Many groups (especially REFORMA and AILA) continue to stress family literacy initiatives.

• Lots of discussion about the responsibility of librarians to the many groups that make up their patron communities:  How do we recruit a more diverse population of librarians?  How do we sensitively address needs of our patrons and serve their needs?
  
  
  Some ideas that might be useful:
  • At state conferences—think about a panel on diversity offering input from these groups to talk about sensitively reaching out to their communities? 
  • Be sure that school librarians serving schools with large populations from particular communities (e.g., Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Native American, GLBT) know that they can join these affiliates on behalf of their patrons even if they are not themselves members of those communities
  
  
  One nice feature of the meeting this year was lots of discussion about how to involve members and grow leadership.  Some of the ideas that resonated with me included:
  • Membership needs to be fun and members need to be engaged—many spoke about the need to provide members with opportunities to get involved in a way that is safe and increase comfort levels as they become involved—this is the best way grow leaders
  • When the same people continue to do everything, there is a risk of alienating the new members—there is a tendency in some organization to ask the people that you know and that you know are capable to do the work;  there can also be a tendency to put out the call for help in a very general and generic way and then complain when no one steps up.  Burn out can be a real issue when the same people do the same things for too long.