Coretta Scott King Awards and The Inaugural Ball

Seven AM found me bright eyed and bushy tailed (ok - sleepy and yawning) at the breakfast for the 40th anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Awards. Kadir Nelson won the author award for his book "We are the ship: The story of Negro League baseball," while the illustrator award went to Floyd Cooper for "The blacker the berry." The various honorees, as well as the gold medalists were profuse in their thanks to the CSK committee for the honors bestowed upon them. It was a wonderful time of solidarity.

I attended Camila Alire's Open House Reception in her suite, then prepared for the Inaugural Ball, held in the fabulous ballroom of the Hilton. I felt like Cinderella, as it was my first Ball, and it was magnificent. A live band played a mixture of 70's disco, modern songs, as well as Latin numbers, while a huge crowd of librarians cut a fabulous rug all night long. I danced non stop for hours, and when I dragged up to my room at 12:05, I definitely felt like I had turned back from Cinderella to my usual self. What a wonderful time! I am so happy for Camila, as she is a good friend and will be a fabulous leader for ALA.

Another conference has passed, filled with a mixed bag of activities. As you can see by reading all these posts, each of us took something different home with us. Maybe you'll be inspired to attend for yourself and then get involved in some aspect. You definitely won't regret it.

See you at Midwinter in Boston 2010!
Alma

Viewing ALA from the Meeting Room

AASL is working! As a Director on the Board of AASL and a member of the Affiliate Assembly, I have firsthand evidence that a LOT is going on in the world of school libraries, and AASL is representing us well.

I can still remember the “old days” when I attended ALA and it was like being loose in a candyland of amazing professional development. Now that I have taken on a leadership role, the ALA conference means meetings, meetings and more meetings. I’m not whining, just explaining why I missed Tracy Kidder’s presentation, couldn’t attend Lisa Scottoline or Michael Connolly’s presentations……..I know, I’m whining. But – it’s worth it!

“How can AASL insure visibility for the School Librarian in the current movement toward 21st century skills?” At the first meeting of the Board, we went through a very involved process to come up with a seemingly simply-worded statement:

MOTION: AASL will move forward in raising SLMS visibility and viability by influencing the development of the Common Core State Standards and ensuring specific recognition of the instructional role of the School Librarian within the language of ESEA.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative aims to bring about “real and meaningful transformation of our education system to benefit all students.” Read more about this important movement: http://www.ccsso.org/content/pdfs/CCSSIOnePage.pdf This initiative recognizes the need for students from every state to be prepared for success as globalization continues to stress competition with students from other high-achieving countries. Additional information is at the Common Core State Standards Initiatives: http://www.corestandards.org/

An additional group that is envisioning the future of education is “Project Tomorrow”, from the KnowledgeWorks Foundation: http://www.kwfdn.org/ and http://www.futureofed.org/

In the Board discussion, important points were made:

• AASL President Ann Martin challenged the director-elects to bring the initiatives to their regions and to work with the affiliates to do the work on the state level. The work of the Common Core State Standards needs to be brought to their individual states’ education board because this is a very fast-moving movement. We are promoting inquiry based learning, using a variety of resources – not necessarily saying at the outset that we need libraries.

• It’s based on teaching and learning; the use of the library is the natural course of action. Content-based learning must be replaced by process teaching & Learning. We are NOT demanding that libraries be funded. Rather, we predict that the administrators will realize the critical role that school libraries play in 21st century learning and fund the programs. This was the approach used by the Spokane Moms in their lobbying for school libraries.

• Julie Walker, Executive Director of AASL reminded the board that the decision makers are in our states. Directors must make contact with each state in their region and report back to the AASL Board.

• We are not ADDing to the curriculum, but showing that school libraries are promoting career and college readiness.

• Political advocacy is survival, not optional

• Some fast-moving initiatives must be watched:
National assessment of technology skills - ICT, NAEP
National Technology Plan – wiki is up and looking for feedback. Short turn-around (July 12th)
Fund Our Future.org ex: Washington and Oregon

• Forthcoming/newly-announced from AASL:
AASL statement on the position of the SLMS in Reading
25 best educational websites. MSLA member, Linda Friel was a member of the task force
Celebration of the L4L Launch
Parents’ Outreach Task Force
Research Award is returning – Raintree will be the new sponsor

Monday, Monday...

I was very excited to get to the convention center bright and early to hear Melba Pattillo Beals, author of "Warriors don't cry: A searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock Central High School," and the sequel "White is a state of mind: Freedom is yours to choose."

Before Melba spoke, we were entertained by the award winning St. Ailbe's Children's Choir who wowed us with fabulous gospel music and accompanying dances. Melba, recovering from recent titanium hip surgery, recounted the events leading up to her becoming one of the "Little Rock Nine." Throughout, she reiterated that she didn't feel hate for those who abused, mocked and made her 15 year old life miserable during that year at Little Rock, and that her mother's work as a librarian enabled her life to regain a semblance of sanity by spending time in the soothing rhythms of the library and creasing new library books. She noted that she maintains her on-campus office in the back of the university's library to be near the new books, and volunteers to crease them every now and then to remember her mother and relax.

When the Arkansas governor closed the school the following year so they wouldn't be able to attend, and the KKK put a $10,000/$5000 dead or alive bounty on their heads, (huge riches in those days), all 9 students were forced to flee for their lives. She had to leave her natural family behind, and spent the rest of her days with a white Quaker family in California who treated her as one of their own. This experience led to her writing the "White is a state of mind" sequel to "Warriors don't cry."

Melba ended by noting how this experience changed her life, and that we librarians are on a journey of our own to show others the value of libraries and how librarianship can make a difference in their lives. After this fascinating talk, visited the exhibit hall, toured the historic Prairie Ave. area, then went for a run in Grant Park and through the Museum area.

In the evening, I attended YALSA's Printz award celebration, and enjoyed listening to the various acceptance speeches.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. My, how time flies!

Alma

Sunday Adventures

This morning, I went to YALSA's Coffee Klatch, which is like speed dating except you get authors to visit your table every 5 minutes. I met some well known authors like Richard Peck and Garret Freymann-Weyr, then had some newbies come to the table. Afterwards, all 35+ authors gathered for a photo op, at which time I met Jacqueline Woodson, David Levithan, Simone Elkeles, Yasmin Shiraz and others. My students will be so thrilled, because I have a group of girls who absolutely LOVE Jacqueline Woodson's books. This is always a great YALSA event, and I look forward to it every year.

I spent some time with Yasmin afterwards as we struck up a conversation as we waited for the buses, and wound up keeping each other company in the expo until I left to attend the Pura Belpre Celebration. I am on the Celebration Committee and was assigned to be a greeter, and was absolutely thrilled to finally meet Francisco Jiminez, who was an honor winner this year for his book "Breaking Through." Each of the honorees and winners gave great speeches, followed by a wonderful time of entertainment by the Ballet Folklorico Company. A group of young girls dressed in authentic folk costumes from Mexico beautifully danced for us.

Next stop was the convention center, where I laughed and cheered at the annual Demco Book Cart Drill Team Championships. Mo Willems and Jon Scieszka were co-hosts and their combined humor had us in stitches the entire time. My favorite team made up of costumed Vikings danced their way to the Golden Cart win, and I got to meet these two funny guys.

I had a short time to get ready for the annual REFORMA fundraiser, and danced the night away with Camila Alire and others. From there, a group of us packed ourselves into a taxi singing and laughing as we made our way back to the hotel. It reminded me of that commercial where people sing and the taxi driver puts up the radio and joins in - except this one just thought we were nuts!

We went up to the penthouse suite where ALA president Jim Rettig was having a reception, and enjoyed some time with International Librarians. The view from the balcony was spectacular, and the view of the moon reflecting off the lake was superb.

Tomorrow will be sure to have more adventures. So, until then my bed is calling....

Alma

Of Audiobooks and Websites

One of the reasons (beyond getting lots of ARC's for my voracious readers back at Wilson) I came to ALA was to keep up to date on the latest and greatest in technology for the SLMS and get more info on audiobooks. Today was a big for me in both those areas.
My first session was lead by Pam Berger and an amazing committee who created a list of the top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning. As this is the first year for this award, they also included a list of Landmark Websites . Both lists can be found at www.ala.org/aasl/bestlist All of the websites are free and mesh with the AASL standards. Check them out! There is a downloadable PDF version to share with your teachers.
My next session was with members of the Oddessey committe, who choose the best in Audiobooks for ALA's Oddessey Award. This is the second year for this award. The presentation entitled "Evaluating Audiobooks" reaffirmed my belief in audiobooks for all learners. A great resource to learn more about this genre would be Mary Burkey's monthly column: www.audiobooker.booklistonline.com.
I also found a vendor, Tantor Audiobooks that has a series of MP3-CD Audiobooks that includes the ebook as well.

As a middle school Librarian (grades 5-8) I have been concentrating my efforts on the exhibit floor scouting out titles that will interest my boys in particular, and also new books from popular authors. Here are some that I think will be hits with my kids:
A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck 9/09
The Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda 9/09
Piper Reed Gets a Job by Kimberly Willis Holt 8/09
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 9/09
Pop by Gordon Korman
Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko 9/09
Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal
The Witches Guide to Cooking with Children Keith McGowan 9/09
There are many more, lots of good reading to look forward to!

So much to do....so little time!

Lynn is right about the full schedule! This is the first chance I've had to gather my thoughts in a couple of days - and only because I didn't allow enough travel time from one venue to the next and missed a session I had planned to attend. That's my only complaint with Chicago as an ALA conference venue - the sessions aren't all based at the McCormick Conference Center. Many events take place at hotels that are a good half an hour bus ride away.

With this unexpected time on my hands, I'll try and recap how I spent my day yesterday, which was a pretty typical conference day...

There was no time for breakfast before boarding the first convention center shuttle of the day to hear Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, speak. It was especially important for me to be early for this session in order to get a front row seat to take photos. Gregory has dedicated his latest book, Matchless, to our MSLA president Gerri Fegan, and he had told her he would be introducing her during his talk. The book dedication was first prize in a contest for people who pre-ordered Massachusetts library license plates. The dedication reads, "To Geraldine Fegan and all school and public librarians who keep the library lamps burning during difficult times." After Gregory's humorous and energetic talk, we stood in line at the Harper Collins booth to have him sign the free copies of the Matchless gallies provided by the publisher.

A celebration of the publication of the new AASL guidelines for school library programs, Empowering Learners, followed with cake that served as breakfast. Following the celebration, the AASL president's program offered three authors - Laurie Halse Anderson, Jacqueline Woodson, and Alan Lawrence Sitomer - who spoke movingly about how school librarians impact students' lives.

I spent some time in the exhibit hall, watching demos of new products and just roaming around watching all of the activity. A couple of vendors had refreshments - champagne at one booth, wine and cheese at another - so that was lunch.

The final session I attended was a panel discussion hosted by ALA President Jim Rettig called Coalition Building for All Libraries in a Tough Economy. Gerri Fegan impressively presented about MSLA and MLA's joint legislative and advocacy efforts.

The Scholarship Bash was the major event of the day, held at the fabulous Art Institute of Chicago and kicked off with a VIP reception sponsored by ProQuest. There was plentiful food, drink and entertainment in various locations throughout the museum. Before we called it a night I enjoyed viewing Winslow Homer's famous American Gothic along with many Monet, Gaugin, Van Gogh and other Impressionists' works, including George Seurat's fascinating A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.

I've finally come to appreciate Twitter at this conference and find it preferable to blogging in this type of situation. You can follow me on Twitter (@mslalowe) and on FaceBook if you "friend" me. I, long with some of my colleagues, have taken lots of photos that we have posted here on Flickr.

My ALA conference visit so far.......

I've just been too busy to post! I arrived mid week and spent a few days sightseeing with a friend who grew up in Chicago. What fun we had - we saw so much - too much to go into now. But let me say - I LOVE the city.

The conference is going well for me . Yesterday I went to Closing the Gap: Making Information Literacy Seamless across K-16 and to the AASL Presidents Program with the three award wining young adult and children authors - that was awesome. All three authors were so wonderful! Very uplifting. Then in the afternoon I went to the Downloadable Technology workshop and got caught up with the new book and music downloadable technologies.

Today I just went to the AASL top 25 websites - very good. I did send a tweet from there. I must confess I am a great Twitter follower and not a very good contributor. But hopefully I will get better.

I feel better that I have blogged to let you all know I am here - and hopefully I will bump into one of you. Enjoy the rest of the conference - and the weather - it finally looks like the good weather might hang around! Onto the Exhibit hall..........

Lynn