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Much work will take place at ALA Midwinter (January 15-19 in Boston). To understand more about the work of ALSC, you may visit ALA Connect where the ALSC Board Midwinter agenda and documents are available to be downloaded and viewed. The URL is http://connect.ala.org/node/91780.

The American Library Association 2010 Youth Media Awards will be held this Monday, January 18, beginning 7:45 a.m. EST. If you aren’t able to attend in person, visit http://alawebcast.unikron.com/ for a live webcast. The number of available connections for the Webcast is limited and the broadcast is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The ALA will instantly announce presentation results using Twitter. Members can view live updates on the ALA Youth Media Awards press kit and via tweets at http://twitter.com/ALAyma. Members can also follow live updates via the Youth Media Awards RSS and the ALA Youth Media Awards Facebook page.

The ALA 2010 Midwinter Meeting is January 15 – 19, 2010, in Boston, Massachusetts.

The ALSC daily schedule with room locations is listed on the ALSC Web Site.

If you will be in Boston, on Friday, January 15, from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m., plan to attend ALSC Speed Networking. The object of the evening is to meet as many professionals as you can. Participants will be organized to move around the room, meeting new colleagues and exchanging ideas every couple of minutes. The event is free. Please RSVP by January 4, 2010.

For more Midwinter Meeting information, visit the ALSC Web Site, the ALA Web Site and ALA’s Official Midwinter Meeting Wiki.

The American Library Association (ALA) will provide a free live webcast of its Youth Media Awards, a national announcement of the top books and media for children and young adults, on Jan. 18, at 7:45 a.m. EST. The award announcements are made as part of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, which will bring together librarians, publishers, authors and guests to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center from Jan. 15 to 19.

For the complete press release, click here.

If you’ve never been to ALA Annual Conference, apply today for the Penguin Young Readers Group Award!

This award, made possible by an annual gift from the Penguin Young Readers Group, enables up to four children’s librarians to attend their first ALA Annual Conference. Librarians must work directly with children in elementary, middle school or public libraries, and have one to ten years of experience as a children’s librarian by the opening of the Annual Conference. Each winner will each receive a $600 stipend to attend the conference. All applications must be in December 1, 2009. For more information or to apply for the award, visit the ALSC Web site.

Questions? Please contact Linda Ernst, chair of the ALSC Grant Administration Committee, at [email protected].

1. The 2010 ALSC Preconference, Drawn to Delight: How Picture Books Work (and Play) Today, will take place on Friday, June 25, 2010, 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., during the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

Speakers include award-winning author/illustrator Brian Selznick and Megan Lambert, Instructor of Children’s Literature Programs at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art; additional speakers will be announced at a later date.

2. The ALSC National Institute will be September 23-25, 2010, in Atlanta, Ga. The institute will be held at the Emory Conference Center on the campus of Emory University.

Ashley Bryan, Carmen Deedy, John McCutcheon, Brian Selznick, and Walter Dean and Christopher Myers are scheduled to attend. An evening reception at the Center for Puppetry Arts is planned. Specifics regarding registration and programs will be posted on the ALSC Web site as plans develop.

People told me that the ALA Conference would be big.  I saw the numbers and told my husband, friends and family before I left that tens of thousands of librarians would be there.  Still, I found myself completely overwhelmed by the sheer size of the event when I finally got there.  Do I go to awards events and see authors speak?  Buckle down and try to attend informative programs that could help me be a better children’s librarian in the future?  Sit in on meetings to learn more about how to get involved in ALA?  Take some time out and “do Chicago”?

In the end I did a mix of all of the above.  The Newbery, Caldecott and Wilder Award speeches were definitely a highlight.  Eight-six year-old Author/Illustrator Ashley Bryan gave a warm, invigorating speech with call and response that touched everyone in the audience and brought them to their feet.  Neil Gaiman’s speech wasn’t too shabby either.Another highlight was Chicago itself.  I made time to visit the Field Museum, resplendent with pirate paraphernalia and the Chicago Art Institute where all of the paintings from the board game Masterpiece live.

Despite the feeling of “so much to see, so much to do @ ALA Chicago” I left feeling that I had managed to schedule in the perfect mix of business and fun.  Next time I attend an ALA Conference (and I am sure there will be a next time) I hope to do so as a part of a committee.  On Tuesday morning, I left ALA Chicago with a warm, fuzzy feeling that should keep me going strong as I finish up my MLIS and move out into Libraryland. 

Lindsay Klick
ALSC Student to Staff Volunteer

During the 2009 Annual Conference, the American Library Association’s Council adopted the Minors and Internet Interactivity statement as part of ALA’s Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights. As stated in the introduction to the Interpretations,

Although the Articles of the Library Bill of Rights are unambiguous statements of basic principles that should govern the service of all libraries, questions do arise concerning application of these principles to specific library practices. […] These documents are policies of the American Library Association, having been adopted by the ALA Council.

Please read Minors and Internet Interactivity, which is available on the ALA Web Page (Mission & History–> Key Action Areas–> Intellectual Freedom –> Policies, Statements, Guidelines.) To provide for ease in commenting, it is also included here in its entirety:

Minors and Internet Interactivity: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights

The digital environment offers opportunities for accessing, creating, and sharing information. The rights of minors to retrieve, interact with, and create information posted on the Internet in schools and libraries are extensions of their First Amendment rights. (See also other interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights, including “Access to Digital Information, Services, and Networks,” “Free Access to Libraries for Minors,” and “Access for Children and Young Adults to Nonprint Materials.”)

Academic pursuits of minors can be strengthened with the use of interactive Web tools, allowing young people to create documents and share them online; upload pictures, videos, and graphic material; revise public documents; and add tags to online content to classify and organize information. Instances of inappropriate use of such academic tools should be addressed as individual behavior issues, not as justification for restricting or banning access to interactive technology. Schools and libraries should ensure that institutional environments offer opportunities for students to use interactive Web tools constructively in their academic pursuits, as the benefits of shared learning are well documented.

Personal interactions of minors can be enhanced by social tools available through the Internet. Social networking Web sites allow the creation of online communities that feature an open exchange of information in various forms, such as images, videos, blog posts, and discussions about common interests. Interactive Web tools help children and young adults learn about and organize social, civic, and extra-curricular activities. Many interactive sites invite users to establish online identities, share personal information, create Web content, and join social networks. Parents and guardians play a critical role in preparing their children for participation in online activity by communicating their personal family values and by monitoring their children’s use of the Internet. Parents and guardians are responsible for what their children—and only their children—access on the Internet in libraries.

The use of interactive Web tools poses two competing intellectual freedom issues—the protection of minors’ privacy and the right of free speech. Some have expressed concerns regarding what they perceive is an increased vulnerability of young people in the online environment when they use interactive sites to post personally identifiable information. In an effort to protect minors’ privacy, adults sometimes restrict access to interactive Web environments. Filters, for example, are sometimes used to restrict access by youth to interactive social networking tools, but at the same time deny minors’ rights to free expression on the Internet. Prohibiting children and young adults from using social networking sites does not teach safe behavior and leaves youth without the necessary knowledge and skills to protect their privacy or engage in responsible speech. Instead of restricting or denying access to the Internet, librarians and teachers should educate minors to participate responsibly, ethically, and safely.

The First Amendment applies to speech created by minors on interactive sites. Usage of these social networking sites in a school or library allows minors to access and create resources that fulfill their interests and needs for information, for social connection with peers, and for participation in a community of learners. Restricting expression and access to interactive Web sites because the sites provide tools for sharing information with others violates the tenets of the Library Bill of Rights. It is the responsibility of librarians and educators to monitor threats to the intellectual freedom of minors and to advocate for extending access to interactive applications on the Internet.

As defenders of intellectual freedom and the First Amendment, libraries and librarians have a responsibility to offer unrestricted access to Internet interactivity in accordance with local, state, and federal laws and to advocate for greater access where it is abridged. School and library professionals should work closely with young people to help them learn skills and attitudes that will prepare them to be responsible, effective, and productive communicators in a free society.

Adopted July 15, 2009, by the ALA Council.

By Monday morning of Annual Conference, I’m usually starting to feel the lack of sleep and overload of information catch up with me. This year’s Charlemae Rollins ALSC President’s Program was an invigorating and moving experience that woke the audience, figuratively and literally. To begin, the St. Ailbe’s Children’s Choir of Chicago gave a rousing performance of gospel songs which brought everyone to be ready to hear Melba Pattillo Beals speak. Beals is the author of Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock High School and White is a State of Mind: Freedom is Yours to Choose.

Beals urged the audience to be louder about the role of librarians in education. She asked us: without librarians, where would we be? She would not have known who she was, she says, and would not have realized that she as a person was valued. Beals implored us to open up our hearts and souls to our communities, to let people know the impact that libraries can have on their lives.

You can read more about this program on the PLA Blog.

Greetings! I’m Anne Heidemann, Children’s, Tween, and Teen Services Department Head for the Canton Public Library in Canton, Michigan.

I was delighted to be able to attend this year’s awards banquet celebrating the 2009 Caldecott, Newbery, and Wilder awards. It is always an exciting evening and the glamour and pomp in the air is palpable. After a delicious meal (deep-fried risotto, anyone?), the speeches started with Beth Krommes’ acceptance for the 2009 Caldecott Medal for The House in the Night. Krommes related a charming story about how when she received The Call, she mistakenly assumed the person on the other end was a potential illustration client and began writing down her contact information, only realizing after a few moments that Nell Coburn was actually the chair of the 2009 Caldecott committee. Krommes told us the tale of how this book came to be and what a tremendous effect this experience has had on her life. Having received this great honor, she is filled with wonder, gratitude, and great hope for the future.

Following Krommes was Neil Gaiman, accepting the 2009 Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book.  Gaiman’s speech was enchanting, as was his demeanor and humility. Gaiman divided his speech into numbered sections ‘for no reason’, an effective method of lightening the mood and bringing the audience along through the many ways he is appreciative and grateful to have received this prestigious award. Who knew that winning a literary award could make a father cool in the eyes of his children? He also addressed the issue that had many people talking after the awards press conference: what does it mean that a popular book won the Newbery? In Gaiman’s eyes, it isn’t about whether a book is good or good for you, it’s about books you love. We needn’t choose sides. Gaiman also endeared himself to children’s librarians by noting that despite his having been a ‘feral child raised among the stacks,’ libraries are not child care facilities.

The final speech of the night was Ashley Bryan, accepting the 2009 Wilder Medal for his substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.  Often by the time the final speech of the night rolls around, the crowd has been sitting for hours after a rich meal (and possibly a few cocktails), and it can get a little sleepy in the room. With a rousing, interactive speech like no other I’ve ever heard, Bryan completely reinvented the acceptance speech. He had everyone in the room participating in call and response poetry and singing spirituals. One day shy of his 86th birthday, Bryan showed more energy on the dais than I can recall having seen. Three terrific speeches from three captivating artists - what a night!

Congratulations and many thanks to Jane Botham for all the great work she does, has done and will do to promote and ensure exceptional library service to children.

Last evening I attended the Booklist Books for Youth Forum where Russell Freedman, Jean Feiwel, Candace Fleming, and Deborah Hopkinson discussed their stories behind their Lincoln books. I jotted some notes while each was speaking:

Russell Freedman, author of Lincoln: A Photobiography:

• “There have always been more books about Abraham Lincoln than anyone could read over several lifetimes.”
• “I grew up in the cherry tree era of the children’s biography. My favorite example of invented dialogue comes from the Abraham Lincoln story in Childhoods of Famous Americans: ‘Books!’ said his father. ‘Always books. What is all this reading going to do for you?’ ‘Why I’m going to be president.’ Such cardboard characters.”
• Shared that a source from the 1930s stated that Lincoln was in such grief over the death of his son Willie that he twice had his son exhumed to see his face. “I couldn ‘t find another source to confirm the story so I dropped it from the book, but I always wondered if it was true.”
• “The man is more interesting than the myth.”

Jean Feiwel, editor of Lincoln Shot! A President’s Life Remembered:

• “Most discouraging words heard around the world: Children won’t read nonfiction.”
• “We must prize and protect nonfction.”
• “We wanted an unconventional visual book. We debated format for over a year. We were concerned about real-life issue of shelving in bookstores and libraries but decided the controversial way to go was look of original period newspaper.”
• “Let’s make the New York Times have a nonfiction for children list. And the National Book Award.”

Candance Fleming, author of The Lincolns:

• “Where’s Mary in the old story?”
• “Add to the old story and make it new, to question the history that we already know and to maybe turn it into a new story.”
  “History for me the small moments, dinner table discussions, recipes and shopping lists.”
• “Show them [young people] the human moments that lead up to the big moments.”
• She also shared her family’s secret title for the book, but really the story is best in her telling of it, so I’ll leave you to wonder.

Deborah Hopkinson, author of Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin Tale:

• She quoted Sam Wineburg and referenced the Why Historical Thinking Matters website.
• “Today’s children spell library G-O-O-G-L-E. Informational literacy is a must.”
• “History: the only kind of time travel that exists.”

I’m uncertain how frequently I will blog during the 2009 American Library Association’s annual conference. I will attempt to give an overview of my daily activities while I’m there. However, don’t be surprised if you don’t read any entries from me until Wednesday. Special thanks to all the folks who have offered to blog about their conference experience! I’m sure I’m not the only one who is looking forward to reading what you did and learned.

For people who subscribe to Twitter, the hashtags #ala2009 and #ala09 are being used by some who will “tweet” the conference.

I hope to see you in Chicago!

Teresa Walls
Manager, ALSC Blog

Want to make your storytimes more interactive, inclusive and interesting?
Enrich your storytime programs with sign language! Susan Kusel, Youth Services Librarian at Arlington County Central Library, VA will help the Preschool Discussion Group explore this topic at ALA Annual/Chicago. She will do a short presentation on sign language and its use in storytimes. Join us for the discussion and share your ideas, skills and experiences. See you in Chicago!

Sunday, July 12
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Palmer House, Spire Room
The Preschool Discussion Group is open to all!

Linda Ernst, Co-Convenor
[email protected]

and

Sue McCleaf Nespeca, Co-Convenor
[email protected]

If you are attending ALA in Chicago next month and you like to write, please consider sharing your experiences with the readers of the ALSC Blog. To express your interest, please send an email to [email protected].

Thanks!
Teresa Walls
Manager, ALSC Blog

The Association for Library Service to Children Program Coordinating Committee is now accepting proposals for innovative, creative programs that have broad appeal for the 2010 ALA Annual Conference to be held June 24 - 30, 2010, in Washington, DC.

The committee is looking for a wide range of themes and topics such as advocacy, multiculturalism, administration and management, early literacy, research, partnerships, best practices, programming, outreach, technology and so forth.

You can find the ALSC Program Proposal forms at this site:

http://www.ala.org/alscevents, then click on “ALSC @ Annual Conference.”

ALSC committees, members, and other interested individuals are welcome to submit a proposal. Individuals may want to seek a letter of support from an appropriate ALSC committee to strengthen their proposal. Please note that participants attending ALSC programs are seeking valuable educational experiences. Presentations should advance the educational process and provide a valuable learning experience. The Program Coordinating Committee will not select a program session that suggests commercial sales or self-promotion.

Program proposals are due Friday, May 1, 2009.

If you have any questions you may send them to Chair, Kate Schiavi at [email protected].

Submitted by Kate Schiavi
ALSC Program Coordinating Committee, chair

The University of South Carolina’s College of Education and School of Library and Information Science and the University of Alabama’s School of Library and Information Science offer the second annual celebration of Latino children’s literature April 24 and 25 in Columbia, South Carolina. Speakers for this year’s conference include Dr. Sonia Nieto, Lulu Delacre, Maya Christina Gonzalez and Lucia M. Gonzalez.

Friday night of the conference will highlight Noche de Cuentos, a free and open-to-the public storytelling event celebrating El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) with activities for all ages.

For more information, registration fees and registration form, visit the Latino Literature Conference page at www.ed.sc.edu/latinoconf or call 803-777-2901.

Before the Newbery, Caldecott, King, and ALA’s other prestigious youth media awards were announced at the Midwinter Meeting in Denver, the selection committees crowded into tiny private rooms to call the honorees. This year, AL Focus was invited to capture some of those happy calls and reactions.

YouTube Direktvideo link

Newbery Medal
“The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins Children’s Books

Newbery Honor Books
“The Underneath” by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by David Small, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

“The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom” by Margarita Engle, Henry Holt and Company, LLC

“Savvy” by Ingrid Law, Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group in partnership with Walden Media, LLC

“After Tupac and D Foster” by Jacqueline Woodson, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Books for Young Readers

Caldecott Medal
“The House in the Night,” illustrated by Beth Krommes and written by Susan Marie Swanson, Houghton Mifflin Co.

Caldecott Honor Books
“A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever” by Marla Frazee, Harcourt, Inc.

“How I Learned Geography” by Uri Shulevitz, Farrar Straus Giroux

“A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams,” illustrated by Melissa Sweet and written by Jen Bryant, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2010 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer
Kathleen T. Horning, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)

Batchelder Award
Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc., publisher of “Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit” by Nahoko Uehashi, translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano

Batchelder Honor Books
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., publisher of “Garmann’s Summer” written and illustrated by Stian Hole, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett

Amulet Books, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc., publisher of “Tiger Moon” written by Antonia Michaelis, translated from the German by Anthea Bell

Belpré Author Award
“The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom” by Margarita Engle, published by Henry Holt

Belpré Author Honor Books
“Just in Case” by Yuyi Morales, a Neal Porter Book published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

“Reaching Out” by Francisco Jiménez, Houghton Mifflin Co.

“The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos” by Lucia Gonzalez, illustrated by Lulu Delacre, Children’s Book Press

Belpré Illustrator Award
“Just in Case” by Yuyi Morales, a Neal Porter Book, published by Roaring Brook, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership Press

Belpré Illustrator Honor Books
“Papa and Me” illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez, written by Arthur Dorros, Rayo, and imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

“The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos” illustrated by Lulu Delacre, written by Lucia Gonzalez, Children’s Book Press

“What Can You Do with a Rebozo” illustrated by Amy Cordova, written by Carmen Tafolla, Tricycle Press, an imprint of Ten Speed Press

Carnegie Medal
Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly, Weston Woods Studios, producers of “March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World”

Geisel Award
“Are You Ready to Play Outside?” written and illustrated by Mo Willems, Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group

Geisel Honor Books
“Chicken Said, ‘Cluck!’” written by Judyann Ackerman Grant, illustrated by Sue Truesdell, HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers

“One Boy” written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, a Neal Porter Book published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

“Stinky” written and illustrated by Eleanor Davis, The Little Lit Library, a division of RAW Junior, LLC

“Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator” written by Sarah C. Campbell, photographs by Sarah C. Campbell and Richard P. Campbell, Boyds Mills Press

Odyssey Award
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” written and narrated by Sherman Alexie, produced by Recorded Books, LLC

Odyssey Honor Audiobooks
“Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady,” written by L.A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, produced by Listen and Live Audio, Inc.

“Elijah of Buxton” written by Christopher Paul Curtis, narrated by Mirron Willis, produced by Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

“I’m Dirty” written by Kate and Jim McMullan, narrated by Steve Buscemi, produced by Weston Woods Studios, Inc./Scholastic

“Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale” written and narrated by Carmen Agra Deedy, produced by Peachtree Publishers

“Nation” written by Terry Pratchett, narrated by Stephen Briggs, produced by Harper Children’s Audio/HarperCollins Publishers

Sibert Medal
“We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball” written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group

Sibert Honor Books
“Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and Rediscovery of the Past” written by James M. Deem, Houghton Mifflin Company

“What to Do about Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!” written by Barbara Kerley, illusrated by Edwin Fotheringham, Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

Wilder Medal
Ashley Bryan, author and illustrator of numerous books, including “Dancing Granny,” “Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum” and “Beautiful Blackbird.”

     Save the dates March 28 - 29, 2009 for a trip to San Francisco. The University of San Francisco will host a conference celebrating multicultural literature for  children and young adults. Keynote speakers include Rosemary Wells, Marilyn Nelson, Francisco Jimenez, and Junko Yokota. More details and registration information is online at http://www.soe.usfca.edu/institutes/reading_world/conference.html. It sounds like an interesting and exciting opportunity to learn from some great presenters.

Please sign up to write for the ALSC Blog about your Denver experience. On an ALSC committee? The ALSC Blog is a wonderful way to share your committee’s work with other folk interested in excellent library service for children. To express your interest or for more information, email alscblog AT gmail DOT com.

Story time is a learning experience and that’s the truth! Incorporating
non-fiction books can add another dimension to your story programs. How do you incorporate this into the story time?

If you are attending ALA Midwinter in Denver, come to the Preschool Discussion Group on Sunday, Jan.25, 2009 @ 4 pm at The Curtis. Bring and share one non-fiction book or idea that you have used successfully. If possible, please bring an outline of the entire program in which you use it. (The program does not have to be entirely non-fiction.)

Please come and bring your ideas and questions along with at least 25 copies of any handouts to share.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!
Linda Ernst, King County Library System

The Association for Library Service to Children Program Coordinating Committee is now accepting proposals for innovative, creative programs that have broad appeal for the 2010 ALA Annual Conference to be held June 24 - 30, 2010, in Washington, DC.

The committee is looking for a wide range of themes and topics such as advocacy, multiculturalism, administration and management, early literacy, research, partnerships, best practices, programming, outreach, technology and so forth.

You can find the ALSC Program Proposal forms at this site:

http://www.ala.org/alscevents, then click on “ALSC @ Annual Conference”.

ALSC committees, members, and other interested individuals are welcome to submit a proposal. Individuals may want to seek a letter of support from an appropriate ALSC committee to strengthen their proposal. Please note that participants attending ALSC programs are seeking valuable educational experiences. Presentations should advance the educational process and provide a valuable learning experience. The Program Coordinating Committee will not select a program session that suggests commercial sales or self-promotion.

Program proposals are due Friday, May 1, 2009. If you have any questions you may send them to Chair, Kate Schiavi at [email protected].

–Kate Schiavi
Chair, ALSC Program Coordinating Committee

Eli Neiburger is the Information Access and Systems Manager of Ann Arbor (Mich.) District Library (AADL) and he was one of the presenters at the 2008 ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium. After his Pokémon Primer session, I now have a better understanding of the complex system of stewardship, strategy and organization that is Pokémon. I didn’t realize that there are over 500 varieties of Pokémon. I did know that the kids who love Pokémon know a lot about them.

During his session, two participants went head-to-head in the Pokémon Battle Revolution using the Wii. This is the game featured during AADL’s monthly Pokémon Tournament where an average of 60 kindergartners through fifth graders gather to test their skills against other Pokémon trainers. This video is of the Pokemon Battle Revolution they held on November 23, 2007.

He said that when hosting a tournament, it’s best to use Level 50 All to equalize matches and to restrict the use of “Legendary” Pokémon (unicorns and the like) until final matches. Sometimes kids will have hacked Pokémon, usually because they traded online (not that there’s anything wrong with trading). Many collectors from other countries like to have U.S. versions and will trade with ones that have had powers altered. He begins each tournament with explanations about what a hacked one might be like and that opponents can contest a Pokémon’s ability level, but must have the consensus of five other tournament participants in order to disqualify a particular Pokémon.

Due to the popularity of the tournament, especially with the use of the big screen and the Wii, it is a first round elimination for the ones who elect to play on the big screen with a 10 minute limit per game. The participants who play wirelessly between their own DS players play the best of 10. The final rounds are played on the big screen with the Wii.

The next AADL meeting of PL2: Public Library Pokémon League is Sunday, November 30. I plan to attend. I would love to have something similar at my library.

Download the podcast.

This 15-minute podcast is from a conversation between ALSC Blog Manager, Teresa Walls, and Stacy Dillon. Stacy is the lower school librarian at LREI, a private school in New York City. There are 562 students enrolled in the school as of our conversation which took place September 3, 2008. She attended and was part of a panel discussion at the 2008 ALA Diversity Leadership Institute Preconference. During our conversation, she described her school and its commitment to diversity and community, as well as some specifics from the preconference.

Mentioned in the podcast are:

• LREI’s Diversity and Community Director
• Worth the Trip
• The Brown Bookshelf
• LREI’s Diversity Bulletin Board
• Mark Winston, Ph.D.
• Patty Wong of Yolo County (CA) Library

Episode 7

Diversity

An edited transcript of our conversation is below.

ALSC Blog: Hi, I’m Teresa Walls and I’m speaking with Stacy Dillon. And Stacy is a member of ALSC and she is also the lower school librarian, — is that correct? — you go by lower, higher school, is that how you say it?

Stacy Dillon: We have early childhood, lower, middle and high school.

ALSC Blog: Describe your school and your role within the school.

Stacy Dillon: O.K. Sure, I am the lower school librarian here at LREI which stands for Little Red Elizabeth Irwin, and we are a progressive independent school located in the West Village of Manhattan. It’s relatively small. We are a campus school though. Our high school is in a different location down the street from us.

So, my responsibilities besides the general librarian responsibilities that anyone would have is the curriculum development and teaching of the first through fourth graders as well as everything librarians in a school have to do along with that: collection development, reading, reader’s advisory, and things like that.

ALSC Blog: In Anaheim, you were part of a preconference…

Stacy Dillon: The preconference which was called Diversity Leadership Institute. I was part of a panel where we were specifically talking about diversity, mission statements, and also how libraries, especially in academic settings, could support diversity efforts of the whole institution.

ALSC Blog: Let’s define diversity.

Stacy Dillon: Well, this is always a tricky thing. I was speaking with one of my colleagues about this the other day. Defining diversity is kind of hard because as soon as you really define it, chances are you are being a little exclusive. We look beyond what many people might assume. The first idea that pops into mind after “diversity” tends to be race and ethnicity, and we try to look beyond that to the hidden diversity as well with different learning styles, religion, family make-up, and things like that. So we try to encompass as much of the community as we can within our lens of diversity.

Um, I recognize that we work in a pretty unique place in that we really have a lot of support for diversity in this school, at the top, at the bottom, throughout. Our school has the position of director of diversity and community which came about, I believe it was three years ago when that position was officially formed. And that came out of a board initiative. The board of trustees also had a diversity committee there where we were looking at how we could showcase and focus our efforts a little bit better. Diversity informs the classroom in that it is a curriculum virtually on every grade level in an appropriate way. And, teachers are expected to deal with diversity issues, to teach to diversity throughout the year, we are not a school that believes in just teaching Martin Luther King through Black History month or just doing something during Hispanic History Month. It should be woven throughout the curriculum through the entire year.

ALSC Blog: How is support for diversity incorporated into everyday student life?

Stacy Dillon: Well, as I said before, it’s in the curriculum very heavily. We teach to a social justice curriculum where we try to pull out some voices that weren’t always heard, especially in the history classes as the kids get a little bit older. And we teach the kids to question as well, which is sometimes a little bit tricky. But you want them to ask and challenge some of the traditional ideas.

We have affinity groups for students and for parents and for families, so the younger kids might be part of Parents of Children of Color, where there would be activities and events specifically for those kids. And the lesbian and gay families, we have groups for their parents and activities that are based around that. Some of our biggest, most popular social events in the school are based around multiculturalism. We have a big festival that is called Karamu. That’s a celebration of everybody’s heritage, and it’s really the most popular thing in the school.

We try to make sure that kids are reflected in different ways. Books in the classroom will always be made up of different family orientations, different colors of kids, kids who come from different countries, so that kids are seeing not only themselves but also the faces and experiences of people they may not have come in contact with yet.

The four of us, we’re really lucky because we have four MLS librarians in this relatively small school. Karyn Silverman’s our high school, Jen Hubert Swan is middle school, and I, along with Jesse Karp, do the lower school. And we’re always looking through that lens. We are active in ALA which helps because a lot of books come to us, but we are also all voracious readers. When we are reading we are always looking through the lens of where is the hole in our collection, is there a hole in our collection, how can we support this curriculum on diversity, and find fiction and nonfiction for children in the classroom during the year.

We also do these book nights every year, called Librarian Book Night, and in the past we tend to choose topics of diversity as well. We did one that was called East Meets West looking at the idea of culture clash with either new immigrants trying to adjust or just different idealogies. We also did one that was all about social class and looking through the lens of social class and finding that many of the books, that you might not have thought examine social class, really do in a subtle way.

ALSC Blog: So you try to have the whole range of age?

Stacy Dillon: Yeah, for sure. From the four-year-olds, our very youngest, all the way through high school. It is challenging. We look to the smaller presses if we can. And, being in New York, we’re kind of lucky ’cause we can go around to as many bookstores as we can. But we really look to blogs as well, like blogs like Worth the Trip and the Brown Bookshelf and stuff like that to inform our collection development. as well.

ALSC Blog: I noticed your school has the Diversity Bulletin Board display and I was curious to hear a little bit more about that.

Stacy Dillon: Yeah, one of our middle school teachers had sat in a meeting a few years ago. She had visited a different school and said that their commitment to diversity in their mission was evident when they walked through the door. And the people who were on the diversity committee at the time just, I guess, really had this brainstorm about the Diversity Bulletin Board which literally is the first thing you see when you walk in through the front door of our school,

And every classroom that’s in this building, which encompasses the lower school and the middle school, is responsible for putting something up a child made, something they pulled out of their curriculum during the year that reflects diversity. So from the smallest children, you’ll see some collages in art of talking about the different ways we play or self-portraits which will just show the different impressions of who the kids are, how they see themselves. Towards the eighth grade they study Emmet Till and they might have some personal reflections in poems about him on their week. So, it’s great because it’s always changing and always so different. It really is a focal point as you walk into the school to get a real taste of what’s going on in the classroom.

ALSC Blog: What about the work you do with the teachers? Do you have set-aside times that you work with individual teachers? How does that collaboration come together?

Stacy Dillon: Well, in the lower school, their kids come to us once a week. All of the classes have library once a week, so I get a little bit of contact with the teachers then. But, it’s really up to us. We make ourselves available to them, but I also have no problem just coming into a classroom and I’ll know what their social studies curriculum is so I’m constantly looking for books that will support that. It’s a very open-door sort of school so I can wander into anyone’s classroom at any time and just sit down and listen for awhile or go through their classroom library and make suggestions. We’re constantly bringing materials to teachers and they are usually very grateful for it.

ALSC Blog: What are the challenges that you have witnessed or experienced in supporting diversity?

Stacy Dillon: One of the hard things is that we, as a school, deal with situations as soon as they pop up, so if something does come out of someone’s mouth that is degrading or is out of line with how we are thinking, we have to deal with that right away. So that’s kind of hard sometimes because sometimes you need a little bit to process it. Dealing with situations right away is a little bit of a challenge.

And also teaching kids, who don’t consider diversity to be a part of their life necessarily, about being an ally, being a straight ally, being a white ally, and how their voices can be and should be involved in the diversity discussion as well. It’s amazing when kids are guided, but given the freedom at the same time, what they rise to. It’s great to see, and that is definitely one of the rewards of working here: watching kids develop over time into these really passionate and articulate kids around issues of social justice.

ALSC Blog: All right, now let’s go ahead and move to the preconference.

Stacy Dillon: It was really, really rewarding. Looking at different issues of hiring practice and language and just the need to keep fighting the fight that people have been talking about for years. How do you recruit when kids who are coming up aren’t seeing themselves in that position? Mark Winston (he’s at UNC Chapel Hill School of Library Science) talked about that, and he talked about how if libraries aren’t institutionally making a commitment to diversity then things really aren’t going to change. So, if the whole institution isn’t making a primary effort to recruit people of color, you’re at a stagnant point.

Patty Wong, another person who was there, is from the Yolo County Library in California. She was talking about the need for looking at diversity in the widest sense regarding recruitment and advancement. She had some really interesting things to say about offering bilingual pay for people who might speak Spanish and English on the job. And to give diversity inspired sabbaticals so people would bring diversity more into their practices as well.

And it can’t be, “Oh, we are looking at diversity this year. Oh, we did that last year, let’s move on.” It’s got to be something that becomes the fabric of the actual institution. But, the mission statement, the diversity statement, is really the first place to start. It will give you something to check back to. It will keep you on track as the year goes on.

The public libraries, again, it’s making that commitment, following through and maybe having displays that might garner you some complaints but being ready to deal with the inevitable backlash that could come depending on what community you are in. There’s a lot of hidden diversity that you might not know about, and there may be people who just aren’t coming into your library because they don’t feel like it is a place for them. So once you make it more of a place for everybody, you could probably increase your patron base as well.

There’s no reason not to make some kind of a pathfinder that deals with diversity issues that you could just click to. I think that would be a nice baby step, or first step, for people to take if they don’t have a lot of support or they’re not quite sure where to start. That’s even something I would definitely do here. I’ve never made a virtual pathfinder before for the kids, but that would totally work with my third- and fourth-graders.

The other thing we do have at our school that other people might be able to spring board from, we have a diversity action plan. It’s kind of like a living, breathing document of how we’re addressing diversity, the issues that might come up and things we want to try.

ALSC Blog: Yes. Could you give us an example of something that you’re working on or toward?

Stacy Dillon: Sure. For Lower School specifically, things in the classroom like making graphs that demonstrate that we are all alike, we are all different, just to show the similarities that come along side the differences. And to make sure that we teach to the wide range of students that we have and understanding that all kids don’t learn the same way.

Then we have a newer initiative, looking at things globally, like teaching kids a little bit about global play and how they can incorporate that into their lives and noticing that there are children all over the world and we are all different but that we all play. How do we play differently? And working that into a curriculum. I guess looking at things as a global perspective too, and not getting stuck in the idea of our own neighborhood all the time.

Keeping it active and lively, and keeping the kids involved in everything makes it work here.

ALSC Blog: I think that’s an excellent way to end our conversation. I want to thank you so much, Stacy, for talking with me.

Stacy Dillon: Thank you.