What I Picked Up at PLA

The week before last, I attended the Public Library Association Conference in Nashville, TN and boy howdy was it a great conference! I was part of the team of ALSC live bloggers for the conference, so you can see some of my thoughts (and the thoughts of some of my wonderful blogging colleagues) at the ALSC Blog under the PLA 2020 tag. 

And, of course, I picked up tons of exciting advanced copies of books. Since this conference was in easy driving distance, I didn't hold back on picking up galleys (although I always try to be cognizant of how much I can feasibly read and I try to only take what I think I will read or want to bring back for colleagues). Tonight, I went through and posted a Twitter thread of the children's and teen galleys I was most excited to find. You can take a look at the Twitter thread and #PLA20galleys to find suggestions for your upcoming orders and/or holds lists. 

I know that it can be a pain to travel. I know that conferences can be really expensive and your library may not pay to send you. But attending a national conference is such an amazing experience. This was my first time attending an entire PLA conference and I don't think I can oversell it. With every session and every attendee centered around the public library world, this is one of the top conferences I've been to. This year's theme was centered around equity, diversity, and inclusion, so there were so many sessions that spoke directly to my interests. 

I'm still recovering from Conference (and catching up from Conference!). It takes awhile to get back in the swing of things. But I'm already looking forward to PLA 2022 in Portland, Oregon. Will I see you there?? 

ALA Midwinter Bound!

Today I'm headed West to Seattle for the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting. I am super excited to attend some great programs, reconnect with colleagues from all over the country, and learn about all the great new books coming out this spring.

I will be live-blogging for the ALSC Blog, so make sure you jump over there to see my posts and the posts from the other live-bloggers throughout the conference! And follow me on Twitter @abbylibrarian for more frequent updates about the conference.

Here are some things I'll be doing at the conference:

• I'm looking forward to learning a lot from the PLA preconference Advancing Racial Equity in Public Libraries: Normalizing, Organizing, and Operationalizing on Friday. 
• I am so excited to hear Sylvia Acevedo speak (as you will remember, I LOVED HER BOOK). 
• I was invited to a celebration of Kwame Alexander's new imprint with Houghton Mifflin, Versify. As you know, I am a huge fan of Kwame Alexander ;) and I am super excited for this new imprint. 
• I can't wait to see what titles will be honored this year at the Youth Media Awards and this is the first year that titles selected for awards by the American Indian Library Association, Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, and the Association of Jewish Libraries will be shared at the YMAs! I am so glad I get to be there in person! But you can also watch a livestream of the awards on Monday, January 28 starting at 8am Pacific. 

And tons more. :) 

If you'll be at ALA Midwinter, I hope to see you! If you're left behind this year, don't forget to follow the hashtag #alamw19 to stay up to date on all the conference goings-on. 

Diversify Your Booktalks - YOUR SUGGESTIONS!

Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting a breakout session at the Indiana Library Federation's Youth Services Conference. This conference (formerly called CYPD) is one of my favorite learning experiences for youth librarians - it's completely youth-centered, they always have amazing authors, and they have great sessions with practical ideas for programs and services. It was my pleasure to join them briefly to talk about diverse books!

Of course, in a 50-minute session that included info on resources for seeking out diverse titles to add to your booktalking and reader's advisory rosters, I could only include so many books. So I asked attendees to chime in and suggest their own favorites. And I now present our compiled list!

Here's the handout from the session, complete with everyone's additions. Y'all doubled the books I had on my list and added some really awesome titles that I'm so glad you shared! This is a GREAT list to work from if you want to read more diverse books.

And for everyone playing along at home, feel free to leave your suggestions for great diverse books you love to include in your booktalks, reader's advisory, and displays. Comments are open below!

Leaders are Readers: A #PowerUp17 Book List

I had the GREAT pleasure of attending the first Power Up Conference in Leadership for Youth Services Managers and Staff at the University of Wisconsin - Madison last week. It was such an amazing two days and I am feeling really empowered (!!).

But the learning continues even now that I'm back home from conference. Not only will I be taking some time to read back over my notes, journal, and reflect, but I am busy tracking down all the great leadership and professional development books that were mentioned at the conference! Of course (since we're librarians), many of the presenters had book suggestions for us. And here's a compiled list. If you're looking to power up your leadership skills, start with these books!

Leaders are Readers: A #PowerUp17 Book List

**I did my best to write down as many book suggestions as I could, but of course I couldn't be in two sessions at once. If you remember any that I'm missing, please comment and I'll add them to the list!!**

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything in Business by Patrick Lencioni (Josey-Bass, 2012).

Being the Boss: 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader by Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011).

 Brene Brown - This author was mentioned, though not a specific book.
Daring Greatly (Avery, 2012).
The Gifts of Imperfection (Hazeldon, 2010).
Rising Strong (Spiegel & Grau, 2015).

Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block (Berret-Koehler, 2008).

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson et. al. (McGraw-Hill, 2002).

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (Riverhead Books, 2009).

Effective Difficult Conversations by Catherine Soehner and Ann Darling (ALA Editions, 2017).

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by James Collins (HarperBusiness, 2001).

It's Always Personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace by Anne Kreamer (Random House, 2011).

Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek (Portfolio, 2014).

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandburg (Knopf, 2013).

Library 2020: Today's Leading Visionaries Describe Tomorrow's Library ed. by Joseph Janes (Scarecrow Press, 2013).

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer (Harper, 2006).

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek (Portfolio, 2009).

Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath (Gallup Press, 2007).

**What books did I miss? Please tell me in comments and I'll update!!**

An ALA 2015 Recap

My friends, the 2015 ALA Annual Conference was such an amazing experience! I am really grateful for all the connections I have made through ALA, for my awesome 2015 Newbery Committee and our honored authors, for the education I received at conference, and for all the FUN this conference brought!

You definitely want to check out the live blogging posts on the ALSC Blog for lots of detail about sessions and goings-on at conference. But I also wanted to share a little bit about what I was up to at this conference:

PS: I am going to use the word "amazing" about 100 times in this post. Deal.

• Learning from other amazing youth services librarians at Guerrilla Storytime. 

• Celebrating our amazing Newbery Honor authors, Cece Bell and Jacqueline Woodson, at a fancy dinner with our committee. 

• Doing the Dumplin' pose at a HarperCollins breakfast. You do not want to miss this book. I promise. It comes out in September and I have a review coming soon.
  
• Presenting on an AWESOME panel about managing youth services (check out hashtag #futureYS for take-aways!)

Photo by Dan Bolstrom, ALSC

• Meeting up with the ALSC live bloggers and our ALSC Blog manager Mary Voors.
  
• Sitting in on the Children's Notable Recordings meeting and learning a lot about evaluating and discussing audio recordings. 

• Celebrating our 2015 Newbery Medal winner, Kwame Alexander!!!!!

• Picking up some highly anticipated books at the Exhibit Hall. (These are not all, but I didn't actually take that many books home this time around!)

• Drinking wine on the 46th floor before my FIRST Newbery Caldecott Wilder Banquet and...

• Hanging out with this guy in my fancy Newbery dress. 

• My first Newbery Caldecott Wilder Banquet. I was completely star-struck the entire time and just sat at my table with wide eyes taking in all the famous authors whirling around me. (Also, Jacqueline Woodson's son was at my table and engrossed in a Babymouse book for the later part of the evening!)

• Being with my people. Love. 

If I don't get to go to an ALA Conference for awhile, this was a GREAT one to go out on. I had a blast and learned a lot. I already miss my magical world of ALA Conference. BUT I know this guy is happy I'm home: 

Live Blogging at #alaac15

Today, I am headed out West to San Francisco for the 2015 American Library Association Annual Conference.

I am SUPER excited about this conference (which will probably be my last national conference for awhile). I'm excited to see my amazing 2015 Newbery Committee again without the stress of committee work to worry about. I am thrilled to join our Newbery honor and medal winners for dinner over the weekend, and, of course, to attend the 2015 Newbery/Caldecott Banquet.

I will also be speaking on a panel Saturday morning: Managing the Future: Supporting Your Youth Services Innovators with the amazing Cory Eckert, Justin Hoenke, and Kendra Jones!

If you are left behind, NEVER FEAR! The ALSC Blog is stepping up to keep you in the loop. A great group of ALSC Bloggers will be live-blogging and posting short, frequent updates throughout the conference, so you won't miss a thing.

Make sure you're following the ALSC Blog and the Twitter hashtag #alaac15 to see all the great stuff happening at Conference!

Vegas, Baby! (For a Professional Librarian Conference!)

Yes, I'm headed to Las Vegas for the next several days, attending the American Library Association's Annual Conference! To be completely honest with you, my brain is fried between READING and summer and SUMMER READING. I feel like I need an aide to take my hand and lead me to all the fun and educational things. But I am hoping to tweet, so follow @abbylibrarian for conference goings-on. 

Luckily, the lovely folks at the ALSC Blog will be live blogging, so if you're playing along at home, don't forget to check them out! 

And I'll be back to blogging sometime after the conference.

Tween Readers' Advisory and Programming at #PLA2014

Renata Sancken and I before presenting at PLA 2014!

Yesterday, at the PLA Conference in Indianapolis, my teen librarian Renata Sancken and I presented a session on tween readers' advisory and programming. It was a lot to cram into one session, but we had a great crowd with lots of great questions and it was all amazing and fun!

If you were there or if you were not there, you can access our handouts on the PLA Conference website: http://2014.placonference.org/programs/ Our session is titled Betwixt and Be-Tween and was presented on Thursday, March 13 at 4:15 (that should help you find it).

I live in massive fear that people will not actually go and download the handouts, which you SHOULD because our behind-the-scenes (i.e. home with tiny babies!) presenters, Kate Conklin and Sarah Bean Thompson (of GreenBeanTeenQueen), put together a MASSIVE readalikes handout with readalikes for tons of the series and books that are super popular with tweens right now. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Warriors, 39 Clues, I Survived... it's all there.

Thanks to everyone who came out! And please feel free to contact us (contact info..... on the handouts!!) any time. We'd love to hear from you!

Reflections from ALA Midwinter

Maybe it's because I'm serving on an awards committee this year, but I feel like I've finally figured out the ALA Conference this time around. I learned so much, connected with my colleagues, and had no session regrets.

Of course, I'm lucky to have been selected for the Bill Morris Seminar on Book Evaluation Training, which was a completely amazing day. We split up the day between guest speakers and small group discussions on preselected books. Topics included how to evaluate books, how to discuss books in a group, and what the experience of serving on an ALA awards committee is like. In our small group discussions, we were able to practice what we learned as we discussed the books we had read. I came away feeling much more confident about evaluating and discussing books.

On Saturday, I met my 2015 Newbery Committee for the first time (a few of us had met previously, but this was the first time the entire group got together). At our open meeting, we got to know each other a little, went over the criteria and process for the Newbery committee work, and had an opportunity to discuss any concerns or questions we might have. I know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but it's going to be such worthwhile work and I'm really excited.

On Sunday, I attended my very first Guerrilla Storytime, which was an amazing grassroots training and sharing opportunity. Watch out, ILF Conference! Soon there will be Guerrilla Storytime at you! I also attended the Preschool Services Group Discussion, where we talked about the importance of play and how to incorporate play into our programs and our libraries.

Monday was the Youth Media Awards announcements, which were very emotional for me at this juncture (my friends kept leaning over and saying "Next year, that will be you!"). I loved finding out which books the committees chose to honor this year, and I especially found it interesting the wide range of ages this year's Newbery and Printz Awards covered.

Monday afternoon, I sat in on one of the Notable Children's Books discussions, which was illuminating and interesting. This is definitely a session I would recommend sitting in on (their meetings are open) if you're interested in book evaluation and/or serving on an awards committee. Again, I was able to see some of the elements of book discussion put into practice while watching the committee go through their process to select the year's notable books.

And Monday night, I attended the joint ALSC/YALSA reception, which is a great opportunity to connect with colleagues and get to know new people. I have been to enough conferences and involved in enough ALA activities now that I know people at these events and it's always fun to see everyone. I've learned, too, that everyone gets really excited when you tell them you're on the Newbery Committee and it's a great conversation starter.

My only regret is that I did not have a chance to sit in on the Notable Children's Recordings session, but there's always next time!

All in all, it was a GREAT conference and I'd like to thank the ALA staff and volunteers for a great learning opportunity. I'd also like the thank all the ALA awards committees for their hard work this year in selecting the year's most distinguished books for children and teens. It is NOT easy work and so much thought goes into every choice.

Although I am super exhausted (I'm writing this at the Philadelphia Airport), I'm also refreshed, in a way. I'm excited to bring some of the things I learned back to my staff. I'm excited to put the things I learned into practice. And I'm excited to start my Newbery year.

It's going to be an amazing year, folks!!

And I'm Off!

Philadelphia City Hall by angelo

I'm off today for the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia! Make sure to tune in to the ALSC Blog over the next few days because several fabulous people are liveblogging the conference! If there is anything in particular you'd like to hear about, be sure to let us know!

You will find me at the Morris Seminar on Friday, the introductory Newbery Committee meeting on Saturday (!!), Guerrilla Storytime on Sunday, and the Youth Media Awards ceremony on Monday (watch it live!!!). And I will be around other places, too.

When I get back, it will be time to read, read, read, read, read, read... ;)

Mad About Science: STEM Books to Use in Your Programs

Last week, I presented at the Children's & Young People's Division Conference on the science programming we have done (and plan to do!) at my library. I had a great, engaged crowd and the presentation was really fun! The first part of the presentation, I talked about our science programming at the library, how we started and tips for starting your own. Check out the handout from Mad About Science here!

At the end of the session, I shared a few of my favorite books and authors to use in science programming, and today I wanted to share my booklist with you. For a printable version, click here!

For each age group, I look for something to read aloud and/or something to explain complicated concepts in simple language. For preschoolers and early elementary, I'm usually looking for picture books that I can read (either in their entirety or in a shortened form), either on their own or as part of a larger storytime. Adding STEM books and concepts to your already-existing preschool storytime is a great way to encourage learning without having to add another entire program to your repertoire.

For elementary and tween audiences, I might read a picture book in its entirety or I might read passages from a longer book. Another way I use books in science programs for these age groups is to feature photos and facts, always making sure that they know where I got them ("citing my sources", per se). My goal in any program that I do is to feature and foster excitement about literature, so I always root programs in our collection.

A great tip someone from the session shared was to read magazine articles! It's such a simple and wonderful idea that hadn't occurred to me, so I'm really glad someone shared that tip with us.

When sharing books with kids, don't feel like you have to read the entire book, even for preschoolers. It's fine to share part of a book, to paperclip pages together, or reword certain passages if they're too wordy for your audience. When we're talking about books for preschool storytimes, books with rhyming words and/or big, clear pictures get bonus points! (Rhyming words help foster phonological awareness and big, clear pictures make books easier to be seen by large groups.)

Okay, that was a huge lead-up to my STEM programming booklist:

Preschool/Early Elementary

Series and authors:

Let’s Read and Find Out About Science - Great for illustrating concepts in simple language and they sometimes contain activity ideas, too. 

Pebble Plus series (published by Capstone) - The easy reader text makes it easy to share in storytime and the large, full-color photos are great for sharing with a group. 

Rookie Read-About Science (Scholastic) - Although they're a smaller trim size, this easy reader series is another good choice for explaining science concepts in simple language. 

Zigzag series by Becky Baines (National Geographic Children’s Books) - I love these books for their rhyming text. The rhyming text can be read by itself or you can add some of the facts found in smaller text on each spread.

Jim Arnosky
Bob Barner
Gail Gibbons
Darrin P. Lunde
Anne Rockwell
April Pulley Sayre
Anastasia Suen
Ellen Stoll Walsh

Titles:

Parts by Tedd Arnold (human body)
Over in the Jungle by Marianne Berkes (jungle, biomes, animals - great vocabulary!)
Count Them While You Can by Annie Bowman (endangered species)
Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert (insects, butterflies, life cycle)
Moon Bear by Brenda Z. Guiberson (bears, animals)
Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit by Il Sung Na (seasons, animals, camoflage)
Guess What is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada (eggs, animals, life cycles)
Pumpkins by Ken Robbins (fall, growing, plant life cycle)
Hop! Plop! by Corey Rosen Schwartz & Tali Klein (weight, measurement)

Elementary

Magic Tree House Research Guides (Random House) - This companion to the fiction series offers age-appropriate info on nonfiction topics. Choose passages from these books to introduce science concepts. 

A True Book series (Scholastic) - These titles are a little more involved than some of the series listed above, but still explain science concepts in simple language. Even if you don't read them aloud, they're great for familiarizing yourself with the concept you're presenting!

World Book Learning Playground (World Book) - These books have lots of curriculum and project ideas for various topics. Check here for activity ideas!

** Don't forget to feature these authors and titles as you're booktalking or doing readalouds for summer camps or afterschool groups. Many of these titles and authors have books that are easy to share with groups and add some variation to your usual stories! **

David A. Adler
Nic Bishop
Steve Jenkins
David M. Schwartz
Janice VanCleave

The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton
Bubble Homes and Fish Farts by Fiona Bayrock
The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino
How Big Is It? by Ben Hillman
Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya
Pop!: The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy
Why Are Animals Orange? by Melissa Stewart

Tweens

Scientist in the Field series - This excellent series features different scientists and the work they do. These are ideal for budding scientists and for inspiring conversations about college/career readiness (yay Common Core!). 

Janice VanCleave
Sally M. Walker

Shark Life by Peter Benchley
100 Most Dangerous Things on the Planet by Anna Claybourne
A Black Hole is Not a Hole by Carolyn DeCristofano
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins
Zombie Makers by Rebecca Johnson
The Lives of the Scientists by Kathleen Krull
The Kid Who Named Pluto by Marc McCutcheon
Team Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

Those are some of my favorite STEM titles to share/booktalk with library kids. I know you have suggestions to add to the list, so let's hear 'em!

What are your favorite STEM books to use in programming? How do you use them?

Get Real: Contemporary YA Lit is the Next Big Thing

My body is here in Southern Indiana this weekend, but my heart is in St. Louis with my fabulous colleagues at the 2012 YALSA YA Lit Symposium. Indeed, I had been working on a presentation with four of my very favorite teen librarians - Angie Manfredi, Katie Salo, Drea Sowers, and Kelly Jensen - but life happened and I was unable to attend the conference this weekend.

If you visit your local chain bookstore, chances are that the teen section is inundated with paranormal and fantasy titles. There's nothing wrong with that; those titles are certainly popular with teens. But know that teens are craving realistic fiction, too. Paranormal may be hot right now, but it's contemporary stories that are, have been, and will be the meat of the YA genre. Teens need books that reflect their experiences and allow them to experience other situations in a safe way. Teens need to see themselves in books, need books that talk about relationships and tough situations.

Our panel, Get Real: Contemporary YA Lit is "The Next Big Thing" talks about the importance of contemporary fiction and gives TONS of suggestions in a variety of genres. If you couldn't make it to the Symposium this year or if you're just looking for the handouts, I've got 'em here.

Here's the Prezi that the panel presented this morning:

Contemporary YA Lit is "The Next Big Thing" on Prezi

And our epic handout with tons and tons of book suggestions:

Ya Lit Symposium Hand Out

If you're not sure where to start, check out this awesome Contemporary YA flowchart made by Kelly Jensen of STACKED.

Contemporary YA lit is something our teens need and something they're asking for! Hopefully these resources we've put together will help you in your quest to put the right book in the right hands.

A Fresh Look at Storytime

My storytime looked different this morning. Thanks to the 2012 ALSC Institute (and, in particular, sessions by Melissa Depper & Lori Romero on storytime training and evaluation and by Sarah Mackie on the Columbus Metropolitan Library's Ready to Read Corps), I'm thinking about storytime a little differently this morning. 

When I returned to work on Sunday, I spent some time checking out the Indiana Department of Education's Kindergarten Readiness Matrices. After hearing about how the Columbus Metropolitan Library took early literacy training to the streets in order to improve scores on Ohio's kindergarten readiness assessment, I wanted to see what skills we might reinforce in our storytimes. I'm not sure (yet!) what assessment our local schools use, but this gave me a great start to thinking critically about what activities we offer in our storytimes and what skills they are developing. 

As I prepared for this morning's storytime, I thought about transition between the elements and what activities and books might lead into our next activities. I remembered that fingerplays are important because they develop fine motor skills and puppets are important because they engage kids and encourage creative play. I included a nonfiction book to get at some of those Tier 2 words that kids are not hearing every day. I remembered that learning through play is vital, so I got some related toys ready to put out for the kids after storytime. 

As I did storytime, I noticed how some of the parents were involved and engaged and some spent the entire time on their cell phones. I'm sure this was the case before, but now I'm noticing and I'm going to change some things about my storytimes to try to engage parents more. 

I thought about places where I could insert early literacy messages. We include them in our take-home craft packets, but we could certainly do more. I thought about our Memory Box and whether switching to a Mystery Bag or being more purposeful about what items we're including in the Memory Box might benefit children more. 

All of that on my first program after the ALSC Institute and there's much more to come. I spent some time brainstorming about what training I need to offer my staff and we'll spend more time over the coming weeks thinking critically about what we're offering to our patrons and why. 

There will be another storytime post this week with the materials I used (we talked about cows this week!). As I wrote up that post, I kept coming across small elements I had changed because of the Institute or activities I included specifically because of Institute sessions and I knew I had to write this post first. 

I'm at the #ALSC12 Institute

Today through Saturday, I'll be attending the 2012 ALSC National Institute in Indianapolis, IN! If you're in Indy with us, I hope to meet up with you (feel free to Tweet me!). If you're following along from home, be sure to check out the ALSC Blog where several attendees (myself included) will be blogging from the conference. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter with the #alsc12 hashtag.

I'm super excited to connect with some ALSC folks I've only had the pleasure of knowing online and to attend some great sessions and bring back lots of new knowledge to share with my staff!

Fighting for Awesome at #cypd12 !

CC: JD Hancock

Sunday and Monday, I was at the fabulous CYPD Annual Conference in Indianapolis! CYPD is the Children's and Young People's Division of the Indiana Library Federation. We're lucky to have such an active youth division and the CYPD Board puts together a great conference every year with fascinating breakout sessions and inspiring keynote speakers.

This year, we were lucky enough to hear keynotes from Emily Ellis (a 2012 Library Journal Mover & Shaker), Katherine Applegate, Thaddeus Rex, and Lauren Myracle. Local independent bookstore Kids Ink sells books at the conference so attendees have an opportunity to get books signed. 

And I attended some great breakout sessions!! Suzanne Walker and Jaymi Edwards presented about their experiences starting an early literacy blog at their library: Explore to Learn. They post videos after each week of storytimes to reinforce early literacy skills and remind kids and parents about what they read in storytime. They both recommended the format they've used of having a puppet interview a librarian about what happened in storytime and generally do their videos in one take. Sammy the toucan even interviewed ME! 

On Monday, I went to a session about Summer Reading Clubs, which I was hoping would feature some ideas for next summer, but turned out to be more of a general session about Summer Reading Clubs. It's always good to share ideas with other librarians and it gave us all a chance to debrief a little bit. I also went to a session about tween programming and heard Carol Evrard of the Spencer County Library talk about some of their favorite activities for tweens.

My last session of the day was Cleaning House: The Story of a Mini-Remodel by Alyssa Morgan of the Morgan County Public Library. Alyssa shared her experiences in rearranging some areas of her department, including creating a tween area, renovating their public service desk, and ordering new furniture to make their computer area work better. Since we've recently undergone some changes in my Children's Room, I was interested to see what they had done with theirs.

I did my fair share at this conference, presenting a session on web resources for programming ideas. I talked about Pinterest, many blogs & websites for programming ideas, and Twitter, emphasizing how to use social media to build a network of professionals to brainstorm with and consult when you run into rough patches. You can have my handout: Only a Click Away: Finding Program Ideas on the Web.

All in all, it was a great conference and, as usual, a great chance to connect with youth librarians from all over the state! Thanks, CYPD!

Will I See You at CYPD?

Calling all my Indiana librarian friends:

I just registered for the annual Children & Young People's Division Conference, held August 26 & 27, 2012 in Indianapolis! Will you be there? They've got a great lineup of sessions and authors, including Lauren Myracle and Katherine Applegate! Oh, and I'm presenting Sunday on internet resources for library programming ideas (Only a Click Away: Finding Program Ideas on the Web).

Here's the full program schedule (opens a pdf). If you haven't been to CYPD before, you don't know what you're missing! It's a great opportunity to connect with youth librarians and authors.

Hope to see you there!

Why All This Silliness?

Arrggh, there have been posts flying all over the interwebs since ALA about ARCs and bloggers vs. librarians and how it's all a bunch of silliness and grabbiness over free books. A Publisher's Weekly article summed it up pretty nicely this week if you've missed what's going on.

I pretty much hate to add to any internet kerfuffle, but I feel like there is a real lack of understanding about how teen librarians use ARCs to fuel programs and get teens invested and involved in their public libraries. I happen to know some awesome librarians and teachers doing awesome things with ARCs.

If you're wondering why librarians are all in a tizzy about entitlement and free stuff and who has the right to grab what, check out what some of these fabulous librarians and teachers are doing with ARCs. It's much more than scoring a free book to read on the plane ride home.

Sarah of GreenBean TeenQueen has blogged about using ARCs in her library to get book reviews from her Teen Library Council and to inspire library staff to keep up with popular literature.

Kelly of STACKED has posted about changing teens' lives with ARCs, putting books into their hands when they may not have any other opportunity to actually OWN a book.

(Side note: we're at the public library, you say. Can't teens CHECK OUT books since they're at the LIBRARY?? you say. I've said the SAME THING, but I've found that you might be surprised at the number of kids who love to read but are reluctant or unable to check out books. Maybe they have fines on their cards. Maybe it's a 20-minute drive to the library and they don't have reliable transportation. Maybe, with all the other things they have going on, they have trouble keeping track of due dates and are skittish about taking a book they think they'll forget to return...)

Sarah of The Reading Zone writes about using ARCs in her classroom to motivate high school students to read and to expand her classroom library. She says, "ARCs are magical. Nothing hooks a reluctant reader like the promise of reading a story before the rest of the world has access to it."

Drea of Book Blather runs a teen book review program where she gets teen feedback to help her decide which books she needs to purchase multiple copies of.

Katie of Book Blather told us about her book speed dating program, a program fueled by ARCs she brought back from ALA conferences.

At my library, we've used ARCs as prizes for teen programs and we've used ARCs with our teen advisory board to solicit reviews. Many libraries use ARCs from conferences as prizes for major programs like the Summer Reading Club.

Anybody else used ARCs in your library or classroom? Please share in comments!

Mark Your Calendars for ILF!

I'm happy to announce that Kate Conklin (Head of Teen Services at the Charlestown-Clark Co. Library) and I will be presenting a session at the Indiana Library Federation's 2012 Conference!

Striking Gold: Teen Readers' Advisory for Reference Staff is slated for Tuesday, November 13 from 4-5:35pm (time and date is subject to change). Our presentation aims to help reference/adult services staff with readers' advisory for teens, i.e. what do you recommend when a teen asks you and your teen librarian has the day off. We'll be booktalking some great readalikes for some of the most popular teen books and series, as well as pointing librarians to great readers' advisory resources. 

The ILF Conference will be held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, IN from November 12-14, 2012. If you're coming to the conference, I hope you will come hear our presentation!!

Coming Soon: ILF District 6 Conference!

Okay, I'm going to take a minute here and promote an upcoming event that is near and dear to my heart. The Indiana Library Federation's District 6 Conference is coming up on Friday, April 13, 2012 at Ivy Tech in Lawrenceburg, IN. Lawrenceburg is in Southern Indiana, very close to Cincinnati, OH.

Where else can you hear the inimitable Michael Stephens AND the fantastic Jessamyn West speak for the low, low price of $47 (and even lower - $32 - for ILF members!)? Not only that, but we have some great breakout sessions, including sessions on storytime props, redesigning your website, hosting a Big Read, dealing with teen volunteers, eContent, customer service, and MORE.

Your registration fee covers breakfast and lunch. Parking is free and you will definitely want to check out Ivy Tech's beautiful campus, right on the river. You'll also want to stop by and check out the Lawrenceburg Public Library, which is right down the street.

This will be a great event for librarians in all fields and library school students, as well! If you're in the area, this is an opportunity to network with local librarians and get some great professional development. Please join us and feel free to spread the word!

Click here for more information about the ILF District 6 Conference or to register!

Indianapolis Youth Literature Conference

This past Saturday, I was up at 5am. WHY would I do that? To head up to Indianapolis for the 2012 Indianapolis Youth Literature Conference! It was a fabulous day of talking about books and hearing some great talks from authors.

The conference was held at the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, which is FABULOUS.

Six floors of books and media and they have some seriously cool stuff for kids. 

First up was Nick Bruel, author of the Bad Kitty books (which are the latest hot series among kids at my library). 

Nick was a hilarious start to our morning with his talk:

The 8 things included J.K. Rowling: 

(How dare she switch to writing adult books! It's not like adult authors just suddenly decide to CHANGE and start publishing YA books....... wait.....)

And German translations of his book:

After Nick's talk, we went into the first breakout sessions of the day. Nick did a session and they had a great panel of teen authors, but I slipped into a booktalk session about great new kids' books. Shirley Mullin of the indie bookstore Kids Ink gave us a great presentation featuring some of her favorite 2011 and 2012 titles. 

I was familiar with a lot of them, but Shirley can always turn me on to some that I've overlooked!

Our next keynote speaker was Philip Hoose (pronounced "hose" like a garden hose), author of the award-winning Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.

I really dig the smaller size of the paperback, as I think that's more appealing to teens than the larger size of the hardcover. Look at all those awards!!

Philip definitely wins "Best Sweater of the Day" award. He talked to us about tracking down Claudette Colvin and how he researched her story.

After hearing all about Claudette Colvin, it was time to break for lunch. When we came back from lunch, we sat down for a talk from my personal favorite author of the day: Shannon Hale! Shannon Hale is the author of many books for adults, teens and kids, including Austenland, The Goose Girl, Newbery-honor winner Princess Academy, and the rip-roaring graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge. Here is one of my employees immersed in Rapunzel's Revenge before Shannon's talk began:

Shannon was determined to keep us from getting sleepy after lunch and gave a funny and high-energy talk.

She may have yelled at us a little bit to make sure we were all awake. :) 

Shannon talked about wanting to be a writer since she was very small and shared some pictures and stories about her family. Here, her son is showing off his Bad Kitty project for school: 

Shannon is a very engaging speaker, completely comfortable in front of a crowd, and if you get the change to hear her speak, I urge you to do it! She doesn't travel much lately (she's got 4 kids at home!), so I feel really lucky to have been able to hear her. She told us what it was like to get The Call about her Newbery honor and how she makes time for writing with four kids in the house (a babysitter comes 15 hours a week).

After Shannon's keynote, it was time for breakout sessions again. I stayed to hear Shannon's breakout session, but others went to hear Philip Hoose talk about researching and writing nonfiction or our very own Michele Farley talk about the Caldecott Award and her experience serving on last year's Caldecott committee.

In Shannon's breakout session, she talked about how some of the books she was given and chose to read in high school and college turned her off of reading for pleasure for many years.

Teachers must be able to choose what books to use in their classroom and choosing books with teen protagonists and books that speak kids' language can save reading lives. Teens need books with teen protagonists so they know that they are valued,  that it's not just adults who are the protagonists of stories.

And reading is so important because it affects your brain in a way that no other activity does. It helps readers gain a sense of empathy for their fellow humans and develop imagination.

One of the attendees asked Shannon if she had a response for conservative Christians who might object to the fantasy in her books. Shannon replied that the Bible is full of parable and that much fantasy can be read as parable.

After the last breakouts, we had a chance to get books signed, but the lines were pretty long and we were all tired after our very early start, so we headed back to New Albany. It was a great day, just the thing to get my staff excited about reading some of the books they heard about!