Sept 18-20, 2008: ALSC National Instistute, Salt Lake City, UT

The 2008 ALSC National Institute took place in gorgeous Salt Lake City, UT. (The climate and landscape reminded me of where I grew up.) General sessions included all manner of “YEEEEEEEEEhah!”-ing and no lack of opportunity to talk, share, and explore. Three education tracks were offered: Technology & Children’s Services; Programming in the New Millenium; and Inspiring Lifelong Reading. I opted to go to the technology and lifelong reading sessions.

First, Thursday afternoon: Track One: Technology and Children’s Services. Beth Gallaway, aka informationgoddess29 gave two presentations this afternoon. The first, called “Web 2.0: The Interactive Web”, introduced the basics of web 2.0 technology, its uses and difficulties, and pointed out various child-friendly websites that would give kids an opportunity to participate, create, and explore. There are many websites she introduced that would be great additions to any library website kid’s page, including Face Your Manga, The Sims On Stage, and Wordle.

Galloway’s second presentation, “Help! My Library Is Turning into an Arcade!” took attendees to the land of game design as well as explained five reasons games and gaming programs should be included in library collections and calendars. Games (and video games in particular) are “the medium of choice for the millennial generation.” Gamers not only learn skills for new literacies but they reinforce traditional literacy as well. (Think instruction manuals, text messaging, fanfiction, strategy, and environmental print.) Check out Set Game for one particularly fun example of a web-based, kid-friendly game that requires kids to employ information (new literacy) and read (traditional literacy).

I recommend browsing Galloway’s ALSC bundle on Delicious. She has a ton of resources, including many articles on gaming research. Additionally, her Forms & Fliers page includes handouts on Web 2.0, gaming, DDR, and brain/behavior.

Laura Vaccarro Seeger spoke at the end of Friday’s dinner general session. She was as playful, thoughtful, and irreverent as her books suggest.

Friday: Breakfast for Bill (William H. Morris, Vice President and Director of Library Promotion and Marketing, HarperCollins, who passed away in 2003). Panel included Sharon Creech and her editor Joanna Cotler, and William Joyce and his editor Laura Geringer. Each pair was reflective and effusive, both about their professional working relationships as author/editor teams and about the kind of person Bill Morris was and the impact he’d had on their lives.

Morning Sessions: Track Two: Inspiring Lifelong Reading. These sessions began with Dr. Teri Lesane, author of Naked Reading: Uncovering What Tweens Need to Become Lifelong Readers. The story behind the title of the book is told in the introduction to Naked Reading; suffice to say it boils down to the discovery of Lesane’s then 10 year-old granddaughter reading in her closet, perched on a stool in nothing but her birthday suit. Just as no other child might think this a preferred location or ideal attire for reading, neither is there any one template to describe what all tweens need in order to become lifelong readers. Understanding this, Lesane delved into a study done by Vicky Giles and Karen Sue Gibson. They asked 26K kids (grades K-12) two questions: “What could someone do to make you WANT to read BEFORE/AFTER you read?” and “What could someone do to make you HATE to read before/after you read?” Significantly, kids want to be able to pick any book they’d like as well as to be read aloud to everyday. PDFs of Lesane’s Great Tween Books list and her presentation slides are available online. (At 39.7 MB, the presentation pdf will take a few moments to download.) An explanation of the Late Night Inspiration/T-A-R-G-E-T slides: as librarians, we possess skills that enable us to connect to books, as well as to connect kids with books. T=Trust: we know the books – especially the Good Ones. A=Access: we understand the heart of a book, make personal connections to them. R=Response: we know books evoke emotion. G=Guidance: we can show a child the right book for right now, then show them where to go from there. E-Enthusiasm: tweens sense when we liked a book. And T=Tween Appeal: we can spot books that scream “target audience.”

Three children’s lit experts (Marsha Broadway, Jim Jacobs (both of BYU), and KT Horning (CCBC director and author of From Cover to Cover)) presented their list of the Best Books of 2008 (So Far) at Books, Books, Books, the second Lifelong Reading session. Notably, Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West (by Sid Fleischman) and We Are the Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball (by Kadir Nelson) appeared on multiple lists, and both Horning and Lesane spoke very highly of Kathi Appelt’s The Underneath, Horning calling it the best book of the decade.

Christopher Paul Curtis spoke at Saturday’s luncheon general session. Noting that writing for him was an act of revelation and that the best defense was a good offense, Curtis recounted several “Adventures with Leslie” (his mom), revealing personal experiences that have gone into his books. Remember the Nazi parachuters and the matches in The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963?

Ever been speed dating? I hadn’t. I got my chance to “speed network” Friday afternoon. I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly but it turned out to be kinda fun. I met several official ALSC folks as well as the children’s librarian from the Takoma Park library! It only took traveling 2000 miles….

Instituters got to go explore the main branch of SLCPL Friday evening. The reception included a local author signing, gaming (Rock Band, for one) and library tours. I spoke with Sara Zarr for several minutes (thoughtful, intelligent, wonderful woman!) and snapped up a copy of Lesane’s Naked Reading, then managed to tag along on the tail end of a library tour. The expansive children’s area included a programming room, a well-stocked and many-cabinet-ed art room, and a wooden climbing space off of the collection shelves.

Saturday: The Institute concluded with several workshop offerings and a closing session on Graphic Novels and Manga for Kids. I attended the workshop called “Programming for English Language Learners: Outreach, Programming, and Best Practices for Serving Young Children and Their Families.” The presenters included Betsy Diamant-Cohen, Enoch Pratt Free Library; Shelley Quezada, Library Services to the Unserved, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners; Barbara Brand, Youth Services Manager, Johnson County (Kansas) Library.

Diamont-Cohen shared how to organize and present kids’ programs in languages you don’t speak. She used EPFL’s Buena Casa, Buena Brasa as the model for developing such programs. Brand covered how she developed storytimes for preschool-aged English Language Learners, as well as how new language acquisition mirrors the language development of 18 mo. – 2.5 year olds. Quezada then spoke about her work reaching out to English Language Learners and their families and how libraries can do this work in their local community. The women did a fantastic job providing handouts to cover their information. Visit the ALSC National Institute handout page for access to everything they provided.

At the closing session, Michelle Gorman, author of the collection development helper Getting Graphic: Comics for Kids, underscored the validity bestowed on graphic novels when they are given shelf space in the library. The format attracts reluctant readers and visual learners in particular. Graphic novels employ literary devices (like foreshadowing) just as any other story would, and can be used to develop language arts skills (like a larger vocabulary). Finally, the format can be easily used to create a shared reading experience and works well with ESL or ELL students who are put off by traditional picture books.

If you’re overwhelmed by the idea of attending ALA Annual or are simply looking for a focused venue to discuss all things children’s services, consider attending the next ALSC National Institute in 2010. The biannual event is well worth the trip.