Deep Thinking

Food in New Orleans is a big part of my excitement about attending ALA2006. I love food. I love the smell, the look, and the taste of food. And I especially love going somewhere else so I don’t have to prepare it! We ventured to the Cafe du Monde and I tasted some of the best cafe au lait in town. Believe me that I did sample many cups. While we were there, protestors came marching down the street and stopped 10 feet from our table. There was a metal rail between us so they weren’t technically in the cafe. They used loud speakers to talk about their needs for housing, the current state of housing units being torn down and the city’s plan to replace these with more expensive units and fewer units so even more people would be homeless. We heard from business people, students, homeless, handicapped, and a preacher. They had a flyer with some facts and a website that I will post here when I actually finish unpacking.

The protestors made it very clear that they didn’t want us to feel bad about enjoying our food and beverages, but they wanted us to take home the message that the people of New Orleans need help. While the French Quarter and Convention areas are ready for tourists, the protestors wanted us to know that the working class is still fighting a constant battle to find affordable housing.

So, I went out and talked to other people in the city about this issue to ask more questions. We rode the trolley back and talked to a middle-class woman. She talked about the need and opportunity to clean up some areas of the city. At the same time she shared that she had returned to the city in February and not found housing until April.

I talked to school officials from Texas about the pending deadline for people to stop receiving money and housing. Some of them talked about their frustration with evacuees not taking full advantage of job fairs.

There are always so many sides to issues. The one constant among the people of New Orleans about what to do was “Keep talking about this so people don’t forget us.” The other comment I heard from everyone was keep eating and spending money because the only way for the city to recover was for the tourists to come back and be in the city more than 3 days a week.

So, I continued to eat my way through New Orleans. I went to Cafe Fleur de Lis for a simple breakfast (not knowing how tiny this place was), The Bourbon House for excellent Shrimp Creole after ten p.m. when many places were closed, Cafe Beignet for jambalaya, cafe au lait, and beignets, the Palace Cafe for bananas foster, Michaul’s for a TLC party with a wide variety of food from New Orleans, the Florida State University alumni dinner (as a guest, not alumni) on the top floor of the Hotel Monteleone overlooking the river, the Audubon Tea room at the Audubon Nature Institute for ASPCA, and the Red Fish Grill for a fantastic meal of hickory smoked fish (that I had never heard of) with lump crab meat, butter, and asparagus with a soup of shrimp and okra that was delicious. I attended the Newbery/Caldecott banquet at the Marriott New Orleans for a wonderful meal that left me wanting more bananas foster - hence the trip to Palace Cafe.

I visited a few beverage facilities to sample their music and loved the jazz at Maison Bourbon Jazz Club. Every time I went through Pat O’Brien’s I couldn’t locate my friends, but had plenty of opportunities to make more.

Grassroots organizations within structured organizations can be tricky to facilitate (notice I did not say lead or manage). The officers of the AASL Affiliate Assembly pictured here are Diane Chen, chair of Affiliate Assembly, Carl Harvey, chair-elect, and Karen Lowe, recording secretary. Rosina Alaimo, past chair, was able to join her region for much of the meeting as both an officer and a delegate.

Notice the amount of papers you can see peeking through the left corner of the photo. I am such a lateral thinker that I have to see all the issues and ideas spread out in front of me. If I had taken the time to use Inspiration and drawn a graphical organizer, I might not have had to create a 3-D version on the table in front of me.

One of the constant problems with grassroots organizations with rotating new members each 1-2 years is that the corporate history becomes lost. Nancy Dickinson and taskforce are working on a plan to help retain the memory of what was discussed, what concerns were addressed, and which were tabled or returned to the originating affiliate organization delegate for additional information.

We are attempting to use the American Library Association Online Communities pages to store documents, chat, discuss issues in forums, and share joint calendars. I have to laugh at how long it takes adults to transition and capitalize on the new technologies. When I have demo’d similar sites for my teenagers, they have instantly shared these ideas and encouraged everyone to participate. Coming back to a site 24 hours after they have learned something, you can see that everyone and their brother have attempted to use the site to make it usable for themselves. Perhaps this is our problem. We are too entrenched in the attitude of waiting around for someone else to perfect something and work the kinks out, instead of being part of the solution.

What will it take for us to become like a teenager in the sense of living in the immediate, the urgent, the now?

Nancy Dickinson and I flew from Nashville to New Orleans Thursday night. Our 79 year old taxi driver waited til we were nearly at the hotel to tell us we were his last trip for the day since he doesn’t see very well at night. PHEW! He also talked about sleeping on an air mattress for 6 months until his FEMA trailer was delivered and then how his gas tanks were stolen so he had to wait for another 3 weeks to get replacements. Yet, he was so happy to be back in New Orleans. He was also very grateful to have the librarians with ALA here.

This is my first trip to New Orleans so I am excited about seeing the city, worried about accomplishing everything meeting-wise, and determined to take note of what is happening around me so I can “do good.”

First sour note was discovering that the hotels don’t offer free WiFi, but charge $9.95 a day for ethernet connections. With two of us in the room, that wouldn’t help either. It means I haul the computer to the convention center to take advantage of their free WiFi to blog. With the number of meetings I have, this won’t be a convenient option. I will have to actually take written notes then and post them later, so don’t be surprised if my blog entries are delayed and out of order.

The New York Times article about librarians going to New Orleans is amazing because of the response it engendered among the librarians present. Finally we are being seen as brave, strong people who do what needs to be done for the greater good of others.

The lines below show the new vision of librarians as brave risk-takers who go where they need to despite fears and obstacles.

“NEW ORLEANS, June 23 — The nation’s librarians proved themselves an intrepid lot this week, venturing into this limping city where other conventioneers have feared to tread.”
and
“We’re proud to be librarians whose leadership decided to honor the contract,” said Karen Hoyle of the University of Minnesota. ”

Librarians have always separated themselves somewhat through the nature of their profession. While they need to know their clients and their needs, their mission statements often go beyond a single group to be more inclusive. This often causes distress when they are called “liberal” (as if that’s a dirty name!), “hysterical”, and “radical.” The Library Bill of Rights should be posted in our offices and for our patrons. We say our pledge of allegiance in schools daily. How about our pledge to the profession and the needs of our citizens even when there is disagreement?

The ALA2006 conference in New Orleans was a “feel good” experience for those who were there. We were recognized for our doing good. We were able to speak to citizens throughout the city. Librarians actively took part in rebuilding, fixing, and creating new libraries for desperately seeking-information citizens. We viewed destruction, rebuilding, and the emptiness of some businesses that were waiting for their owners to return. Some of the businesses apologized for the cuts in their hours due to their severe need for more employees. We donated to relief causes. We spent money in restaurants and shops. We tipped more graciously than ever before.

Every business owner I spoke with thanked us as a group for coming and pled for us to return to spread the word that New Orleans needs their tourism business. I spoke with a city planner for arts and cultural festivals who shared their need to continue planning the annual events (even if they had to shorten some) both for tourists and for the spirits of those who stayed in New Orleans and those who have come home. Be one of the brave and fearless. Be like a librarian and go to New Orleans.

I will be blogging during my free time at ALA both for the new AASL Blog and for myself. The official AASL blog doesn’t allow us to discuss the schwag and the exhibit halls, but sometimes I make the best contacts in there. From discussions with publishers in the past, we were able to organize our TASL Forum this year.

I am greatly looking forward to attending AASL functions - especially Affiliate Assembly and the legislative advocacy meetings. Here is my initial itinerary of meetings:

Breakfast for Fun at the Cafe Fleur-de-Lis at 307 Chartres St. (2 blocks behind the New Orleans Marriott) at 9:00 a.m.
ALA -PIO Advocacy Institute 6/23/2006 , 12:00 PM - 5:30 PM Astor Crowne Plaza room: Grand BR C
AASL AASL Board of Directors Meeting I 6/23/2006 , 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM (I don’t have to attend this, but I’m going to pop in for a few moments to watch) Morial Rm. 270
ALA -WO Legislative Advocacy Summit - cosponsored by COL, Legislation Assembly 6/23/2006 , 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM Morial Rm. 277
ALA -WO COL /Legislative Assembly Joint Meeting 6/23/2006 , 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (I don’t see how I can attend this one but I have a seat there and need a committee member to attend for me.) Morial Rm. 277
AASL Affiliate Assembly Executive Committee 6/23/2006 , 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM Morial Rm. 270
AASL Affiliate Assembly I 6/23/2006 , 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM Morial Rm. 271-72
AASL Celebrate Conference 6/24/2006 , 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM Morial Rm. 393
AASL AASL President’s Program 6/24/2006 , 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Morial Rm. 283-85
ALA ALA/ProQuest Scholarship and Library Relief Event 6/24/2006 , 8:00 PM - 11:00 PM Morial Auditorium
AASL Affiliate Assembly II 6/25/2006 , 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Morial: Rm. 261-262
ALSC 2006 Newbery/Caldecott Banquet 6/25/2006 , 6:30 PM - 11:00 PM New Orleans Marriott room: Grand BR
ALA -WO Legislation Assembly Meeting 6/26/2006 , 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM Morial Rm. 238-239
AASL AASL All Committee Meeting 6/26/2006 , 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM Morial Rm. 394-395
AASL Joint Legislation Committee 6/26/2006 , 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM Morial Rm. 254

Don’t you find it amazing that we adults utilize the new technologies to keep in touch and let others know where we are, yet we absolutely freak out when our students attempt similar tactics?

Grassroots advocacy. It has to occur constantly. It must permeate an organization. Every person who has dealings with any staff member or patron of your library must receive, know, and project the message you need delivered because they understand it must be conveyed–they must have a sense of urgency of need. Marketing must occur which truly is focused upon the needs of the user, not just the PR message you want delivered.

Last Friday and Saturday 100 people met at the Nashville Public Library for the Tennessee Association of School Librarians (TASL) Library and Literacy Forum. They keynote speaker was Steven Layne and he wowed all the groups with his messages on literacy and leadership. This forum was not just attended by school librarians, but also by administrators, grad students, two of my H.S. students, community members, business members, classroom teachers, and more. You can view the Flickr photos here The handout with agenda is available here from the TASL website.

I will be adding information to this site about the results of different breakout sessions. It was an amazing event that couldn’t have taken place without the help of Scholastic Library Publishing, Coughling Publishing (Capstone Press, Picture Window Books, Stone Arch, and Compass Point) and SLJ. This was inspired by the SLJ Library Leadership Summit from March, 2005. Stay tuned for comments.

Toni Buzzeo connected me with a speaker that I want to tell you about because I believe he is relatively unknown in the school library world so you can get him before he is booked. Steven Layne http://www.stevelayne.com was the keynote speaker for our Tennessee Association of School Librarians (TASL) Libraries and Literacy Forum this past weekend. Steven has long been known in the “reading” world speaking at IRA and large literacy conferences. He was dynamic, entertaining, and motivational. Our forum was attended by a wide variety of educational stakeholders all exploring the role of school libraries in literacy in Tennessee. Every person raved about his keynote and the impact he had on their life.

Steven is an author of many different types of books including picturebooks (like T is for Teacher, The Principal’s Night Before Christmas and many others); young adult books (Mergers and This Side of Paradise), and poetry/gift books (Life’s Literacy Lessons: Poems for Teachers, Verses for Mom’s Heart, and Verses for Dad’s Heart). To give you a personal glimpse, my oldest son listened to his keynote, drove him back to the airport and announced to me today that he’d read Mergers and “It was pretty cool.” High praise indeed! (#1 son came in today to tell me more about Mergers. He said that it was really fun to read and didn’t bore him like lots of books did. He said it was so compelling that he read 135 pages before he knew it. He told me that that was his kind of book and I should find more like it.

I know it’s unconventional to go on about speakers, but I know how hard it is to find quality speakers that you can depend upon. Steven will be at ALA in New Orleans and we’ll be sitting together at the Caldecott/Newbery banquet, so come on up and say “Hi.” Thanks, Toni, for the wonderful lead.

One of my favorite activities in the summer is to visit the various public libraries where my students go and reward/recognize them for being good citizens. In years past I’ve carried tiny treats to reward. I often talk and praise them during the school year in front of their peers for using the public library. It’s amazing how simple it is to make visiting the public library “cool.” This year I have a notebook that I am jotting down names of families when I run into them in the library. I try to name-drop during the school year and make sure that students know they can add their names to my notebook if they were there on days I wasn’t. I trust them. They are honorable. Visiting the library is a “cool” activity. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to share new books we are enjoying and to let them catch me reading and listening to books on cd.

We keep it pretty informal, but I want them to talk about visiting the library like my teens talk about going to the mall. I announced to my fam today that I would be heading down to the main branch to set up for a conference tomorrow. They immediately started changing into their cool clothes to tag along. When I asked them if they were going to help me lug in boxes, they gave me that teen look and said there were far cooler things to do down there in the teen section than help their mom with boring stuff. Can’t say that I blame them. I’m going to go hole up with a Kathy Reichs book as soon as I can ditch all the people trying to hand me work. See you at the public library.

Below I am including registration information about the TASL Library and Literacy Forum. Preparing for this is what has been occupying my time:
Libraries and Literacy Forum
Collaboration + Communication = Success
sponsored by the Tennessee Association of School Librarians
June 16 - 17, 2006
Nashville Public Library

Dr. Steven L. Layne, keynote speaker*
“Literacy Lessons for a Lifetime”

Literacy stakeholders will gather to address the greater picture of literacy in Tennessee and the
role libraries play. Participants will create an integrated plan for accelerating student and community success in literacy and student achievements. This forum will incorporate panels, keynote speakers, and active work sessions to focus upon four major areas:
* Natural Allies in Literacy Education
* Literature Across the Curriculum
* Advocacy 101 - Building a Community of Support and Communication
* Creating a Collaborative Environment with Librarians as Teachers.

*Dr. Layne is a respected literacy consultant, motivational keynote speaker, and featured author
who works with large numbers of educators and children during school visits and at conferences
held throughout the world. His work has been recognized with awards for outstanding
contributions to the fields of educational research, teaching, and writing. An assortment of Dr.
Layne’s growing collection of books will be available for signing at lunch on Friday including:
This Side of Paradise, The Teachers’ Night Before Christmas, Life’s Literacy Lessons, Verses for Dad’s Heart, Verses for Mom’s Heart, T is for Teachers: A School Alphabet, and Mergers.

If you are interested in attending this forum, please send the following information to Diane
Chen via email to dianerchen@comcast.net or by mail to 112 Stewarts Ferry Pike, Nashville, TN 37214.

Name
Summer Mailing Address

Work Address

Job Title
Phone Number
E-mail Address

I will attend as (please choose one):

Librarian K - 12 Administrator
Academic Librarian Teacher
Public Librarian
Reading Specialist
Parent
Community Member

My poor neglected blog. I promise my schedule has been totally packed. I found it hard to blog when too many thoughts were needed for the serious planning for the TASL Library and Literacy Forum and for AASL’s Affiliate Assembly and AASL’s Legislation Committee meetings at ALA Annual. To make the situation worse, my principal was called away leaving the Reading Specialist and me in charge of checking out teachers for the end of school. To make a worse situation the worst of all, my #3 son disappeared for 26 hours.

Yes, during the last week of school #3 son decided school was just too much hassle and he couldn’t take it so he went for a walk in the woods towards a friends house, got lost, slept in a stone building near a cemetary, and called home at 3:59 the next afternoon. Of course, he took off anticipating the friends house was close by when actually it was 17.3 miles away. (I know this because I drove him there from our house soon after the episode and counted off every half mile on the odometer loudly). He walked 8.6 miles that night, part in circles through the woods, some along a road with no edge where many car accidents happen. He spent the night in the shed and wandered out the next day to wait for his other friends - who conveniently lived within a quarter mile of where he stayed - to come home from school.

So, why did I entitle this post Tech for Tracking? I used technology to find that 14 year old 8th grader. I had on my cell phone over 17 phone numbers of his best friends, their parents, and some of their emails. I know #3 son’s email password and logged on to check for any intentions. When I called other parents, some of them searched their caller ID logs, some even logged on and found the most current records so we could see when he had called their children. WE pinned down his last known location to within 5 minutes of my husband’s arrival home. One parent told me that he immediately logged on to Myspace to check for any discussion among the teens. We discovered that another teen had gone missing within the same hour and connected with those parents. Unfortunately they weren’t together, but both did come home safely eventually. Some of the parents looked up the history of IM messages on computer and cell phone to search.

Eventually, when #3 son did go looking for his friend, the friend’s parent had checked the answering machine & gotten my message. He had stressed to his child that if found #3 son was to call me ASAP. He did this immediately. #3 son was actually shocked to find I’d filed a police Missing Person’s report (as had the other parents) and that the police dept. and school had worked together using their fax machines and email to search. #1 son had received my text message on his cell phone and came home from world cup qualifying match to pull up digital photos of #3 son and meet me at the curb to return to the police station. #3 son was very surprised to find that I worried about him since he is at the age of invincibility and I should have known he was Teflon.

I thought a great deal about the technology available that night. I was driving up and down roads until I was bleary-eyed. The next day at school I kept the cell phones active until I couldn’t take it and left to drive some more. I pulled up mapquest and marked off the locations of each of his friends and where I’d driven. I felt that I was actively doing something and not sitting at home wringing my hands helplessly. It may have been call # 14 or #17 on the list, but I’m glad that I continued to call and speak to parents and leave messages. When #3 son was safe with me again, I made him sit in the car while I recalled every parent and let them know he had been found.

As technology evolves, I am considering the standard and non-traditional uses even more. One parent asked me, “Can’t we have a vet put a chip in these teenagers like they do with dogs and cats so we can track them?” Previously I would have shuddered in horror at the Big Brother/Sci-Fi approach to control. After the 26 hours of worry that #3 son was injured or worse, I know where people get their ideas for electronic leashes. May you never experience that moment of disconnect.