Deep Thinking

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.