ALA Annual Update
I’ve been at ALA Annual in Chicago since Wednesday, but connectivity has been spotty outside of the west building in the convention center (don’t get me started). Here’s my attempt to play catch up.
All-day Learning for Life training got me off to a decent start for my workshops in Vermont, though I’m a little afraid of all the work I have to do.
Saturday was the official start of the conference and I attended AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner in a Read/Write Web class room with Susannah Tamarkin. She’s got a very nice collection of materials at:
http://ithsnyclibrary.wikispaces.com and is a big proponent of wikis, Google Docs & Clipmarks – used together with kids. Nice presentation!
Next up was the ALA president’s program with Laurie Halse Anderson , Jacqueline Woodson , and Alan Lawrence Sitomer the authors showed big love to the school librarians, despite having to sit through endless announcements and even a treasurer’s report. LHA was seriously testifying to the crowd. We’ve got to step up during troubled times, the kids need us. Keep the libraries open & the stacks fresh, keep libraries open longer. Be generally awesome.
LHA and I take simultaneous photos.
I also slipped into Science Fiction and Fantasy: Uncovering the Modern World of Information, Society, and Technology through Metaphor and Imagination with science fiction and fantasy authors R. A. Salvatore, Ken Scholes, Margaret Weiss, and Robert Charles Wilson for some interesting thoughts about speculative fiction. There were too many speakers in too short a time to get very deep, but it was provocative nonetheless.
The session “What Do I Watch, Listen to, Play, or Download Next: Readers Advisory Techniques for the Digital World” looked like they’d have a good collection of links to watch out for, but these are not yet posted.