A Student ALA : Part 3 July 3, 2006
Posted by rbesara in : ALA2006 , add a commentAnd the final chapter in my conference experience…
Tuesday: I attended the Coretta Scott King Award Breakfast. It was a wonderful occasion. Again, it was a chance for me to become familiar with cultures and titles that I will need to know to have a school media collection that will be meaningful to my students.
The last thing I attended was the exhibit floor. I was amazed by the exhibits and, in the little time I had, I expanded my perspective on how the ‘other’ types of libraries work and think. Coming from a background in education and a current focus in school media, I do not have an in depth knowledge of the needs of academic and public libraries and librarians. I had never heard of leasing popular new titles to save on purchase cost, soundproof booths that allow patrons to talk on the cell phones while in the library, and I had not considered the many security options to help prevent theft of books. For a new student, even something that many take for granted like the exhibit hall can contain a plethora of broadening ideas and seeds for reflection.
I was exposed to and learned so much at the conference! I have not even begun to absorb all the ideas and experiences that I had. As a student, I am still trying to catch up on the last bit of schoolwork assigned during my attendance at the conference. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to attend a conference to go. It is a more rewarding experience than I ever imagined. I look forward to sharing my experience with my fellow school library students and mulling over the ideas and taking part in the opportunities I learned about in my amazing 5 days at ALA in New Orleans!
A Student ALA : Part 2
Posted by rbesara in : ALA2006 , add a commentMy exhilarating experience as a first-time ALA attendee continued…
Sunday: I attended AASL Affiliate Assembly, and got a different feel for the organization than I did from Celebration Conference. It was really the perfect introduction. At Celebration Conference, I was given an overview of how to get involved. At the Affiliate Assembly, I had a chance to see what issues AASL is working on, such as discussions about information literacy assessment, supporting the role of the school media specialist in the school (which in all too many states the position is being ignored), etc.
Later on in the day I attended the Pura Belpre Award Ceremony, which was a great place to familiarize myself with the works about Latin culture and the award winning titles that I will want to include in my future media center collection.
Monday: The AASL Brunch and President’s Reception was the first event of the day. As a student, it was great for me to hear of the wonderful media center programs that were winning awards. The only fault with the brunch was that the speeches were cut short so that we would be able to get to the auditorium in time to hear Laura Bush and the panel in “School Libraries Work.”
Of course, “School Libraries Work” was my second event of the day. It was wonderful to hear the First Lady speak on her hopes for school libraries and her efforts to help the profession. The panel discussion afterwards touched on the interesting topic of how school media specialists can be leaders in the school. While the particular approach dealt with rebuilding the schools destroyed or damaged in Katrina, the major concepts of collaboration, advocacy, and service applies to all schools and media specialists.
The AASL All Committee Meeting was next on my Agenda. I had a chance to shadow Dr. Everhart on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Committee.
This was a treat for me because as a future candidate for National Board Certification, I had a chance to meet many of the people who moderate the listservs and write the books I have read to prepare myself for the process.
I topped the day off with the Printz Award Ceremony. I was especially intrigued with the Australian winners’ recorded acceptance speeches because I know so little about Australian YA literature, and in an increasingly global world it is important to provide students with materials that give them different perspectives. Australian is ‘easy’ because it is in English, but it does have enough difference to throw students off balance and make them look more closely at their own surroundings.
A Student ALA : Part 1
Posted by rbesara in : ALA2006 , add a commentI am going to give you a glimpse of my ALA experience as a first time conference attendee. However, my experience is not completely typical because I am really fortunate to have great mentors for my first trip to ALA. Since I am their graduate assistant and student, Dr. Eliza Dresang and Dr. Nancy Everhart have been guiding me and letting me know what they think I might want to (or should) attend.
Friday - The conference (for me) began that evening when Dr. Dresang let me shadow her to several publishers’ parties. While I was attending these parties, I had the chance to meet some of my favorite authors, such as Walter Dean Myers (I had just written a paper on him for a class) and Kate DiCamillo. They were very friendly, and Walter Dean Myers in particular was very kind, telling me of his ideas for future books and what he is currently working on.
Saturday - I started out the day at the AASL Celebrate Conference, which is a program put together so that new AASL ALA conference goers can become more familiar with the organization’s structure and how to get involved in AASL (if you are reading this blog, this information is old hat to you). In addition, the new conference attendees get helpful hints on how to make the most of their conference going experience such as:
• Wear comfortable shoes – you are going to be walking much more than you might expect.
• Choose a hotel near a landmark so you can easily find your way home – I found this tip particularly helpful. If my hotel had not been near Jackson Square, I would often have had trouble getting ‘home’.
• Manage your time wisely – you will find out that there are far more many events you want to attend than you have time for, so realize that you are going to be pressed for time and plan accordingly.
• Mail your ‘swag’ home – don’t end up paying premium price for the extra weight that it will add to your luggage.
Personally, the tip that hit me the most was the time management issue. I naively had planned to get some of my class work done in the ‘breaks’ between events. Little did I know that, if possible, the breaks would be busier than the events. The breaks are when you meet people, do professional networking, and cram in little extras like standing in on another interesting program for just a few minutes to get some fresh ideas.
My second Saturday event was the ALSC Division Leadership meeting. This was a great event for me to see how the organizations within ALA work and meet some of the people who had written many of the textbooks for my classes.
I then went to the YALSA Margaret Edwards Award Luncheon, but I didn’t get to stay to hear Jacqueline Woodson speak because I was co-presenting directly afterward with Dr. Dresang and Dr. Everhart in the program entitled, “AASL Supervising the National Board Library Media Candidate.” The presentation went smoothly, and I felt that I could more fully relax and enjoy the conference once I had gotten the presentation out of the way.
I then shadowed Dr. Dresang around for the rest of the day, until it was time to go to the Blogger Bash at 10 that night which was a combined reception for the librarians who had lost their collections in whole or in part to Katrina. It was a bittersweet occasion. On one hand, I had the chance to meet the authors of many of the library blogs I read. On the other, I heard the stories of libraries that had lost thousands of their books and their entire building to the hurricane.
Graphic Novels, Manga and Anime: What’s New and Cool for Your Library July 2, 2006
Posted by asteinberg in : ALA2006 , 1 comment so farPresented by YALSA’s Graphic Novel Taskforce and the Great Graphic Novels Committee.
Panelists: Jackie Estrada, Kat Kane, KristinFletcher-Spear, Robin Brenner, Kevin King and moderator Michele Gorman
The popularity of all forms of graphic novel are growing exponentially. You name it, it’s being put into the comic format. The old favorites are still with us and the new favorite Japanese manga are growing but with that we are also seeing comics coming from Korea (called manwha), India and Egypt. Titles are emerging for the classroom and for younger children. Even popular childrens fiction titles like Goosebumps and the Baby-Sitter Club are being turned into graphic novels.
What do all the terms mean?
- Anime are animated shows usually based on manga. There are a lot of new anime being produced.
-VOYA will be coming out with an article on how to get free anime, there are less restrictions then other movies and cartoons because the companies want us to show the kids as much as we’ll allow.
- If you want to know what’s popular the best thing to do is watch Cartoon Network and ask your students.
-Manga reads left to right, it is more authentic to the original Japanese production and it is cheaper for Japan to produce the English version when left this way. Kids don’t have much trouble with it, it’s like a secret language.
- Shojo is the term used for manga that is geared toward girls.
- Shonen is the term used for manga that is geard toward boys.
- Many publishers are putting readers advisory on their books such as age level and genre.
- Manga novels are becoming more popular. They are true chapter novels that read from front to back but they can be hard to distinguish by the cover art because they look virtually same.
- Yaoi (pronounce “ya-oy”) is also known as Boy Love or BL.
- This is a sub genre of manga.
- It is a romance between two male characters aimed at the teen and up audience
- Very popular with girls(actually geared to the female audience). Possibly because the characters are very good looking one student told the panelist “two pretty boys are better to look at than one”.
- Amazon top 25 comic sellers 4 were Boys Love.
- Yaoi (or BL) tends to have more plot.
Programs
- Find out if there is a comic book artist in your area. You can do this by going to a comic book store and asking. Have the artist come to your library. If you promote it well they will come in droves and you won’t have to pay for travel and housing. - Mini-comic workshops. They make their own comics out of stapled paper, it is cheap, easy and fun.
- Many publishers have free library clubs that will send you manga and anime regularly. They want you to show off their product so it is a win win.
- The presenter started a “JPop Club”. It is for the Japanese pop culture experience so everything Japanese can fit in depending what the kids want.
- Cosplay is when people dress as anime characters. People love to dress up. There are actually Cosplay conventions and magazines so the kids may already be excited about it.
- Writing and art workshops and contests. Remember the writers, some kids don’t like drawing. The two can work together.
Audience Questions
Q: A public librarian asked about buying and shelving adult graphic novels.
A: It is important to buy graphic novels for both children and adults. They should be shelved in the appropriate section. If you house it they will find it. We should promote graphic novels to all ages just we do with our other books.
Q: A public librarian asked about starting an anime club for younger patrons.
A: This was encouraged for a couple of reasons. 1) Appropriateness of material 2) the older kids don’t want to hang out with the younger kids but the younger kids are really excited about the material too.
Q: Are there audio book versions of manga
A: It is a very visual media so it doesn’t work very well. In Japan they have drama CD’s which are dramatizations of Manga. It would be a fun thing to tape with the kids as a program.
Q: How do I know if a title is Boy Love?
A: “Go with the Hair” if that fails look on the back of the book.
Q: There are a lot of hand outs, will they be available somewhere else?
A: The YALSA sight will have hand-outs on their site after the conference.
YALSA will also be making the hand-outs for the childrens’ graphic novel session available.
John Wood: Room to Read
Posted by asteinberg in : ALA2006 , 3 commentsHe has written a book called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: an Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children.
His professional title used to be Director of Business Development for Microsoft Greater China Region. Now he is called the “bring books on a yak guy”. Why? Because he went to Nepal in an attempt to Trekk away from all electronic ties for a few weeks and found his calling in a little school in Nepal. The school had a dirt floor and could not be used during the wet season. The library was an empty room with a cabinet that was closed with a rusty lock. Inside the cabinet was a haphazard collection of books that trekkers had left for the school. The titles were what the trekkers had on them like Daniel Steele and travel guides, not appropriate for children. He knew he could help and eventually quite his job to start the non-profit Room to Read.
There are five programs: Reading Room (which creates the libraries), School Room (which creates free schools for children that are created by the whole community), Language Room (which teaches languages to the children, being bi-lingual is very important), Computer Room (which begin low tech but advances as they do) and Room to Grow (which helps girls get an education, these girls are on scholarship because education costs money in places like Nepal and families spend what little they have on the boys education). The non-profit has grown, no-longer are they helping only the children of Nepal they are also helping the children of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, India and newly Africa.
He runs Room to Read on a business model and uses clever ways to keep things running without spending donations on unnecessary items (like Land Rovers). He hires people who live in the countries housing the programs, he uses donated frequent flyer miles to travel, he gets publishers like Scholastic to donate overstock and works with many community groups like the Lyons and Rotary club. Room to Read has an extremely low overhead. John Wood believes in optimism as opposed to the “weep-a-thon”. There is an intense focus on results, every quarter they report results to investors.
- They endow 210 schools on-time and on-budget.
- They created 2 new schools per week but this number has grown to 16 new libraries per week.
- Over 1,700 girls are on long term scholarship and they are adding 700 more this year.
- Over 1.5 million books have been donated this year
- They have over 2,500 reading rooms
- Their over arching goal is to have 10,000 libraries created by 2015.
He likes to compare his growth success to Starbucks. They are growing fast but for every Starbucks you see Room to Read has opened two libraries. He has helped over 800,000 children to date.
John Wood is a genuine and eloquent man. He stayed and spoke with every person who wanted to say something to him (making him late for a book signing in the exhibit hall). He is not yet 40 and clearly has made his mark where it counts. As we waited In line there was talk that this could be a cause that many of our retiring librarians might want to help with. It is certainly worth keeping on our radar.
Tag: ala2006