ALA -- or What I did on my Summer Vacation

Okay, I've organized my notes and here are the highlights of what I did at ALA. Maybe I saw you there? Maybe you saw me there? (I was the person knitting in the back row of several presentations, or else one of the many frantically taking notes.)

ALA 2009
Thursday, July 9:
Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me! -- PBS radio show recording with 500 librarians in the audience. Many librarian jokes – that were cut from the actual Saturday broadcast. I tried to take some pictures with my I-Phone, but was too far away for good pictures. If I can figure out how to move them from the phone to this computer, perhaps I'll load them later.

Friday, July 10th
Preconference Workshop – "1,000 words: Taking Better Photos for Telling Stories in Your Library."
I learned a lot about taking pictures, some about loading pictures onto your computer and altering them/ improving them. Nothing about loading them onto blogs and websites. That will be my next project -- figuring out how to move them from the i-Phone onto my blog and maybe onto my poor, outdated website.

Saturday, July 11th
8 – 10 am
Beyond Storytime –
I Learned how to extend stories with songs, puppets, acting out, matching things, etc.
They suggested we not do THEMEd storytimes, but instead re-use the same story in many different ways
See Handouts on the ALA Wiki.
San Francisco Public Library holds Educator workshops
They Incorporate kindergarten standards
Workshops for day care providers, children’s librarians, or go to parent groups and other community groups
1 – serve food
2 – Everyone walks away with something to manulipate or a CD to listen to
3 – In the library – have play-based learning environments (our library has had them for years)
4 – The OLD goal of storytimes was to reach as many children as possible with as much as possible good literature.
The NEW goal is – Language Development from exposure to internalization.

10 – 12 Leap into Science Workshop
By the 3rd grade, children can distinguish between fact and fiction
Used Seven Blind Mice to show Scientific Thinking
Experiment:
Roll a tube of paper
With your left eye – look through it. Then put your right hand sideways to the middle of the tube.
You should see a hole in your hand, This shows Perspective

(Philadelphia Free Library presented their program of Leap Into Science)
Why Science in the Library?
Experiment:
Tub of water
Pile of things. Guess if it will sink or float
Toss thing into the water and observe
Does it sink or float?
How to use:
1 – Use 1 book with activities
2 – another program with parents – set up stations
3 – take home – free book/ handouts/ bookmarks also after school enrichment sessions
Books first This develops good observation skills and develop good descriptive language – use good books that have this. Use science words –like Infer…. Thinking/ exploring/ experimenting

What else can you do with this?
Listening walk (Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern )
Sound/ Rubber bands – vibration /
a Tuning fork is good to use – you can see it/ hear it/ feel it

Philadelphia will be making this a National program – They had no idea that our library, just a few miles south of them, also has a LEAP program


1:30 – 3 pm Books and Blogs. Made for Each Other?
(Booklist sponsored program) Mary Burkey (Audiobooker) ,
Nora Rawlins – was SLJ editor now running a BLOG and hoping to earn a living from it -- Early Word
John Greene (author) now living in India,
Katie Stover – head of Readers Services in Kansas City. Her blog is -- Likely Stories
Has Library 2.0 fulfilled its promise?

Blogs as a Platform?
-Nora – it has immediacy
- Katie – it’s more personal/ concise as possible/ short as possible
Affect on writing?
Choosing the best words because of the short entries
John feels he is writing more on his blog and less books
It’s a chance for immediate conversations that everyone learns new things.
John has a fan club called the Nerd-fighters
-Mary – it’s personal communication with the safety catch off. It matters. Recorded book narrators are reading her and quoting her. She likes the fact you can go back and revise/ edit/ change things. HOWEVER – Google reader picks up your Blog even when you just use Preview.
All noticed that people are commenting less and less.
-Katie doesn’t expect comments (hers is a suggested reading booklist) she finds herself writing more and more, giving more information.
All of them like' Ping Backs' – when another blog links to you.

Authority
Blogs – birth of a new kind of authority.
It builds authority – once people trust what you say, they will stay with you.
But there is no connection to a Big Authority (like reporters of NY Times have) which makes it harder to earn authority.
Publishers are confused as to where to send review books.
If you want to DO something, because you’d like to reach out to your audience and don’t want to do something Icky like pushing books – then use video trailers.
Book reviews on blogs – are you giving reasons why you would LOVE the books or are you just selling a book?
Can Bloggers earn money?
Some bloggers have ads on their site – clicking through these ads earns tiny bit of money for the bloggers.

TWITTER
Opens conversations. Is really hard to kill. Libraries are advertising programs on Twitter. Bloggers are twitting that a new blog is posted. Other parts of the world don’t have many computers, but everyone has a cell phone, so Twittering is BIG. They have jumped over computers. Can marketing people tweet others about “should I buy this book? Booksellers do.
Blogging has changed the life of author/
It never occurred to John Green to write to his favorite authors (snail mail), but nowadays kids follow favorite author’s blogs and converse. Students have access to publishing information, and even blog and do book reviews.

4:00 -- Attended a Publisher party ‘Fewel and Friends’ at the Omni
6:00 – Attended another Publisher party – ‘Albert Whitman’ (featuring me, and 10 other authors)

Sunday
10:30 – 12 Nonfiction Book Blast
17 authors (including me) plus a moderator

2:00 – 3:00 -- Signing at the Albert Whitman Booth
Sold out of all copies of both my books

6:00 – 10:30 pm Newbery, Caldecott, Wilder Banquet
Speeches and good food

Monday
10:30 – 12
Presentation of the rest of the ASLC awards.
Afternoon – Walk the Exhibits
5:00 – 7:30 pm – 6th Annual Poetry Blast 2009.
Moderators/ organizers – Barbara Genco & Marilyn Singer

Tuesday -- I flew home and worked at the library that evening.
-WendieO