On June 26 - 30, 2008, I (Angelique Simmons) attended the 2008 American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Anaheim, California.
Friday, June 27, 2008
8:30 – 1:00 PM
Careers in Federal Libraries:
This program was presented by members of FAFLRT. As a member of FAFLRT, I wanted to learn, gather tips, and network with federal librarians. Many of the federal librarians I met were based here in the DC Metro Area. There are many options when it comes to working in federal libraries. I was able to hear experiences from six different federal librarians. Even though they all work for the federal government, each person had a unique job, and each job was different from the other. I especially liked the experience of Steven Kerchoff. He is currently an Information Resource Officer with the US Embassy in New Delhi, India. I have always enjoyed traveling and experiencing different cultures. Wouldn’t it be nice to continue my passion as a librarian and also my passion for traveling? That would be a dream job! J
Friday, June 27, 2008
1:30 – 2:00 PM
International Relations Round Table:
As a member of IRRT (International Relations Round Table), I stopped by their table to gather any new information and also to meet fellow members of the round table. I offered to volunteer and welcome international librarians coming from various countries, but their volunteer roster was already full. It was amazing to see librarians from different continents coming to ALA to share, gain and acquire new knowledge and skills.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
8:30 – 10:15 AM
Official Opening of the Exhibits:
I was present as then, ALA President Loriene Roy, cut the ribbon to officially open the exhibits. There were over 2,000 exhibitors present. I was able to make my rounds and walk past many of the exhibits. I also picked up a few ideas and some nice giveaways. I visited the exhibits everyday at ALA.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
10:30 – 12:00 PM
Getting What You’re Worth Salary Negotiation Workshop:
This session was very informative and interactive. We had the opportunity to role play and try to “negotiate” our salary! One of the librarians I was sitting next to mentioned that when she applied for her first job right after graduation, she didn’t negotiate her salary. She had applied at an academic college and just took the offer she was given. Some of her friends, who also recently graduated at the same time as she, negotiated their salary at the same school and started out on a higher scale! They both do the same job, but since one negotiated and the other didn’t, one will make more money in the long run. We were given examples of how much money you “could” have made if you negotiated your salary when offered a job. Some of the key points mentioned were:
1. Be prepared – benchmark salaries – What are you worth?
2. Learn the institutional culture.
3. Learn about the library’s budget.
4. Be calm!
5. Don’t talk yourself out of asking!
6. Anticipate objections.
7. PRACTICE NEGOTIATING
8. Thank the potential employer.
9. When you get an offer – Wait!
10. Share your story with others.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
1:30 – 3:30 PM
Creating Readers Theatre at your Library with Top Quality Children:
The authors M.T. Andersen, Shannon Hale, Linda Sue Park and Eric Rohmann performed an excellent readers theatre from their latest books. Shannon Hale was extremely funny when she performed the character from her book, “Rapunzel’s Revenge”. Having readers theatre is a fun and pleasurable way of sharing stories. It helps to deepen comprehension, increase fluency, develop expression and encourage language appreciation. This also gives older children an opportunity to perform for younger children. Readers theatre builds children’s reading and confidence. It allows them to have the experience of presenting in front of a group. I would love to develop a readers theatre program for children at the library.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
3:00 – 5:00 PM
Diversity & Outreach Fair:
I really enjoyed the Diversity & Outreach Fair. I was able to pick up many handouts and brochures from other libraries across the country. The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County has a program “Amigos de la Biblioteca” which is a tutoring program (affiliated with the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County) which trains high school students to tutor elementary school ESL children once or twice a week in the library. The tutors help children with reading, writing, and general homework needs. Parents and children also have an opportunity to explore the library services and resources available. I thought this was a great collaboration between schools and public libraries. This is similar to the National Dog Therapy Program we have here at Quince Orchard.
Another idea I had picked up from the fair, was from the University of Illnois Urbana – Champaign. In 2005, they began an annual series of library tours in languages other than English. With multilingual volunteer staff, they were able to host library tours in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, German, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, and Thai for their international students and for students interested in learning about the library in a foreign language. I thought this was a really neat idea. Montgomery County is so diverse; I know our patrons would be happy if we hosted multilingual library tours. The Diversity & Outreach Fair was very informative and gave me many new ideas!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
4:00 – 5:30 PM
Serving Latino Children and Families through El Dia de los Ninos/El Dia de los Libros:
Having held my first “El Dia de los Ninos/El Dia de los Libros Celebration this year, I was very enthusiastic about attending this program and seeing how other libraries held their programs each year. “Dia” was founded by Pat Mora 10 years ago. Every year on or around April 30, Dia brings families together and emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The speakers of this program gave us tips on how to prepare for our Dia celebrations and how to get media and other organizations involved. A Dia celebration does not have to be just Spanish; you can have Dia celebrations celebrating ALL cultures in your area. This gave me an idea for Quince Orchard’s 2nd Annual celebration in 2009. As librarians we are educators and it is our job to inform everyone about the many different resources out there to help people.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
5:30 – 7:00 PM
OPENING GENERAL SESSION:
During the opening general session, 3 librarians Pat Mora, Effie Lee Morris, and Dr. Peggy Sullivan were presented with ALA Honorary Memberships. Verizon Wireless also presented a 1,000,000 dollar check to ALA for gaming. Ron Reagan was the guest speaker for the opening general session. His presentation was informative and kept your attention, but it seemed more like a political campaign then about libraries.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
8:00 – 10:00 AM
PR Forum - Diversity @ your library: Broadening Your Audience and Engaging Communities:
“Using Communications Techniques to Engage Your Communities”. I found this session to be very informative and I was able to take many tips and techniques with me. Why does multicultural communication matter? More ethnics will be moving into the U.S and the business ownership is becoming more minorities and women.
1. Check Your Assumptions @ the door. – Begin with yourself.
2. Understand the cultural context of your audience – Do your homework.
3. Invest Before You Request: Create community centered partnerships – treat leaders, organizations and community members as partners with whom you wish to engage, learn about the community needs and assets, and stay in touch.
4. Build Authentic Relationships: Maintain a Long-Term Perspective – Go to the community, work with trusted allies, don’t become a one-hit wonder, and become an ally. Collaboration – work with others in the community
5. Build Shared Ownership: - Engage don’t just involve, make sure there are seats @ the library.
6. Walk Your Talk – Lead by Example: acknowledge the reality of your organization, do what you say you believe others should do, deliver on your promises.
7. Relate, Don’t Translate: Place communication and creative into cultural context – determine if existing creative message, frame, copy, imagery works for the audience based on cultural context, relate the existing concept to the needs of your priority audience, establish clear translation protocols, and don’t forget to implement.
8. Anticipate Change: - Be Prepared to Succeed – recognize that your process and approach to the work may change, continue to build infrastructure to support multicultural success.
9. Build upon these 8 strengths by inviting patrons from diverse backgrounds to advance their vision for their community by investing in their library as a partner, advocate, donor or volunteer. If you distribute for them, they should distribute for you. Make connections with those in your community and build meaningful relationships.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
10:30 – 12:00 PM
Prime Time Family Reading Time: Bilingual Programs Expand Nationally:
Prime Time and Bilingual Prime Time provides a unique 6-8 week program of reading, discussion and storytelling. In the 90-minute session, a storyteller demonstrates read-aloud techniques and then discusses the readings. The books/discussions are based on humanity themes such as: fairness, greed and dreams. This program brings families together for “prime-time” family reading. I loved how they said at the end; the librarian would give a “5-minute” commercial about upcoming library events. Their target audience was to bring in those under-served and under-privileged. Another goal of the program was to successfully train students and parents to bond, encourage book discussion and discuss issues.
Families who were apart of the program were more apt to come to the library on a regular basis and felt more comfortable and familiar with staff members. We should all embrace any chance we get to offer bilingual programs. As I mentioned from the diversity program I had attended that morning, our country is becoming more diverse by the minute.
This program motivated me to try and see if I could visit all of Quince Orchard’s 10 elementary schools in our area and promote our library services to their ESOL PTA groups. I had previously visited Diamond Elementary School this past March and the ESOL parents were very excited about the library and all the services and resources we could provide them.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
1:30 – 3:30 PM
Programming Your Way Through Dewey: Insects, Dinosaurs, and Gross Biology @ Your Library:
The authors in this program, Kelly Milner Halls and Nic Bishop, were very enthusiastic and very informative. Kelly was very funny and likes to write quirky nonfiction titles. Everyone has that secret yearning for something gross and kids are so remarkable and they need a connection. I liked how Nic Bishop took his time to take remarkable up-close pictures for his books. His stories on how he tries to get the picture shot were just amazing; that someone would take all this time out just to get the “perfect” shot. I thought this was just remarkable. This program was packed to capacity. All the presenters were remarkable and showed many ways to get those kids interested in nonfiction titles. They also mentioned highlighting certain parts of the collection so that children can easily find the books better.
When I was a school media coordinator, I had purchased these shelf dividers to highlight favorite parts of the collection for kids. The company liked how I purchased these easy to read shelf dividers for my entire library, so they came and took pictures of the library and me and it’s still used to advertise their product on their website. http://www.libraryskills.com/
Sunday, June 29, 2008
4:00 – 5:30 PM
Alphabet Soup? Librarians in the European Union:
Having lived in Europe before and traveled back on a few occasions, I thought this program would be of interest to see how libraries in Europe are. During my trip to Greece last April 2007, I not once saw a library nor heard my family members (who live in Greece) speak of the library. Libraries in Europe operate with “some” similarity to US libraries. European patrons are not able to check out as many books and they have more “rules”. It is difficult for all public libraries in Europe to work together because there are many languages and many cultures to take into consideration.
Similar to other libraries from various cultures they do have professional library associations you can join and hold various conferences throughout the year. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) holds conferences every year to bring international librarians together to learn, gain and acquire skills and knowledge. This year’s conference will be held in Quebec, Canada, which is a very beautiful city. Next year’s conference (2009) will be held in Italy and I am making plans to attend this international conference.
One thing that you could see from all the libraries in various countries and the US is that they are ALL striving for the same goal. You can meet a librarian from any country and you will be able to share so many ideas and gain so much knowledge from each. Everyone has experiences and stories to share. When I travel to Greece next year to visit my family, I am definitely going to look up and go to the nearest library.
Monday, June 30, 2008
8:00 – 10:00 AM
Mexican Libraries: Socially Shaped Institutions:
I love to hear about how libraries are in other countries, so as my last program of ALA, I decided to come to this one. Dr. Lau first presented the overall history of how libraries began in Mexico. The first book to arrive to Mexico from Europe was the year 1511. In 1539 their first printing press was established. 1555 was the year of their first published book, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y Mexicana by Alonso de Molina. 1788 marked the opening of their first public library.
Mexico has 10 schools that offer library science degrees on campus, 2 schools that offer web-based study and 1 school offers archives studies. They have 10 professional library associations that librarians can join. They also hold special and general library conferences each year. They also hold several international book fairs each year.
After this session ended, I went back to the hotel and packed and got ready to leave for LAX Airport. My time in California was very rewarding and I was able to take with me many new ideas, thoughts and not to mention a suitcase full of “extra” things. No wonder everyone was at the Post Office located behind the exhibits mailing things home. I had looked at them like they were crazy, well guess not anymore. There I was walking in the airport after I checked my baggage, (which I had to take out 20lbs worth of “extra”) and because of the weight of my two shoulder bags I fell right out in the middle of LAX. I bet those security guys are having fun hitting “replay”. I left LAX Monday at 6:00 PM and got back to Dulles Airport, Tuesday morning at 5:12 AM!
Overall I really loved my ALA experience in California. I learned so many new things and got to meet some really cool and innovative librarians from all parts of the US and various countries around the world. There were so many programs/sessions to attend, I found it hard trying to narrow down my programs. I just only wish I could have stayed for the entire duration of the conference; maybe next year in Chicago! See you in the windy city!
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