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My last day at ALA was as busy as the rest. Today I made some time to visit the vast exhibit hall and talk with some of the vendors, mostly about ebooks, audiobooks, literary criticism, and middle school fiction. I also collected nine pounds of free books to ship back (shipping costs definitely not free!) to Overlake, so I think I did pretty well.

My first session of the day was about inexpensive ways to connect with authors via Web 2.0 applications. This session was packed, both in terms of people and ideas. There were four author presenters, starting with Jennifer Hubbard, who talked about using blogs and email to connect with authors. Next, Lindsey Leavitt talked about using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook for the same purpose. I think the Twitter idea–essentially chatting with an author–might work well as a starting point for Overlake, and I’d like to look into it further. Cynthea Liu followed with a presentation about using Skype video conferencing software to meet with authors who can’t be present in person. I think this is also a fabulous idea, and would like to discuss it with our wonderful tech department to see what we could do with it. The session ended with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, who talked about using collaborative web workspaces, like wikis, Googledocs, Nings, podcasting, Voicethread, Glogster, and other Web 2.0 applications, to work with authors. This was a valuable session that gave me lots of ideas!

In the afternoon there was a business meeting for ISS (the Independent School Section of AASL), chaired by Cheryl. There was a lot of discussion about programming for upcoming conferences, and how better to represent independent schools within the larger AASL; to get our voice heard. Attending the meeting made me realize just how much work Cheryl has been doing for the organization, and how valuable that work is. I’m sure the new chair will appreciate her help next year, as she finishes out her three-year term by being ‘past chair.’

My last session was hearing authors talk about edgy teen fiction; what inspired them to write it, and how it has been received by teens and others. Most of the books under discussion involved relationships, identity, and teen issues like date abuse, cutting, coming out, etc. The authors present were Julie Ann Peters, Lisa Jahn-Clough, and fantasy/speculative fiction writer Steve Berman. Ms. Peters’ presentation was the most thought-out and touching, as she read letters from teens who wrote to thank her for giving them a voice, and from parents who hated her for the edginess in her books. The presentation was followed by a lively discussion.

So that was my ALA experience–lots of fun, lots of wonderful new ideas I can’t wait to bring back to Overlake in the fall!

Today has been another busy day–and it’s not over yet! I started off the morning with a session on teen book clubs, with presentations from public library teen librarians on successful programs they’ve created. One was a reading aloud book club, in which students didn’t have any outside reading; they just had to show up and read aloud (or just listen–up to them!). Apparently this was a great success with reluctant readers, but I think avid readers would enjoy it as well. Another librarian had a vibrant teen discussion group that sometimes discusses books, but sometimes discusses philosophical questions, based on the model of the book Socrates Cafe by Christopher Phillips. We watched a video of their discussions about memories, and I was impressed (though I shouldn’t have been, knowing our own students!) with their thoughtfulness and articulateness. Perhaps this would be a possibility for an Upper School group at Overlake.

My second session was a presentation by Alex Award winner (best Adult books for Young Adults) David Small, who wrote the harrowing graphic novel memoir Stitches. He started with a wonderfully produced video introducing the book and his art, and you really get a sense of the awfulness of his childhood, which in some sense he was purging by writing the memoir. He then spoke about the process of writing the book, and how it has been received. He was a riveting speaker.

For lunch, I attended a presentation by Ebsco (lunch provided) about their new databases. We have some Ebsco databases, primarily for literary criticism, and we’re always looking for more to support the English Department, so I wanted to see what they had that might be of use to us. A free lunch was a good bonus!

After lunch I sweated my way through the 100 degree heat to another hotel to attended the ISS social, which Cheryl has been carefully planning for months (Cheryl’s conference so far has consisted of organizing ISS events and attending meetings about ISS and the upcoming AASL conference in 2011, of which she is co-chair–she hasn’t had much time to go to fun events, unfortunately!). We had a wonderful presentation by author Holly Black, who talked about her new book, White Cat, and then answered all of our questions about writing and teens. Thank you, Cheryl, for arranging that! The chocolate fountain was a nice touch.

Now I’m off to two receptions, the first for VOYA reviewers, and the second for alumni of the School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill, my alma mater. Tomorrow is my last day at the conference, and it will be packed as well!

*Later*

The receptions were both nice, though I enjoyed the VOYA reception most. I got to talk to the current editor, RoseMary Honnold, about an article I have in the works, to the past editor, Cathi Dunn MacRae, who started me off writing for VOYA, and the founder of the magazine and giant in the field of YA library service, Mary K. Chelton. I also talked at length with the new review editor about the process of reviewing on her end–dealing with the hundreds of books she receives and getting them out to reviewers. I also talked to some authors who had won VOYA awards, and to many other interesting people. Plus, there was some excitement not connected to the reception; the restaurant had a two-story atrium, and about halfway through the reception, we heard an enormous SPLAT on the floor–and saw that one of the ceiling tiles had fallen down, along with a lot of water! Since it wasn’t raining, I assume that it was air-conditioner condensation. A little later, another ceiling tile started to buckle, and pour down water! Never a dull moment at ALA.

I got an early start this morning and attended a session on information literacy K-20, focusing on how to approach teaching the 21st century learner at all academic levels. Dr. David Loertscher, a giant in the field, started out the session with a brief presentation on learning commons. He was followed by an elementary school librarian, a high school librarian, and an academic librarian, who described some of their research projects and how they tried to up the ante on teaching kids how to think.

My second session was the AASL (Association of American School Librarians) President’s program, featuring a speaker on the need for a sea change in school libraries to address the 21st century learner and 21st century needs and technologies. While I think the speaker had good ideas, and a sea change is certainly occurring in school libraries, I do wish more speakers would focus less on the grand ideas and more on concrete ways school librarians who have spent their careers in traditional school library modalities can start changing their programs. Grand ideas are important–necessary to change–but being able to effect that change is equally important!

Following lunch I attended a marvelous session on using Reader’s Theater to expose students to more ways of understanding and appreciating literature. The session leader had contacted four of her favorite authors, Katherine Paterson (current Children’s Literature Ambassador), Christopher Paul Curtis, Jacqueline Woodson, and Ifeoma Onyefulu, and asked each of them to adapt a work of theirs for Reader’s Theater. They then presented the four works, with themselves as the readers. In reader’s theater, the text is only changed enough to make it work as a staged read-aloud, with no props, or acting beyond facial expressions or gestures. Readers read from the script, so there’s no need to memorize. Readers take on the roles of narrator and characters in the story. The suggestion is for students, after seeing adults performing a reader’s theater piece, to adapt a favorite work and perform it for their class or for younger children (copyright issues make it illegal to record, upload, show publicly, etc., the performance, unfortunately, unless it’s an out-of-copyright work). I think it sounds like a great project for some Overlake classes, or the Middle School Writing Club!

Following that, I squeezed into a packed session on ebooks, and was pleased to learn that I was mostly up to date on the status of ebooks, particularly regarding the issues that make some of them problematic for school libraries (see my blog entry earlier in the year on ebooks). One thing the speaker did suggest, which I hadn’t considered, was searching GoogleBooks for books your library already owns, then adding the GoogleBook link to your catalog record. I think I might try that out when I get back to Overlake, and see how it goes.

My last session of the day was the ALA Opening Session (which seems odd, as this is the middle of the conference for me!), which featured a stirring, touching, and humorous presentation by the great Toni Morrison. She spoke about the influence of libraries and books on her life, and how much she appreciates librarians and their work. She was warm, charming, and gracious, and received two standing ovations.

Cheryl and I are in Washington, D.C. for the ALA annual conference, a huge event that takes over the Washington Convention Center and several nearby hotels. It’s in the mid to high nineties during the day, which is a shock after the spring weather in Seattle! I keep wanting to take a coat with me “just in case,” though what I really need it for is over-air-conditioned conference rooms.

Yesterday we spent most of the day on ISS (Independent School Section) events that Cheryl (as ISS Chair) has been planning for months. The first was a tour of three local independent schools. About thirty independent school librarians from all over the country boarded the bus, and we started off with Edmund Burke School, where I got my start as a librarian just out of library school too many years ago to mention! It’s quite similar to Overlake in philosophy, and is full of art and independent spirits, which I always loved. The campus couldn’t be more different, though–there is no campus, just a series of connected, urban buildings, one built since I was there. They have lots of beautiful sunlight through long windows, lots of gathering places for students, and lots of outside patios. The library has been redone since I was there and didn’t look much like what I remembered, though I did find some books I had cataloged way back when!

Next stop was St. Patrick’s Episcopal School, where we saw the preschool and elementary school library. The latter is a beautiful place, all white wood, pale green carpet, and tons of light. They do a lot of fun programs with their older students (5th-6th grade) that maybe we can put to use at Overlake.

Last school was Georgetown Visitation, founded in 1799. For those of you who’ve been to Georgetown, you might remember that it’s full of wonderful historic brick row houses and narrow streets. Now picture our bus driver trying to manipulate an enormous bus down those streets! At one point, the only option was for Cheryl to get off the bus and go to the end of the stree to stop cars from coming down until we could get through, and she did it with enormous presence and evident glee. I understand there are some pictures–I will try to locate some!

Visitation, a Catholic girls’ high school, also has a beautiful, light-filled library. Originally built as a barn in the 19th century, it was converted in 1959 and its balconies are what remains of the haylofts. Visitation has a lovely, large, old campus, and old brick buildings that were built organically over the years for various purposes, then repurposed as the school grew or its needs changed. They also have some wonderful library programs, like their library advisory board, that I hope we can implement at Overlake.

We ended the tour with dinner at a Tenleytown Mexican restaurant, Guapo’s, and enjoyed talking to our colleagues about all sorts of issues related to independent school libraries. I was shocked to learn that for one librarian, her administration has forbidden her to have the Internet available in the library, because kids might look up the wrong things! It boggles the mind, and reminds us how lucky we are at Overlake, though for this particular librarian I think she will win her fight for her students, and I wish her the best.

Following dinner, several of us took the Metro back to the Convention Center for an evening panel on graphic novels. Francoise Mouly started the evening with an overview of the history of comics and graphic novels, which was interesting though a little Europe-centered since she is French. Still, much I didn’t know, so interesting to learn.

Next was Matt Phelan, who has just blown the children’s library community away with his first graphic novel, Storm in the Barn (Overlake just bought it–it’s wonderful!). It’s a combination of American fairy/tall tale and historical fiction, set during the Dust Bowl.

Mark Siegel, who runs the well-known if quite new First Second graphic novel press, spoke next. First Second has brought out about half of the well-reviewed graphic novels of the last few years, and includes some of my favorites (like Kibuishi’s Amulet series), so it was interesting hearing how the press had gotten started and what they have in the works.

Gene Luen Yang, Printz winner for his American Born Chinese, spoke last, and he was a riot. He teaches computer science at a high school so he  knows how to address an audience (and how lucky his students are!), and talked about his passion for comics and his parents’ concerns that it would never get him anywhere–and it was a long, uphill struggle before he did get to where he is now!

Off to another session now–more later!

As most of you probably know, Head Librarian Cheryl Steele is retiring at the end of this year. I have worked with Cheryl for five years, and have enjoyed every minute.  Cheryl is a consummate professional who effortlessly has her finger on the pulse of both her field and her school, and employs a global view of librarianship to plan for the future. She is a super-stealth leader, treats her colleagues as the professionals they are, and is always a serene presence in the midst of chaos. She charms everyone she meets, and we will miss her greatly next year. Many thanks, Cheryl, and best wishes for a retirement full of relaxation and adventure!

Looking for free downloadable audiobooks? Check out these sites.

• King County Public Library   offers the following (text from the website):

OverDrive:
Best selling fiction and nonfiction, classic literature, children’s and young adult, language learning, drama, classic radio programs, self-help are available for download to PCs, laptops and an array of Windows Media compatible portable devices. New to using OverDrive materials? See our tutorials & tip sheets.

Recorded Books:
Check out eBooks using the Netlibrary service. Download and play audio books on your PC or transfer files to your portable device.

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• Seattle Public Library offers the following (text from the website):

NetLibrary Audiobooks
Download audiobooks which can be listened to on your computer or transferred to a portable device. There are never overdue books or late fees – titles automatically return to the Library’s collection after 21 days. Go to NetLibrary Audiobook Collection

OverDrive Digital Books & Media
Download audiobooks, ebooks, music and video that can be listened to or viewed on your computer or transferred to a portable device. Many titles can also be burned to a CD. There are never overdue books or late fees – titles automatically return to the Library’s collection after 21 days. Go to OverDrive Digital Books & Media

You will need a library card for the appropriate library system to get access to their audibooks.

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• Sync (text taken from the website)

 • SYNC is an online community that seeks to build the audience for audiobooks among readers 13 and up.

• Each week, SYNC will give away 2 FREE downloads–a popular Young Adult title paired with a Classic title that appears on Summer Reading lists–starting July 1 through September 1, 2010.

• SYNC is hosted by Audiobook Community, a new social networking site for the discovery of audiobooks.

 • Listeners can choose to join a conversation about these titles with authors, narrators, publishers, librarians, and other listeners. (Listeners are not required to join Audiobook Community to follow the conversation on SYNC nor to download FREE titles from SYNC.)

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• Librivox (text from the website)

LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.

They have an extensive, searchable catalog, and books can be streamed online or downloaded.

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• Project Gutenberg

This mammoth online resource of public domain works includes a considerable catalog of human-read audiobooks, free to stream or download.

Check out the annotated list of new materials received in the library in May. Thumbnails of covers included when available.

It’s that time of year again–all library materials were due Wednesday, 5/26. Students need to return all materials before they can get a yearbook on June 4. For lost materials, check with Karen Wright (kwright@overlake.org) about replacing them with the same edition (in good condition), or paying for them. A $15 cataloging fee is included for each unreplaced book.

5th Grade: 2 students have unreturned materials.
6th Grade: 8 students have unreturned materials.
7th Grade: 20 students have unreturned materials.
8th Grade: 5 students have unreturned materials.
9th Grade: 3 students have unreturned materials.
10th Grade: 2 students have unreturned materials.
11th Grade: 2 students have unreturned materials.
12th Grade: 3 students have unreturned materials.

The Hoot, the Middle School literary magazine, has been published. This annual magazine showcases the best in Middle School stories, poetry, essays, cartoons, illustrations, photographs, and more. Most pieces were submitted by teachers (students whose work was accepted were asked for permission to publish it), and evaluated by the twelve student members of the Hoot staff. These kids work hard all year to pick the best pieces, and they’ve done a great job. If you would like a copy, please contact Rebecca Moore (rmoore@overlake.org). Supplies are limited! Every contributor and every staff member automatically got a copy, and any other student who requested a copy received one, so check with your student if you don’t want duplicate copies.

The last project of the Middle School Writing Club this year was a juried round-robin story we wrote over email, with me contributing the first line: “As Daniel fitted the last piece of stained glass into the window he was repairing for the church, the piece twitched in his fingers and then fluttered away.” Club members contributed lines they thought should come next, and I chose the best (sometimes combining several of their lines) to continue the story. When we had finished it (thanks to Hannah, who wrote the ending when everyone else got bored!), I tweaked it to patch some logic holes, then made it into a readers’ theater script. We recorded it yesterday on my digital voice recorder, and I did a rough edit in Audacity to clean it up. So here it is, all nine minutes of it: The Lemon Portal. Enjoy!