Greetings from Washington, D.C.!
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!