The PLA Blog | Official Blog of the Public Library Association
PLA preconference, Top Ten Benefits of Tough Economic Times
The PLA preconference, Top Ten Benefits of Tough Economic Times, was presented by Cathy Hakala-Ausperk and Kim Bolan Cullin. Cathy and Kim started the session by talking about the importance of the CASE philosophy. If you’re unfamiliar with the CASE it stands for Copy and Steal Everything. In that vein, I am going to present [...]
Experiencing ALA Annual Through Twitter
I admit I was skeptical when signing up for a Twitter account last spring. Another site to check when I pop online? Did I really want to commit to that? I quickly fell down the rabbit hole that is Twitter when I discovered how easy it was to stay up-to-date with concurrent conference events during [...]
Emerging Leaders Poster Sessions, from Friday, June 25
So I should’ve mentioned in a first post that I actually arrived in D.C. on Thursday to present at the Emerging Leaders Poster Sessions on Friday, June 25. Oops! Emerging Leaders get support in completing a ALA chapter sponsored project, and learn about leadership in those chapters. We first met at Midwinter, and then worked [...]
Graphic Novels: More Bang For Your Book
Christian Zabriskie of Queens Public Library discussed “where graphic novels and circulation mesh” today at the Graphic Novel Pavilion, in one of over forty hours of programming devoted to graphic novels at this year’s ALA Annual conference. “Superbooks: How Graphics Can Save Your Library” wasn’t a colorful, image-filled presentation on the history of graphics, or [...]
Graphic Novels at ALA
I’m here to start my third year as a member of Great Graphic Novels for Teens, a YALSA selection committee. Throughout the year we seek out graphic novels that are both “great” and “great for teens,” and mold them into a selection list at the Annual and Midwinter ALA conferences. You can take a look [...]
Session Report: HELP! My Patron is a Cyber Patient
I attended an excellent overview session on health literacy and reference this morning entitled “HELP! My Patron is a Cyber Patient: Learn to Help Patrons Identify Their Health Information Needs and Locate Relevant Resources”, presented by LaVentra E. Danqua of Wayne State University, Shiffman Medical Library in Detroit, Michigan. She’s worked as a health reference [...]
Tweeting at the conference
Everyone’s been doing such a lovely job of recapping sessions they attended, so I wanted to get a little meta on you guys and talk about how Twitter was used at PLA this year. For a little context, the way I was keeping up with PLA happenings on Twitter was partly though the people I [...]
Volunteering at the exhibit hall
Yesterday I volunteered at the PLA Membership Booth between the first and second sessions of the day. It was a lot of fun and a nice way to just chat with people who came by. There was one librarian from Chicago who said she was so happy to see young people entering the profession who [...]
Serving pregnant or parenting teens
I’m not sure what it is, but I seem to really enjoy the early morning sessions. Today the first one I attended was “Pregnant/Parenting Teens: Promoting Library Services Among the Underserved” with Maryann Mori, the director of the Waukee Public Library in Waukee, Iowa. She addressed the needs of pregnant and parenting teens, what libraries [...]
Extreme resume makeover
Since I’ll be graduating in just six short weeks, I was a little disappointed to see that there wouldn’t be a job placement center this year at PLA. I checked out ALA’s site on finding a job, but I wanted something more personal and dialog-driven, so I made sure to sign up for the resume [...]
