MLA Conference Dates set for 2020

The MLA/DLA annual conference will be held from May 6-8, 2020 at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, Maryland.

The theme for this year is "Into the Roaring Twenties" and a full schedule of preconferences, keynote speakers, and breakout programs is scheduled.  

Watch for more information on the conference website https://www.mladlacon.com/

We'll be announcing the application deadlines as soon as the registration information is posted.

ALA Mid-Winter deadline is November 8

November 8 is the deadline for all Pratt staff who wish to request funding to attend the ALA Mid-Winter Conference in Philadelphia.  Please have your signed paperwork to us by that date so that we can meet the early bird deadline.

• Be sure to include your ALA membership number with your request, and your login and password  if you want us to complete your registration.

• If you are also a member of MLA, please include your MLA membership number, as we can get an additional discount for MLA members.

• The forms and instructions are available on the SD&T blog "Forms" page.  Download the forms you need and remember to save copies for yourself.

If you have any questions, please contact us and we'll be happy to walk you through the forms and/or the process.

ALA sponsored scholarships

ALA also has a number of scholarship opportunities.   Please see the following link for an announcement about their graduate program scholarship opportunities: 

http://www.ala.org/news/member-news/2019/09/accepting-scholarship-applications. 

The deadline for applications is March 1, 2020.

ALA Annual - Preservation and archiving

There were several meaningful initiatives regarding preservation, assessing digital collections, and personal digital archiving.   But the session I thought was most feasible and scalable for the Pratt library was Preservation Week 101. In light of memory lab offerings that may be part of future endeavors at Pratt, this session provided examples of programs that introduce preservation topics of interest to a public audience. 

Introduction programs included the following topics:

Saving Family Photos 

What to Do with Digital Photos? 

What to Do with Family Recipes?

These programs might consist of a panel of speakers, some artifacts such as the panelist’s family photos or the librarian’s and the why and how of preserving photos. These kinds of programs can attract public interest and help to determine the focus for a memory lab service. They can also be tied to existing genealogy workshops. The programs can be a precursor to memory lab offerings or standalone without a memory lab.

ALCTS at http://www.ala.org/alcts/preservationweek/howto offers excellent resources, webinars and slide presentations to get started.  Initiating these sessions would help to gauge interest and focus areas as part of a survey/assessment before investing in memory lab equipment.

Rose Anne Ullrich

Information Services

ALA Annual - Ready, Set, Bank @ Your Public Library

A standout session I attended at this year’s ALA Annual Conference was “Ready, Set, Bank @ Your Public Library,” led by a Capital One rep and librarians from Queens and Houston. I primarily chose to attend this one because I was interested in how a public library might work with a for-profit business to benefit patrons. This session offered so much more than I was expecting, especially in terms of marketing programs to users. 

The goal of this initiative was to promote mobile banking to older adults (don’t call them seniors!) who may be hesitant to embrace new technology. Many of Pratt’s patrons rely on mobile devices to get online and I think we need to consider this for future programming and instructional opportunities. Don’t assume that older customers don’t use digital technology; often, they just need someone to teach them how to use online tools. Most are happy to embrace it so long as it’s relevant to their lives, such as connecting through social media or looking up health information. When it comes to online banking, they often have security concerns. We can address this by promoting the benefits, such as being able to see real time transactions and maintaining privacy and independence. 

Libraries are an ideal setting to reach these customers and I appreciated that the videos and resources are not brand-specific. The resources only mention “the bank”, not Capital One specifically. The libraries they partnered with were able to benefit from their extensive market research and implement microlearning in short videos the bank created. The program has expanded to include lesson plans in Spanish. These focus less on technology skills and more on the banking system in the U.S. The Capital One representative mentioned that any of their banks could possibly offer trainings at our branches. For more information, head to www.readysetbank.org 

If you weren’t able to make ALA this year, you can read a digital copy of the American Libraries’ wrap-up issue here: https://t.co/rxXIq8eNXT 

Katy Troeschel

Social Science and History Department

ALA Annual - Reflections on Diversity

The 2019 American Library Association Conference offered many opportunities to reflect on diversity, and to find ways to include diverse elements of the US population in everything we do.

Here is a taste of two of the sessions I attended:

“Muslims in Story” – Ms. Sadaf Siddique, coauthor of the book Muslims in Story: Expanding Multicultural Understanding through Children’s and Young Adult Literature, talked about the intent and the content of the book. This book is a collection of resources and curated booklists that will help educators expose their audience to positive images of Muslims.

A powerful way to counter bias is for Muslims (or anybody else who is the victim of prejudice) to tell their own story through actual personal experiences. The book’s purpose is to show commonality. It is not so much about religion. It is about the people and how diverse they are. The books that the authors included in their booklists have a common quality. They are culturally authentic and they depict positive images that will make Muslim children feel proud of being Muslims.

Muslims in Story includes a thematic framework to use throughout the school year. Some of the themes featured in the book are: Historical presence of Muslims in America, Muslim kids and heroes, Fasting traditions among the various Muslims in the world, Similarities between religions, Respect and tolerance between people, Knowledge overcomes everything. Each story comes with complete lesson plans and extra resources.

For more details, read an Interview with Sadaf Siddique and Gauri Manglik

“Ready to Learn: Public Media and Library Partnership for Early Science and Literacy Learning” – The “Ready to Learn (RTL)” initiative’s “goal is to promote early learning and school readiness, with an emphasis on supporting children from low-income, underserved communities.” PBS (Public Broadcast Service) and their librarian partners from one library in Kentucky, and the other one in Tennessee shared their successes and failures in offering the Family Learning Community workshops.  

These workshops are usually divided into 4 weekly sessions, but they can be adjusted to be a standalone program. Each session is composed of 4 parts:

EAT: Participants eat a meal together and get to know each other

EXPLORE: Hands-on explorations and discussions in groups (inter-family connections)

MAKE: Families work together on their own projects

SHARE: Participants share their projects with the other families, and give feedback to each other.

Most programs and resources necessary to set up such workshops are available for free to all educators at PBS Learning Media.  The website is a treasure trove of information!

Sylvie Merlier-Rowen
Children's Department, CEN

ALA Annual - Best Fiction for Young Adults

In attending ALA 2019, I was lucky enough to sit in on a panel discussion of YALSA's best fiction for young adult lists led by students from the DC area. It was a rare treat to actually hear reactions from teens who thoughtfully read and reviewed the list, taking into account literary quality, plot, inclusiveness and #ownvoices. 

This filled in my knowledge gap around what teens and precocious tweens are reading, as well as providing actual feedback in real time around important texts with which to be familiar. Because my teen literature knowledge is limited, this was a condensed opportunity to hear from the actual demographic what they like to read. I can't wait to pick up a copy of A.S. King's Dig!

This was also a networking opportunity, as several members of the local literary committee, Capital Choices team, were there to provide feedback about  programming in the greater Maryland area. 

http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/about/selected-lists-the-hub/best-fiction-young-adults-nominees/

Cornelia Beckett

Programs and Outreach