Librarians unite in San Francisco

Sometimes, I think this little blog is devolving into a debrief of my conference experiences. Well,  my very personal experiences, when you consider that I'm posting the more interesting bits to SLJ (Early Learning and Law and Order; The Los Angeles Public Library Asks what's Your Queery?; and Teaching Kids to Deconstruct the Advertising Pitch).

I was in a funk before I left, what with the Charleston massacre. I was also feeling regionally shamed. Now we have to change the names of basically everything from the nineteenth century down here and suffer self-congratulatory editorials from Yankees about how, because of one nutjob, the south shames the rest of America? But of course that was offset somewhat by the Supreme Court decision.

The San Francisco Pride route went literally right through the middle of ALA. It was a joyous celebration.

My favorite thing this year was the 'zine pavilion. I really want to work on these sorts of old school self-publishing projects with teens. And I got to play with a letterpress, bonus! Thanks to Annemarie Munn of Ladybones Print Shop for sharing. I'm totally in the market if you run across one...

Another awesome creative thing at Annual: the Recovering the Classics display. Another great activity to borrow to get teens thinking and (dare I say it?) making things. I will at least add an object to that omnipresent verb.

On the work side of things, I presented with Sarah Hill and Laura Ward on the Common Core. My slides below.

I also got to help introduce Dutch picture book author-illustrators Ingrid and Dieter Schubert at the USBBY program. I love this picture of Jenny Brown, who is who I want to be when I grow up as she has not just one but two great gigs, as children's editor and director of the Center for Children's Literature at the Bank Street College of Education, snapping their picture.

My biggest personal event was the Odyssey Award celebration Monday afternoon (hence the rather bedraggled committee members at the top). After listening to them for hours on end, finally meeting Chris Myers and Dion Graham, Jayne Entwhistle, and Tim Federle was just mind-blowing. I think a good time was had by all, especially as Chris and Dion read H.O.R.S.E. all the way through for us.