I absolutely love to see librarians get attention and recognition for the wonderful work they do every day! So, it was pretty exciting to see two librarians being recognized in People magazine’s 2023 Women Changing the World!!!

Scroll down the article to number five on the list to see the librarians. And spend some time browsing the whole article to see all their nominees, and see the photo!

Carolyn Foote and Becky Calzada

When Carolyn Foote, 63, and Becky Calzada, 57, saw Texas lawmakers threaten to ban books pertaining to race, racism and LGBTQ+ themes, they formed FReadom Fighters to rally an army of booklovers on social media and in their communities. “Books shouldn’t be contraband,” says Foote, a retired librarian. “We’ve lost our way in this contentious environment. We forgot what’s at the core of libraries: getting kids excited about reading.”

Adds Calzada, a library coordinator for an Austin-area school district: “Sometimes you need a book to bring reassurance and to validate.”

The group’s Twitter account and website reach thousands, offering support for embattled colleagues and guides for action campaigns. And although it can sometimes feel like a losing battle — last year more than 1,600 titles were banned in schools across the country, with Texas leading the nation — their fight continues. “I hope we inspire others to get involved,” says Foote. “We need to keep speaking up.”

Read the whole article here!

Check out this program coming out from our colleagues at Northern Lights multitype library system!

Under Scrutiny: Helping Staff Feel Safe and Empowered in the Face of Book Challenges With Darcy Lipp-Acord. A free 90-minute webinar.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

3:00 pm Eastern | 2:00 pm Central | 1:00 pm Mountain | 12:00 pm Pacific

Under Scrutiny: Helping Staff Feel Safe and Empowered in the Face of Book Challenges

With Darcy Lipp-Acord. A free 90-minute webinar.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

3:00 pm Eastern | 2:00 pm Central | 1:00 pm Mountain | 12:00 pm Pacific

This YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) webinar is sponsored by AASL (American Association of School Librarians), PLA (Public Library Association), and ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children).

All around the country, politically motivated challenges to library patrons’ freedom to read and library staff members’ ability to do their jobs are increasing. Many of these challenges have moved from simple complaints and removal requests to abusive, sometimes dangerous behavior.

In this new webinar, you’ll hear from Darcy Lipp-Acord, the Youth Services Librarian at Campbell County Public Library in Gillette, WY. As someone who has been on the front lines of this harassment, she will present information linking strategies of book challenging groups with abusive behaviors typically found in domestic relationships and offer strategies for dealing with those behaviors as front-facing library staff.

You’ll learn about common strategies used by political groups in their efforts to censor youth materials, how to identify and name these behaviors, and how doing so can empower library staff to develop proactive strategies for responding in ways that protect their safety and integrity.

Learn more: https://elearning.ala.org/local/catalog/view/product.php?productid=870

That’s right: every week we are going to celebrate some small holiday! We want you to join us in celebrating every week – because really, everyone needs a little more happiness in their lives.

Join us in celebrating the holiday just yourself, and take some small quiet time to enjoy it. Or, take our book and program ideas, and celebrate in a larger way in your library. Take a small, goofy opportunity to have a little more fun today! (We celebrate you in doing this!)

“In 2020, the Department of Labor collectively inducted the nearly 6 million women who served as “Rosie the Riveters” into our Hall of Honor. On March 21, designated Rosie the Riveter Day, we honor the legacy of the women whose work supported the war effort and push for continued equity for women in nontraditional jobs.

This Rosie the Riveter Day, the Women’s Bureau has returned to the park to talk with real-life Rosies and modern-day tradeswomen about their work. Their stories are moving, tough and surprisingly similar.

While women workers proved more than capable during the war effort, many also recount stories of gender and racial discrimination and harassment. Betty Reid Soskin, a leading spokesperson for the diverse experiences of domestic war-effort workers during World War II, joined the Park Service in 2004 to ensure that visitors to the historic park learn about the experiences of black women who were fighting to secure a double victory: defeat of fascism abroad and racism at home.”

While working in a library is pretty traditionally a job women take, the work we do is still value and interesting; it’s good to share the possibilities available in all kinds of jobs for all kinds of people. And it’s good to notice that those possibilities have not been fairly or justly made available.

Check out some books:

• Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II, by Penny Colman
• Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters, by Andrea Beaty (Author), David Roberts (Illustrator)
• Thriving in a Male-Dominated Workplace (HBR Women at Work Series), by Harvard Business Review
• I’m Not Yelling: A Black Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Workplace (Women in Business, Successful Business Woman, Image & Etiquette), by Elizabeth Leiba
• Take Back Your Power: 10 New Rules for Women at Work, by Deborah Liu

Setting up some programs to celebrate this day could be pretty fun!

• bring in people to talk about all kinds of different jobs they have
• for younger patrons, let them think about the best job they can imagine (bonus points if it absolutely makes no practical sense!)
• have a panel of people talking about going to technical or trades programs – it’s not just for kids who don’t want to go to college, these jobs are in high demand and can be really satisfying
• have a discussion about how to handle unfairness in the workplace; how to respond, how to be successful in spite of it, and how to avoid being the problem

Join us in celebrating the holiday just yourself, and take some small quiet time to enjoy it. Or, take our book and program ideas, and celebrate in a larger way in your library. Take a small, goofy opportunity to have a little more fun today!

This season, we continue to travel around Minnesota, but this time we’re learning about all the fascinating historical sites our state has to offer and giving you a book prompt inspired by each site.  

We will share six book suggestions to meet that prompt, to get you started on reading new books. You can also take that prompt and find any other book to meet the challenge!

“People have long relied on the forests for food, shelter, and building materials. Today we also include recreation and enjoying the beauty of forests in that description. The Forest History Center tells the story of this changing relationship with the land.” To celebrate this relationship, read a book about trees.

In our show notes for this episode, we link each book to one of our state’s great independent bookstores: the Red Balloon in Minneapolis, MN. It gives you a description, so you can get more information about the book to help you make a decision about your reading or recommendations.

We are sharing a survey that is gathering information from school library staff from around the state. It’s very short! (The best kind!) This was created by our colleagues at the SELS multitype system, and they are sharing the results with all the multitypes, so we can work on building more support for school libraries.

CLICK HERE for the survey

So you can see how short it is, it is being reproduced below. But, be sure to CLICK HERE to submit your answers!

The Multicounty Multitype Library Systems are strategizing on how we can continue to provide the most relevant and effective support to K-12 school libraries and media specialists around the state.

If you have ideas, we would love to hear them! Wondering which system serves you? Find out at: https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/Lib/sls/Mult/

We’re hoping to curate/develop advocacy tools/resources that school library staff would find helpful. One idea we’ve heard is assistance in strategic planning for the school library. What form of assistance would be helpful to you in advocating for your library/your role in the library? 

During the next few months, SELS will be working on creating a professional development program for school administrators to participate in. For media specialists, what do you wish that school leaders understood about your role?