The Instruction Round Table of the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) invites all interested librarians and library staff to take part in our Library Instruction Online Mini UnConference on Wednesday, July 31st, 1:00-3:00.
The online UnConference provides the opportunity to connect with your fellow librarian and library staff from across the state around the topic of library instruction from the comfort of your own computer! And it’s free!
What is an UnConference?
An UnConference is a loosely structured conference that allows for the informal exchange of information and ideas between participants. It does not follow the typical conference format – the participants choose the topics they want to talk about, and then they talk about them!
What is an Online Mini UnConference?
We did string a lot of words together there. Well, first of all, you don’t need to leave your office – because it is going to be online. If you have ever used an online meeting platform (Google Hangout, Zoom, etc.) then you should have no problem with this format. And it is Mini because it is only two hours – what better way to spend two hours of your work day than connecting with other instruction librarians and library staff?
What are we going to talk about?
That is the beauty of the UnConference – we don’t know yet, but you get to help figure it out! All we know is that the focus will be on library instruction – but beyond that, it is all up to you. We will send out more information the week before the UnConference with more details on how the process will work, but you will have the opportunity to suggest topics both before and during the UnConference.
How will this work?
Great question! We will be using an online platform called Unhangout, which will allow you to join the UnConference, suggest a topic, and join a breakout conversation. Unfortunately, there is not a call-in option for Unhangout, so you will need a computer that has a microphone and speakers/headphones. We will send you much more information about a week before the UnConference.
How do I register?
Register here! Please register by Wednesday, July 24th.
Meanwhile, American Libraries, the official publication of the American Library Association, has in the past two years twice prominently featured librarians fostering engagement in nature: “Out of the Branches, into the Woods” focused on teaming up with state parks to circulate nature backpacks and park passes and “Walking History” focused on librarians leading walks on local history and ecology.
The Children & Nature Network has even created a model for
transforming libraries into Nature-Smart Libraries. Nature-Smart
Libraries maximize local resources and partnerships and respond to
community needs to connect children with nature through educational
programs, access to parks and creation of natural spaces. Libraries are
nearby, free and accessible to all children. Through the Cities Connecting Children to Nature initiative (CCCN), Nature-Smart Libraries are becoming part of larger city-wide plans to provide equitable access to nature for all children. St. Paul, MN and San Francisco, CA are
two examples. Houston and San Antonio, TX recently launched their own
Nature-Smart Library strategies. These cities represent a broader
national effort to maximize local libraries as daily connectors to the
natural world. Learn more about how and why cities are using
Nature-Smart Libraries to connect children to nature in CCCN’s Municipal Action Guide.
Since the fall of 2016, I have been researching this trend and have found that public librarians often want to do whatever they can to get kids, families, and individuals of all ages into nature. In the spring of 2017, a self-selecting sample of 1,157 public libraries from the United States and Canada completed an online survey I created that focused on physical activity promotion through public libraries. I asked respondents if they had ever done programs focused on gardening or StoryWalks. I also asked if those programs took place inside the library or outdoors. An indoor program may feature someone talking about gardening while an outdoor program focuses on actually engaging people in gardening. In total, 303 libraries said they had offered outdoor StoryWalk programs (Map 1), 246 (Map 2) said they had offered outdoor gardening programs, and 90 (Map 3) said they had offered both outdoor gardening and outdoor StoryWalk programs.”
Harjo, a Member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, Is the First Native American to Serve as U.S. Poet Laureate
Joy Harjo has been named Poet Laureate of the United States. Photo by Shawn Miller, Library of Congress.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today announced
the appointment of Joy Harjo as the nation’s 23rd Poet Laureate
Consultant in Poetry for 2019-2020. Harjo will take up her duties in the
fall, opening the Library’s annual literary season on Sept. 19 with a
reading of her work in the Coolidge Auditorium.
Harjo is the first
Native American poet to serve in the position – she is an enrolled
member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. She succeeds Tracy K. Smith, who
served two terms as laureate.
“Joy Harjo has championed the art of
poetry – ‘soul talk’ as she calls it – for over four decades,” Hayden
said. “To her, poems are ‘carriers of dreams, knowledge and wisdom,’ and
through them she tells an American story of tradition and loss,
reckoning and myth-making. Her work powerfully connects us to the earth
and the spiritual world with direct, inventive lyricism that helps us
reimagine who we are.”
Harjo currently lives in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the nation’s first Poet Laureate from Oklahoma.
“What
a tremendous honor it is to be named the U.S. Poet Laureate,” Harjo
said. “I share this honor with ancestors and teachers who inspired in me
a love of poetry, who taught that words are powerful and can make
change when understanding appears impossible, and how time and
timelessness can live together within a poem. I count among these
ancestors and teachers my Muscogee Creek people, the librarians who
opened so many doors for all of us, and the original poets of the
indigenous tribal nations of these lands, who were joined by diverse
peoples from nations all over the world to make this country and this
country’s poetry.”
Harjo joins a long line of distinguished poets
who have served in the position, including Juan Felipe Herrera, Charles
Wright, Natasha Trethewey, Philip Levine, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, Charles
Simic, Donald Hall, Ted Kooser, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley
Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove.
Harjo was born
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 9, 1951, and is the author of eight books of
poetry – including “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings”(W. W.
Norton, 2015); “The Woman Who Fell From the Sky” (W. W. Norton, 1994),
which received the Oklahoma Book Arts Award; and “In Mad Love and
War” (Wesleyan University Press, 1990), which received an American Book
Award and the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award. Her next book of
poems, “An American Sunrise,” will be published by W.W. Norton in fall
2019. Harjo has also written a memoir, “Crazy Brave” (W.W. Norton,
2012), which won the 2013 PEN Center USA literary prize for creative
nonfiction, as well as a children’s book, “The Good Luck Cat” (Harcourt,
Brace 2000) and a young adult book, “For a Girl Becoming” (University
of Arizona Press, 2009).
As a performer, Harjo has appeared on
HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam” and in venues across the U.S. and
internationally. In addition to her poetry, Harjo is a musician. She
plays saxophone with her band, the Arrow Dynamics Band, and previously
with Poetic Justice, and has released four award-winning CDs of original
music. In 2009, she won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best
Female Artist of the Year.
Harjo’s many literary awards include
the PEN Open Book Award, the American Indian Distinguished Achievement
in the Arts Award, the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the
Arts and the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma
Center for the Book. Harjo has received fellowships from the Guggenheim
Foundation, the Witter Bynner Foundation, and the National Endowment
for the Arts. Her collection “How We Become Human: New and Selected
Poems 1975-2001” (W.W. Norton, 2002) was selected by the National
Endowment for the Arts for its Big Read program. Her recent honors
include the Jackson Prize from Poets & Writers (2019), the Ruth
Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation (2017) and the Wallace
Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets (2015). In 2019, she
was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Harjo
has taught at UCLA and was until recently a professor and chair of
excellence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has returned
to her hometown where she holds a Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
About the Laureateship
The
Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center is the home of the
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, a position that has existed since
1937, when Archer M. Huntington endowed the Chair of Poetry at the
Library. Since then, many of the nation’s most eminent poets have served
as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and, after the
passage of Public Law 99-194 (Dec. 20, 1985), as Poet Laureate
Consultant in Poetry – a position which the law states “is equivalent to
that of Poet Laureate of the United States.”
During his or her
term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a
greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry. The Library
keeps to a minimum the specific duties required of the Poet Laureate,
who opens the literary season in the fall and closes it in the spring.
In recent years, Laureates have initiated poetry projects that broaden
the audiences for poetry.
For more information on the Poet Laureate and the Poetry and Literature Center, visit loc.gov/poetry. Consultants in Poetry and Poets Laureate Consultants in Poetry and their terms of service can be found at loc.gov/poetry/laureate.html.
The
Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to
the creative record of the United States – and extensive materials from
around the world – both on site and online. It is the main research arm
of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore
collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov, and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
In this episode we will talk about one of the most visible parts of good library service: creating displays. These are not just fun things, though they are that! Your job is to get books and materials off your shelves and into the hands of your patrons. Good displays will help make that happen!
This week we have returning Guest Hosts Ariel and Lydia, from the Great River Regional Library System, to help us get some ideas!
Check out our shownotes page here, with links to lots of useful material – and links to the books we read!!
When you visit a library that does not have displays, or is not making an effort to sell their materials, it’s kind of depressing. Remember: great collection development would mean that you get all those materials out of your library and taken home with people. If you want to encourage people to interact with your collection, instead of admiring the books neatly organized on shelves, you need to get them off the shelves and in people’s line of sight. Publishers spend a lot of time and money on the cover art to sell the book. Give it a chance to happen!
” This site hosts a series of free, online professional development modules for school and public youth services librarians, library administrators, and others interested in improving their knowledge about race and racism, racial equity, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. The primary focus of the Project READY curriculum is on improving relationships with, services to, and resources for youth of color and Native youth. “
“Research shows that youth services library staff in both public and school libraries recognize the need for professional and personal knowledge related to race and racism and anti-racist work (Hughes-Hassell & Stivers, 2015); however, there are currently few comprehensive resources that specifically address the needs of library professionals. …
“The Project READY curriculum addresses this gap in existing
professional development opportunities for youth services library staff.
The curriculum aims to do the following:
introduce youth services library staff to research in areas such as
race and racism, critical theory, and culturally responsive or
sustaining pedagogy.
establish a shared understanding of foundational concepts and issues related to race, racism, and racial equity.
encourage self-reflection related to race and racial identity for
both white and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) library
staff in public and school libraries.
amplify the work of practitioners and scholars who are providing
inclusive and culturally responsive services for youth of color and
Indigenous youth.
provide concrete strategies for creating and/or improving library
programs and services for Black youth, Indigenous youth, and children
and teens of color.
No matter where you are on your own personal and professional
racial equity journey, this curriculum offers opportunities to deepen
and extend your understanding:
If you are new to racial equity work, Project READY will help you build a solid foundation for future exploration.
If you are already familiar with some of the foundational concepts covered here, Project READY will refresh your prior knowledge and give you tools to translate your knowledge into improved professional practice.
If you are already deeply familiar with issues related to race and racism, Project READY can give you a starting point for discussions with colleagues who are not, and can give you additional real-world examples of how libraries are enacting racial equity work.”
Check out the material below:
Colleagues-
Today, we are excited to announce that the Project READY (Reimagining Equity and Access for Diverse Youth) online racial equity curriculum is live and accessible at ready.web.unc.edu. We will be promoting the curriculum on the exhibit hall at ALA’s annual conference in Washington, DC – Booth 2650. We invite you to stop by and preview Project READY!
The
curriculum, funded by IMLS, consists of 27 modules, designed to be
worked through by individuals or small groups. Modules are organized
into three sequential sections. The first
section (Foundations) focuses on basic concepts and issues that are
fundamental to understanding race and racism and their impact on library
services. The second section (Transforming Practice) explores how these
foundational concepts relate to and can be
applied in library environments. Finally, the third section (Continuing
the Journey) explores how library professionals can sustain racial
equity work and grow personally and professionally in this area after
completing the curriculum.
The
curriculum represents the work of 40 researchers, practitioners,
administrators, and policymakers, and youth from a variety of racial and
cultural backgrounds. It is grounded
in the work of scholars of color and Indigenous scholars who have
thought and written about issues related to institutional and individual
racism, equity, inclusion, and social justice.
We
hope this curriculum will benefit and inform the work of the many
organizations and individuals that are working to improve the quality of
life and educational opportunities for
Black Indigenous Youth of Color (BIYOC).
Best,
Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Ph.D. Professor YALSA Immediate Past President, 2018-2019 The University of North Carolina
Partnering with libraries for visioning, advocating, and educating
