Where My ALA Philadelphia Peoples At?
Today I am in Philadelphia for the Mid-Winter ALA Conference. I suspect that perhaps many of you children’s literary enthusiasts are there as well. How delightful! We should really meet up. Of course, I probably should have mentioned this earlier. Hm. Poor planning on my part. In any case there’s a Kidlit Lunch on Saturday, organized by Reader’s Carousel. If you are interested in going, let her know. You can find additional details at Tea Cozy. I may try to stop by if I get a chance.
For those of you on the go and without the spare time needed to hear about who wins the ALA Awards on Monday, Jennifer Schultz alerted me to the fact that you can now have the winners texted to you. It’s winners only, though, so if you want to know about the Honor books you’ll have to wait to find out.
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I’ll do some small posts while I’m gone, but nothing too exciting.
See you after the ALA Award results pour in!
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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I’m here in Philly. I’m focusing on the AASL Board meetings, Affiliate Assembly grassroots meetings, and ALA Council. PHEW! I’ll be in the exhibit hall networking and Monday night there is a great reception for ALSC, AASL and YALSA members to meet-up. Please drop by.
Once again, I’m jealous of ya, Ms. Fuse.
You East Coasters have all the fun!
Jay, I would say East Coasters with money – or whose employers pay for them to go to cool conferences – alas, my school does not – I think I need to look into being a public librarian – you guys have all the FUN!
Rushing to the defense of public librarians . . .
I believe that many of them go to these conferences on their own (many) dimes, probably sacrificing protein in the months to come.
R.
Not only public librarians. I am a school librarian on my own dime for 6 nights and 7 days at ALA. I network and find friends to help reduce expenses. The hardest part is not being at my school working with my students. My faculty has already sent me 9 emails Friday with questions, but the students don’t have their most valuable resource – me. I know that my attendance here will help the profession and the students in the long run.
I’m writing in from the conference’s Internet Cafe. Tres swank. To clarify, though, when I served on the Newbery I paid for each and every conference I had to attend entirely out of pocket. This year I applied for a library grant to come to Philly and got it, but this is the exception rather than the rule. I come to these conferences because I love them and because they offer great professional development, but they are expensive affairs.
I am a children’s librarian at a public library, and cannot count on funds being available for conventions. I was fortunate in that last year’s annual convention was in DC-I was able to use the Metro to get to the convention center.
I’ve worked for three public library systems in three different states, and there was never any guarantee that convention expenses would be paid.
How did I not see you AT ALL, Bets? No overlapping functions? Weird! A colleague and I actually went to the Desk Set event on Saturday night – I’m officially 100 years too old for that sort of thing. And I don’t wear dark-rimmed glasses and I don’t really like The Strokes. To chime in on the conference discussion, my hotel was covered but I had to pay for everything else. For Midwinter in D.C., every bit of it was my own dime. I assure you, I had to dig deep!
Aw. I didn’t even know you were there! I thought about going to Dance Dance Library Revolution but with my hubby I felt too schlumpy. If I’d known you’d be there I would’ve gone. Next time we’ll plan this thing better. And, for the record, you’re basically the hippest librarian I know. Word.
LOL! Don’t you think the fact that you and I both use “Word” probably makes us totally *not* hip! Nevertheless, they did play The Cure and MJ’s “PYT” at the dance party so it didn’t totally suck. You can’t be too schlumpy – you did play Guitar Hero to The Strokes, after all!