Youth Media Awards: I didn't attend the YMAs because after waiting in line for my book to be signed by Dr. West (he remembered me from the night before!), I was super hungry and wanted to get to Council early to start working on blogs, but I picked up the morning's edition of Cognotes and was SO EXICTED to see that Dan Santat, author of Beekle had won! Dan Santat lives and works in LA, is an all around nice guy, and looks surprisingly similar to our mutual friend who is also an artist and works at Glendale Library. I squealed with delight in the Council chambers when I saw Beekle listed and now I also have lots of other books to read. I am also SO happy to see so many books about POCs and POCs as award winners this year. It's really unprecedented.
ALA Council II: This was mostly a business meeting with most actions relating to very ALA-specific policies and procedures, such as term-limits for members of BARC, updated standards of accreditation for LIS programs, and whether or not we should switch from Sturgis to Robert's Rules of Order.
The Freedom to Read Foundation updated us on several cases they are participating in with other organizations such as:
Antigone Books v. Horne - "...challenges an Arizona statute that makes it a crime to publish, sell, loan, or disclose images that include nudity without the depicted person's consent for each distribution. Although intended to target "revenge porn," the law, as written, potentially makes criminal the dissemination of a large number of historic, artistic, educational, and other newsworthy images." (Case is pending)
Arce v. Huppenthal - "...against the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction and other state officials that challenges the constitutionality of the Arizona statute prohibiting the use of class materials or books that encourage the overthrow of the government, 'promote resentment toward a race or class of people,' are 'designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group,' or 'advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.' The plaintiffs sued after TUSD was forced to cease its Mexican American Studies program and remove books from its classrooms. An opinion should be issued sometime in March or April of 2015."
For more information on these cases, visit: http://www.ftrf.org/?Current_Cases
California Councilors Meeting + ALA Council Forum:
Before Council Forum, CA Chapter Councilor Patty Wong gathered as many of the California-based councilors as possible just for a little meet and greet and to see if there were any pressing California issues that we needed to address. It was also good for the new councilors to get some background on Council procedures, resolutions, and things of that nature. Thanks to Patty for organizing us!
ALA Council Forum was a little heated as SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round Table) brought forth a resolution deploring the attacks on schools and libraries in Gaza in 2014. Really, all forum is is a place to discuss the next day's issues, work out kinks in resolutions, and have more time for debate so that we don't waste the time of Council on the floor. As you can imagine, based on the subject matter, the Gaza/Israel conflict it is a complicated issue and the conversation was complicated with emotions running high. For the most part everyone was civil, and everyone listened to the other's points, but I don't know that the conversation necessarily changed anyone's mind about how they were going to vote on the resolution. The main discussion was on the one-sidedness of the issue as presented in the resolution was well as resolutions that have already been in place deploring such attacks on international libraries and places of education.
California Councilors Meeting + ALA Council Forum:
Before Council Forum, CA Chapter Councilor Patty Wong gathered as many of the California-based councilors as possible just for a little meet and greet and to see if there were any pressing California issues that we needed to address. It was also good for the new councilors to get some background on Council procedures, resolutions, and things of that nature. Thanks to Patty for organizing us!
ALA Council Forum was a little heated as SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round Table) brought forth a resolution deploring the attacks on schools and libraries in Gaza in 2014. Really, all forum is is a place to discuss the next day's issues, work out kinks in resolutions, and have more time for debate so that we don't waste the time of Council on the floor. As you can imagine, based on the subject matter, the Gaza/Israel conflict it is a complicated issue and the conversation was complicated with emotions running high. For the most part everyone was civil, and everyone listened to the other's points, but I don't know that the conversation necessarily changed anyone's mind about how they were going to vote on the resolution. The main discussion was on the one-sidedness of the issue as presented in the resolution was well as resolutions that have already been in place deploring such attacks on international libraries and places of education.
A brainstorm ideas that came out of my various smaller meetings:
One activity I'm going to be taking up for the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature is creating a Pinterest page of our recommended reads lists. I know we currently use our Pinterest account for lots of promotion of our events and PALS, but I wonder if maybe we would want to start making some boards with our recommended reads lists, programming ideas we love, or things going on around the city? I'd be happy to help with this if we feel like it would be a worthwhile endeavor. We could easily link the images to our catalog, making it super easy for our patrons to find materials.
Lessa, let's talk about Pinterest next week.
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