During Midwinter we did a major push to encourage folks to sign the petition for school libraries. Below are some video interviews that ALA President Molly Raphael and I made to help explain the importance of the petition.
I want to thank Molly as well as the Division Presidents who made sure to spread the word at every major function and event. In addition, blasting it out to their Boards, their members, and the entire library community. We are in this together!
As of this second (1/25 at 9:20pm) we are at 14,377 signatures, and we need 10,623 more signatures. We need to reach 25,000 in just a few days – Feb. 4th. So, please continue to blast it out on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and every other venue you have. Please continue to help get the word out about school libraries and help us ensure the Obama administration has to respond to this petition.
The White House recently responded to two petitions with over 50,000 signatures each about the SOPA and PIPA legislation currently being considered by Congress. The petition both were opposed to this legislation and the White House has now come out against the legislation, too.
After 12 days, the petition for school libraries is almost at 8700 signatures. This is over 1/3rd of the signatures we need, but we still need over 16,300 more signatures. We have to get 25,000 signatures to get a White House response. Please continue to push the survey with family, friends, teachers, students, administrators, community members, and anyone you know that might be willing to sign. Anyone over the age of 13 can sign the petition.
You do have to create an account to be able to sign the petition.
I understand it can be a little clunky and not everyone is successful the first time. Trying different browsers and different computers has helped some folks. Logging out of the site and logging back in has helped others. Still others has persevered and come back a day or two later and it worked.
Thank you so much for all everyone has done to get us this far, but keep up the effort to get more signatures! We have until Feb. 4, 2012, so time is ticking away!
It has been a little under 4 days since the White House Petition for school libraries was posted. As of 8:50pm, we crossed the 2,000 signature threshold. This is a great start, but obviously we have a long way to go in the next 26 days to reach 25,000.
Please continue all the great work to get the message out. Anyone over the age of 13 years old may sign the petition, so please encourage friends, family, students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community members to all take a few minutes to sign the petition. This is a great chance to explain why 21st Century school libraries are so important.
You will need to create an account in order to sign the petition.
If you have trouble signing the petition, here are a few things to try:
1.) After clicking on the link in the confirming email, log out of the White House website. Log back in and find the petition and then the signing button seems to work.
2.) Some people have tried different web browers and that has helped.
3.) A few folks even just went to a different computer and that helped, too.
Before the holidays, I shared with you that I thought it was worth taking another stab at trying to get the 25,000 signatures on a White House Petition about school libraries. I am excited to say that I posted the petition today! Thank you to the many librarians and friends who offered support and offered their advice and ideas for the petition.
You just need to go to the link above, create an account (if you don’t have one) and sign the petition. Takes less than a few minutes to get it all done!
So, we have until Feb. 4th, which is only a month. We’re off to a good start, but we need to spread the word EVERYWHERE! We need to get our family, our friends, the parents at our schools, and anyone else that supports school libraries to sign this petition. We need to connect with our public librarian and academic librarian colleagues and encourage them to support us just as we would support them with these efforts.
I hope you will go and sign it right now and then go and encourage at least 10 of your friends to go and sign it, too. Please share it on listservs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. We need to get the word out through as many different sources as we can to watch those numbers climb! Make sure to share the short URL above as that is much easier than the long one!
Thank you in advance for all your work to help get this petition going! We want to make sure the White House hears loud and clearly how important we think school library programs are to educating today’s students for their future!
From time to time, I’d like to share with you what AASL has been working on from my perspective as AASL President. Here are just some of the highlights between October 1st and December 31st. From our amazing member leaders to our AASL staff, it is amazing to see all that has been happening in a short time.
Events / Projects
Most of my time from October to December was spent traveling. I had the chance to visit some wonderful state conferences as well as our own AASL National Conference. AASL has a rotation where the President, President-Elect, and Past-President visit a total of 10 state conferences each year. It brings a connection between the state and national organizations. Of the five states I’ve visiting this school year, four had conferences this fall.
Below are links to blog postings with my thoughts from the various events.
Personal project – following the lead of our colleague in California, I am preparing to post a new petition about school libraries on the White House petition website. Look for it in early January.
The Congressional Briefing was a success. There is still much to do in helping to educate lawmakers about school libraries, but it was a good start. As part of the new federal budget, Congress appropriated $28.6 millionfor literacy. A minimum of half, or $14.3 million must go to low-income school libraries. Continued effort will be needed as ESEA reauthorization goes through Congress.
I’m a little behind on my update for the blog, so I’m catching up today. I made my last AASL Presidential visit at the end of November to Tuscon, Arizona and the Arizona Library Association conference. November is always a nice time to escape Indiana and I missed our first little spit of snow while I was gone!
I got a chance for the first time to hear Stephen Abrams. He was actually at the Indiana Library Federation conference a few weeks prior, but I had conflicts for each of his session. So, it was fun to actual hear some of his thoughts on the future of libraries. Its a very hot topic not only in the public library realm, but also school libraries. How do we need to adapt and change to be effective and relevant today (and in the future!)?
Arizona has a student book choice award called the Grand Canyon Award, so it was an honor to attend their luncheon. I also had the opportunity to speak at the Teacher-Librarian division’s business meeting. Jean Kilker and Kerrlita Westrick, co-chairs of the division, were wonderful hosts and it was great to share with them some of the many projects AASL is working on.
This was my last stop for 2011. I have loved all my visits this fall to the various state conferences, and am looking forward to the few I visit in the spring. But, it has been great to be home for a while and play catch-up on things around the house and at school.
Over the last 30 days, there have been lots of blogs posts, tweets, LM_net postings, etc. over the petition on the White House website started by California librarian Seanean Shanahan. There was a considerable amount of effort put forth by many in our field to get to the need 25,000 signatures. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Seanean should be commended for her efforts. Her petition did garner over 10,000 signatures, which is quite a feat. She took the initiative to try something and I think we should congratulate her for her efforts.
The petition was not without its detractors. There were several who felt the language was just not quite on target for what we needed in our field. There were concerns that just federal mandates were not the answer. They had some valid points, too.
I think there is no doubt that there are more than 25,000 people that believe school libraries are an essential part of the learning ecosystem in our schools. I have no doubt that there are more than 25,000 people that believe for our students to succeed they need a quality school library program stocked with resources in a variety of print and digital resources and staffed by a certified school librarian.
So, when I saw that the petition had not succeeded, the first thought that came to my mind was “If at first you don’t succeed, try again!” I know it is possible to get those 25,000 signatures and I think it worth trying again. Over the upcoming holidays, I’m going to write a new petition. My goal would be to get it posted sometime right after the first of the year. I’ll make sure to share on the blog once it is up. I think we start off 2012 with a strong campaign to get those 25,000 signatures and more!
I invite those with ideas and thoughts about what should be included in the petition to post your comments here. Your comments will be important as the petition is put together. We want to send a clear the message to the White House that every child deserves a high quality school library program in this country and provide guidance on how the Federal government can help.
Be ready to mobilize come January to get the word out and lets see if we can build on the work of Seanean to help the White House learn what school libraries and school librarians are all about!
This trip was not on my official list of states to visit this year, but as I am a native Hoosier, I had to attend my own state conference. The Association for Indiana School Library Educators is an association of the Indiana Library Federation. It is much like the structure AASL has to ALA.
Most years the conference is in Indianapolis as that is a central location, but from time to time it has ventured out. This year we went to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The location in Ft. Wayne is nice because it is so close to the Allen County Public Library and the hotel is attached to the convention center which makes it very convenient for all the conference events.
Some highlights from this year included a wonderful keynote speech by the guys from Unshelved. Even though I am in the school library world, I have the complete set of their books and many of their t-shirts hang in my closet. They were full of great laughs and it was just what I needed.
I attend a couple of other breakouts – roundtables about AISLE the organization, a legislative panel on national and local issues, eBooks and experiences at a high school level, and a great collaborative project called Coast to Coast and Beyond. I did share a little bit at the AISLE luncheon about what AASL has been working on lately, which turned into quite a long list.
But, I think what I enjoyed most about AISLE is I had a chance to say thank you to many of my friends and colleagues in Indiana who have been so helpful during my Presidency of AASL. I went to dinner with some great friends both evenings and I don’t think I had laughed that hard in a long time. We were sharing through out the conference, too, about the sessions we went to, etc. It was another great networking experience.
Now just trying to catch-up on the every increase “to-do” list!
After a few days at home after AASL, it was time to take off again and I headed to Lansing, MI for the 38th Michigan Association of Media Educators’ conference. Michigan is in the same AASL Region as Indiana, so going to their conference was so wonderful! There were many folks who were President of MAME about the time I was President of AIME, so it was so great to see friends I hadn’t connected with for a while.
Michigan was the second time I attended a conference and was the opening keynote speaker. Hopefully my spin on how librarians should be leaders was a good fit for them. I enjoyed sharing some of the stories from our school and learning some about how the schools in Michigan are doing. With my sessions done first, I was able to sit back and just enjoy the conference…a real treat. There were great sessions from the likes of Kristin Fontichairo, Judy Hauser, and more. I loved meeting their retiree group. MAME 4 Ever does some amazing work for Michigan. I had never heard of a garage sale at the exhibit hall, but what a great way for retirees to pass on their valuable resources to the next generation. Teri Belcher and her crew do just an amazing job.
As always, my favorite parts were the conversations. The closing keynote was my friend Gail Bush, so it was fun to catch-up with her as well. Sue Lay and her conference committee did an amazing job of putting it all together. The last event I attended was the Past-President luncheon. It was a great way to pass on the wisdom of the association to the new and future leaders. They had quite a turn out!
I’m home for a while, but our state conference and one more Presidential visit is on the calendar before the end of the year! Its been busy, but a lot of fun!
WOW! I could probably sum up my feelings of AASL’s 15th National Conference and Exhibition conference with just one word. But, as my English teachers in high school reminded me often, short and succinct were not always my strong suit. I’ll have to say it was such an honor and a thrill to be President of AASL during the National Conference. The real work of planning, organizing, and running the conference was done by the AASL Conference Committee led by Cheryl Steele and Ty Burns as well as our amazing AASL Staff. It was so great to see all of that hard work paid off.
As we’re only two weeks since the conference, I’m just catching up at home and work. The bad thing about that is I’m way behind in writing this post. The good thing is I’ve had a little more time to reflect and think about the experience in Minneapolis, MN. I’m sure I won’t be able to truly convey the conference experience in just a few words, but certainly there were many highlights.
The biggest observation I had was the positive tone! We’ve heard the horror stories as the economy has impacted education funding and in turn effected school library programs. But, instead of dwelling on that at the conference, everyone I talked with and interacted with was more focused on the future. How do we move forward? How do we prepare for the future of our field? How can I go back to the situation I have and apply what I learned this week? Sure, we all have stumbling blocks in the way of creating the program we know our students deserve and need. But, instead of wallowing in what we couldn’t do, the feeling in the conference for me was more about what we can do. I believe that is a critical path for us to follow.
One of the signs of a good conference is there are so many sessions you want to attend, that you can’t make it to all of them. This was very true for this conference. I really had to plot and think about which session was going to benefit me most in my position. I also used some of the symbols in the book to know that some of the sessions would be available in the virtual conference (more about that in a minute), so I could use that to factor in some of my decisions as well. I saw amazing sessions from Buffy Hamilton, Steven Baule, Violet Harada, and Annette Lamb just to name a few.
My “big” job during the conference was to kick the conference off with the opening general session. I’ll have to say I think that will end up being one of the highlights of my presidency. To walk out on the stage and see a room filled with school librarians eager and ready to spend the next few days learning and sharing with each other was inspiring. I got through all my talking points without too many fumbles.
The two main speakers brought different perspectives. I was more familiar with Nicholas Carr as I read his book as part of the online discussion we held on the AASL conference ning. His concepts about how the Internet is effecting our ability to think are interesting. It certainly brought some great questions and discussion as I think many of those in attendance. Certainly, the attendees connected with Dr. Mimi Ito. Her research about kids and technology and how they are using it was fascinating. We offered two showings of the movie: Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century. I wasn’t able to get to the showings of the movie, but after listening to her speak I am looking forward to watching the DVD. This was certainly an interesting combination of opening and closing speakers. I think both created a great atmosphere for discussion and debate and it provided a rich conversation experience.
The Exploratorium, Author Banquets, Learning Commons, Storytelling Event, and more filled out the rest of the conference. Unfortunately I couldn’t get to as many of them as I had hoped. But, those things I couldn’t attend in person, I heard wonderful comments from other attendees.
I did get to spend some time in the exhibit hall. It was great to catch-up with some of my vendor friends and check out some of the great new products coming down the pike, too. Of course, there were a few receptions and fun events as well which was also a lot of fun.
One thing AASL is trying is how to bring the conference to some that couldn’t make it to Minneapolis. The virtual conference provides access to the keynotes, concurrent sessions, and slidecasts of other sessions. An amazing wealth of professional development you can enjoy while sitting in the comfort of your own home or library. Using some of the latest technology and tools it does require AASL to charge for access, but it is well worth the dollars spend and a bargain compared to coming to MN.
The conference ended with our traditional closing party at Nicolette Island. It was a great evening to kick back and have some fun. We ate, we talked, and we danced (yeah, they even managed to drag me out there a bit!). It was a great way to end a wonderful few days of learning.
I’ve said it before and likely will say it again, the part I loved best was being able to talk and share and learning from all my friends, colleagues, and attendees. As I left Minneapolis to come home (at least for a few days), I came away with new friends, new ideas, and at the same time got to connect with some of my dear friends I’ve met over the last 10 years since I attended my first AASL in 2001.
Below are some links to more photos and video clips from the conference posted by friends and colleagues.
