This conference I’m sure will be full of new things we can do to expand our use of Destiny, but the program looks to go beyond that.  I have no doubt I’ll be coming back with ideas on how to make my library program even better!

I’ll be sharing a session called Curriculum, Collaboration and Library Connections.  We’ll be talking about our library branch – The Leveled Library!  Looking forward to sharing what we’ve accomplished at my school, but even more excited to see what I can learn from everyone else!

As with all conferences, my favorite part is going to be the people.  I know several good friends that are coming and I am soooo looking forwarding to spending time catching up.  I’m also looking forward to meeting new friends.  The conversations with old friends and new will make the conference experience even richer.

It’s going to be a great couple of days in the windy city this week!  I can hardly wait to get there!  If you aren’t able to make it to Chicago, check out the conference buzz or search the hashtag #fsc11 in Twitter.

This last week I got to thinking about our dinner meetings, but in a little bit bigger picture.  I had a few thoughts after our meals….

1.)  Most of the time our group includes folks at different grade level configurations.  But, I think what I find the most interesting is that each one of us operates our programs differently.  The program we’ve created is based on the needs of students and teachers.  We’ve assessed how the library media program can be such a vital part of the school, and then worked to implement that plan.  One of the things I’ve noticed is school districts continue to move to “we all have to be the same” which I often think of as the “cookie cutter” approach.  I obviously have very strong ideas about what I think an elementary school library program should be.  I’m typically not very bashful when it comes to sharing how we do things and why.  I guess so much so that our music teacher once bought me a sign that said, “I’m not a control freak, I just happen to know what is best for everyone!”  To be honest, I’ve probably had that feeling, too.  But, my aha this week was that while what I do works for my building, but if I had to move to another building I might have to really adjust the program based on the students needs.  No matter what I do, I’m never going to have the same program as a friend of mine in the district.  Our personalities, our principals, our staffs, and our kids are just totally different…and that’s ok.  The important thing is we took the fundamental elements of the library program and then made those work for our schools.

2.) One of the most valuable parts of our meetings is the sharing and swapping and networking.  There are so many ideas floating around and we steal from each other all the time.  Even being different levels, we tend to be able to see adaptations we can make as necessary.  We also need that opportunity to vent a little and no one really understands your problems like another librarian does.  Our library friends are just too important to not make sure we stay connected!

3.) People ask the return on the money they pay to belong to national and state professional organizations.  I can’t begin to put a price tag on the friendships I’ve developed.  I don’t know that without belonging to our state organization, that I ever would have had a reason to meet any of the talented librarians I had dinner with last week.  Our initial connection was our work in the organization and from there it led to some of my most cherished friendships.  I can’t even begin to equate the value into a dollar amount.  It is just one more reason why I think those membership dollars are well spent.

So now we wait a little while and then we schedule another time for dinner again.  Until then I may just be stuck making my own dinner at home.  Guess that would be one more benefit to our get togethers – I don’t have to cook!

So, school started last week.  As always it was wonderful to see our students return.  To see how much they’ve grown over the summer and think about all the possibilities this year will hold for them.  Like many of our colleagues, this year brings with it many challenges for our library program.  But, one thing I think about as we deal with lost positions and budgets being cut across the country is the future.  How do these changes impact our students future?  How do we begin to position the library program to be at the top of the list of what is restore when the funding returns?  I think that is going to be a critical question for school librarians and their advocates to ponder.  There aren’t going to be easy answers, but in the end we have to be ready!

For those of you in education, I hope you have an amazing 2010-11 school year.   Hopefully I’ll be on here a little more often sharing some of those adventures with you.

When I got home today, there was a box sitting on the front porch.  And, after opening it I knew it was one of those times you want to share the exciting thing I found.  So, since we’re on break from school, it seemed the blog might be a perfect place.   I was so excited because inside the box were copies of my brand new book – The 21^st Century Elementary Library Media Program.   The book is published by Linworth Publishing, which is part of the ABC-CLIO family.  While I’ve spent a year or more working on it and seen its many various drafts, it was so exciting to see the final product in print.  Hopefully you’ll indulge me taking a few minutes to celebrate!!!  Opening that box and seeing my own work come to fruition was exciting.

Sometimes it is interesting to think back about how a project like this starts off in the first place.  I certainly would have never guessed when I started out in this field that I’d be writing a book – let alone this being my third one.  But, I believe strongly in taking advantages of opportunities.  When I was student teaching, my supervising teacher and I worked on a project that she thought would be perfect for an article.  She encouraged me to write it up, and to my surprise School Library Media Activities Monthly (now School Library Monthly) agreed to publish it in the fall of 1998.   I never realized that many journals take submissions from practitioners.   So over the next few years, I continued to turn in articles based on things happening in our library media center.  I sent things to a variety of magazines – sometimes getting published and sometimes not.  I found the writing to be a great way to reflect on what we did in the library media center.  After a while a few fabulous friends of mine (Marge Cox and Susan Page) got together and decided to try our hand at writing a book.  Each of us had a unique perspective and it was our combined efforts and talents that kept us moving forward until the project was complete – The LMS in the Writing Process (Linworth, 2007).   Following that I thought maybe I could tackle the next book on my own.  While it was much harder to keep to deadlines without my co-writers pushing me along, eventually it came together and the book was published — No School Library Left Behind (Linworth, 2008).  Now that I kind of had an understanding about the process, I started on another book and today that process can to an end with the final copies that arrived today – The 21^st Century Elementary Library Media Program (Linworth, 2010).  I keep writing articles and I’m sure at some point may tackle another book.  All along the way there have been amazing editors and publishing folks to help guide me along each and every step.

The thing that I always think about is that this could have happen to anyone.  There are amazing things happening in school libraries all over.  Taking a little time to reflect about them and write them down can lead to a published piece to share with others.  We as a profession tend to be too shy in letting others know the great things going on in school libraries.  We should take advantage of any opportunity to share.  Writing about the things that happen in our libraries is very reflective and can often lead us to think about why we do things the way we do – and make them even better.  Journals often are looking for great ideas that they can print.  Check out their submission guidelines in their journals or online.  Besides a published piece, one might also consider a blog or other online format for sharing.  There are many new avenues one can take advantage of to share.  Every time I take a few minutes to catch up on the journals I always post to our state listserv about the people from our state who are showing up in the journals.  These folks need to be recognized for their efforts, but also I hope it encourage others to follow their lead.  So as you think about what you might do in 2010, think about taking time to write an article or blog posting.  You never know when something little might lead into something bigger down the road – like a package on your own front porch!