Goals
1. Get to know more about the national organizations, ALA & AASL, and how they operate
2. Meet school librarians from throughout the United States to share ideas & experiences about their work in their libraries and with AASL
3. Meet a Springshare representative to find out more about joining all Londonderry libraries under the high school's CMS subscription
4. Meet authors and collect new ARCs to add to my library collection
Activities
AASL Affiliate Assembly: I represented NHSLMA as an alternative at the Assembly.
- Saturday: Discussion Groups
- Broken into groups based on a self-determined hidden strength
- Discussed how to improve the capacity of AASL
- Sunday: Business & Additional Round Table Groups
- Conducted business in regards to the processes for reaffiliation, recommendations & commendations, and statements of concerns
- Additional professional discussions occurred: Nine separate topics, and in ten-minute rotations, we were able to self-direct which discussions to join
- I participated in: Relations with DOE, Leadership, Conference Planning, and Surveying Members
- New ideas include: Develop a project to work on with DOE rep, have year-long sponsorships of vendors to avlieviate pressure on conference to make money, develop resources on a libguide for each region to refer to so that information between each state's delegates does not get lost in the transitions, need to survey members to find out what they need their organization/conference to do (we do this with our students, we should be doing this with our members)
Between Saturday and Sunday I collected more than 75 advanced reader copies (ARCs) and promotional materials, such as posters, bookmarks, and discussion questions, for my library, my school, the other libraries in the district, and my family. That's right, 75 FREE ARCs FOR MY STUDENTS & FACULTY! I picked up the new James Patterson & John Boyne -- two huge authors with my students. Additionally, I spoke with a few publishers to potentially get new ARCs delivered right to my library. I will reach out to these publishers to follow up on the conversations.
Springshare representatives were at #ALAMW16. I spoke with Cyndi Blyberg, a tech support rep. She assured me that merging my school into the high school's CMS subscription is relatively seamless and can easily be done. Win!
Ah Ha Moments!
I was introduced to Audrey Church, and immediately following our conversation, I volunteered with AASL Get Involved to join national committees. I am excited for what is in store for my opportunity to be involved at a national level.
Netgalley: Helen Burnham told me about Netgalley. My new addiction! I will NEVER get any work done around the house. If I had my own way, I'll be too busy to get anything done on my own time.
