Louisville, Kentucky – November 14-16, 2019
By Richard Beaudry
I was given the opportunity, thanks to a grant from Canadian School Libraries (CSL), to attend the AASL Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. I attended as a CSL representative and it was definitely worth the experience. I enjoy attending conferences because I like meeting like-minded people who work in library learning commons. This is one of the biggest school librarianship conferences that I have attended, with over 2,500 teacher-librarians from every state and territory in the US, who share a love for literacy and learning. Here is a recap of my three days in Louisville with some pictures.
Louisville
First, a short recap on the conference city. Louisville, named after the French King Louis XVI, is an historic city in Kentucky and recognized for being the Bourbon capital of the world, the hometown of Olympic and World Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali and Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, the home of Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby and the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory where they make bats for major league baseball. I did have some time to visit the Louisville Slugger Museum and their 120 feet tall baseball bat and the Churchill Downs racetrack, have my picture taken with a wax replica of Colonel Sanders and, while not taking an opportunity to taste Bourbon, I did try Bourbon pie, Bourbon cake and Bourbon candy that was offered in most restaurants and cafes during the conference. I do need to mention one other item that is rather unique to the downtown area of Louisville that is hard to miss and yet most people who live there would rather forget. It is a 30 feet tall replica statue of Michelangelo’s original masterpiece of David. At nearly twice the size of the original statue of David in Florence, this version is made of foam and spray painted in gold to give it a more striking appearance. It can be found on the main street of Louisville.
The First Day of the Conference
Thursday morning was dedicated to registrations and getting credentials for the conference. I attended one of the many author talks being presented and then organized some of my time to visit the sites around Louisville. The afternoon was enjoyable, educational and awe inspiring with the opening of the IdeaLab room. About 40 teacher-librarians from across the US were given a chance to present their ideas in a hands-on interactive presentation, each one lasting about 10 minutes before we could move on to another. The IdeaLab was well-received by the conference attendees and the room filled up quickly by word of mouth around the convention.
The concept of an IdeaLab at the conference inspired me to present this format to the BCTLA Conference organizers for the 2020 conference that happens to be at my school. We all agreed to set it up and we have been contacting district teacher-librarians to reach out to teacher-librarians with innovative ideas to share. I look forward to October this year to see the ideas put forth by teacher-librarians in BC.
After two hours at the IdeaLab, the conference moved on to the first of three keynote speakers who addressed Diversity, Understanding Bias and the Power of Human Kindness. The first General Session was with Ellen Oh, co-founder, President and CEO of We Need Diverse Books. She talked about the lack of diversity of characters in books for children: “We need to read diversely, every single one of us.” Further on she stated: “Stories are what connect us to each other; how we share the human experience”. In the end, what stayed with me is something that I hear a lot from the authors of children books these days, the importance of connecting with a diverse group of children in our schools and the difficulty of getting these books published as related by Ms. Oh: “I started writing stories so girls could have a hero who looked like my daughter. It took ten years to be published.”
After this first day at the conference, the best was yet to come. As the representative of CSL, I had received an invitation to attend a once in a lifetime meeting with many of the experts and mentors in school librarianship that I had studied and followed over the many years I have been a teacher-librarian. It was called the “Symposium of the Greats: Wisdom from the Past and a Glimpse into the Future of School Libraries.” Hosted by David Loertscher, the room had 100 people, split between many of the best researchers and advocates for school libraries since the 1960s. Each attendee who came to the meeting received a copy of the book with the same title as the Symposium. We spent several hours going around to different tables to talk to the mentors who shared their wisdom and experience over the years. To end the evening, David Loertscher, Joyce Valenza, Ross Todd and Doug Johnson sat together and told stories of their experience as mentors and advocates for teacher-librarians. As wonderful as the night was as a learning experience, I will admit to a tinge of sadness within the attendees because it was probably the last times we would meet some of the oldest members of this esteem group as they are in their 80s and 90s. David Loertscher reminded us of the continuing role we have to play as mentors ourselves, even as some of us approach retirement. As we departed, each of the attendees was given a small wooden chip with the words ‘I Can’ written on it by the mentors. This was a memento to remember that being a teacher-librarian mentor is a lifelong endeavour.
The Second Day of the Conference
Friday started early with the second of three keynote speakers from 8:00 am to 9:30 am, Dr. Adolph Brown III, formerly a dean at Hampton University in Virginia Beach. He is recognized as an American Urban and rural school educator, research scientists, author and businessman. Brown challenged the school librarians to “stop believing everything you think” and proceeded to demonstrate how implicit bias works by dressing up as ‘Undercover Brother’ and relating some instances of bias such as the guard who didn’t believe he was a keynote speaker at the AASL Conference in Louisville and another instance when he landed in Canada to speak at a conference and a limousine driver holding up his name ignored him when he identified himself. At the end of his presentation, dressed in his doctorate in clinical psychology graduation gown, he talked about implicit bias, the way we turn to assumptions and stereotypes when we meet people.
Doctor Brown stated that librarians need to challenge their own assumptions and challenge people who make us feel ‘less than’ others. He finished by asking the assembly about the environments we create. Are we being nice and reactive or kind and proactive? ‘The latter is what makes us human.”
The rest of my day was filled with hard choices with so many presentations available. I chose as many as possible and resolved to see 5.
- High School Librarian as a Community Collaborator. AASL 2019 National School Library of the Year recipients will share how our six schools work to meet the needs of not only our individual communities but the district as a whole, bridging boundaries to create integrated learning.
- Research into Practice: Deaf Characters and Culture and Diverse Books. Deaf culture is found in few modern, young adult literary works. This makes access to Deaf culture in literature limited – and makes it even more important that the representation of Deaf culture in those young adult books be authentic.
- Research into Practice: Leadership and Collaboration. Pam Harland presented research on her multiple case study of the behaviors demonstrated by high school librarian leaders.
- Design Thinking: Developing A Maker Mindset in Every Student. Students need opportunities to develop their creativity, to showcase their talents, and to be makers of new ideas and products. By incorporating the elements of design thinking into your library program, you can help learners prepare for an unknown future.
- Fight the Fake: Teaching information Literacy Through Media Analysis. Biased media bombard us with fake news. Learn how to fight the fake, and leave with resources for your students.
As a Canadian teacher-librarian attending an American school librarian conference, the important aspect I retained after going to these five presentations in Louisville is that we have similar programs and similar attitudes on what is important in the types of programs, research and software that we offer our students.
Fight the Fake was a very interesting presentation. While we teach similar programs to high school/secondary students in Canada, there is a real concern by school librarians about the types of news and information that students have access to in the US, especially in the last three years. The room was packed with barely any standing room available and everyone was very attentive to the resources and information being offered. The presenter stayed on after she was done and it seemed like very few people had left the room after 15 minutes.
To finish the day, I spent about two hours walking around the exhibitors hall.
Being at the biggest teacher-librarian conference I have ever attended, I certainly appreciated the time I was given to examine all that was offered. Many of same companies that we see at our Canadian conferences were there but in particular, the Americans have a thriving book publishing industry and many of the smaller booksellers at the conference offered books that would be hard to find in Canada, especially books in multiple languages.
Last Day at the Conference
Flying from Vancouver to Louisville and back required a circuitous travel plan so it required that I leave earlier on the last day. I did get the opportunity to attend the morning general session and hear the last keynote speaker, New York Times best-selling author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosocza.
He talked about the power of love in a child’s life, relating to his own upbringing where he had an absent father and mother who suffered through drug addiction and incarceration. He was raised by his grandparents who recognized his talent for drawing and supported him. Another event in his life that he discussed that was of particular interest to me because of my own background on advocacy for Intellectual Freedom in the library learning commons was about the time he was scheduled to speak about his award-winning book ‘Hey Kiddo’ but the speaking engagement was cancelled at the last minute. The reason given to him was that book was considered ‘inappropriate’ because of its storyline on drug abuse. He explained that it is important that we have books with ‘difficult truths’ in our school libraries. He stated that the parents who had complained were ‘well-meaning adults’ trying to protect their kids from difficult content but “They’re just not right”.
I then attended my last presentation at the conference. This is another presentation that I took to heart because it represents the project and work that I have been involved in for over ten years.
Collaborating to Bridge the Gap Between High School and College Level Research
When speaking with high school and academic librarians a key trend emerges: students are not prepared for college level research. This problem cannot be solved alone. Collaboration with multiple stakeholders is the key to a successful transition from high school to college level research.
Ontario academic librarians invited teacher-librarians across the province to their provincial conference in April last year. The focus of the meeting was to create a consensus on how to prepare high school students to use an academic library and to do research in post-secondary institutions. Several high schools in BC, including my own, have been involved in teaching Transition Literacy to prepare our students to focus on the knowledge of a new cataloguing system and the different resources and tools used by students in colleges and universities.
I then flew home, enjoying a brief stop in sunny but cold (-30 degrees Celsius) Minnesota.
Websites and Blogs
Useful resources and information from the AASL Conference in Louisville.
AASL Best Websites for Teaching & Learning: https://wakelet.com/wake/e6f1798f-d4d8-4cd8-85c6-310c08643248
AASL Learning Library – Presentations https://aasl.digitellinc.com/aasl/conferences/31/view
Joyce Valenza’s Never Ending Search Blog – #NOTATAASL – A review of the AASL Conference for teacher-librarians who could not attend. http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2019/11/18/notataasl-no-worries/
Resources
Krosoczka, Jarrett. Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction. Graphix, an Imprint of Scholastic, 2018.
Richard Beaudry is an Information Specialist and Librarian. He has worked as a teacher-librarian in K-12 schools and taught classes in the diploma and master’s programs in Teacher-Librarianship at the University of British Columbia. Richard is an ALA Certified Librarian and a Fellow of the Library Association of Ireland. Richard is particularly known for his activities to promote human rights and freedom of information, particularly as they relate to the censorship of materials in school libraries. Richard was the recipient of the 2016 Canadian Library Association Award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada. Richard chairs the Canadian Federation of Library Associations / Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (CFLA-FCAB) Intellectual Freedom Committee, representing Canadian School Libraries.