Sessions and Faculty Opening Keynote | 9:00-9:45AM CT A Wake UP Call for Educators: Creating a Diverse Books Program for Students Wake up your collection and reading lists with the 2020 National School Librarian of the Year, Cicely Lewis. The debut author of the Issues in Action Series will share the details and success of her culturally relevant and empowering literacy incentive program. Learn about a reading challenge of a curated list that reflects current events in our society. This list features characters that mirror the diversity of our student population. Learn how to use books to empower students to learn about issues impacting our society and to take action in their community. Participants will walk away with tools to help diversify their collections, books to decolonize required classroom reading lists, strategies to garner support from school leaders, and more. We welcome you to learn more about a dynamic program that has increased literacy and book circulation in schools. Session 2 | 9:45-10:30AM CT Building Equity & Embracing Diversity in Public Libraries Public libraries have always been at the forefront of cultivating and promoting their collections through a social justice and diversity lens. Discover how you can begin to responsibly evaluate the needs of your community. Plan the best practices for helping to empower marginalized and underrepresented voices. Presenters: Sandra Farag, Kalamazoo Public Library, BCALA Public Library Committee Tamela Chambers, Chicago Public Library, BCALA Public Library Committee Break 10:30-10:45AM Session 3 | 10:45-11:30AM CT Civic Engagement in the Community From the Classroom and Beyond Libraries have always been the bedrock of our democracy. Leave this session with actionable steps to get your students to be more actively engaged in their communities. Presenters: Cynthia Turnquest-Jones, New York City Dept. Of Education Timur Davis, Mount Vernon Public Library Session 4 | 11:30AM-12:15PM CT Collection Development & Leveraging BCALA Best of the Best & Award Books Collection development in a school library comes with a host of challenges. Ultimately it’s a great opportunity to cultivate a dynamic, diverse, high-quality, critically evaluated collection. Hear new ideas for collection development with a focus on inclusion and diversity from two school librarians. Presenters: Stacey Nunn, Baltimore County Public School Sharon Wiggins, Chappaqua Central School District Break 12:15-12:30PM CT Session 5 | 12:30-1:15PM CT Social-Emotional Learning in the Library Research shows exposure to social-emotional learning is linked to improved academic performance. Discover how to incorporate empathy & acceptance into your library program through core SEL resources and practices. Presenters: Elizabeth Devora, New York Public Library Gwynn White, New York City Dept. of Education Session 6 | 1:15-2:00PM CT Guidance from the Authors Authors Ibi Zoboi, Brian K. Mitchell, & Brandy Colbert will engage with participants around how to use books to engage their students and communities. Click here to register for this one-day pre-conference or the pre-con\NCAAL bundle and save on both! |