I was so lucky to have been named an Emerging Leader last year and through that program is how I met Christine Tuttell and Jen Baker, 2 of my favorite school librarians. We were invited to a special dinner on Wednesday night to meet members of the NCSLMA board:
At this dinner, we were able to get to know some of the leading librarians in North Carolina that have been long supporters of the organization and advocates of school librarianship. I was so honored to be in the company of such dedicated educators.
Leading from the Library:
All the next day the cohort of Emerging Leaders was given a special pre-conference session led by Jennifer Lagarde (a.k.a. Library Girl) and April Dawkins, past president of NCSLMA and current library science doctoral student at the University of South Carolina. At the end of the day, there was a panel led discussion of past presidents of NCSLMA.
After the pre conference, my roommate Lisa Milstead and I worked the registration table at the vendor fair. Lisa is one of our #nctlchat hosts and she had these awesome hats made for us!
Later Thursday night our twitter chat group #nctlchat hosted a meet up at 6th and Vine.
It was up early again on Friday volunteering again with the registration followed by the keynote address with the renowned Shannon Miller. Topic? Be the change. Shannon talked about redesigning your space, social media, connecting with students, global connections and makerspaces.
Following, there were a number of wonderful session all day long. First I attended a session by my friend Bitsy Griffin, a twitter friend whom I was able to finally meet in person. The topic was "So this is the library I have to work with?" She did a wonderful job presenting about how to update an out-dated library.
Next was "Every Source Tells a Story: Family History Research", a wonderful presentation about students researching their own family histories. On hand were past #nctlchat guests Kimberly Hirsch from LearnNC, Kristen Ziller, Kendra Allen.
During lunch, we were treated to a wonderful keynote with children's author Toni Buzzeo.
After lunch, I attended Lorie Steed's presentation about collaborating with the public library. Lorie has had a very successful partnership over the past 6 years including monthly visits to her high school from the local public library book mobile.
The next session I was an author helper and I was honored to introduce NC YA author Nathan Kotecki, author of the Suburban Strange and Pull Down the Night. His talk was so riveting that I can't wait to read his books!
One of my favorites at NCSLMA every year is Heather Moorefield-Lang, committee member for AASL and the top 25 websites for teaching and learning. There were a few websites that I've used, but many new ones I can't wait to try.
Love spending Sun evenings on #nctlchat w @LisaMilstead @sedley1 @caneslibrarian @tuttelltweets Great2Meet you all! pic.twitter.com/17KbYMlQji
— Alicia Ray (@iluveducating) October 10, 2014
I had a blast at NCSLMA, and I'm so glad we met! The librarians must have walked out of there with their batteries fully recharged because I did, and I don't even work in a library! Thanks so much for your support - talk to you soon!
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