Professional development training is a frequent part of ACL’s monthly meetings. Experts from ACL and other organizations offer presentations on current and essential topics regarding library service to youth. Below are the professional development topics that are upcoming at ACL meetings; for past meetings’ information view our Professional Development Archive. Find additional professional development resources on our blog.
Upcoming Professional Development Topics
August 2018
Jeanie Austin, a teen services librarian with San Francisco Public Library, will present their dissertation research which traces how past policies and processes that established white, middle-class, and hetero-normative conduct and knowledge as central to library services have worked—and continue to work—against youth of color and/or LGBTQ and gender non-conforming youth. It pulls from queer, feminist, poststructural, and critical theory to provide a model for how libraries can center youth made vulnerable to the state. This involves an interrogation of what representation does or can do in the current moment alongside the recognition that cultures within librarianship inhibit library access for youth of color and/or LGBTQ and gender non-conforming youth.
September 2018
Dashka Slater, author of the teen nonfiction book THE 57 BUS, will describe her writing process, journalism background, and work on this book which examined an incident between two teens in the Berkeley area that became a nationwide story on LGBTQ rights and trying a teen as an adult.
October 2018
ALSC Institute Roundup – anyone who is attending the ALSC Institute in Cincinnatti, Ohio in late September is welcome to describe the various speakers and presentations they experienced: http://www.ala.org/alsc/confevents/institute
And, we may have some members describe their attendance at JCLC (Joint Council of Librarians of Color).
November 2018
It’s time again to bring a storytime favorite – song, fingerplay, participatory read-aloud, or other engaging activity, to share with the group.
December 2018
As is our custom, the December professional development session is a deeper look at those books nominated for our annual Distinguished List, with a focus on books with a close tally of yes and no votes. We will also have a brief roundtable of reports from members who attended November’s California Library Association conference in Santa Clara.