Technology, Boys Dominate ALA Conference
ALA’s annual conference attracts record numbers to Washington, DC
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 8/1/2007
If you don’t already use gaming, wikis, blogs, and iPods in your lessons, you need to get moving. This year’s American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in Washington, DC, made it abundantly clear that these technologies are essential learning tools and that most librarians already incorporate them in everything they do.
In fact, many sessions were devoted to the subject of Web 2.0—the second generation of Web-based communities that focuses on collaboration and sharing among users. In “To iPods& Beyond,” participants learned how to use new and emerging technologies to connect teens with digital music collections. And Michael Stephens, author of the blog “Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology,” and Kimberly Bolan, a consultant on teen spaces, spoke about “Using Technology to Market to Young Adults.”
Also high on the agenda were the differences between boys and girls when it comes to reading. In “Snips and Snails and Puppy Dogs’ Tails,” librarians packed in to hear author, psychologist, and physician Leonard Sax explain that gender does matter when it comes to reading because boys’ brains are wired differently. Similarly, in “Bringing in the Boys,” Youth Service Librarian Amy Brown and Children’s Librarian Molly Meyers explored ways to attract boys to library programs by using psychologist Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which says different kinds of “intelligence” exist in humans.
Also on hand was Royce Lamberth, former chief judge for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, who met with librarians to talk about how he had approved warrant requests under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) from law enforcement officials trying to track down suspected terrorists. Lamberth, who was appointed by former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, said that during this term he never approved a FISA warrant for a library.
Other noteworthy sessions included “Nurturing a Love of Books Through Reader’s Theater,” where authors Virginia Euwer Wolff, Cornelia Funke, David Almond, and Tim Wynne-Jones joined Elizabeth Poe, a children’s and young adult literature specialist, in showing librarians how this read-aloud technique gets kids—even reluctant readers—excited about books.
Many librarians took time out to hear this year’s Newbery winner, Susan Patron, author of The Higher Power of Lucky (Atheneum), speak at the Newbery Award ceremony on June 24. Attendees also got to walk the red carpet for the premiere of Ann Seidl’s The Hollywood Librarian, the first American documentary about the profession.
This year’s annual conference attracted a record 28,635 conference-goers. By comparison, only 16,964 attended last year’s gathering in New Orleans.
