by Erika Fitzpatrick, APALA ALA Travel Grant Recipient
This June, I was lucky enough to attend ALA Annual for the first time, thanks in large part to APALA’s generous travel grant. My trip out to Chicago was also made possible in part by the Mellon Foundation’s funding for a convening of librarians and library staff who work with incarcerated people, held just before the start of the conference. Though not technically part of ALA Annual, that meeting ended up being the perfect way to kick off my conference experience, as I had just started visiting a local juvenile detention center as part of my job as a teen librarian at a public library and was looking for some guidance on providing fun and enriching youth programming within the confines of detention facility rules and restrictions. The conference itself was an incredible experience as well, and I’m so grateful to APALA for making it possible for me to attend!
Conversations with other librarians and library workers almost always leave me with new ideas for things I’d like to try at my own library, so it was no surprise that I came away from the conference with tons of ideas and information to try out and apply to my own work. It was hard to decide which sessions to attend because there were almost always several that sounded interesting going on at once, but in addition to learning more about library programming in juvenile detention facilities, one of my primary goals was to bring back new ideas for my library’s growing teen volunteer program, so I did make an effort to go to sessions relevant to teens volunteering or working in libraries. A couple that stood out in particular were the StoryTeen program at Brooklyn Public Library which has teens learn how to plan and present storytimes, and the near-peer leadership program at NYPL that pairs teens with younger kids to provide homework help and work through fun supplemental literacy activities together. I am sure that many of our teen volunteers would love to have the opportunity to get involved with things like storytime and tutoring, so I’m very excited to figure out how to get similar programs going at my library, hopefully in the near future!
One thing I was totally unprepared for was the number of giveaways at the conference. I was looking forward to the author signings but had no idea so many of the books would be free! I have been using the signed copies I picked up as prizes for the kids I work with, and of all the prizes we’ve offered for the teens, nothing has gotten them quite as excited or motivated as they get when they see the prize is a new book signed by one of their favorite authors. If I were to give one piece of advice to other first time ALA Annual attendees, it would be to bring an empty suitcase so you have space for all of the books that you will want to bring back!