Presenting: Librarians!

May is likely the last month in which you’ll be thinking about presenting at a conference. Inventory! Summer Reading! Eking out last bit of library energy! But it is a great time to begin your research for a professional opportunity to share your expertise.

Questions to ask yourself:

  1. What size conference am I most comfortable right now in my career?
  2. Geographically, what makes best sense?
  3. Is this a good year for me to consider presenting? Why or why not?
  4. Do I need a partner for some or all of this endeavor?

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL ORGANIZATION LEVEL

Independent school organizations around the country sponsor conferences where our expertise would be greatly valued. A few examples shared from AISL members:

Maryland and DC Independent Schools AIMS

Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, HAIS

Independent Schools of the Central States, ISACS

STATE LEVEL

A great place to start for a wider audience is at your STATE SCHOOL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. State conferences are to home and also offer several types of presentation opportunities. Two examples AISL members shared with me are:

TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 2020 CONFERENCE

NEW YORK LIBRARY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE INFO

NATIONAL LEVEL

Perhaps you’ve developed some cool reading programming, or revamped your school’s One Book, One School program, or collaborated on a science research unit? Here are two examples of places to share collaborative library experiences:

NCTE National Council of Teachers of English

NSTA National Science Teachers Association

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

Perhaps a webinar is more your style. You can create a proposal to offer an online learning session or recorded webinar:

Library Juice

EdWeb website EdWeb submission form

School Library Connection Webinars

Is technology your specialty? Perhaps you’ve developed programming, or taken your library to the next level. Share your expertise at a similar organization to AISL called ATLIS:

ATLIS, Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools

ISTE, International Society of Technology in Education

And here are a handful of other great venues for presenting that AISL members shared with me:

Lausanne Movement

Schools of the Future Conference

Library 2.0 Webinar Series

Library 2.0 Mini Conferences

AISL has many resources to support your endeavors from helping narrow down a conference possibility to working with you to edit your proposal.

We know it, let’s share it!

Please leave any other suggestions in the comment area.

PRESENTING: LIBRARIANS!

The Publication Group
Debbie Abilock: dabilock@gmail.com
Tasha Bergson-Michelson: tbergsonmichelson@castilleja.org
Dorcas Hand: handd51@tekkmail.com
Christina Karvounis: KarvounisC@Bolles.org
Sara Kelley-Mudie: sara.kelleymudie@gmail.com
Cathy Leverkus: cathyl@thewillows.org
Darla Magana: Darla.Magana@smes.org
Nora Murphy: NMurphy@fsha.org

AISL Publications Group

AISL Publications Group is a subcommittee of the AISL Board Communications Committee. The members of the AISL Publications Group are available to assist any members that are interested in creating a blog, writing for professional publications, applying to speak at conferences, or writing a book. If you are interested in any of these activities, feel free to contact one of the Publication Group members for help.

A recent AISL blog mentioned the number of private schools that are members of NAIS and the member count at AISL. One way we might be able to encourage more independent school librarians to join AISL is to write an article for Independent School the NAIS magazine.

Publications Group Expertise:

Debbie Abilock, School Library Connection columnist, speaker and education consultant, is the co-founder of NoodleTools, a teaching platform for student research. Recently she has been “noodling” on how to evaluate government information, why to teach data-rich infographics and when to collaborate with teachers using AASL’s new framework.
Contact: dabilock@gmail.com

• Matching your ideas to publishing venues
• Feedback on writing content

Tasha Bergson-Michelson is the Instructional and Programming Librarian at Castilleja School. Tasha presents at a variety of library-and education-related conferences on topics like data literacy, imagining sources, and engaging with news sources, with a preference for discussing targeted instructional strategies. She was a guest editor for Knowledge Quest and has also written articles for other library journals.
Contact: tbergsonmichelson@castilleja.org

• Writing conference session descriptions and proposals
• Planning conference sessions
• Brainstorming topics
• Editing feedback

Dorcas Hand has written articles for School Library Connection and Knowledge Quest, which will be published in Jan/Feb 2018 – as well as articles for non-library outlets including Independent School Magazine. She edits the TASLTalks blog (tasltalks.blogspot.com), and has practice editing all kinds of professional pieces. She also manages Students Need Libraries in HISD in support of local public schools, advocacy IRL. Personal Website: Strong School Libraries.
Contact: handd51@tekkmail.com

• Blogging
• Topic ideas
• Editing

Christina Karvounis has presented to her faculty on a range of topics relating to creating classroom blogs, writing for teaching publications and preparing documents for conferences. Publishing an article and/or presenting at a conference are in her 3 year goals.
Contact: KarvounisC@Bolles.org

• Brainstorming topics or flows
• Finding the right venue for your piece/research
• Editing content
• Blogging in all iterations

Sara Kelley-Mudie has worked at both boarding and day schools, and is currently the Director of Southworth Library at Thayer Academy. She has written articles for library journals and presented on creating collaborative relationships with faculty, question development, and ideas for sparking inquiry.
Contact: sara.kelleymudie@gmail.com

• Brainstorming topics
• Editing feedback
• Crafting presentations and slide decks

Cathy Leverkus is Director of Library Services at The Willows Community School and a member of AASL’s Publications Advisory Group. She coauthored the book Ebooks and the School Library Program: A Practical Guide for the School Librarian with Shannon Acedo. Cathy has written articles for library journals, and recently presented at AASL on collaboration.
Contact: cathyl@thewillows.org

•  Exploring the latest journal topic requests
• Brainstorming book ideas
• Finding book publishers

Nora Murphy, Librarian at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, has recently presented on source literacy, the topic selection process, and using video blogs as a way for students to report research results. She has also written articles for library journals.
Contact: NMurphy@fsha.org

• Feedback on writing content
• Pre-writing/planning strategies
• Collaborative writing strategies
• Video Blogs

The AISL Publications Group looks forward to serving you.