Thoughts on WLA 2009

1. Captivating and Communicating with one year olds: Tried and True by Dr. James Thomas (aka Mr. Jim)
I was hoping this presentation would be useful for my baby lapsit storytime, and while there were lots of great ideas, I found them to be more suited to toddlers. He was very specific about finding "baby" storytimes that combined six month olds with 18 month olds to be a waste of time. I'd be curious to know if there is a storytime at his library for kids under 12 months. His focus is 12 to 24 months only. He uses a lot of sign language (in songs, and when talking about colors etc, he teaches the kids the sign too). Mr. Jim's wiki (http://toddlericon.pbworks.com) is chock full of great resources. One aspect of his presentation that I liked was his homemade book. He makes large, simple accordian style books. The one he showed was for five little ducks- and with each page there was another duck that they could see. Loved it. Will be making those soon. There are several ideas that we can incorperate into the play and learn storytimes too. He's worked a lot with Nancy Stewart and he uses her "let's go to the market" song. Listen to it here: http://www.nancymusic.com/Market.htm. There's a link at the bottom for activites which is cool- I had forgotten about her website- lots there to use.
2. Storytime showcase by various youth librarians
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. There were a TON of good ideas at the showcase. My second favorite part was how well it was organized. They had an official timer who gave each presenter a two minute warning and then cut them off when their time was up. I really appreciated this because they all had good ideas to share. Cindy's done such a fantastic job of reflecting on this panel, so I won't rehash. Lots of great stuff for both my normal storytime, and my new play and learns.
3. Looking at picture books by Thom Barthelmess
Good stuff. You could really tell that Thom's in academia now because his presentation felt just like I was in a classroom, taking notes that might be on next week's quiz. There wasn't a ton of relevent material for me, but it was very interesting. I also had a horrible headache, and probably wasn't all there. His presentation is here: http://www.nwcentral.org/files/Looking%20at%20Picture%20Books.pdf
CAYAS breakfast with Ellen Wittlinger
Definitely the highlight for me. I got to be an honorary CAYAS member for the morning and be her driver (because they all live on the west side and flew). She was *wonderful*. Her presentation about writing for teens was spectacular, I cried several times. She was so spot on. I loved her description of books giving teens the opportunity to "meet" and "know" people they might not otherwise meet in their real life. Writing books with gay characters isn't just for gay teens, it's for straight teens too- one had written Ellen and said that after reading Hard Love, she now "knows" a gay teen (Marisol- one of the main characters). How powerful. I bought several of her books and her inscription in "Hard Love" was perfect: "May all your loves be easy ones."
4. Public Libraries: Strategic Community Partners for Family Health
Wonderful presentation- The presenter was Sue Waldin from Within Reach. Information I gathered from the presentation:
a. There are more people now than ever before who (for the first time) are struggling with food needs
b. There strongest focus is on health insurance and food assistance
c. They run five toll-free call centers with staff who are cross-trained so you can the same help no matter what number you call. They have a much lower call volume that DHSH so the wait time is short
d. They have access to the AT&T language line so they have free interpreters in almost any language
e. They have had 11,000 online applications submitted- 4,000 of those after 09/08 so it's growing.
The website (www.parenthelp123.com) is amazing!! I really encourage everyone to check it out- extremely easy to use and very, very helpful. My favorite is the resource finder which helps you find services in your area such as breastfeeding support, child care, food banks, and family planning. Check it out here: http://resources.parenthelp123.org/. If anyone has any questions, I had an extensive tutorial in the website during Sue's presentation and I'm happy to share more. I love this resource. They will be putting up a library link somewhere on the site soon(that was part of our discussion).
5. Teen program showcase by various (many no-show) librarians
Again, I'll echo Cindy and say that this presentation (if we can even call it that) was extremely disappointing. I didn't get any good ideas- they were all for high budget libraries and they seemed to snuff at anything that wasn't super techy. I'm sorry, but lots of teens like to craft and play games. In addition to not thinking about the rest of the state, I didn't get the feeling that any of the presenters wanted to be there. I'm serious about proposing a "teen programs for the rest of us" showcase for next year.
6. Booktalking the Best by various iSchool students
I went to this program with some trepedation, considering the last two WLA booktalking sessions were really bad. This year, thankfully, the students actually knew how to booktalk. They had a nice variety of books and had clearly prepared.

Overall, I'm very glad I could attend this year's conference (and it was pretty cool to be a local!) I discovered many great ideas for my children's programming and was inspired to do something about the teen showcase for next year.