The RILA Conference Committee is hard at work putting the finishing touches on the 2014 annual event.  The conference will be seaside June 2 & 3 at beautiful Salve Regina University in Newport, RI.  The full conference program and registration information will be available on April 15.   

Some highlights of the conference include keynotes Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet Project and Nate Hill, Assistant Director of the Chattanooga Public Library in Tennessee, who will discuss Chattanooga's 4th Floor project.  Other presentations include:

• Best Practices for Mobile Devices at Your Library
• Drawing: An Alternative Teaching Method for Information Literacy Workshops
• 0-60 Seconds: Super Short Films for Libraries
• School to Prison Pipeline
• 3D Printing and Accompanying Skillsets
• Let's Talk Quality Customer Service
• Uncle Sam at Your Fingertips: Discovering Electronic Government Information
• Lunchtime Literacy in the Summer
• Inviting Gamers into Your Computer Lab
• Going Green: Ten Simple Steps to Engage Your Staff and Your Community

I attended ALA's Midwinter Meeting on January 24-28, 2014 in Philadelphia, PA along with about 12,000 others. Midwinter is ALA's business meeting, where Council, as the governing body, convenes to deliberate ALA's progress and future. Council meets three times at each midwinter conference. As RILA's delegate, I was Rhode Island's voice and vote at those meetings.  Council discovered that ALA staff is doing a magnificent job of coping with diminishing finances; even unto senior staff volunteering to take a 10% pay reduction to help balance the budget. Details of Council activities are available in the documents that supported the meetings, which are available online at http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/council.  Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss any of Council's actions or deliberations.

Council membership passed, among other things, resolutions to improve internal ALA communications, to urge the US government to tend to its online information when shut down, to extend whistleblower protection and to curb government surveillance, and to create a new annual prize. The Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity will be funded by Lemony Snicket and awarded by ALA.

Council membership also discussed but defeated a Resolution on Whistleblower Edward Snowden. Which named Snowden as a whistleblower and commended his actions.

A Resolution to allow programs at American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meetings came before the Council, which referred it to the Budget Analysis & Review Committee for review before it

further discussion by Council. Midwinter is currently held as ALA's annual business meeting and although it includes hundreds of discussion groups, performances and other non-business sessions, it does not include programs.  This resolution would permit programs, making it mor elike the summer Annual Conference. As this resolution is likely to return to Council at the summer session, I am interested in what RILA members think.  Please send me an email (benmeir@cox.net) and let me know your opinion.

Council elected Peter D. Hepburn, Gina A. Persichini, and Gail A. Schlachter to three year terms (2014-2017) on the Executive Board and Mike L. Marlin to a 5-month term (January 28 through July 1, 2014)

on the Executive Board to complete the unexpired term of Sylvia K. Norton, recently appointed executive director of the ALA American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

Council also made Patricia Glass Schumann an honorary member, passed memorial resolutions  honoring Augusta "Gussie" Clark, Major Owens, Dr. Nasser Sharify, Dr. Bohdan Stephan Wynar and Pete Seegar and tributes for  Giovanni's Room Bookstore and its owner Ed Hermance, Senator Patrick Leahy, Congressman James Sensenbrenner and Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV.

Though not one of ALA's fierier conferences, I enjoyed representing Rhode Island through Council's deliberations.  I also enjoyed the opportunity to visit Philadelphia and to catch up with old ALA friends and make some new ones as well.  I thank RILA for sending me as Councilor to ALA.

Article 4 of the Library Bill of Rights states the "Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgement of free expression and free access to ideas."  To facilitate such cooperation, libraries, individual librarians, and state intellectual freedom committees have joined with booksellers, publishers, artists, civil libertarians, journalists, authors, musicians and other groups and individuals with First Amendment concerns in local, state, and regional coalitions in defense of intellectual freedom.  The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom maintains a roster of Intellectual Freedom Committee chairs of ALA state and regional chapters.

The Rhode Island Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee duties include responsibility for maintaining an awareness of intellectual freedom among librarians, and others who work in libraries, and trustees. In addition, awareness of the meaning of intellectual freedom should be fostered among local officials and citizens of Rhode Island. The committee should plan and coordinate one program for the Spring Conference.

The Committee frequently posts on the RILA listserv those intellectual freedom news and issues that may be of interest to RI libraries. Six editions of the Intellectual Freedom Manual have been published and include guidance to libraries that have faced challenges to contents in their collection. Some topics that are still being addressed and criticized over the last 15 years have been implementation of the Children's Internet Protection Act, 2000 (CIPA) and the USA PATRIOT Act (2001). The Committee disseminates information and material to RI libraries about Banned Books Week which occurs every year in late September. On occasion Committee members have had to testify in the Rhode Island legislature or at town hall meetings concerning intellectual freedom problems.

Committee members convene a few times a year or more often if there is a special project that needs to be accomplished. We invite RILA members to join us to expand our membership and bring fresh ideas about maintaining an awareness of intellectual freedom to Rhode Island librarians.

There is a lot of concern these days about girls-- how they treat themselves, and how they treat others. Some girls are mean, making snarky and cruel comments about each other. Many have low self-esteem, harboring feelings of insecurity and self-doubt. Many girls have resorted purposely dumbing themselves down because somehow being smart isn't always cool.  And sadly, these behaviors and feelings aren't just happening with teens and tweens. Girls as young as five and six are getting the message that being pretty or popular is more important than being kind, smart, confident, and strong.

Women's History Month is the perfect time to dispel these negative messages that have worked their way into the lives of girls. Whether a girl is five or fifteen, it's never too early or too late to introduce a girl (or a boy!) to a strong woman who made a positive impact on the world.   

Grades K-3:

Louisa May's Battle: How The Civil War Led to Little Women by Kathleen Krull (2013)

Recounts the author's experiences as a young woman caring for wounded Union soldiers in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War and the impact that these experiences had on her development as an author.

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909

An account of immigrant Clara Lemlich's pivotal role in the influential 1909 women laborer's strike describes how she worked grueling hours to acquire an education and support her family before organizing a massive walkout to protest the unfair working conditions in New York's garment district.

Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle

Sylvia Earle first lost her heart to the ocean as a young girl when she discovered the wonders of the Gulf of Mexico in her backyard. As an adult, she dives even deeper. Whether she's designing submersibles, swimming with the whales, or taking deep-water walks, Earle has dedicated her life to learning more about what she calls "the blue heart of the planet."

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker

Combines exuberant verse and stirring illustrations in a picture book introduction to the life of the passionate performer and civil rights activist that traces her journey from the slums of St. Louis to the world's most famous stages.                        

Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies by Cokie Roberts (2014)

Roberts presents an adaptation of her acclaimed adult book that highlights an engaging cast of revolutionary founding mothers, including Martha Washington, Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison.

Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tonya Stone (2013)

An introduction to the life and achievements of the first American female doctor describes the limited career prospects available to women in the early nineteenth-century, the opposition Blackwell faced while pursuing a medical education, and her pioneering medical career that opened doors for future generations of women.

Grades 3-6:

Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America 

by Tonya Bolden (2014)

Recounts the story of the 1914 disappearance of eleven-year-old Sarah Rector, an African American who was part of the Creek Indian people and whose land had made her wealthy, and what it reveals about race, money, and American society.

Women Explorers: Perils, Pistols, and Petticoats

Unfortunately, most of the brave women explorers have never made it into history books because they lived in times when it was taboo for women to go off on their own. Luckily, the daring women in this book didn't let those taboos slow them down as they climbed treacherous mountains, studied Aboriginal cultures, and lived with Pygmy tribes!

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

The thrilling story of America's most celebrated flyer, Amelia Earhart. In alternating chapters, Fleming deftly moves readers back and forth between Amelia's life (from childhood up until her last flight) and the exhaustive search for her and her missing plane.

The Girl From the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield (2014)

Describes the peaceful protest organized by teenager Barbara Rose Johns in order to secure a permanent building for her segregated high school in 1951 Virginia, and explains how her actions helped jump start and fuel the Civil Rights Movement.

Who Is? and Who Was? Series by various authors

These shorter chapter book biographies highlight women of the past and present, including Harriet Tubman, Annie Oakley, Maria Tallchief, Sally Ride, J.K. Rowling and more!

Grades 6 and up:

Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and  Prison Camp in the Pacific

by Mary Cronk Farrell (2014)

The women had arrived in the Philippines unprepared for war and expecting a tropical play land. Rising to the occasion, they were driven to the limits of endurance nursing wounded and dying American soldiers. Now the woman faced the horrors of prison camp--disease, starvation, and humiliation by their guards.  

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery (2012)

Showcases Grandin's life with autism and her groundbreaking work as a scientist and designer of cruelty-free livestock facilities describes how she overcame key disabilities through education and the support of her mother.

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birule Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani & Maris Wicks (2013)

An engrossing, graphically novel introduces the lives and work of three eminent primatologists, sharing insights into their educations under mentor Louis Leakey while exploring their pivotal contributions to 20th-century natural science.

Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves and Other Female Villains by Jane Yolen & Heidi E. Y. Stemple (2013)

An introduction to more than two dozen of history's most notorious women invites readers to draw their own conclusions while sharing the stories of such figures as Tituba, Lizzie Borden and Cleopatra, offering  contextual defenses of their innocence and arguments about their guilt.

Anyone who has ever been involved in programming for teens knows that they are a difficult group to attract to the library. Not only is it hard to bring teens in, but it is equally daunting trying to figure out what it is that will interest them. We very often put a lot of time and work into providing materials and programs that will appeal to teens, yet no matter how hard we try, attendance often remains low.

This lack of participation by teens may be due to the less-than-convenient location of the library, other after school activities competing for their time, lack of transportation, lack of dedicated teen space within the library, or even being introverted. Teens, being teens, may also find it difficult to commit to traditional programs, or may not remember when to show up for an event. We are left wondering what else we can do to attract teens to the library and keep them interested.

One way that I have had success in reaching teens at the Coventry Public Library is through passive programming. These programs and/or activities promote the library, its material, and services without providing a formal program at a specific time or date. Teens can take part whenever they happen to be in the library and without adult supervision (an added bonus for teens). These activities can be an alternative to traditional participation especially in libraries that have struggled to connect with teens or where teens have been reluctant to participate.

Measuring the outcomes of these programs is pretty basic as well. I keep track of how many crafts were placed in the YA area and how many times materials were refilled. I also keep track of how many blog hits are received, how many teens vote, how many book review submissions we receive monthly, and how many times each QR code is scanned. Keeping track gives you a more concrete way to see how teens are utilizing library services and programs.

Below are some suggestions for passive programming that have met with success:

Social media - Start a teen book blog or use other social media to connect with teens without having to have face-to-face interaction. Read young adult materials. Discuss the books teens have read and suggest similar materials. Encourage teens to take part in online discussions. Use the blog or other social media format to promote upcoming events, new book releases or other teen interest items.

Teen Book Reviews - Young adults are most interested in what their peers have to say about books and other library materials. Invite teens to complete a review of a book they have read. I have included a "Review It!" link right on our teen blog, making it easy for teens to review books from anywhere. Post the reviews in the YA area of the library or on the blog for other teens to read. A good way to ensure participation is to offer incentives (we offer teens a chance to win a FREE book with every entry).

Teen Voting - Let teens vote for their favorite books, poetry, music etc..! Make a chart to show which books etc. are in the lead. A great vote to start with, and my personal favorite, is the RITBA award nominees. Post results on the blog or social media, make up a flyer announcing the winner. You can also award prizes to participants if you wish.

 Drop-In Crafts and Activities - Prepare crafts and activities and make them continuously available to teens in the young adult area of your library. Provide instructions, materials, and lists of related books, web sites, etc. Craft and activity ideas might include themed crafts such as making Valentines during the month of February (see below), beading, scrapbooking, puzzles, paper foldables, or decorations for bulletin boards.

QR Codes - Make QR code labels and stick them near the end of YA books. When scanned, teens are linked to read-alikes or to other books by the same author. You can also make up flyers for the YA area with QR codes that link to book trailers, author websites, the OSL catalog etc...

Interactive Displays - Create bulletin boards or displays that invite teens to participate. For example, have teens create some Black Out poetry that can be displayed in the YA area during National Poetry Month, or create a bulletin board that invites teens to participate in making predictions for favorite books, such as with the March Madness Book Battle bulletin board pictured below. 

As you can see, there are loads of passive activities that will attract teens and keep them interested in the library while putting few demands on staff or budgets. While I don't advocate comprising your entire young adult program offering to be passive programs, they can certainly help make the library more attractive and engaging to teens.

PCL staff has been attending bi-monthly Professional Development workshops since October 2013 led by staff at Ready to Learn Providence along with Professor Ben Mardell of the early childhood education program at Lesley University's Graduate School of Education. Among other practices, the workshops include training in the RI Early Learning and Development Standards and a study of Vivien Paley's "storyacting," which is being used in the Boston Public Schools.

These innovative workshops will begin in April and there are still openings at five PCL locations. Interested families can call 401-258-6439 or 401-274-4145, x1704 or send an email inquiry to: penciso@provcomlib.org. They can also visit any of the nine locations for more information.