ALSC President To Discuss “Kid Connections”
Contact: JoAnne Kempf
Office of ALA Governance
(312) 280-3212
NEWS
For immediate release
October 7, 2009
CHICAGO - The next installment in the series of American Library Association (ALA) President Jim Rettig’s ALA Connections Salons will be an online discussion with Pat Scales, President of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). The discussion, entitled “Kid Connections” will take place from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Friday, Oct. 17.
Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) Coordinator Tom Peters will begin the hour with an interview with Scales, whose association recently hosted its 2008 National Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 18-20. Attendees of the institute participated in program tracks on “Technology and Children’s Services,” “Programming in the New Millennium” and “Inspiring Lifelong Reading.” After 36 years as a middle school librarian and advocate for students’ right to read, Scales is passionate about helping young people find books that are just right for them.
Following the interview, participants will be free to ask questions and engage with Scales and with one another to discuss the joys and challenges of bringing books and kids together.
The salon will take place in OPAL, a user-friendly site offering online rooms where participants can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting, synchronized browsing and other functions. The link for the salon is
http://tinyurl.com/6ncakq, and a tip sheet for users is available at
http://www.opal-online.org/firsttimetips.htm.
Like its 17th and 18th Century European counterparts, the ALA Connections Salon offers a place for ALA members to gather and discuss professional topics of interest. Future salons will take place each month throughout Rettig’s presidency on from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Fridays as follows:
2008
November 21 Political Connections
December 19 Gaming Connections
2009
February 20 ALA Connections
March 20 Next Generation Catalog Connections
April 17 Advocacy Connections
May 15 Education and Recruitment Connections
June 19 Future Connections
For more information about ALA President Jim Rettig’s initiatives, please visit
http://jimrettig.org/content/initiatives/initiatives.htm .
