Library Camp + My Favorite Books of The Year (So Far)!

Last year, I was asked to give the closing keynote at the Santa Clara County Office of Education's Library Camp, an event that coordinates back-to-school PD for library workers across 14 Bay Area school districts. A good time was had in large part because the organizer of this event, Amanda Turkie (along with her awesome support crew!), makes sure everything is magical. I am lucky to participate in lots of school district led PD, y'all. Not to mention that, once upon a time, I was the person responsible for (co)planning similar events for my own district back in the day. I mention this only by way of saying that Library Camp is special. Everyone is there because they want to be. What's more, I think so many people choose to attend because they know this is an event that will fill their cup at a time when <<gestures wildly at everything>> so much of what we face feels determined to drain it. To be clear, motivation and inspiration alone aren't enough to run an effective library program, but those things sure help!

Needless to say, I was excited when Amanda asked me to come back this year. Not only was I excited to learn and share with all the Library Campers again, but this year I also had a secret mission!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. SCHU!

This year's opening keynote was given by the one and only Mr. Schu. Because Amanda knew that a) John and I are BFFs and b) the date of the keynote was the day before his birthday, she asked if I would surprise him after the keynote to lead the audience in wishing him a happy birthday! After thinking about this proposal for approximately half a nanosecond, I responded with an enthusiastic YES!

The most challenging part of this secret mission was, of course, keeping it a secret! John and I talk almost every day. I knew he was going to be at Library Camp. He knew I was traveling at the same time, but not where. It was all very cloak and dagger, to the extent that anything involving Mr. Schu can be cloak and dagger!

Here's how it went down: I knew John's keynote started at 9:15 a.m., so I waited in the parking lot until after he started before coming in. Then I waited in the wings, trying to control the urge to pop my head in. When his keynote was finished, Amanda said she'd arranged a special guest to wish him happy birthday. John's guess of who it might be is my favorite: "Is it a drag queen???" Not quite, John! But almost!

Big thanks to my co-conspirator, Dr. Lorien Hunter, who filmed the whole thing.

MY PRESENTATIONS:

While wishing Mr. Schu a happy birthday was a blast, I also had a job to do at Library Camp! I led two presentations this year, both of which I'm sharing here.

I want to highlight the first presentation, however, because I so rarely get asked to share my favorite books of the year, but I love doing it! ALSO: this session was TWO HOURS LONG. In other words, I was in heaven! Although I coudn't bring ALL of the books in this slide deck, I gave away most of them during the session.

I hope you find these resources useful.

Finally, this should probably go without saying, but just in case... FYI: these slide decks are view only. Options for downloading your own copy have been disabled. While you're more than welcome to view and share them, I don't allow others to adapt and edit them.

I KNOW DOUG JOHNSON!

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't end this post with a story.

1Ten years ago, I met my hero, Doug Johnson, when I gave the keynote at the Minnesota Association of School Librarians annual conference. For those who may be unfamiliar with Doug's work (he retired several years ago), in addition to writing the uber-popular Blue Skunk blog, Doug was also the Director of Technology in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage (MN) Schools. Although not a librarian himself, Doug was a fearless advocate for librarians, which often involved telling us hard truths about outdated practices and approaches to library work that further isolated us from administrators who had no idea what we were trained to do. I learned so much from Doug and continue to quote him to this day.

Anyway, one thing I will never forget about the conference where Doug and I met is that organizers had ordered badge buttons for participants that read, “I know Doug Johnson!” Of course, I grabbed one and I remember telling Doug at the time that I would know I’d “made it” when a conference did that for me.

Well, Doug... it took 10 years, but it looks like I’ve finally made it!

In all seriousness, this feels a bit like I've peaked, y'all! I'm afraid it's all downhill from here.