After an amazing first day at AASL on Thursday – and having never been to Tampa, I was ITCHING just to see what the backbone of Tampa was like.

Following an amazing Opening General Session and Keynote, we headed to the Historic YBOR District. We being, how COOL was it that we had colleagues from Delaware together, and heading out on an adventure – it was amazing to be with Tom Gavin, Jen Ashby, and Susan Elizabeth Cordle outside of what we normally only saw of each other at meetings and such.

Taking the TECO street car there (free!) – EXCELLENT and loved. After seeing the YBOR District to me resembled much of what the main street of Mardi Gras would seem like with the historic store fronts, to see it is the only way to experience it. Settling in at Carmine’s we ate like kings and queens, with a waitress that was amazing. While claiming to have THE BEST Cuban sandwich, I would say – it was good but I wanted to wait to see if it was the best :) As we roamed the area we came across a Karaoke establishment and colleague librarians and despite stereotypes, the librarians RULED the night with karaoke, it was just – the BEST. Called the Double Decker, packed with the librarians, and especially amazingly cool librarians from the Dakotas, it was such a relief to not be worried about proving our professions and celebrating our accomplishments.

Friday- October 20th – whew. the layers of information we were scheduled to receive, and how this could be taken back and shared for goos use with our states – I was impressed.

Being gracious in attending the AASL Awards Breakfast, it was so exciting to see so many librarians celebrated as they were advocates for librarianship in so many ways in their home states. There is so little time or opportunity for librarians to get together to just learn, talk, and share outside of the internet and often, the hands on, sit down approach is what is needed to advance so many more aspects of honing our librarians to be the best place possible, essential even.

From the breakfast to the Friday general Session (I was so excited to see SORA being a sponsor of this general session as we have had great success with implementation of this service in our state) – speakers Heather Harding (Executive Director for Our Shared Future), Cameron Samuels, (YES! A student representing some topics worth examining in the Katy Independent School District in Texas), and Karen Smith, a board member in Central Bucks County, Pennsylvania, all helped begin a discussion on points all advocates of literacy are involved in, protecting the right to read. This mixed panel was AMAZING and huge tale aways from this session:

-I loved that the opening statement that Public Education is the foundation of our constitution – LOVED.

-Karen Smith, from the 4th largest district in PA, (2o0 miles north of Philadelphia, considered a purple state /county, was able to discuss the first hand struggles that had been ongoing with The Moms for Liberty organization in Pennsylvania.

-When the second panelist, a student from Texas, Cameron Samuels discussed the policy changes in his district, where books had been labeled as inappropriate materials, “classics” were being asked to be defined (not sure WHY this was so valuable to deciding what is considered a “classic”, and by whom?), the fact that 68 books had been challenged immediately in July of 2022 when the policy passed was concerning.

-It was obvious the community itself had not wanted this to occur at all, and yet this was occurring in the policies at the school board level. It has seemed 20 people and 20 people only out of the rest of the community had pushed this policy through, and at this point ACLU come onto the scene to see what a policy that was not a favorite to the majority was being passed. 

-His ability to gather student’s voices together to be the voice that dictated opinions about texts was very very successful. 

-Cameron stresses how vital is it for an extreme minority to no be able to push policies forward the community at large does NOT want, simply by being active and educating the community. Youth have a GREAT power to do so, Similar to Muslim extremists not representing the basis of Muslim religion, parallels can be definitely seen here in actions that can educate individuals on actual tenets of literacy.

-With a 600% increase in challenges since 2019 – let that sink in- it is obvious politics are landing on the front steps of schools.

-Cameron’s point that Banned Book Month is so much about education and litereacy was so so true- and he referenced how many Jewish students in the past have been registered as “skipping” when there are holidays not recognized by schools for Jewish students. 

-Cameron questioned as a student how the Holocaust was not in his school curriculum (How?) and how individuals that are gatekeeping the narrative are not involving the opinions and interests of students themselves.

-Cameron mentioned is seemed this has been never about the books the books are simply the medium.

-Cameron as well as Karen Smith discussed how the school board is the best defense for these types of movements. Misinformation in the public needs to be addressed and discussed before policies that are rapidly passed, without proper information is received. 

-Book policies instituted help increase the fair stance of a book and a theme, its topics, and how it is presented to be examined before radically “banning” anything.

-The point was made that parents have always had a chance to reach out to librarians, always. The main problem is – many parents are not even aware there is NOT a certified librarian in their school and if the parent is so unaware of this fact, or the multiple roles a librarian media specialist serves the school, how easy is it to simply censor or label material inappropriate when you do not have a certified librarian to help discern material appropriate for a collection? The answer is very easy and hopefully the public will begin to see the difference and purpose a certified school librarian has in the sequence to all of this.

-it is VITAL that certified librarians everywhere are doing their job but even more, so, TALKING about their job as we are here- otherwise, how possibly would anyone know outside of the stereotypical idea of a librarian, what is entailed?

-Ms. Harding stressed how vital it is for librarians to tell their stories, EVERYWHERE. There is no such thing as stealing information from librarians, it is called empowering each other.

-Bookstores and librarians, have been, and always will be, role models for how to deal with adversity, restrictions posed on freedoms, and how to analytically, methodically, positively address obstacles such as many are facing today.

-Librarians and librarians are indeed the third space students need to find solutions to obstacles of all kinds, as well as solution they encounter from all areas.

-Attending meetings, board meeting, librarians attending division / department meetings, DO NOT REINVENT the wheel, There are so many skilled and experiences librarians from every state that can support each other based on their experiences, and as a result, they are supporting students from all over the United States.

-Giving out books that have banned in some areas is a HUGE help to the students that cannot vote quite yet against such radical actions, AGAIN, Independent bookstores and certified librarians want to know avenues of how to meet their patrons halfway. 

-Despite this being a hard time for librarians to telling their stories (librarians and book companies are being threatened, laid off, reduced in positions, sued, fired, harassed) again, FIND out of the myriad of librarians those that can share their resources and experiences and utilize that to support your student’s needs. 

–When books like Rosa Parks are banned, books that help students navigate middle school like All’s Fair in Middle School is being limited to patrons, it is time that one major trait and talent school librarians, have, to utilize media to educate, inform, discuss (isn’t that what we are doing here?) to counter mismessaging about books that are perfectly aok to provide at the appropriate levels (excuse me, but having a certified librarian in the house makes the statement that you know the professionalism and expertise such a person brings to the school is valuable) is activated.

-Raising the awareness surrounding the absurdity of banning a book, addressing fines and jail time being put against LIBRARIANS in over literacy, is misplacement of actions that are misdirected. It is very scary to have individuals that so not see this. 

One of the backbones of this amazing General Session on Friday was the impact that school librarians, with youth, with youth, with school boards, with parents have and can have. Minus a certified librarian in the mix and it is SHOCKING to see the down spiral of what is missing and what occurs. This is vital that the public sees what an impact certified school librarians, and that education received, has on any educational institution.

Having a bit of time at the end of taking this all in (it took awhile, 8 pages of notes and alot of contemplation) I was able to wander through the vendors and one of the best encounters was seeing the University of PITTSBURGH (Mary Kay Biagini was in the house!) represented at Tampa, my home town connection (and having had seen them at our own Maryland/Delaware Conference this past May, this was SUCH A HIGHLIGHT. Having talked with Dorcas Hand several times from Texas (via email) AND her being a gracious part of our October PD in Delaware, it was so exciting to see everyone IN PERSON and meeting new colleagues along the way, and a background of Pittsburgh to boot.