Excited about 2012 ALA Annual Meeting!

I am thrilled to be attending the 2012 American Library Association annual meeting in two weeks - I can't believe it's so soon. Yes, I'm a total book-geek, and I look forward to this conference all year. It's a chance to see friends from around the country, share our passion for children's books, and listen to amazing speakers.

Middle Grade Meet Up!
Are you going to ALA this year? If you will be in town on Friday, June 22, join us and the folks at Walden Pond Press for a middle grade meet-up! This is a chance for all you middle grade supporters to chat about everything middle grade - from book recommendations to best read-alouds to author visits to how you can help support this sometimes overlooked category of books.

Here are all the details - feel free to tweet us, post on our Facebook wall or leave a comment if you'd like to join us. No RSVP necessary, but letting us know of your interest gives us a good idea of how many people to expect. This is a completely free and open event - anyone can come. We hope to see you there!

Middle Grade Meet-Up at ALA:
Friday, June 22 – 7:30 pm (right after the convention floor closes)
Location: Mix Lounge in the lobby of the Hilton Anaheim (across from the convention center)
777 West Convention Way, Anaheim, CA

Sessions I'm excited about:
I've been building my session schedule, and I can't believe how many great sessions there are. Each year, I feel completely torn by sessions that are occurring at the same time. Here are some I'm really interested in:

Leading Professional Development that Matters - Friday preconference, 12:30 pm
As librarians, we bring so much to our school sites; but often I'm not quite sure how to share this with my whole staff. I came into a site where they still look at the librarian as "the book person", the nice lady who reads stories to the children and checks out books. I love reading stories to the children, but I know I can bring so much more to my school and district. I'm excited to learn and grow in this preconference!

When Worlds Collide: An AASL and Common Core Mash Up - Saturday, 8:00 am
The Common Core is heading our way, no matter what we think of it, and it's vital that we know how we can best support our teachers and students. The more that I can learn about the Common Core, the more I can be a part of the conversation as our district wrestles with our state's adoption of the Common Core.

AASL President's Program on raising children in a digital age - Saturday, 10:30 am
Lori Takeuchi, director of research at the Sesame Workshop's Joan Ganz Cooney Center, will present their research on how parents nationwide feel about raising children in a digital age. I've read about this research in different journals and am fascinated to learn more.

The Coretta Scott King Book Award Breakfast - Sunday 7:00 am
I was very moved by several of the Coretta Scott King awards this year, most especially Kadir Nelson's Heart and Soul (did you see that it won an Audie Award last week? Hooray!). I am looking forward to joining this celebration with a big group of librarians from the Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California. Yes, I know this is an early session, but it promises to be uplifting, moving and interesting!

The New Nonfiction: What Is It? And Does It Matter? - Sunday, 1:30pm
A stellar panel of librarians, professors and authors will lead a discussion on how the realities of access to information in the digital age and the emerging Core Curriculum requirements will affect our evaluation of nonfiction. This panel will debate a new framework for understanding, creating, evaluating and using the new nonfiction...and maybe even define it. Argh, sadly I have a committee committment at this time, so I'll be depending on friends to take and share good notes!

Are you going to ALA? What sessions are you excited about? I'll be microblogging over at the ALSC Blog, and giving a more general wrap-up here.