Once again I was so fortunate to find myself in Long Branch, NJ for the New Jersey Association of School Librarians Annual Conference. I have attended several times in the past (though I haven’t blogged about all of them), but this was the first time I left the conference more inspired than overwhelmed. This may be, in part, due to my own level of experience and my changing strategy in selecting sessions. However I also feel that this conference was exceptional in and of itself. I also came home with a much lower volume of conference junk that I have in years past, which is definitely positive as I have less to clean up and assimilate back into my regular life this time. 

As is my MO, I got so swept up in the experience of the conference that I forgot to document it visually. This is a chronic professional shortcoming of mine and one I really do need to work on. However, I have to say, on a personal level I don’t see my lack of documentation as strictly poor form. I am taking the time to write about it, after all, and although I am a lover of photographs, writing has always been how I process things best anyway. 

In short, that’s my excuse for not having more photos, though I have wonderful friends who are amazing at documenting life and I was able to swipe some of their photos. 

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As I already said, this conference was particularly rewarding and I’m so glad I was able to be there. I attended sessions on reengaging high school students with reading, bridging the skill gap between levels of schooling, digital literacy curriculum development and resources, and several, very inspiring keynotes. I was particularly moved by the talk given by author, Candace Flemming. Her thoughts about telling stories, and her stories about researching her work were just captivating to me. The thought that keeps rattling around in my brain was what she said about primary sources. She pointed out that we have the most boring phrase ever for something that is so inherently magical and exciting. Primary sources are clues from the past. They’re the only scraps left of entire human lives, societies, civilizations. We have papers, photos, and artifacts that we can use to piece together a story, but we can never know the whole thing. Every extra fragment of information that we find that helps us put that story back together should be infinitely more exciting than the phrase, “primary source.”

Rebranding primary sources sounds like a worthy cause to me. Anyone have any ideas? 

In several different sessions it was made clear to me that I need to be more visible and engage more politically. One amazing librarian, Angela Coxen, said that she regularly invited the mayor, sheriff, and any other elected officials she could think of to participate in her library program. She said that libraries that include politics don’t get cut. I think she has a point. 

There’s no end to this post because every conference is more like a beginning of doing this thing called librarianship differently. And isn’t that the point? This is the best profession ever because it’s a new profession ever year. We’re continually remaking ourselves to keep up with the times. Good thing too because I hate being bored.