Day #326: Newbery and Caldecott Day

It's weird to me when things that were part of my old life show up and try to play ball in this one.

So...where to start this story. Once upon a time I went to a librarian's conference.

In the summer of 2006 I was a student librarian intern for King County Library System and in graduate school. I worked about 15 hours a week and went to school online (which was more unusual back then but at a time when online higher ed was exploding.) 

In summer of 2005 there had been a huge hurricane that hit the Gulf Coast. Flooded New Orleans and wiped out the coastal areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, just awful devastating loss. I really wanted to help but I was a graduate student and had no money. I also had no skills to speak of. I mean, I'm not in construction, I can't go down and help rebuild houses, assuming I can get there, I'd just be in the way. So I remember feeling very helpless.

That spring a friend of mine calls me and says she heard from a Girl Scout friend of hers that the Girl Scouts of Mississippi are going to try to open one of their summer camps for a few weeks, bring girls who had been evacuated out of the area due to "the Storm" (the entire time I was down there, that's the only way I ever heard it referred to and everyone had a hurricane story) for camp. Now I don't know how to do a lot of things, but I FOR SURE know how to work at a summer camp. So we got on a plane and went down there and it was an adventure. I've done a lot of summer camp in many places and that experience was unique.

One of the longtime Girl Scout volunteers at that camp was part of her Friends of the Library Group in her Mississippi library and she said to me, oh, it's too bad you can't stay longer (I was there for I think ten days, because I had my job to go back to) because I have an extra ticket to the American Library Association Conference in New Orleans and we could go. I thought, what the heck, I can call my bosses, see if they'll let me stay a few extra days. 

Well, with library work and phones being what they are and the time difference I couldn't get hold of them. So I was in the car and one of the other ladies was taking me to the airport and her phone rang and they said "Kris's bosses called, told her to stay!" and we swung the car around and came back. That's what kind of adventure we had.

So that weekend I was at the conference center in New Orleans for the biggest librarians conference there is.

The ticket I had that year was exhibits which meant I didn't go to any sessions but we could walk around and see all the booths and pick up free stuff (librarian conference free stuff is the best stuff because it is books.) And I didn't know a lot about the American Library Association because I was still new to the profession and in graduate school. But it was an eye opening experience seeing what the world of librarianship looked like. 

Fast forward a year. It's 2007 and I have officially been declared a librarian and because I had that exposure to the American Library Association I have joined and I am officially an all grown up librarian. Somehow I find out about the Emerging Leaders program, which has what I now think of as a pretty patronizing name, but it's for early career librarians to get involved. It means attending (on your own dime) both the 2008 librarian conferences. But one of them is in Denver, where my sister lives, and one is in Anaheim, which isn't that far, so I apply and I am accepted. And the Emerging Leader program, at least in that era, ends up being something of a joke but it does give me connections. I met a lot of people at that conference. I always say I don't know people but I know people who do.

I tried to stay involved in ALA and its division the Association of Library Service to Children, but in 2010 my career took a different direction. My library was taken over by a library district, my job changed and I hated it, so I got off that train and became a school librarian for four years. And there were things I enjoyed about being a school librarian but in the place that I worked I had no career support at all. Whatever networking events I found (and I did find some, including a neighborhood meetup of other school librarians) I found and orchestrated myself. When I went back to New Orleans for ALA in the summer of 2011 I not only went on my own time and on my own dime but I had to print my own business cards. I knew from experience that business cards were essential for conferences but my school wouldn't print them for me because I wasn't important enough.

I left that job in spring 2014 when James was born. I sometimes wonder what might have happened if I had been in a more supportive job environment when I became a mom, but it doesn't matter. I wasn't and I needed out of that job and I became a stay at home mom.

I still have some loose connections in the library world but time passes and people change jobs and you know how it is. In February I went to a local one day conference about children's literature. I'm so glad I did. Again, I went on my own time and on my own dime but it was a thing I did for myself and it was the last thing I got to do for myself before the world shut down. All the youth services librarians from the library where I was a sub were there and if they were surprised to see me show up, to want career advancement and professional growth of my own, they did not show it. 

So when the ALSC gave their awards today, all I could think was, I used to be one of those librarians. I was never on an awards committee...ALSC is one of those organizations where you have to get involved on a lower rung and work your way up...but I was on a committee. And...if I'm super honest I don't feel like being on a committee was a successful endeavor for me. It was in that era where my workplace was in some upheaval. 

ALSC does have what they call "non salaried" dues levels. This is for people who are unemployed or underemployed making less than $30k/year. I definitely qualify. It still isn't what you'd call cheap...a combined ALA/ALSC membership at the non salaried level is $80 per year. And for reasons I can't really imagine, ALA dues increase your first three years of membership...and they aren't cheap to begin with. So I am considering it but given that my success has been...mixed...with ALA I wonder if it's worth it. But there is a lot of prestige in being on those committees. At least there was today.

So they made their announcement of the Newbery and Caldecott and many other awards this morning. I actually got up to see it live...I wasn't gonna, but I thought if I watch it live my kids won't be bugging me and then nothing will get spoiled for me. And it was kind of fun, to see what books were the standout kids books this year. It was at 8 a.m. Central Time, so early in this time zone, but it was an event and life is short of those these days. Efren Divided, which was the one I was rooting for, got a Pura Belpre award for distinguished literature celebrating the Latinx experience, which was cool. I hadn't read the Newbery winner but since I was up so early I was able to get it on hold at the library quickly and I should be able to check it out tomorrow. And the woman who won the Caldecott is the first Native American illustrator to do so and for a super gorgeous book. So it was a nice day. I felt like a librarian today and I like feeling that way. And I get to be a guest on a friend's podcast this week to talk about the results and I love that. It's not a bad thing, the way I feel today, walking down memory lane to ALA's past. It's just weird. Like so many things.

I was at the Newbery Caldecott awards dinner in 2008, did I mention that?? I won an essay contest open to children's librarians, the Marshall Cavendish award, and it got me a ticket. That was quite a night. Those dinners are a big deal. In a typical year (this year of course not being typical,) the announce the award winners at the Midwinter Meetings, which is sort of the smaller version of their conference, usually in January, and then the awards dinner is at the Annual conference, usually in June. I can't remember right now where the dinner was held but I want to say it was a fancy banquet place near downtown Disney because the conference was in Anaheim. The Newbery winner that year was somewhat controversial...she was a librarian heavily involved in ALA and there were rumors about favoritism. I know ZERO about the award process, only the dinner, so I have no comment, but she was gracious in her remarks and what I really remember is Brian Selznick, who won for The Invention of Hugo Cabret did his speech with a series of slides involving Hugo Cabret and Randolph Caldecott. Somewhere I have my ticket and program for the event and I'm pretty sure it has a Selznick drawing on it. James has The Invention of Hugo Cabret checked out from the library right now. 

So it was a good day for those of us who love children's books and I should probably try to overanalyze that less.

Media consumption: I'm watching of all things the TV show Wings on Hulu. It...does not hold up great. What I really want are sitcoms of that era that aren't currently available anywhere like Murphy Brown and Mad About you. Last week I finished the book History of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals from 1963 and it was interesting. I'm currently reading Still Life by Louise Penny because this is the year when I decide if I am a mystery reader or not.

Today I'm grateful for an afternoon with Max, that James loves books, that my kids love snuggles, dark chocolate, fellow children's book nerds, bookstagram, and reading.