Podcast

Westborough Elementary School Librarian Teacher Laura D’Elia joins us for a feast of topics for the holidays. In the conversation: introverts at library conferences, a report from AASL featuring strategies to network and not go mad with a huge schedule; a screening of The Librarians, special education in the library, digital literacy, and AASL standards to plan around. Also, DESE’s new Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (SISP) Rubrics and the stigmas associated with elementary libraries. For dessert: romantasy. Thanks for listening.

School Librarian Susan Harari, most recently of Boston Latin School, and Librarian Stephanie Tournas from the Robbins Library in Arlington, are the co-editors of the Youth Services Book Review blog. This volunteer labor-of-love is supported by 30 librarian writers, just under a third of which are school librarians, and serves as everything from a community-grown promotional resource, a form of professional development, a networking tool, and whatever you make it! Want to get involved? They’re always looking for new writers! 

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MSLA Forum Editor Laura Gardner talks with friend Aaryn Silva, the cataloging middle school librarian from the Kinkaid School, an independent K-12 campus in Houston, Texas. Laura dubs her friend a fellow “monster reader,” and they discuss connecting on Bookstagram, the experience of being a librarian in Texas, the power of faculty book clubs, Labubus, censorship, social media habits, and what they’ve been reading.

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MCTBA voting opens Sept. 15th-- time to promote! Wendy MacArthur, Hopkinton Middle School librarian, started her library career in the award’s debut year. She joins the pod to talk about the nuts and bolts of running an award like this (the group is already meeting to pitch books for next year's ballot), how to get involved and pitch books, and the intriguing tribulations of reading as- or for- a younger audience. Episode also features exclusive insider info on the storied bloodbath meeting the group convenes to decide final nominees! Welcome to a new year of the MSLA podcast.

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Librarian, assistive technology specialist, and author John O’Sullivan has written several books, has worked as a special education teacher, and joins us for this episode. As an avid reader of technology press, an integration specialist, and computer teacher, he brings skills honed at his job at Chelmsford High School to volunteer efforts for the MSLA and MassCUE. In the 1970s John was among the first special needs students to enter school under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This experience influrnece his career path to becoming a provider of these services. Technology has evolved to such a point, John says, where assistive technology is a part of our everyday lives, but understanding how and why it can be integrated into a curriculum is a step librarians can take to become better community assets. His latest book Technology for English Language Learners opens with some of his own story followed by a run through of tech basics for teachers with ELL students in their classrooms. 

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Bindy Fleischman, Massachusetts State Ambassador for the International Board on Books for Young People (iBBy) spoke with us this spring about her involvement with international children’s books. We discuss areas of translation, statelessness, illustration reading differently in different places, the publishing industry, and universal design for reading. Thanks for listening! 

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The inimitable Tressa Santillo joins us to talk about the #1 enrolled collective school digital book collection in New England (also #2 in the country, and #3 in the world)– the MA Commonwealth eBook Collection and its interface app, SORA. Join us for a talk about usability, applications for school libraries, the interface, how usage skyrocketed during COVID, curations, lending models and a lot more.

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Magenta Jasinski talks about work-life balance, being a Simmons student in two MA programs, and feeling awkward at the conference (not this one, the one we had in Amherst). They are self-described as “Your favorite Simmons student (who's drowning in research projects),” so Ella and Luke asked about those, plus their work at the Benjamin G. Brown Elementary School in Somerville and involvement in LOTS of different things. Topics discussed listed below, and congratulations to the recent graduates of library programs! Happy Spring!

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I’ts advocacy update time with Dr. Georgina Trebbe and Dr. Deborah Froggatt, school librarians, one current and one retired, who are working on statewide advocacy efforts through the MSLA and other organizations to provide each school with a “Licensed School Library teacher that earns certification”. Georgina and Deb talk to Luke and Ella about the different advocacy fronts– local, statewide, and federal– that impact our profession. And with so many different fronts, there are so many different ways to get involved.

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Turtles can teach us about a sacred, cyclical renewing time that connects us to eternity, says science author (of 36 books!) Sy Montgomery. Sy talks process, experience, and, animals, with Librarian Luke Steere and Science Teacher Sarah Friswell Cotton from Wilson Middle School in Natick. Joining Montgomery is humble illustrator Matt Patterson, who truly is as Sy says-- a "turtle savant". Patterson's work is featured with Sy's on two recent books all about turtles, one for adults and one for children. Our discussion checks-in with how the book is being received, and delves into the nature of time, aging, falling in love with a research topic, and human-animal relationships.

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