Trends: Babies Need Words Campaign Launched at ALA

At the ALA annual conference last month, ALSC launched a new campaign geared towards getting parents and caregivers to read and talk to their babies every day. The advocacy campaign was created in part to reinforce the key concepts of Every Child Ready to Read 2, which focuses on five best practices: talking~singing~reading~playing~writing.

Babies Need Words Every Day features full color posters and booklists that libraries can download here to display in their buildings and communities. How do you plan on incorporating this new campaign into your early childhood programming? Comment below, and receive a surprise through the system bags!

2015 May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) announced that the 2015 May Hill Arbuthnot Committee has chosen DC Public Library, Washington, D.C., as the site of the 2015 May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture featuring author/illustrator Brian Selznick. The honor lectureship will be held in spring 2015 in The Great Hall of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, following several months of innovative programs sponsored by the library and numerous partners, including the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University.

 

“The library plans to have art, manipulatives, archival material, media stations and graphics displayed in exhibits related to the author’s works, and will seek the advice of the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History,” said Arbuthnot Chair Sue McCleaf Nespeca. “Some exhibits will be interactive and will be layered for children and adults, with the purpose of creating a wonder-filled space of literature-based materials.” 

Can you say road trip? Once the official date is announced, I will look into seeing if a group of librarians would be interested in traveling to DC next Spring to hear Mr. Selznick's speech. Who do you think would make a great speaker in the field of youth services? Tell us in the comments below!