Emily Williams - Learning Retrospective

Hi staff! We wanted to report in about a professional development opportunity from last month. Tim Rogers, Kristin Williamson, and I attended the Public Library Think Tank presented by Library Journal and School Library Journal in Miami from March 9-10. The focus for this small conference was on what "literacy" means today and how libraries can be leaders in initiatives to foster literacy in all its forms in our communities.

Going in, I thought we might focus mostly on digital and media literacy, but soon realized the scope of what the speakers were covering was much broader. I especially found the idea of civic literacy engaging, and something in which I think teens and young adults are specifically interested. We toured the North Dade Regional Library, the Miami Children's Museum, Miami Beach Regional Library, and Northeast Dade-Aventura Library. Visual literacy came into play as we talked about their library system's public art installations, museum partnerships, and curated art collections. As we walked through YOUMedia Miami and their Technobus, and listened to speakers and sponsors talk about makerspaces and STEAM, the importance of hands-on learning was stressed again and again. We hear a lot in education and teen services about the importance of 21st century skills, connected learning, and social and emotional learning (SEL)-- for me, this conference cemented specific ways to bring those concepts to our library programming and make them successful.

The final speaker was YA author Ibi Zoboi, whose new book American Street is getting starred reviews. I had just finished her book on the plane, so it was fresh in my mind. She talked about her experience as a Haitian immigrant and her work in Brooklyn with young writers.

If you want to see more about the conference and delve deeper into literacy (in all its forms!), you can view the presenters' slides here.