What You Missed at OLA Conference
OKSL Update April 2016
Collaboration & Learning
OKSL also sponsored over 14 sessions! School librarians had at least 2 sessions during each time block to choose from! Topics covered in sessions include:
- Makerspaces
- Legos
- Reading Community
- Reading Events
- Writing
- Leadership
- Learning Commons
- And more!!!
Special Guest Speakers
- Jennifer Nielsen spoke to 300 students on Wednesday and accepted her Sequoyah Book Award from the Intermediate list!
- Jamie LaRue gave an incredible keynote speech about advocating for your library. He is the new Director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom.
- Keija Parssinen spoke at Thursday's luncheon about her inspiration of writing.
- Leslie Preddy, AASL President, presented 4 sessions and at the Teen Summit between attending other sessions.
- Tara Hudson and Sonia Gensler spoke at the FOLIO Luncheon.
- Ellen Hopkins Skyped in for a session on book challenges and her experience.
OKSL Big Picture
Why??
From our discussion and reflection, we noticed 2 main reasons people give for not being a member.
- Cost is too high. With the OLA membership, plus OKSL membership, plus cost of conferences and workshops, the costs can really add up! Especially when it is coming from our already shallow pockets!
- Benefits are too low. People have said "I don't get anything out of being a member... so why would I spend the money?"
Brainstorm Ideas
Then, as a collaborative group of about 20, we brainstormed ideas that would increase the benefits of being a member of OKSL. Here are some ideas that we came up with:
- Communicate the benefits of being a member by collaborating with OLA's Membership Committee
- Increase our communication with current members via email and social media
- Inform members that we have a lobbyist who is fighting for us during this dark legislative time
- Increase opportunities for collaboration and professional development virtually (and free)
- Creating advocacy materials that members can use with their district administrators/directors to allow for attending conferences
- Bring back a mentoring program
Next Steps
Now that we have an amazing list of ideas, it is up to us to follow through! Here are the next steps OKSL Officers are working on:
- Tara is going to work with OLA's Membership Committee to create a brochure specific to the benefits of joining OKSL.
- Kelsey will collaborate with OLA's Continuing Education Committee to begin the process of establishing an avenue for virtual professional development/collaboration opportunities.
- Tara and Kelsey are working on establishing a team of people who can beef up our social media presence to be more collaborative.
OKSL Officers
Tara Zimmerman
Kelsey Gourd
Amy Lagers
Connie Wise
Ashleigh Dautermann
Kathryn Lewis
Emily Baker
Rosa Blocker
Earon Cunningham
Oklahoma School Librarians
The purpose of the Oklahoma School Librarians Division (OKSL) is to bring together school librarians for a concerted effort to improve school library programs in the state of Oklahoma;
- to stimulate professional growth by offering workshops on topics of concern to school librarians;
- to plan and present programs at the Annual Conference of significance to school librarians;
- and, to cooperate with other divisions, roundtables and committees which have activities common to the services of school librarians.
Email: taradhixon@sbcgloal.net
Website: http://www.oklibs.org/?page=OKSL
Phone: 405-525-5100
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Oklahoma-School-Librarians-110457849014321/?fref=ts
Twitter: @oklasl