A few photos from last week.... IFLA / ALA....

I took a few snaps with my phone last week.  They're not great photography, but they give you a sense of the evenings.

First we had the Gale-Cengage reception, where both Susanne Clower and Pam Males won prizes in the Bingo game!  (Sorry, Susanne, I only captured Pam's big win.)

IFLA - Gale/Cengage night

Click on the photo to go to the album....

Then on Thursday, we had the social evening with ALA (American Library Association) executives, at Susanne's sister's house in Woodlands.  It was a wonderful evening of library talk -- and the food (catered by Chutney Cafe) was delicious.

Below is Barbara Stripling, the current ALA President (centre), with Susanne Clower (UWCSEA Dover) and Ruth Soeding (GESS).

See more candid shots here:

ALA-ISLN Evening, Aug 22, 2013 Click on the photo above to go to the album

We were especially thrilled to have one of our international school students attend the evening:  Rabiah, who is in Grade 12 at UWCSEA Dover.  

Rabiah attended the ALA Annual Conference in June as she is an avid YA blogger -- she picked up over 80 ARC (Advanced Reader Copies) at the conference.  See her blog, The Confessions of a Readaholic, or follow her on Goodreads, where she has over 5,000 books on her shelves.

We are interested in getting students who are YA lit fans (or avid readers in general) from all the international schools together, especially those who blog or are active on sites like Goodreads.  A Saturday summit?  The start of a student booklovers network here in Singapore?  Rabiah is very keen -- and as we only have her around until next June -- this is the year to do it.  If you are willing to get involved -- or know of students at your school who would -- please contact me or Susanne Clower.

-- Katie Day 

"How was ALA?"

Quite a few of us attended the American Library Association (ALA) conference back at the end of June in Chicago.

• Kate Brundage (SAS)
• Ali Cuthbert (SAS)
• Rosa Shin-Gay (SAS)
• Nancy Johnson (SAS)
• Kim Klein (SAIS)
• Susanne Clower (UWC)
• Katie Day (UWC)

plus (we later found out) one Grade 12 Dover student, Rabiah, went on her own (and picked up over 80 ARCs).  She's a prolific blogger about YA literature -- see"Confessions of a Readaholic", aka  http://iliveforreading.blogspot.sg/ -- and she has over 5,000 books on her Goodreads shelves.  (And, yes, we've invited her to join us on Thursday.....)

As we have the ALA evening coming up, I thought you might be interested in hearing something about the conference.

I have at least started on the process of feedback with this post: "Reporting back: On being with 26,000 librarians".  You'll notice I cleverly promise to write further posts about the individual sessions I attended.  (How many conferences do you attend and intend to write up later?  I have a whole filing cabinet full.)

So Kate, Ali, Rosa, Kim, and Susanne.... feel free to share what you got out of ALA.  You can be a guest blogger here (just send me whatever and I'll post it for you).

Thursday: Social event with ALA (American Library Association) executives attending IFLA

Again, emails were sent out on the Google Group list about this, but just in case you didn't hear.... Below is the original invite.

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As you may be aware, the IFLA conference is being held in Singapore from 17/Aug/13 to 22/Aug/13.

The American Library Association is sending a contingent of their officers to attend the conference, and ISLN has been in touch with them to arrange a small party for the ALA officers and ISLN members. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet and greet some very accomplished librarians, and talk about how librarianship is perceived and practiced all over the world.

The ALA people can meet with us on Thursday, 22 August. After some discussion with our ALA contact, we've decided to have this event at a private home, which will provide a nice personal touch. 

The network will provide finger food and drinks for this gathering that will be from 6:00 (for a 6:30 start) to about 9 or so. 

We will be gathering at a private house in the Woodlands near SAS; the postal code is 738223. 

Dress is casual, as we will be both inside and outside (around the pool.) 

We have to limit this event to about 35 people, 15 of which are our ALA guests, so attendance will be on a first-reply, first-accepted basis. 

Please reply to susanneuwc@uwcsea.edu.sg to secure your spot.

Thanks and hope to see you soon,

Susanne, ISLN Secretary

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I spoke with Susanne this morning and there is still room for a couple more people.

The current president of ALA (which is the oldest and largest library association in the world) is a school librarian:  Barbara Stripling.  (See her ALA president's website.)  She's also a professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University.

Have you ever heard of the Stripling Model for Research?  That's Barbara....  Read here to remind yourself of her work:  Teaching Students to Think in the Digital Environment

Taken from this article on "Teaching Inquiry with Primary Sources"

Last week Barbara was in Bangkok for an IFLA Satellite meeting where she gave a keynote on "Creating the Future by Empowering Youth to Tell Their Stories."

Come along on Thursday to meet this famous librarian... and others.

Contact Susanne soon if you're interested.

Tonight: A Social Engagement with Gale Cengage

I trust you all heard about this via a Google Group emailing, but tonight Gale Cengage is hosting a reception for all librarians -- in connection with the ongoing IFLA Conference here in Singapore.

6:30pm - 8:30 pm at the RedDot Brewhouse @Boat Quay (33/34 Boat Quay)

Sean Chia, our Gale Cengage rep, hopes to see several of us there.