Friday, February 11, 2022
This article is a guest post by Amanda Struckmeyer.
In January 2022, ALA's Midwinter conference went completely online, rebranded as LibLearnX. As the WEMTA/AASL liaison, I participated in LibLearnX, and I'm happy to report back on the sessions I attended.
We will start at the end, with Colin Kaepernick's presentation as the conference's closing speaker. Mr. Kaepernick shared personal and professional stories that affirmed the work we do as librarians and challenged us to continue working toward equity and representation. Be sure to look for his upcoming picture book, I Color Myself Different. Here is a video summarizing his message.
Another excellent session was an overview of the AASL Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries resource guide. My full recap of the session is in this short video. I encourage everyone to take some time and dig into the toolkit!