An Access of Librarians: An Interview with Author Kyle Lukoff

In this post, HVLA board member Hannah Mermelstein interviews HVLA member (and former board member) and author Kyle Lukoff. Have more questions for him? Leave them in the comments and he'll respond!

Hannah Mermelstein: Your book A Storytelling of Ravens is coming out in May. Congratulations! Can you tell us a bit about the book and what specifically inspired you to write it?

Kyle Lukoff: I can't remember when I first realized how cool collective nouns were, but I think the seed for this book was planted in the fall of 2006. I was sitting in Washington Square Park with my friend Tamar looking at birds, and she idly wondered what the collective noun for sparrows was. I pulled a piece of paper out of my backpack that had a list of animal collective nouns, because that's the kind of thing I would print out and keep in my backpack, and she was delighted. Not long after I started talking to my roommate, a very talented artist, about collaborating on a picture book project together. I wrote the text (most of which made it into the final book), he did some preliminary sketches, and I vaguely researched the publication process. That iteration never went anywhere, and it took, like, seven years for me to get back to it. I'm glad I did!

Protecting Students' Privacy in School Libraries

By Gili Warsett, Hannah Mermelstein, and Maria Falgoust

At our next HVLA meeting (January 18), we plan to explore issues of privacy and digital citizenship as they relate to school librarianship. In this post, a few of us scrape the surface of this conversation as we talk about our own policies and thoughts. Please join the conversation in the comments!

Gili Warsett: As a Preschool and Lower School Librarian, my stance on patron privacy has evolved, and is evolving as the world changes. Although most of my students are happy to share their circulation history with each other, I now begin each school year by laying ground rules about privacy for our oldest lower school students, the third and fourth grade, when they are learning and/or reviewing how to do self-checkout. Our students use iPads to check their patron status and to check out books. I am very firm that they are not to look under anybody else’s library account when they are checking out books. They may not search their siblings’ or friends’ accounts. If I find that students have intentionally looked at somebody else’s account information, their iPad privileges are suspended.

USBBY Conference Highlights

By Hannah Mermelstein

Saint Ann's School

In October I attended the USBBY conference in Seattle. USBBY is the US branch of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People. The theme of this year’s regional conference was “Radical Change Beyond Borders: The Transforming Power of Children’s Literature in a Digital Age.” As with all conferences, some speakers more directly addressed the theme than others, but all were either entertaining, informative, or both. You can find out more about the conference and its programs here, but for now, a few highlights:

All About that (Data) Bass Recap

By Celia Dillon
The Brearley School

Couldn't attend last Wednesday's HVLA Fall Meeting? Want to follow up with a vendor but didn't write down his or her information? Missed something when you were chatting with a fellow librarian? Here's the information you're looking for!

HVLA's Fall Meeting, All About That (Data) Bass was hosted by the Town School and librarians Karen Grenke and Cynthia Millman. It featured presentations and tabling by several organizations with a technology component. These organization included BrianPop, Brooklyn Public Library, Tiny Bop Schools, New York Public Library, InfoBase, PebbleGo/Capstone, Project MUSE & World Book Online. Both librarians and tech integrators were in attendance. Representatives from each organization gave a four-minute "elevator speech" about his or her organization and were also available before and after the presentations to answer individual questions. A keynote speech was given by Daryl Grabarek of School Library Journal about technology and education.

Meet the New Member of the HVLA Board!

Mary Beth Lemoine serves as the solo librarian and teacher at The Professional Children's School in New York City. She joins us with considerable librarian experience, having served in a number of independent schools both at the elementary and secondary levels. She also served as a French teacher at a number of schools at all levels. Most recently, Mary Beth spent two years in Lesotho, Southern Africa, as a member of the Peace Corps from 2014-2016 where she taught both English as a Second Language and Life Skills & HIV/AIDS education to primary school students.

She prides herself on tinkering with computers and technology and practicing yoga daily.

Mary Beth joins us as the Recording Secretary. 

Transitions

By Karen Grenke
The Town School

As the school year gets underway, I've been finding myself closely observing all the transitions around me. From the mundane (students transitioning between classes - oh, the noise, the fun!) to the sublime (the radiant fall leaves upstate), I feel surrounded by change. I suppose I'm paying special attention because this year I find myself in the midst of professional transition as I change jobs from one school library in Brooklyn to another on the Upper East Side.

As much as I loved my previous library it was indeed time for a (here's that word again) change. I was one of the first librarians at the school and I built over 80% of the collection. I moved the library twice and packed it up by hand both times. To say I was attached to that library is an understatement. So it was with some amount of trepidation that I packed up my own boxes and left. And boy howdy, has it been reinvigorating! Here are a few of the things I've noticed.

A Summer of Consequence

By Lisa Norberg

One of the greatest perks (and there are many) to becoming a school librarian is the extended summer break. This summer was my first and I took the opportunity to spend seven weeks in Italy helping my partner’s family with their organic farm. It is a small farm (just under 10 hectors) made up of vineyards of red and white grapes and orchards that produce amazing apricots, plums and pears. For biodiversity, the farm also maintains an enormous garden filled with tomatoes, lettuces, cucumbers, peppers, and zucchini, as well as a field of alfalfa, a dozen or more beehives and a couple of goats. While there is no shortage of work, we maintain a pretty lean crew made up of an eclectic assortment of family members, friends, two working artists, and a WWOOFer or two, usually college students from abroad.