This past Sunday, June 23, at the 2019 American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, DC, AJL Vice-President/President-Elect Kathy Bloomfield organized a special get-together. The session, "A Little Schmooze, A Little Nosh" served to follow up on the interest generated by the Sydney Taylor Book Awards that were part of the excitement of ALA's 2019 Youth Media Awards ceremonies at ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle this past January. Among many others, including two other ALA affiliates, the American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) as well as the Coretta Scott King Book, Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz Awards--the STBAs were announced to a very large and enthusiastic audience by ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo. The session on Sunday was also a way of introducing AJL to conference attendees who knew little or nothing about the association.
As someone who has organized a number of joint AJL-ALA programs over the past 25 years, I can attest that "A Little Schmooze, A Little Nosh" was a big success. With a few more than 30 attendees at a conference with literally hundreds of simultaneous sessions spread out over 34 hotels and the Washington Convention Center, attracting that many participants is admirable. And, while it was nice to see some familiar faces from AJL, including President Dina Herbert and her beautiful new baby boy, Shai, it was really good that most of the attendees were from outside of AJL. Kathy deserves much credit and praise for pulling this off while navigating the maze of ALA's bureaucracy with just a little help from her friends, veterans of ALA conferences. We look forward to more such events and programs of joint interest at future AJL and ALA conferences beginning in Chicago next June and early July. *Yasher-koyekh, *Kathy! Elliot =================================== Elliot H. Gertel אליהו־צבי גרטל / עלע־הערש גערטל AJL-ALA Liaison Irving M. Hermelin Curator of Judaica (Retired) The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan [email protected]
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