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HVLA Winter Meeting 2019

By: Gili Warsett
Brooklyn Friends

The HVLA Winter Meeting brought together about forty librarians to think deeply about Diversity and Inclusion in School Libraries. We gathered in Public School 363 – The Neighborhood School’s library hosted by HVLA Vice President Cheryl Wolf.

Cheryl welcomed HVLA into the space. She spoke about the demographics of both The Neighborhood School and PS 63 – STAR Academy, which share a building. HVLA President Karen Grenke and veteran members noted that this was the first time HVLA had held a meeting in a public school, not including the HVLA and NYCSLA meet-up, also hosted by Cheryl Wolf at The Neighborhood School. Continue reading “HVLA Winter Meeting 2019”

ALA Mid-Winter 2019

By: Hannah Mermelstein, St. Ann’s School and Kyle Lukoff, Corlears School

In January, HVLA members Kyle Lukoff and Hannah Mermelstein attended ALA midwinter in Seattle. Below are a few thoughts and highlights from each of us.

Hannah: I spent some time ducking in and out of the exhibit hall, gathering ARCs and listening to publishers present about their favorite upcoming titles. When I needed something that was a little less of a free-for-all, I attended sessions both small and large. One of the larger events was the The President’s Program featuring Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Her presentation was insightful and polished and important, particularly for the vast majority of librarians who are white. Look her up, read her book, watch her speak. Continue reading “ALA Mid-Winter 2019”

NYCSLA/HVLA Cookie Exchange

Anna Murphy
Berkeley Carroll

Last month public school and independent school librarians came together to share cookies and ideas in another successful collaboration between NYCSLA and HVLA. NYCSLA (New York City School Librarians’ Association) is primarily comprised of public school librarians, so this was a great opportunity for independent and public school librarians to connect with one another and share. As we noshed on delicious homemade cookies in Jennifer DeGrace’s beautiful space at The High School for Environmental Studies, we also got to hear from some fantastic librarians.

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Hybrid Learning Consortium

By: Dacel Casey
Trevor School

As a Library Media Specialist, I have found that I, along with my colleagues and peers, often wear more than one hat at our schools. At Trevor my hats include 9th Grade Advising, Model UN Faculty Advisor, and directing our N-12 Community Service and Global Programs. Combined with that, this Fall, I had the opportunity to expand on all of those by teaching an online course focused around Civic Engagement and the youth of today. This course was able to let me combine my passion service and research with teaching and using an online medium. My students, hailing from Miami and Maui, provided unique perspectives on my material and assignments and have helped me future enhanced some my programming at Trevor Day.

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Building Bridges Between HVLA and NYCSLA

By Gili Warsett and Cheryl Wolf
Brooklyn Friends and The Neighborhood School/STAR Academy

Over the past two years, the HVLA Board has been brainstorming ways to build bridges between HVLA members– predominantly independent school librarians–and public school librarians. This past week, HVLA Vice Presidents, Cheryl Wolf and Gili Warsett, were invited to attend a NYC School Library System (NYCSLS) Council meeting. The work of the council is to recommend policy; do long- and short-range planning, and evaluate the system’s services to students/schools. The meeting was held at the offices of the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO). Other organizations represented at the meeting included the teachers union (UFT), New York Library Association (NYLA), Field Support Centers, as well as the New York Public and Queens Library systems, who provide MyLibraryNYC, a partnership between the public and school library systems.

Continue reading “Building Bridges Between HVLA and NYCSLA”