Alice Henderson, SELCO - PLA Scholarship Recipient
Plainview Public Library

I had a late arrival to PLA so today was my official Day 1.  I started the morning with Author's Reader Theatre  featuring Avi, Pam Munoz Ryan, Brian Selznick, and Sarah Weeks.  They had each adapted 2 of their stories into theatrical performances that they delivered together, with texts in hand.  This is an incredibly talented group and the pieces were very moving.  I think this would be a wonderful (and very doable) way that libraries could engage audiences in a broad range of stories.

My next session was Technozoo presented by Leonard Souza.  This was a show-and-tell sesion of current and upcoming technologies.  He talked about peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies and how they allow users to share the work of perpetuating a service which eliminates the need for a large number of servers in a central location.  P2P certainly got a bad reputation for its piracy applications but the technology itself is proving to be a very powerful resource.  He also highlighted devices such as the iPhone, Nintendo DS, the Sony and Amazon kindle eReaders, and Microsoft Surface which if you haven't heard of it, is well-worth a peek for the shear "awe" value.  He ended by challenging libraries to consider how we can make ourselves accessible on these types of devices and "become as functional online as you are offline."  You can download his presentation at http://www.acidblueltd.com/download/presentation.zip.

I also attended Science Quest: Creating Weird, Wild and Wonderful Programs at Your Library by Nadine Rosendale and Jacqueline Sollers.  They started with a statistic that I found quite disheartening.  In 2000, 82% of our nation's 12th graders performed below a proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress science test.  It was this information that prompted them to implement their Aha! Science programs in the libraries of Carrol County, MD.  They demonstrated a variety of experiments that are inexpensive to do and engaging for all ages.  Their experiments are inquiry-based so participants are making predictions and truly engaging in the activities.  You can download their Bibliography and Resources as well as their Planning Checklist.  For copies of the Aha! Science handouts, go to http://library.carr.org/aha/default.asp.