New YALSAblog Member Manager!

I'm excited to announce one of my new roles:

CHICAGO — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has selected Allison Renner, a Teen Services Librarian at the Cordova (Tennessee) Branch Library as its new member manager for the YALSAblog.

“The YALSAblog played a huge part in my life as I earned my Master of Library Science,” said Renner. “I was in an online program, and reading and writing for YALSAblog helped me feel connected to other librarians. As I started my new position as a Teen Services Librarian, I found so much inspiration on the blog, and support from the entire YALSA community. I am eager to bring my hands-on experience as a student and librarian to the position, as well as my interest in promoting diversity and inclusion.”

Renner will serve a one-year term as member manager starting December 1^st.

See the whole press release here.

Celebrating Dreams with Martin Luther King

Today was the first 2016 library program for adults with disabilities! Since Martin Luther King, Jr. day is Monday, he was the subject of the day.


Several individuals knew about Dr. King's life and work, so we started by talking about what we knew. Since we live in Memphis, Tennessee, we have the unfortunate distinction of being the city where Dr. King was shot and killed. Many individuals in today's program have visited the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where there is a tribute to Dr. King on the balcony where he was shot.

By reading A Picture book of Martin Luther King, Jr., we learned a lot about him that we didn't already know. We learned that his birthday is January 15th, which is why Martin Luther King, Jr. day is around that date every January. He graduated from high school at 15 and started college early!

I Have a Dream is a selection from Dr. King's famous speech illustrated by beautiful paintings. We read this one, and then talked about our dreams for a perfect world, or even just a perfect day. We wrote and drew our dreams.


A lot of people said their dream of a perfect world started with their homes or churches -
spending time there with family and friends who care about them.


One person traced his hand and drew people holding hands across it.


This just might be my favorite...all the colors working together to make a beautiful picture.

I've also written about previous library programs for adults with disabilities.