Whether #AASL21 in Salt Lake City in October was your first or your tenth American Association of School Librarians National Conference, I suspect your schedule was something like mine. At every hour of the concurrent sessions, I found two and sometimes three sessions that I would have liked to have attended.

As an attendee who prefers to make a commitment to a speaker or panel rather than session hop, I missed a number of sessions that now, thanks to recordings made by AASL, I can listen to at my convenience.

If you registered for the conference or if you pay a fee, you can access the conference recordings at https://aasl.digitellinc.com/aasl

Core Values at AASL
Many contributors to our book Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage shared outstanding presentations at the conference. I am grateful to them for sharing their knowledge and experience and when appropriate, making connections for participants to their chapters in our book.

Photograph of CVSL Contributors/Presenters:
Erika Long, Suzanne Sannwald, Julie Stivers, Judi Moreillon,
Suzanne Sherman, Meg Boisseau Allison, and Nancy Jo Lambert

The following is a menu of Core Values contributors’ recordings. The number in parentheses is the page on which each is found on the AASL Conference recordings site. Each presenter’s book chapter is referenced after their name. If they served on a panel, I did not include the names of their panel mates.

Evolving Practices in Creating a Reading Culture (1) panel with Erika Long (Chapter 1 Equity)

The Power of Manga + Anime in Our Libraries (1) by Julie Stivers (Chapter 2 Diversity)

Core Values Lighting Our Way: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Intellectual Freedom panel with Erika Long, Julie Stivers, Meg Boisseau Allison, and Suzanne Sannwald (2) (Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4)

Radical Inclusion in Every School (4) by Meg Boisseau Allison (Chapter 3 Inclusion)

The Social-Emotional Learning Commons (4) panel with Suzanne Sannwald (Chapter 4 Intellectual Freedom)

Inclusive Collections: A Frank Conversation about Diversity in Library Resources (6) by Nancy Jo Lambert (Chapter 2 Diversity)

Curate a Digital Library (8) by Nancy Jo Lambert (Chapter 2 Diversity)

Centering Our Values through Classroom-Library Collaboration: The Key to Enacting School Librarian Leadership (9) by Judi Moreillon (Chapter 9 Collaboration)

ABC-CLIO Special Offer
Our book is available through ABC-CLIO at a 20% discount through the month of December. This is the discount code to use at checkout: Q42120,

Core Values Book Study
In December, we will complete the Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage book study. Two blog posts will be devoted to Chapter 8: Advocacy and two will focus on Chapter 9: Collaboration.

“The contributors to this book seek to provide colleagues with a ‘home.’ When we are connected to others who share our values, we are able to provide security for one another and our library stakeholders as we rise up to meet the opportunities and challenges of today and tomorrow” (Moreillon xii).

For me, attending #AASL21 face to face, live and in person, felt like coming “home.” Thank you to everyone who presented and attended for coming together for this outstanding learning opportunity.

Works Cited

Brown, Brené. 2018. Dare to Lead, Brave Work, Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Vermillion: London.

Moreillon, Judi. 2021. “Introduction.” In Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage, ed. Judi Moreillon, ix-xiv. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.