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Episode 30: Storytelling Is Belonging with Dr. Hatice Karaaslan Post one image to a shared board. Then take the stage and tell the true story behind it. Two minutes, maximum. In this episode of The Library Stage (our first international guest!) Amanda Hunt welcomes Dr. Hatice Karaaslan, a cognitive scientist and instructor in Turkey who coordinates the student mentorship program at her university's Learning and Teaching Center and is a Google Certified Innovator. The activity is called the One Slide Show, created with her colleague Dr. Ahmet Çolak. Participants get five minutes to pick one thing: an image, a video, a quote, a poem then post it to a Padlet wall, then tell the personal story behind it in two minutes or less. The constraint is the design. One slide keeps the scope small enough that anyone can enter, and the clock forces people to find what's actually real in their story. The brain is wired for narrative: a number presented as data gets forgotten, and the same number inside a story sticks. Pillar: 🧡 EdTech 💡 Steal-this-idea: The One Slide Show. One image, one video, one quote, one thing. Five minutes to find it, two minutes to tell the story behind it, volunteers first. The small scope is what makes people willing to start, and the clock is what makes what they say land. 📌 Let people watch before they participate. The students who became the most expressive storytellers almost all started as bystanders who stopped to see what was happening. 🛠️ Resources: Padlet — her tool of choice for this and her courses. Participants can post anonymously or by name, and read and respond to each other's entries.Her Padlet example — the actual board from the activityPlus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring: 📖 The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall — the cognitive science of why our brains are built for narrative, and why a story outlasts a statistic.Follow Dr. Karaaslan: 💼 LinkedIn: Hatice Karaaslan | 📸  Learning and Teaching Center’s Instagram (@aybuogmer) Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #Storytelling #LearnerAutonomy #Padlet #EdTech #StudentVoice #Belonging #SelfAccessLearning #InternationalEducation The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 29: Civics in Action with Rain Smith Students registered to vote, showed up at the polls, and felt lost. So Rain Smith called her county voting office and asked them to bring a machine to school. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Rain Smith, a high school librarian in Indiana beginning her twenty-seventh year in education and tenth in the library, and chair of the Association of Indiana School Library Educators. Government classes cover voting in the abstract. Nothing in her building did anything bold and forward-facing about it. So she registered the library as a National Voter Registration Day site. A government teacher walked in, saw it, and said we should do this together next year. Four years on it's a three-day event: a superintendent on the school referendum, a judge on why judicial races matter, stations on local races and disability rights in the booth, pledge cards, a signed poster in the hallway, and the League of Women Voters manning tables. Last year they registered 200+ students, plus staff: cafeteria workers, custodians, subs, anyone not registered locally. Her framing: K–12 isn't about teaching kids to get a job. It's about preparing people who can care for themselves and their communities. Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Call your county voting office and ask for a sample voting machine. Nearly every locality has one or can get one, and those staff are often glad for the outreach, especially outside peak season. Students who've pushed the buttons once aren't afraid of the booth. It works at any level: hold a vote on the best classroom stuffie and bring the machine in for that. 🛠️ Resources: National Voter Registration Day — register as a site and they send posters, stickers, digital downloads, and speaker videosLeague of Women Voters — they want to help, and they'll move fastCheck out Rain's Canva templates in the resources spreadsheet📌 Keep current books on voting, voting rights, and representation in your collection year-round, not just on a November display. Rain made a visual book list that lives in the government teacher's classroom so students know what's available when they need it. Follow Rain: 🦋 Personal: Bluesky: @simplyrain.bsky.social LinkedIn School: 📱Instagram: @wchs_medctr Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #HighSchoolLibrary #VoterRegistration #CivicEngagement #LibraryProgramming #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #CivicsInAction #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 28: Advocacy Is Problem Solving with Cherity Pennington Nobody else wakes up in the morning thinking about the school library. Cherity Pennington built her whole advocacy practice around that fact. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Cherity Pennington, an Oklahoma educator for twenty-seven years and a teacher librarian for fifteen, now at Norman High School. She's past president of the Oklahoma Library Association, co-editor of the second edition of AASL's National School Library Standards, and a 2026 School Library Journal Librarian of the Year finalist. Early on she thought advocacy meant making pretty charts for her principal. Then she realized teachers are thinking about classroom management, principals about achievement, superintendents about strategic goals, parents about their own kid, and every one of those is a problem the library can solve. Advocacy is making yourself the obvious answer to the problem someone already has. Her three rules: build relationships long before you need anything, adopt other people's goals as your own, and tell the story behind the number. Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Ask every teacher one question: what's the one standard or learning activity you need the most support with? Then go solve it. It's a relationship, a lesson, and an advocacy win in a single conversation. 🛠️ Resources: AASL Standards ResourcesPlus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring three professional reads: 📖 Strengthening Library Ecosystems by Dorcas Hand, Sarah Kelly Johns, Michelle Robertson, and Aaron Duffy: how librarians across all library types can advocate for each other📖 National School Library Standards, second edition including a full advocacy section built for reflection and planning real conversations📖 Assessing Learners by Elizabeth Burns — short, practical, and the reference for proving your students are learningFollow Cherity: 💼 LinkedIn: Cherity Pennington Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #LibraryAdvocacy #HighSchoolLibrary #AASL #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #LibraryLeadership #AdvocacyMatters #TLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 27: Twelve Days of Giveaway with Jennifer Brusenhan For the last twelve days before winter break, Jennifer Brusenhan sends kids home with a book that's theirs to keep and the staff decides who gets one. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Jennifer Brusenhan, an elementary librarian in New Braunfels, Texas, building a library program from the ground up at a campus that opened last year. A spreadsheet goes out to staff in November, and any adult on campus can nominate. The priority is kids who don't have much access to books at home, but nominations also go to kids who showed growth: a behavior turnaround, a jump in reading level, a good run on tests. Each certificate names the student, the reason, and who nominated them, so a kid learns the PE coach noticed them helping clean up. Four or five names go out on morning announcements each day across mixed grade levels. Kids come pick any book from the stack and leave with the book, the certificate, and a goodie bag. Kindergartners ask if they really get to keep it. Her advice for anyone building a program from scratch: don't roll it all out at once. Small things, one at a time. Pillar: 🩷 Literacy 💡 Steal-this-idea: Who Am I cards. Clues about a historical figure i.e. birth year, accomplishments, details that don't give it away, posted on a hallway bulletin board with a guess box, or read over morning announcements. 🛠️ Resources: Who Am I cards and Guessing template — Jennifer's sets, ready to printPebble Go — her pick for elementary research, and what students use to crack the Who Am I cluesPlus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring: 📖 Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln by Margarita Engle — a true story kids don't believe is true until you pull up the research with them. Great for Hispanic Heritage Month, Women's History Month, or any time of year.📌 Jennifer shares free resources constantly, including Beanstack templates — worth a follow for that alone. Follow Jennifer: 📱 @TexasAggieLibrarian on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook | 🦋 Bluesky: @TXAggieLibrarian | ✖️ X: @AggieLibrarian1 Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #ElementaryLibrary #BookGiveaway #LibraryProgramming #ReadingCulture #SchoolCulture #NewLibrarian #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #TLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 26: Starting Over Is a Skill with Heather Hornor Twenty-five years in, Heather Hornor got laid off and had to start over again. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Heather Hornor, an educator, librarian, and library administrator in public education for twenty-five years in Texas and now in Portland, Oregon. She's started over a lot: classroom to a 300-student elementary library, elementary to a 5,000-student high school, campus to district admin, and now back again, and she's built a method for it. Pick two to three goals for your first year, fully expecting to finish one or two. Half a goal is still movement. And don't measure your year one against someone else's year twenty. Then lead with what you already know. Heather calls it flaunting your knowledge: she walked into a brand-new district in a brand-new state and landed on the leadership team because she showed what she brought to the table. Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Find your state's Law for Librarians trainer. 🛠️ Resources: ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom — how to find your Law for Librarians trainerMentimeter — Heather's favorite tool, especially for adult learning and PD. Polls, simple presentations, and a real way to interact with an audience.Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring: 📖 The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker — the Trojan War retold from the women's side. An older title, accessible, and, from a self-described Greek mythology nerd, impossible to overstate. Especially good if the new Odyssey adaptation has you thinking about Homer.Follow Heather: 📱 Instagram: @mrs.hornor | 🦋 Bluesky: @heatherpnwtx | 💼 LinkedIn Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #NewLibrarian #LibraryLeadership #IntellectualFreedom #Literacy #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #LawForLibrarians #ALA #TLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 25: DINO-vember with Jacquelyn Wilson Every November, Jacquelyn Wilson's elementary library becomes DINO-vember and it started because her coworkers were too good at their jobs. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Jacquelyn Wilson, library media specialist at Stonebridge Elementary in Spanish Fort, Alabama, and current president of the Alabama School Library Association. When teachers at her campus took over Balloons Over Broadway and the Veterans Day read alouds during November, she went looking for something nobody else was doing and landed on the one subject every kid already loves. The promo is half the fun: a $35 inflatable T. rex, a Jurassic Park–style commercial filmed by her PE coach, and Jacquelyn greeting car line in costume while kindergartners wonder if a dinosaur is loose in the building. Behind the costume it's a month of scaffolded research: fourth graders prompting an AI image generator to render their dinosaur accurately, first graders meeting research through Pebble Go, second grade doing media literacy, third grade guessing a fossil photo before anyone says what it is. Plus fossil rubbings, dino origami, and measuring how many second graders long a brachiosaurus is in masking tape across the library floor. Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Three from Jacquelyn: Teacher bookshelfBook of the dayMusical chairs with chapter books🛠️ Resources: Pebble Go graphic organizer — her dinosaur research organizer for early elementaryProject Look Sharp — free media literacy lessons, including the one she uses on dinosaur imageryHer DINO-vember book list — constantly growing, fiction and nonfictionPebble Go -- research for elementary studentsFollow Jacquelyn: 📱 Instagram: @the_story_teacher Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #ElementaryLibrary #DinoVember #LibraryProgramming #Research #MediaLiteracy #PassiveProgramming #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #ASLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 24: What It Costs to Stand Up with Charlotte Wood *CONTENT WARNINGS: PTSD, BOOK BANNING & CENSORSHIP On day fifteen of her first year as a librarian, the Charlotte Wood was given a list of books the school board wanted pulled. She wasn't even familiar with the collection yet. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Charlotte Wood, high school librarian at Monticello High School in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a thirty-year education veteran. This is the story of what happened at Madison County High School in 2022–23, told in full for the first time since it happened. Twenty-one titles. A board member who read excerpts aloud but admitted he hadn't read the books. A librarian PLC meeting where Charlotte was the only person who spoke up for intellectual freedom, and board meetings where she was the only staff member who showed up at all. Teachers told her privately they supported her. None of them came. But this is also a story about the people who did show up. Community members who followed her to her car when she was afraid to leave a board meeting alone. The public librarian who bought every banned title so students could still get them. A GoFundMe that put 210 books on her shelves, funded by strangers across the country. Charlotte's motto, from Audre Lorde: "My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you." Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Call your public librarian. When Madison County's titles came off the school shelves, the public library director made sure every one of them was in her collection, then walked over with library card applications. Censorship at the district level doesn't have to mean a student loses access. 🛠️ Resources: Charlotte's slideshow and presentation — including the full list of the twenty-one pulled titles and interview coverageALA Office for Intellectual Freedom — who she reached out to, and who supported her through itPlus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring: 📖 The twenty-one banned titles — Charlotte's recommendation is the list itself. They're still banned in Madison County and they're not coming back. Buy them, read them, and put them in students' hands somewhere else.Email: [email protected]  Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #BannedBooksWeek #BannedBooks #IntellectualFreedom #FreedomToRead #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #LibraryAdvocacy #ALA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 23: Why Are All the Black Librarians Gathering in the School Library? with Erika Long For generations we've asked why representation matters in books. Erika Long wants us to ask why it matters behind the circulation desk. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Erika Long, certified school librarian, adjunct lecturer, founder of Not Yo Mama's Librarian LLC, and editor of Why Are All the Black Librarians Gathering in the School Library? Stories and Lessons, out this month. She names the paradox plainly: libraries champion diversity and build inclusive collections, yet the profession itself is 80 to 87% white, with roughly 6% of librarians Black and fewer still in school libraries. Her book collects fifteen voices, the librarian who found the profession because someone finally saw them, the Black male librarian who has never met another Black male elementary librarian, the one documenting microaggressions in a private journal. What surprised her: nobody centered their story on victimhood. Every contributor names a barrier and turns toward possibility. Her closing ask: every student deserves to see possibilities standing in front of them, not just on the shelves. Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Lego book covers. Run a popular title's cover through a Lego-style generator, print it big, and hang it on the end of a shelving unit with a pad of sticky notes beside it. Kids post their guesses, argue with each other, and go check the book out when they figure it out. Erika ran it around Banned Books Week, and the community-building is the real payoff. 🛠️ EdTech tool: The Canva presentation remote. Control slides from your phone, plus emoji reactions, a drum roll, applause, timers, and music, and you're free to walk the room instead of standing at your laptop. 📖 Featured: Why Are All the Black Librarians Gathering in the School Library? Stories and Lessons, edited by Erika Long — with blurbs from Lauren Mobley, K.C. Boyd, and Becky Calzada. Don't skip The Quiet Part Out Loud at the end of each chapter, or Beyond the Page, her action items and discussion questions. Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring: 📖 Night Ride by Christopher Myers — a wordless picture book Erika loves to her core. Vibrant and completely quiet at the same time.Follow Erika: 📱 Instagram: @notyomamaslibrarian | 💼 LinkedIn: Erika Long | 🦋 Bluesky: @erikaslong.bsky.social Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #Representation #DiversifyLibrarianship #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #LibraryLeadership #AASL #ALA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Heather Schubert will tell you straight out that she has always struggled with book clubs. This is the version that finally worked. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Heather Schubert, librarian at middle school in central TX, who runs Battle of the Books across district lines, partnering with two middle schools in Dripping Springs ISD, and a fourth school joining this year. Four rounds a year, two books per round, chosen by the librarians and voted on by the students. Heather buys each kid at least one book per round so they can write in it. They meet weekly during a 25-minute advisory period, all three grade levels together, which means eighth graders end up mentoring timid sixth graders who now have someone to wave to in the hall. The battles themselves rotate between campuses, with a breakfast spread the kids sign up to bring. Questions go up on the big screen, each school huddles at its own table with a giant whiteboard, and everyone holds up their answer when time is called. A trophy for the winning school, medals for every participant. Her real point is who shows up. These aren't the sporty kids. They're the quiet readers who don't have an obvious place to plug in, and this became theirs. Pillar: 🩷 Literacy 💡 Steal-this-idea: Let the students write the practice. Heather's team members come up with questions they think might get asked, then build Kahoots to challenge each other between battles. They're doing the close reading work themselves, and it's more fun than anything she'd have assigned. 🛠️ Resources: KahootHeather's library website📖 Heather's book recommendations Follow Heather: 🌐 Her library website — she's not much for social media, so this is the place Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #BattleOfTheBooks #MiddleSchoolLibrary #BookClub #LibraryProgramming #StudentVoice #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #TLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 21: Diamond or Dud? Weeding Is a Lesson with Heather Arguello Heather Arguello adds about a thousand books to her collection every year. Which means every summer, a thousand books have to go. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Heather Arguello, school librarian at Almaden Country Day School in San Jose, California, a pre-K through eighth grade campus of about 425 students, where circulation has tripled under her watch from roughly 8–10,000 a year to over 30,000. Diamond or Dud works like this: students fill out a half-sheet slip with the title, author, call number, and copyright year, then evaluate the book against five criteria and circle a verdict. Diamond, meaning it's been sitting there unnoticed. Or dud, meaning there's a reason nobody's checked it out. Heather wants five slips per book before she decides. If a kid falls for a book mid-evaluation, they can check it out that day and save it. Her point: weeding isn't magic, and kids should know that. When they're part of it, the collection becomes theirs. Pillar: 🩷 Literacy 💡 Steal-this-idea: Raffle the new releases. Students enter their name for the chance to be the first to check out an anticipated title, which means they learn what's coming out and when, and a new book arrives with a waiting list instead of sitting on a display. 🛠️ Resources: Diamond or Dud evaluation template — Heather's half-sheet student slip, ready to print Follow Heather: 📱 Instagram: @borntobealibrarian Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #Weeding #CollectionDevelopment #ElementaryLibrary #MiddleSchoolLibrary #StudentVoice #LibraryLessons #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 20: Passion Clubs Are Programming with Rachel Joiner At AASL, everyone at the table was naming their sessions. Passive programming. Law for librarians. Then they got to Rachel, who said she was going to Pokémon. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Rachel Joiner, librarian at Advent Episcopal School in Birmingham, Alabama, chair of the Yellowhammer Middle Grade Committee, and head of a library recently named ASLA's School Library of the Year. What she found at that panel: ALA ships libraries a free Pokémon starter kit, and the whole thing is built to remove barriers. Rachel opened it to K–8 against every kindergarten teacher's advice and had to cap enrollment. Her actual argument is bigger than Pokémon: low-stakes, no-barrier clubs built around whatever your students are already obsessed with. Legos, K-pop, D&D, squishies. Just ask them, then open the door. Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Passports. After genrefying her fiction, Rachel made a Genre Passport: 12 genres listed, read 10, get a literary prize pack at the end of the year. Kids check out a book and she stamps it. She added a Newbery Passport the next year to push new titles, and it was a raging success. Finished readers get their photo up in the library with the date. Some kids worked both at once, and a Classics passport is coming this year. Her checkouts are up. 🛠️ Resources: ALA Pokémon Club kit: still available to apply for, and she says you'll be amazed at what they sendAll other resources linked here Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring: 📖 Rachel's book recommendation — her favorite middle grade read of the year, still under consideration for the Yellowhammer list + 2 more professional titles! Follow Rachel: 📱 FB @thesouthernliterarion Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #PokemonClub #LibraryProgramming #ElementaryLibrary #MiddleSchoolLibrary #PassionProjects #StudentVoice #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #ASLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 19: Keira's Closet with Margie Longoria A student walked into the library and asked if she could set up a hygiene closet for her Eagle Scout project. Four years later, it's still open...and it's still named after her. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Margie Longoria, high school librarian at Mission High School in the Rio Grande Valley, editor of Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America, and founder of the Border Book Bash. Margie said yes without fully understanding what she was saying yes to. Four years on it's closer to a small store: spirit shirts collected from graduating seniors and washed, then clothes, shoes, jackets, prom dresses, suits. When a student's family lost their house to a fire, she sent them off with everything they needed to get through a hotel stay. Her framing is the part worth carrying: it's a kindness closet. An empathy closet. Somewhere a kid learns that someone did something for them, and maybe, later, does something for someone else. Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Ask your people. Margie's entire supply chain is a Facebook post to friends, former students, and community members — most of whom want to help and just don't know what's needed. Be specific about what you're short on, and say it out loud more than once. 🎬 CURTAIN CALL — this week's rapid-fire recs: 📖 Book: Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America  ⚒️ Edtech tool: How to Make an Amazon Wishlist Follow Margie: 📱 Instagram: @margiesmustreads — she's happy to answer questions or send photos of the closet setup Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #HighSchoolLibrary #CommunityCloset #StudentNeeds #LibraryAdvocacy #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #RGV #TLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 18: The Library Is a Community Center with Melissa Silerio We say the library is the heart of the school. Mel Silerio thinks we can do better than that. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Melissa Silerio, in her sixteenth year in education and now the librarian at Charlene McKenzie Middle School in Mansfield ISD, where she also serves on TLA's Reading List Committee and the North Texas Teen Book Festival Steering Committee. Her argument: "heart of the school" is a beautiful sentiment and a vague job description. What does being the heart actually mean? Underneath that sits a reframe she's carried for years: you are the facilitator. You plan the programming, one kid shows up, and you feel like a failure. But your job was to provide the opportunity...and you did. Then she gets practical with Create & Connect, the monthly drop-in program she ran all last year. Low tech, low cost, no sign-up. Plus where she finds ideas and supplies on almost no budget, and the free author visits worth knowing about. Pillar: 🩵 Discovery 💡 Steal-this-idea: Make it a drop-in, not a club. No Google Form, no cap, no passes. It's less work for you and it lowers the barrier for the kid who's never been to the library. Curtain Call: 📱Edtech tools: Beanstack⁠ — for reading challenges and contestsBookelicious⁠ — inexpensive and sometimes free author webinars and student book review opportunities🛠️ Resources mentioned: Latinx Kidlit Book Festival — free virtual author visits, plus an entire back catalog on YouTubeNorth Texas Teen Book Festival - March 5-6, 2027📌 Mel presented the full-length version of this talk as a TCEA webinar, released August 13 Follow Melissa: 📱 Instagram: @melsilerio | Her library: @cmmslibrary Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #MiddleSchoolLibrary #LibraryProgramming #CommunityBuilding #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #PassiveProgramming #TLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 17: You Too Can Ditch Dewey with Lauren Claymon Everyone talks about ditching Dewey at the elementary level. Lauren Claymon is here to tell secondary librarians it works just as well for you. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Lauren Claymon, high school librarian in Liberty Hill ISD serving both Liberty Hill High School and Legacy Ranch High School, and chair of the TLA TAYSHAS Reading List. It started with a shelving problem. Pulling nonfiction for her OnRamps Rhetoric students, Lauren found herself crossing the whole library to gather books that clearly belonged together. Why is civil rights in the 300s when some vendors put it in the 900s? Why is LeBron in biography instead of sports? True crime turned out to be scattered across four sections at once. Her results make the case: a massive increase in nonfiction circulation. Her conclusion is blunter than the usual line — it's false that teenagers don't want nonfiction. They just don't know how to find it. Pillar: 🩷 Literacy 💡 Steal-this-idea: Do your labels last. Move the books, change every call number in your catalog, then print all your labels at once from a resource list. 📌 Lauren presented this at TLA with her colleague Julie Jennings. Dreaming of Ditching Dewey Nonfiction Categories Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring: 📖 Lauren's book recommendations — as TAYSHAS chair, she came with a rapid-fire list Follow Lauren: 📱 @lkclaymon @lhhslibrary Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #DitchDewey #Genrefication #HighSchoolLibrary #Nonfiction #CollectionDevelopment #LibraryOrganization #SecondaryLibrary #TAYSHAS #TLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 16: Is it Worth the Badge? with Deborah Zeman Thirty-two digital badges. One of them certifies her as an expert in a platform that no longer exists. In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Deborah Zeman, high school librarian at Hebron High School in Lewisville ISD, chair of the TLA Spirit of Texas Reading Committee, publisher liaison for the Young Adult Round Table, 2024 TLA Branding Iron Award recipient, Adobe ACE Innovator, and Wakelet Certified Trainer. Her question: micro-credentials are everywhere, and school librarians have leaned in hard; we're the ones handed a new tool in September and expected to be the building expert by October. So is it worth the badge? Deb argues both sides. Where she lands is the useful part. Pillar: 🧡 EdTech 💡 Steal-this-idea: Three questions before you start any micro-credential. Does it change my practice or just my paperwork? Is the skill transferable if the tool dies? And does it feed something bigger than itself? Ask what it replaces in your practice, not what it adds to your bio. Grab Deb's resources: 📖 Deb's book recommendations: she reads and recommends across middle grade, young adult, and adult🛠️ Her Linktree is a genuinely enormous collection of shared resourcesMicrocredentials Resource ListQueen Mel's Email Signature with Badges Follow Deb: 📱 @z_brarian across platforms | ✉️ [email protected] Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: [email protected] Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com #TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #EdTech #MicroCredentials #ProfessionalDevelopment #HighSchoolLibrary #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #DigitalBadges #TLA #TxASL The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.