Power Up Conference Workshops

Power Up Conference 2024

A Leadership Conference for Youth Services Managers & Staff

March 21 - 22, 2024, Madison, WI

Register today: go.wisc.edu/c02752

Power Up brings together youth services librarians and staff from public libraries, schools, after-school programs, museums, and other community partners. This year our opening keynote will be Past President of ALSC and REFORMA and award-winning author Lucia Gonzalez. Closing out the conference will be Mimi Ito, author of eight books, including Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Youth Living and Learning with New Media. 

In addition to the great sessions happening during the conference there are also two post-conference workshops offered on Friday afternoon.

• Taking a Stand for True Play with Carissa Christner, Madison Public Library
• Materials Challenge Readiness with Megan Schliesman and Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)
  
  
  

Workshop Offerings 

Local to Madison and can't make the entire conference? Check out these workshops being offered alongside the Power Up Conference. Anyone is welcome to attend either workshop, even if you are unable to attend the conference. 

Materials Challenge Readiness 

with Megan Schliesman and Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)

Friday, March 22, 1:30-4:00 pm 

at Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)

We’ll walk through ways to be prepared for and respond to concerns and challenges in this workshop that will provide opportunities to acknowledge and then decenter fear in order to focus on the reasons why libraries do what they do when it comes to providing community members with diverse materials and a wide range of choices. We encourage all participants to review their library’s mission and selection and reconsideration policy and related procedures in advance. Find out more: go.wisc.edu/7j8o4t

Taking a Stand for True Play 

with Carissa Christner, Madison Public Library

Friday, March 22, 2:00-4:00 pm 

at Madison Public Library 

Would you like to reduce the amount of time spent planning programs for children AND increase the positive outcomes for participants? In this workshop, we will be discussing the various ways that Madison Public Library has embraced the Anji Play approach since 2016 and the benefits for staff, patrons and outreach partners. The workshop will include a tour of the Central Library children’s area play spaces as well as an opportunity for adult play during the workshop, so be sure to wear comfortable shoes! Find out more: go.wisc.edu/7j8o4t

Workshop registration only: https://go.wisc.edu/o15631

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Questions? Email ce-info@ischool.wisc.edu 

Basing Your Programs on Play

Image by Gustavo Rezende from Pixabay

What does research tell us about the importance of play in how children learn? Recently, the ALSC blog shared a post from the ALSC Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee that answers that question.

Citing research, this provocative article can help focus the direction of our early learning library programs for preschoolers that we serve. The committee writes: "This new era of research looks at the differences in instructional approaches in preschools and compares play-based learning to a more traditional academic approach.  Results indicate that play-based settings provide much greater benefits to young children throughout their lives.  Furthermore, academic-based settings not incorporating play-based learning can be detrimental to child development in a variety of ways."

Click here to read this fascinating article and it's well-researched resources. [The Impact of Play During Library Programming. Benham, Tammie. ALSC blog. September 3, 2022.]

Free Storywalk from Curious City & Child's Play!

The fine folks at Curious City and Child's Play have joined forces to offer a super cute, super FREE Storywalk for the book Cat's Colors by Airlie Anderson!

Click HERE for a preview and to register for the files!