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APALA Family Literacy Committee Recommended Picture Book List
Get PDFThe Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Family Literacy Committee\u27s Recommended Books List features our Best of the Best Booklist, along with notable books that, while not making the top list, were still enjoyed by the committee. In 2024, the APALA Family Literacy Focus Committee evaluated 130 books. The Recommended Picture Book List includes additional titles the committee believes will be a great addition to readers\u27 collections
Cupcakes in the break room won’t stop me from quitting – but collective care might
No full textIf you have ever experienced burnout or feelings of imposter syndrome in the workplace, these challenges are not personal failings, but rather reflections of inadequate support structures within libraries. Libraries attempt to embrace diversity by creating committees, programs, and hiring techniques to attract BIPOC and non-traditional employees; however, these efforts are often hindered by hostile work environments that place the onus on underrepresented workers to self-care their way through their careers. New and BIPOC librarians are especially vulnerable to burnout as they are socialized to play their role as a caretaker without support from their institution. This popularized individualistic approach to self-care dismisses the systemic inequities that impact underrepresented employees. Instead of providing collective support, solutions often include additional workloads that disregard the root of the problem.
In this presentation, we reject traditional wellness and self-care approaches to burnout by looking at collective care, an approach to well-being that distributes the responsibility among members rather than on the individual. We will examine interdisciplinary fields and activist practices centered on collective care, exploring their potential applications within the context of academic libraries.
Outcomes
This presentation advocates for a commitment to collective care, which is a practice that places everyone\u27s mental well-being as a community responsibility and effort. Attendees will learn about the use of collective care from other fields and communities to brainstorm its application in the library. Attendees will be able to imagine a library workplace that uses collective care in practice and in support of their colleagues, to protect themselves from burnout
Volunteered for Chaos: When AI Pilot Initiatives Go Awry
No full textAI in this day and age is ubiquitous, and so are vendors claiming to have the perfect solution for AI and student learning. Two instruction coordinators, new to their roles and their respective campuses, discuss their experiences in being volun-told to pilot an AI-powered guided reading tool for discipline faculty. When a well-known library vendor approached a consortium of interconnected campuses, three campuses embarked on piloting an AI-powered learning tool. The presenters will reflect on managing a pilot program with minimal support, the undervaluing of librarian-led instruction, and technology pilots as extractive endeavors. They will discuss successes and failures in managing a multi-campus pilot program, recruiting pilot participants, and evaluating the impact of AI tools. The presenters will provide suggestions to library managers and early career or non-tenured library faculty who may find themselves in a similar situation.
Outcomes Understand various strategies and structures for partnering with campus departments in introducing AI products to teaching faculty. Reflect on where the responsibility lies in purchasing, evaluating, and piloting emerging learning technologies. Navigate best practices, pitfalls, and competing goals when taking on (or being volun-told to lead) new products or cross-departmental projects
Power Mapping: A Personal Tool for Navigating Hierarchy Power Structures
No full textIt can feel particularly overwhelming to keep track of and read dynamics between colleagues, especially when it comes to being strategic about who you can rely on for support or not. Ideally, we wouldn’t have to consider subtext, passive aggression, or empty politeness, but as we know, the people around us do not all have our best interests at heart. This knowledge can make or break any of the changes you are trying to make, big or small, to better serve your patrons or to improve your workplace. For those who can benefit from an organizational tool to best analyze the “playing field,” a power map can help put all of your observations in one place. This can be particularly powerful as a tool made collaboratively, for more trusted people to contribute observations, but can also be helpful to use on your own as you might be getting the lay of the land at a new institution. We’ll quickly go through a few key components to a useful power map, and how you use this kind of tool to identify the major players around you at work.
Outcomes Participants will be able to create their own draft of a power map of their own department, or division heads/deans to help them better strategically navigate their institution. Participants can approach this tool collaboratively or solo, depending on their situation
Teaching Black Digital Humanities: Making Space in the Age of Big Tech
No full textIn the age of Big Tech , where companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Apple own a joint monopoly over most tech products, tools, and digital interfaces, data by and about Black people are stolen and erased or used in ways that actively target and harm them. In order to defray this, we must create more Black spaces on the Internet, more digital projects centering Black people and Black experiences, and make digital tools and methods for research accessible to Black students and communities. In this talk, I will briefly discuss three approaches to teaching about/with Black Digital Humanities and their value to the larger landscape of critical tech and humanities literacies, applicable to a variety of different classroom levels: a historical approach, a theoretical approach, and a practical approach.
Outcomes Participants/listeners will gain a basic understanding of what the Black digital humanities are. Participants are able to identify an approach to applying Black digital humanities practice or theory to a classroom setting. Participants are able to name at least one benefit of introducing and/or incorporating principles of Black digital humanities in a classroom setting
Cultivating Counterspace: Building a Community of Practice
No full textWhere dominant narratives often silence or tokenize marginalized voices, creating intentional counterspaces for people of color (POC) in Library and Information Science is essential. As the program manager of a graduate-level, DEI-focused LIS pathway, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of a community of practice rooted in trust, shared identity, and collective care. This session will explore how the Knowledge River model serves as a vital counterspace for emerging POC information professionals to reflect, explore, commiserate, and experiment together.
Our community of practice offers structured-yet-fluid opportunities for graduate students, most of whom identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+, to engage in co-mentorship, critical dialogue, and collaborative praxis. Through regular cohort meetings, reflective journaling, peer-led workshops, and alumni circles, participants are empowered to interrogate the systemic challenges of the profession while co-creating liberatory visions for the future of LIS.
This session will share insights from our evolving practice, highlighting the ways this space allows participants to navigate grief, celebrate joy, and challenge epistemic injustice—all while preparing to enter a field that doesn’t always reflect our values or identities. We will also discuss the tensions that arise within these spaces, and how embracing vulnerability and imperfection is part of the process of authentic community-building.
Attendees will leave with a framework for cultivating their own community of practice, whether within formal programs or grassroots networks, that centers people of color and prioritizes collective growth. In line with the POCinLIS mission, this session invites us to imagine what’s possible when we build with each other, for each other, in the face of systemic and social precarity.
Outcomes Attitude: Attendees will leave with a framework for cultivating their own community of practice, whether within formal programs or grassroots networks, that centers people of color and prioritizes collective growth. Cognitive strategy: Attendees will some away with strategies to think, organize, learn and behave
Addressing Teacher Turnover in Catholic Schools: Lessons Learned from the University Consortium for Catholic Education Model
Get PDFThe United States is experiencing a teacher shortage that threatens the vitality of Catholic Schools. Yet, specialized Catholic school teacher formation programs under the umbrella of the University Consortium for Catholic Education model consistently produce Catholic school teachers who are well-formed for their ministry and who tend to remain employed in Catholic schools. This qualitative, grounded theory study sought to answer these two research questions: 1) Why do Catholic school teachers who are graduates of UCCE teacher preparation programs commit to remaining employed in Catholic schools; and 2) How can the experiences of UCCE program graduates be applied to traditional teacher formation and professional development programs that currently exist to support Catholic schools? The findings, which are drawn from the lived experiences of 10 participants, propose a continuity of formation that spans pre-clinical practice, student teaching, and the first critical years of a novice teacher’s employment in a Catholic school. This formation includes intentional collaboration between university programs and PK-12 Catholic school partners in the areas of faith formation, community-building, and coordinated mentoring and coaching support for aspiring and novice Catholic school teachers
Artificial Intelligence and the Self-Represented Inventor
Get PDFLack of access to competent legal representation is pervasive throughout the justice system. Unfortunately, the patent system is no exception. Self-represented inventors are far less likely to obtain patents than those with legal representation. Increasing access to artificial intelligence (AI) can mitigate some of the disadvantages of self-representation, but using AI will also raise new challenges. To the extent that AI systems can help self-represented inventors, they can begin to address one of the underlying causes of the patent gap—lack of access to high-quality legal services. While AI is no substitute for legal representation, it can be incorporated into the patenting process in limited circumstances to help self-represented inventors.
This Article sets forth the circumstances in which the use of AI would be most useful for self-represented inventors, when the risks outweigh the benefits, and when it may raise barriers to entry for self-represented inventors. It is also the first to identify how the use of AI by the Patent Office to classify and assign applications for examination may unintentionally discriminate against certain inventors. The article concludes with recommendations for the Patent Office to improve upon its efforts to support self-represented inventors and cautions against relying on AI and other technology to satisfy the need for legal representation
“There is Just a Sense of Joy in This Work”: Drivers of Faculty Engagement with Community
Get PDFAmerican universities have been engaged with their communities as long as there have been universities in America. The nature, purpose, and motivation behind that engagement have evolved. This article explores the motivation behind faculty engagement with their communities. We wanted to better understand what compels faculty to participate in and work in the community despite the many and varied barriers that might stand in their way. We explored the why and how of participation with a significant emphasis on the why. This study builds on the work of Wade and Demb[i] and their Faculty Engagement Framework (FEM) described in this paper by answering their call for a “multi-dimensional, dynamic, and holistic description of the factors that affect faculty proclivities to value. . . engagement-related activities”.[ii] Through our qualitative research, we propose that faculty engage in their communities due to various personal and professional motivations, regardless of the institutional supports and practices that universities may provide. We found, however, that without supportive institutional structures in place, universities may not be able to sustain faculty engagement in their communities.
[i] Amy Wade and Ada Demb. “A conceptual model to explore faculty community engagement.” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 15, no. 2 (2009): 5-16. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3239521.0015.201.
[ii] Wade and Demb. A conceptual model, 14
Gen Z and Gen Alpha: Designing Theology Courses for a Digital and AI Generation
Get PDFThis exploratory article examines strategies for teaching theology to Generations Z and Alpha, emphasizing their digital-native traits and unique learning preferences. It argues that theology education thrives when students engage with reflective, creative, and relevant content. Drawing from experiences at a Jesuit college and education research, it introduces the OAEPA strategy—Observation, Analysis, Evaluation, Production, and Assessment—as a framework for designing theology courses. The approach encourages active participation, critical thinking, creativity, and personal relevance, aligning with Jesuit traditions of reflection and discovery. The paper uses examples such as a theme in sacramental theology to show how theological ideas can be meaningful and accessible in the AI and digital age. It also examines Generations Z and Alpha’s shared and unique traits, highlighting the importance of adaptive course designs to foster understanding. While noting cultural and theoretical limits, it underscores the strengths of theology education rooted in thoughtful design and student-centered learning