May: Street Smart: Urban Fiction in Public Libraries

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

• 2:00–3:00 PM Eastern
• 1:00–2:00 PM Central
• 12:00–1:00 PM Mountain
• 11:00 AM–12:00 PM Pacific

“Street Lit is all about stories: Stories that come from real lives lived in neighborhoods where streets, sidewalks and corners interweave and intersect and connect… Stories about human beings who walk, talk, and think, laugh, cry, and drink, fight, make love and raise kids, sometimes right on stoops and porches… Stories about communities where money can be seemingly scarce or found hidden underground a mainstream economy… as above, so below…” —Vanessa Irvin Morris
Join PLA and presenter Vanessa Irvin Morris for an hour-long webinar highlighting the popular literary genre, street lit, also known as urban fiction. Morris will not only explore the historical context for the genre as well as the characteristics and sub-genres, she’ll also provide concrete ideas for collection development, readers’ advisory and programming.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this one-hour webinar, participants will:

• Understand the evolution of street lit as we know it today
• Articulate the difference between urban fiction and street lit
• Refer to established resources for the purpose of collection development and readers advisory

Who Should Attend

Public library staff responsible for collection development, readers’ advisory, and programming. Any staff interested in this growing and relevant genre.

Instructor

Vanessa Irvin Morris is assistant teaching professor of library and information science at the iSchool, College of Information Science and Technology at Drexel University, Philadelphia. She has career experience serving in various libraries: academic, special, school media, and public. Her research focuses on librarian professional development and literacy practices enacted and learned via social media platforms. As author of the award-winning book, The Readers Advisory Guide to Street Literature (2011, ALA Editions) and the blog site, “StreetLiterature.com,” Morris is a highly sought out expert on the genre of urban literature and inner-city literacies. Her doctorate’s degree is in reading/writing/literacy from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Continuing Education Credits

PLA does not award credit hours, or CEUs, for its webinars and cannot verify participation. Individual registrants who attend the webinar will receive a follow up e-mail that could be used to verify attendance. For those participating as part of a group registration (defined as people gathered in one room at one location to participate in the live webinar broadcast) we recommend assigning a staff member to take attendance on-site if verification of attendance is needed.

Fee

Individual

• PLA Personal Member: $28.00
• ALA Personal Member: $31.50
• Nonmember: $35.00

Group

• Group of any size: $129.00

For purposes of group registration, a group is defined as people gathered in one room at one location to participate in the live webinar broadcast. We suggest that groups, especially larger groups, plan ahead to use an LCD/LED projector in the room to project the webinar. Groups will also want to have speakers capable of amplifying the webinar audio for the entire room.
Neither individual nor group registration includes permission to rebroadcast or redistribute this webinar. Thank you for your cooperation.

How to Register

DEADLINE TO REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR IS 4:30 PM CENTRAL ON MONDAY, MAY 13, 2013. Due to technical preparations for the webinar we are unable to process any registrations after this date/time.
To register with a credit card, click here to begin the online registration process. On ALA’s Online Registration page select the “Register” link next to the course you wish to attend. You will need to enter your ALA ID and password. If you do not have an ALA ID and password, you will be asked to create one. Please note: Once your registration is processed, you will receive a receipt/confirmation e-mail containing additional information about accessing the webinar on the day of the event.