ECU’s Joyner Library hosts the 2018 Networking Summit for school media coordinators

Published Mar 01, 2018 by
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Joyner Library’s Teaching Resources Center held its 13th annual Librarian to Librarian Networking Summit on Saturday, Feb. 24.

The one-day professional development opportunity featured 25 diverse roundtable discussions on current topics for practicing and pre-service K-12 school media coordinators. Facilitated by experts in the profession, these sessions encouraged attendees to bring resources to share.

Relevant topics discussed this year included Open Educational Resources (OERs), resources and lesson plans for National Poetry Month, celebrating diverse books, evaluating news and resources, supporting social and emotional learning, exploring the new national library standards, and more.

This year’s featured speaker, award-winning children’s author, musician and educator John Claude Bemis, kicked off the summit by entertaining participants with music and inspiring them as he chronicled his journey from elementary school teacher to renowned author.

Works of fiction by Bemis include “The Wooden Prince,” “Lord of Monsters” and “The Nine Pound Hammer.” All proceeds from his picture book, “Flora and the Runaway Rooster,” are donated to Heifer International, an organization working towards ending hunger and poverty. On Friday afternoon, Bemis visited a group of children who participated in the Read to Feed program at Building Hope Community Life Center. Through this program, Building Hope has purchased livestock and fed numerous families in communities supported by Heifer International.

Bemis said, “What an honor to be a part of this gathering of North Carolina’s cutting-edge educators. Joyner Library’s Librarian to Librarian Networking Summit is a tremendous resource for our state. A wealth of ideas is shared that I know will strengthen our schools and foster innovative teaching practices.”

Joyner Library would like to offer special thanks to all 2018 sponsors, Children’s Plus Inc., ECU’s Master of Library Science Department, Oxford University Press and Perma-Bound Books. Without their generous support, the Librarian to Librarian Networking Summit would not be possible.