Symposium

A letter from Brian Soneda, Director, Mount Vernon City Library

On November 1, a carpool of four Early Learning Public Library Partnership (ELPLP) members from Skagit County drove down to the ELPLP Symposium. We had a great time and learned a lot. Dr. Lebedeva, of UW I-LABS, made brain research clear and utterly fascinating. As a history major, I have always thought was impossible. Some of the best learning happened when we talked to our ELPLP colleagues and the presenters informally over lunch and breaks.

A lot of the attendees were Youth Services staff members from their respective libraries, including Linda Allen (Mount Vernon Library) and Kathy Brewer (Sedro-Woolley Public Library) from our carpool.  You’d expect that; those on the frontlines of providing service to Early Learners probably have the most to gain from the Symposium.

But I know there were at least two library directors at the Symposium. Debra Peterson (Sedro-Woolley) and I (Mount Vernon) are both committed charter members of ELPLP. ELPLP library directors get some credit for the work we do to get our libraries to fund our memberships in ELPLP. The valuable work ELPLP does on behalf of the Early Learning mission in our libraries does not come cheap. To be blunt, we DESERVE credit for our work on making ELPLP happen.

But Debra and I are also proud to advocate for the value of ELPLP simply by attending the Symposium. Directors get a lot out of attending too. And if anyone were to say Presidents of Washington Library Association also get a lot out of attending, the office I hold had nothing to do with my decision to attend, but if it looks like the stamp of approval to anyone, I’m good with that.

This week Foundation for Early Learning hosted the Early Learning Public Library Partnership Symposium, and asked attendees to let us know their very favorite early learning books (yes, they could choose more than one). Here are the wonderful early learning books they shared.