<div dir="ltr"><span id="m_4213193050492219320gmail-docs-internal-guid-9dec5910-7fff-76aa-1835-134f11d77f62"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:10.5pt;white-space:pre-wrap">I hope you have had a restful winter break and a successful return back to school. </span><br></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I wanted to share a </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">FREE</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> learning opportunity from the American Library Association’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable’s Addressing Challenges Committee. We will be hosting a webinar, “Preparing for Challenges - How to be Ready Before you get one” on Wednesday, January 18 at 4pm CST! (It will also be recorded, so register to access it afterwards.) </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Topic: Preparing for Challenges - How to be ready before you get one.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Description: Our panelists will discuss how to prepare for challenges - the importance of being proactive, creating strong policies, gathering advocates, etc. Attendees will leave with actionable information on how to build an arsenal of tools to deflect or defend against challenges.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Join to also share your own tools and resources you’ve developed and ways we can all support each other to protect the right to read. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Speakers: </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Shauntee Burns-Simpson is the Associate Director of the Center for Educators & Schools at the New York Public Library.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Mary Grahame Hunter is a youth services librarian at the Ferndale Area District Library in Ferndale Michigan. She serves on the Michigan Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Task Force.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Carla Riemer is a school librarian and current member of the Addressing Challenges Committee of ALA's Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table. She has presented on topics related to comics for young people, including censorship, collection development and publishing trends. She blogs about young adult comics and books at Books I Can't Shut Up About.com</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Candice (Wing-yee) Mack manages system-wide Young Adult Services at the Los Angeles Public Library. She is humbled and thrilled to be a Member-at-Large on the Public Library Association’s (PLA) Board of Directors, the current Chair of YALSA’s Morris Debut Award Committee, and a past President of the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Candice co-authored the “Civics in Society” chapter in Media Literacy for Justice: Lessons for Changing the World (2022), based on the Teens Leading Change civic engagement initiative she created at her library. Candice has taught at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies since 2014, is a former member of San José State University’s Youth Services Program Advisory Committee, a former reviewer for Kirkus and Booklist.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Register here: </span><a href="http://www.bit.ly/PreparingForChallenges" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">www.bit.ly/PreparingForChallenges</span></a><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Check out the Addressing Challenges Committee's Be Prepared! “What to do when a challenge comes” checklist: </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="https://www.ala.org/rt/gncrt/preparing-and-addressing-challenges-comics-library-committee" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">https://www.ala.org/rt/gncrt/preparing-and-addressing-challenges-comics-library-committee</span></a></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Please share with your networks, colleagues, etc. who would find this experience valuable. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">-Eti </span></p></span><br></div>