Topics of Interest

Popular breakout sessions have covered a wide range of school librarianship topics and themes. Do not limit your passion for sharing your knowledge and expertise to the list below; the list was created to give you some starter ideas but is not meant to be all-encompassing. However, these are some suggested topics of interest from past surveys: 

Reading Engagement

• Collection Development including diversity of authors and characters, formats, genres, etc.

• Library Resources for Multi-lingual and SPED Students

• How to Host School Author Visits: In-person and Virtual

• Nurturing a Love of Reading, and/or Building a Reading Culture

• The Science of Reading and Reading Instruction Strategies

• Using OverDrive's Sora App for Diverse Learners and 24/7/365 Access

• Success in Education's Road to Success Reading Initiative

• Reading Incentives using Beanstack and other apps

• Using Teaching Books for Reader's Advisory

• Reading Books Aloud with Children Strategies

• Best of and Award Winners

Information and Research

• Teaching Academic Research and Inquiry

• Introduction to Information Literacy

• Locating and Using Primary Sources

• Teaching Students How to Use Scrible

• Teaching and Using Databases and other UEN Resources, Utah's Online Library, etc.

Media Literacy

• Teaching Media Literacy using News Literacy Project, Project Look Smart, Civics Online Reasoning, etc.

• Digital Citizenship in the Library using Common Sense Media, Media Literacy Now, etc.

• Connecting Books to Film Adaptations with Swank Streaming

• Teaching Media Literacy through Picture Books

• Teaching Media Production Skills

School Library Management

• Drafting Library Policy including Sensitive Materials Reviews and other Challenges

• Managing the Library's Online Presence using Adobe Spark, Canva, etc.

• Managing the Library Space: New Construction or Renovations

• Promotions: Displays, Themes, etc. 

• Grant Writing and Other Funding Resources

• Leveraging the School Library Program

• The School Librarian as a School Leader

• Building, Managing, and Weeding Collections

• Genrification

• Book Repair

Teaching from the School Library

• How to Collaborate with Classroom Educators

• Library Lesson Plans for Elementary: Topics, Resources, etc.

• Library Lesson Plans for Secondary: Topics, Resources, etc.

• Curriculum Connections between Library Books & the Utah Core Standards

• Student Engagement using Nearpod, Flipgrid, Padlet, Google Workspace, etc.

• Managing Behaviors/PBIS

Library Programming

• Library Programming Ideas: Book Tasting, March Madness, Escape Room, Contests, etc.

• Connecting with the Community through Partnerships

• Makerspaces (STREAM/STEAM/STEM)

• One Book, One Classroom/School/Community

• How to Create a Book Walk

• Book or Other Clubs

• Battle of the Books or the Like

 AI presentations will not be solicited for the 2025 Spring Mini-Conferences because the afternoon sessions will focus exclusively on AI in School Libraries.