I spent my time at ALA finally meeting REFORMAistas, the fabulous librarians in prison library land, and attending as many IRRT events as I could.  Connections are being made between the Spanish Language Outreach program, which focuses on Spanish speakers in the US and folks in prisons and on the other side of the border.  It was an exciting time – thanks to all who have given the love to WJ! 

We have lots of pictures from the SLO follow up session, the REFORMA fundraiser, and the IRRT reception (the best parties at ALA!).  We’ll be putting some of those on Flickr soon.  Meanwhile, I wanted to share a few quotes and stories from some of the sessions I attended that sum up the ideas that were flying at ALA.

• “Books plus tortillas equals life” – a quote from an Salvadoran poet shared in response to a presenter who has developed literacy and library programs in Haiti, and who shared that many in the development field say that she shouldn’t be focused on literacy, but instead should be concentrating on feeding people.  Librarians out there, can you name the poet?
• “I go to work every day, and I do the best I can, with what I have.”  The words of an archivist in South Africa to an archivist from University of Connecticut.
• A librarian in Hungary telling the Voices of Exchange about the “library scene” in her country.  I love new names for library land!
• 14% of adult Americans function at Below Basic literacy skill.  This figure is from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy and has not changed since 1992.  Is this a call to libraries?
• An example of a librarian using a blog to connect kids from two different countries, connecting teen library volunteers in Fort Lauderdale, high school teens in Philadelphia, and students from Pretoria, South Africa.

I was excited to learn of how many of you have used WebJunction resources, and not all of you from the U.S.!  Now, you just need to share your stories with us – let us know what you’re doing in you corner of the world.