Allow me to warmly thank the conference committee for their time and commitment to making this a successful conference. For the 2025 CSLA Conference, I have the privilege of welcoming you to the beautiful Signia Hotel in downtown San Jose. We are confident this will be a comfortable space for all of our events - social, professional development, networking, and recreational.
President Hohl’s conference theme, Stronger Together, is an apt description of all the work and planning put into making this a memorable and productive conference.
What to Bring
For your packing list:
If you like to dress up, Saturday night is the time to do it. The California Young Reader Medal (CYRM) banquet is included in all full conference registration, and while the suggested attire is business casual, you are welcome to wear your bling or something more formal.
Dress in layers and bring a sweater. Conference facilities can be downright chilly in some rooms and a bit warmish in others.
Bring some cash. The California School Library Foundation (CSLF) will be selling raffle tickets and items at their table in the Exhibit Hall. There will also be no-host bars at several events; Exhibit Hall Grand Opening, Friday Evening Reception and Dance, and the CYRM Author & Illustrator Banquet.
Please bring any old conference bags you are willing to donate for the 2026 Conference. We will be reducing a bit of our carbon footprint by reusing bags instead of purchasing new.
Finally, if you are able, we are collecting new or “like new” board books, which will be distributed to families in need.
Events
I’d like to highlight a few of our events that have changed from years past:
NEW: The regions are having get-togethers by Section Saturday 4-5pm
Check Whova for details.
2. BIRDS OF A FEATHER MEETINGS: Friday 2:30-4pm
Meet at these Job-Alike gatherings to exchange ideas and talk specifically about issues that are particular to your situation. This year you’ll be meeting with a host and heading out for a working lunch.
Check Whova for details of where to meet.
3. Wellness Events: Take some time to care for yourself
Keeping fit will be no problem -- there are wellness events at 7am. Whether it’s a walk or stretching or a fitness class, there is something to enhance your health every day.
Cheers to you all as you learn, exchange views, and share experiences with other library loving people - we really are Stronger Together.
View the event agenda and plan your personal schedule
Please note we are still working on updating the agenda and adding all of our amazing activities so check back for updates!
Access documents and slides shared by organizers or speakers
Find who else is attending this event and reach out to people ahead of time
Plan some social activities such as a morning run, coffee hours, or meet-ups with your fellow attendees. You can even post job openings.
Receive updates such as last minute session changes from the organizers
After downloading the Whova mobile app or accessing the event via the web portal, use this email address to sign up for a Whova account. To protect user data, we require two-factor authentication at sign-in. After entering your email and password, a verification code will be sent to your email. Please check your inbox and spam folder for the code. Detailed instructions can be found here.
If you aren’t directly added to the event and are asked for an event invitation code when accessing the event, please email assist@csla.net.
Already used the Whova app in the past? Double-check that it is installed on your phone, and log in using your existing account email and password.
If you need more guidance on how to use Whova to attend the event, please visit Whova User Guides.
We can't wait to see you in San Jose in January!
Register for the CSLA Conference
There is still time to register for the 2025 CSLA Conference! Rates increase tomorrow, Thursday, January 16.
The CSLA 2025 annual state conference will take place at the Signia by Hilton in San Jose, CA with pre-conference events on Wednesday, January, 29! More information regarding sessions coming soon!
Credit card, checks, and purchase orders accepted.
To pay by district purchase order, please select Invoice at checkout
Make a positive impact by donating relevant and representative picture books for San Jose families to read aloud to their children.
Cultivating Literacy: The Power of Reading and Play
The non-profit Cultivating Literacy currently serves over 320 students in TK-3 in San Jose. Eighty percent of those families are LatinX, 84 percent of families are dual language speakers.
Please donate read-aloud picture books at the 2nd-3rd grade reading level.
Sneak Peak! CSLF Conference Booth
Be sure to visit the California School Library Foundation (CSLF) booth in the exhibit hall! CSLF is conducting a silent auction, drawing, and book sale. Here is a sneak peak to a few items you will find at the booth.
To bid on items, please bring cash, check, or can use PayPal.
From top to bottom right: Top: A custom-made quilt made by a former California teacher librarian and CSLA member. The quilt was featured in the Amador Valley quilt show. Left: A poster with a beautiful representation of plants found in William Shakespeare’s work. Right: An inspirational poster of a Ruth Bader Ginsburg that says, "Never Underestimate the Power of a Girl with a Book."
Request
CSLF will be conducting a fundraising drawing/silent auction at the conference in January. We are asking you to consider donating an item or a talent, professional or personal, to our cause. Please contact us at foundation@csla.net if you are able to help. The funds we raise will continue to support the Leadership for Diversity Scholarship, as well as other grants and scholarships that we offer.
Become a School Library Advocate
While the budget crisis in California and the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election has created much uncertainty and anxiety in education, this is not a new position for us to be in. We need to continue pressing forward for more equitable access to school libraries, to teacher librarians, and to qualified library staff.
CSLA’s Legislative Committee remains committed to reintroducing and securing funding for a AB535 School Library Lead. When introduced in 2023, it easily passed, but never was not able to secure funding. We are working to encourage our co-sponsor, the California Teachers Association (CTA), to make this a budget priority in 2025 (see last week’s urgent call to action!). As a large union, they hold more power than CSLA. We have queried Assemblymember Irwin about reintroducing the bill, but are also working on soliciting others in case she does not want to introduce the bill in 2025. With the increase in book challenges across California, our case for stronger school libraries is essential to protecting the intellectual freedom of students across the state.
Likewise, with the increased attention to the information and media literacy crisis, as well as new calls for AI literacy, we hope to push for authorization and funding to update the California Model School Library Standards (MSLS). In 2023 and 2024, Berman had two successful bills that called for the inclusion of media literacy, as presented in the MSLS, and AI literacy in CA content area frameworks. We approached Berman, but he declined to introduce a bill that would require an update of the MSLS, so we are looking at alternative champions for this bill or alternative, non-legislative routes to getting the MSLS updated.
However, all this is dependent on educating the public about the role and state of school libraries, teacher librarians, and qualified library staff. In order to build a network of local advocates, we will launch a Become a California School Library Advocate campaign. Please share this widely. Through access to the OneClickPolitics tool provided by ALA, this campaign will help us to get the word out and identify our allies. Only through local advocacy will we be able to build the demand for more support for school libraries.
Finally, stay tuned for CSLA's updated Legislative Priorities for 2025. Please email Lisa Cheby, VP of Government Relations, if you have questions: governmentrelations@csla.net
Master GenAI: Learn best practices for responsible use of Generative AI tools. In this workshop, we’ll unpack KQED’s new guidelines for productive, ethical and student-focused media creation using GenAI. We’ll then explore how AI chatbots like ChatGPT can be customized to provide supportive feedback on student writing. You’ll get plenty of hands-on time to practice and experiment, and you’ll leave with useful guidelines, instructional strategies, and ready-to-use resources. Learn more and register.
Student Media Festival
Letter from the VP
As VP of the California Student Media Festival (CSMF) and CSLA Honorary Member, I invite you to participate in the CSMF. This event is free for TK-12 students to enter, and free to attend. Any student media creation may be entered between Jan. 20, 2025, and April 1, 2025; the festival will be held on May 17 in person at Hollywood High School. The festival is entirely volunteer-run and is also seeking judges to help support the celebration of student creativity.
About
Now in its 58th year, the CSMF is our nation’s oldest student media festival. Over the past twenty-five years, CSMF has awarded more than $175,000 to California Schools. It has expanded to include the work of more than 6,000 student contestants from schools across the state. The festival exists to celebrate the amazing media and multimedia projects produced by California’s students and teachers — rewarding and acknowledging their successful classroom work at an awards event in spring every year.
As a recently retired teacher librarian professor at CSULB and now the Festival’s VP, I can attest to the importance of media literacy education — and the impact that the festival has on students and adult participants. I strongly encourage our CSLA members to promote participation in the festival by exploring the CSMF website, publicizing the event, supporting student media projects and entrance to the festival, helping at the festival event, and judging the student entries.
CSLA helped found CSMF. This year, CSLA donated $3,000 for the festival, sponsoring awards for videos that demonstrate strong media and information literacy. The California School Library Foundation donated $500 for an award for the best video that celebrates school libraries. Let’s keep CSLA and school libraries a vital part of CSMF.
Every January literature and arts lovers celebrate works that enter into the public domain, meaning that the copyright protections for the authors’ and their estates or businesses expire and the works can now be freely accessible. Ever wonder why there are openly accessible eBooks of classics that don’t require a purchase? Likely the work is in the public domain.
For literature, this year’s batch includes Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. There’s music and film that entered the public domain in the U.S. as well, like the song “Singing in the Rain” and a dozen animated shorts featuring a certain mouse, as well as the very fun cartoon The Skeleton Dance.
More information about what’s entering the public domain in the U.S. can be found on the Public Domain Blog and Welcome to the Public Domain in 2025 from the Internet Archive. Other countries have differing intellectual property laws, and sorting through what’s in the public domain in the U.S. versus overseas can be thorny.
NOTE: Public domain works can be fun for performing and media arts classes to work with, because they can be used as creative material without fear of copyright violation. Every wonder why there are so many interpretations and rewritings of Shakespeare? Because the plays are in the public domain. But beware – newer interpretations or uses of public domain works are, in fact, copyrighted. For example, the song “Singing in the Rain” entered the public domain, but Gene Kelly’s song and dance interpretation in the movie (from 1956) is still protected.
Discount code: CALI2025. The code can be used by non-members of ALA for a 10% discount on any type of registration.
Chapter members who are members of ALA will be granted a larger member discount. No code is needed for them, the registration system will price accordingly when they log-in with their member ID.
California Teachers of English (CATE)
Save the Date
February 28-March 2, 2025
Hyatt Regency SFO
Burlingame, CA
Conference theme: Social Context: Using Pop Culture and Social Media to Make Content Relevant
With the constant inundation of social media and the influence of pop culture in our classrooms and lives, our goal for this convention is to examine ways to use them in the classroom. Neither social media nor pop culture are going away and we want to take the time as educators to embrace them and determine methods and lessons that can emphasize the potential positive aspects of their utilization in a classroom.
If you would like to apply to present a workshop session at CATE 2025, especially featuring one of the following topics:
The California School Library Foundation is so grateful to all the children’s authors and illustrators who have donated their artwork for our use. We will continue to share more information about these authors with CSLA members each month. We also have been fortunate to have digital art contributed to us by independent graphic designers.
The Digital Citizen design, seen on products in the CSLA Library Advocacy Store, is the creation of Christopher Farmer and Lesley Farmer. Chris designs logos and other images for non-profit organizations such as libraries and Quakers. Chris earned his BS in Graphic Design at the Art Institute, his management certificate at CSU Los Angeles.
He earned an MA in Mass Media and Journalism at Clarion University. Chris lives and works in El Segundo. Thank you so much, Chris and Lesley.
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