The
Poetry in The Branches Preconference Seminar is an intense day-and-a-half
seminar that trains librarians in all aspects of working with poetry
in a community library setting. This year's Preconference was held at
the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in San Francisco.
The program was presented by Poets House and the ALA Public Programs
Office.
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Hettie
Jones
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Participants
received hands-on, in-depth training in poetry programming for adults
and young adults. The preconference provides step-by-step guidance in
all aspects of the award winning "Poetry in The Branches" (PITB) model,
from reader's advisory suggestions to concrete information about hosting
poetry readings, workshops and slams that work in diverse library settings.
Each participant received a PITB Manual that includes information on
publicity, developing community partnerships, working with literary
non-profits, fundraising, collection development and displays.
Sessions
were led by guest poets Hettie Jones, Kurt Lamkin, and Dave Johnson
as well as Poets House staff and librarians expert in the use of the
PITB model.
PITB is the award-winning program that has proven ability to develop
new audiences for poetry and increase poetry circulation. Developed
by Poets House, a 40,000-volume poetry library, PITB is currently operating
in nine branches of the New York and Brooklyn Public Library Systems.
It is designed to help community libraries become centers for the discovery
of poetry through a combination of programming, writing workshops for
young adults, collection development, display and on-going librarian
training.
