Episode 28: Advocacy Is Problem Solving with Cherity Pennington

Nobody else wakes up in the morning thinking about the school library. Cherity Pennington built her whole advocacy practice around that fact.

In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Cherity Pennington, an Oklahoma educator for twenty-seven years and a teacher librarian for fifteen, now at Norman High School. She's past president of the Oklahoma Library Association, co-editor of the second edition of AASL's National School Library Standards, and a 2026 School Library Journal Librarian of the Year finalist.

Early on she thought advocacy meant making pretty charts for her principal. Then she realized teachers are thinking about classroom management, principals about achievement, superintendents about strategic goals, parents about their own kid, and every one of those is a problem the library can solve. Advocacy is making yourself the obvious answer to the problem someone already has.

Her three rules: build relationships long before you need anything, adopt other people's goals as your own, and tell the story behind the number.

Pillar: 🩵 Discovery

💡 Steal-this-idea: Ask every teacher one question: what's the one standard or learning activity you need the most support with? Then go solve it. It's a relationship, a lesson, and an advocacy win in a single conversation.

🛠️ Resources:

• AASL Standards Resources

Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring three professional reads:

• 📖 Strengthening Library Ecosystems by Dorcas Hand, Sarah Kelly Johns, Michelle Robertson, and Aaron Duffy: how librarians across all library types can advocate for each other
• 📖 National School Library Standards, second edition including a full advocacy section built for reflection and planning real conversations
• 📖 Assessing Learners by Elizabeth Burns — short, practical, and the reference for proving your students are learning

Follow Cherity:

💼 LinkedIn: Cherity Pennington

Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: thenextgenlib@gmail.com

Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com

#TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #LibraryAdvocacy #HighSchoolLibrary #AASL #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #LibraryLeadership #AdvocacyMatters #TLA #TxASL

The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 27: Twelve Days of Giveaway with Jennifer Brusenhan

For the last twelve days before winter break, Jennifer Brusenhan sends kids home with a book that's theirs to keep and the staff decides who gets one.

In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Jennifer Brusenhan, an elementary librarian in New Braunfels, Texas, building a library program from the ground up at a campus that opened last year.

A spreadsheet goes out to staff in November, and any adult on campus can nominate. The priority is kids who don't have much access to books at home, but nominations also go to kids who showed growth: a behavior turnaround, a jump in reading level, a good run on tests. Each certificate names the student, the reason, and who nominated them, so a kid learns the PE coach noticed them helping clean up.

Four or five names go out on morning announcements each day across mixed grade levels. Kids come pick any book from the stack and leave with the book, the certificate, and a goodie bag. Kindergartners ask if they really get to keep it.

Her advice for anyone building a program from scratch: don't roll it all out at once. Small things, one at a time.

Pillar: 🩷 Literacy

💡 Steal-this-idea: Who Am I cards. Clues about a historical figure i.e. birth year, accomplishments, details that don't give it away, posted on a hallway bulletin board with a guess box, or read over morning announcements.

🛠️ Resources:

• Who Am I cards and Guessing template — Jennifer's sets, ready to print
• Pebble Go — her pick for elementary research, and what students use to crack the Who Am I clues

Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring:

• 📖 Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln by Margarita Engle — a true story kids don't believe is true until you pull up the research with them. Great for Hispanic Heritage Month, Women's History Month, or any time of year.

📌 Jennifer shares free resources constantly, including Beanstack templates — worth a follow for that alone.

Follow Jennifer: 📱 @TexasAggieLibrarian on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook | 🦋 Bluesky: @TXAggieLibrarian | ✖️ X: @AggieLibrarian1

Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: thenextgenlib@gmail.com

Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com

#TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #ElementaryLibrary #BookGiveaway #LibraryProgramming #ReadingCulture #SchoolCulture #NewLibrarian #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #TLA #TxASL

The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.

Episode 26: Starting Over Is a Skill with Heather Hornor

Twenty-five years in, Heather Hornor got laid off and had to start over again.

In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Heather Hornor, an educator, librarian, and library administrator in public education for twenty-five years in Texas and now in Portland, Oregon.

She's started over a lot: classroom to a 300-student elementary library, elementary to a 5,000-student high school, campus to district admin, and now back again, and she's built a method for it.

Pick two to three goals for your first year, fully expecting to finish one or two. Half a goal is still movement. And don't measure your year one against someone else's year twenty.

Then lead with what you already know. Heather calls it flaunting your knowledge: she walked into a brand-new district in a brand-new state and landed on the leadership team because she showed what she brought to the table.

Pillar: 🩵 Discovery

💡 Steal-this-idea: Find your state's Law for Librarians trainer.

🛠️ Resources:

• ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom — how to find your Law for Librarians trainer
• Mentimeter — Heather's favorite tool, especially for adult learning and PD. Polls, simple presentations, and a real way to interact with an audience.

Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring:

• 📖 The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker — the Trojan War retold from the women's side. An older title, accessible, and, from a self-described Greek mythology nerd, impossible to overstate. Especially good if the new Odyssey adaptation has you thinking about Homer.

Follow Heather: 📱 Instagram: @mrs.hornor | 🦋 Bluesky: @heatherpnwtx | 💼 LinkedIn

Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: thenextgenlib@gmail.com

Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com

#TheLibraryStage #TakeTheStage #SchoolLibrarians #NewLibrarian #LibraryLeadership #IntellectualFreedom #Literacy #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #LawForLibrarians #ALA #TLA #TxASL

The Library Stage is an independent podcast, not affiliated with TED Conferences LLC.