Bringing Play into the Library

Mychal Threets is a librarian and grew up in libraries as a homeschool kid. Mychal loves stories! He enjoys learning something new every day, and that includes learning why people love their local library. He utilizes social media to share the stories of library kids and library grownups that he encounters in library land. He is very open about his mental health and talks about it in hopes that it’ll help others in their mental health journey. He is adamant about encouraging people to believe him when he says he’s happy they are here. When not in libraries he is often with his troublesome cats - Machine Gun Kitty and Kissin’ Kat Barlow.

Jennifer LaGarde is a lifelong teacher and learner with more than 20 years in public education. She is passionate about leveraging technology to help students build authentic reading lives, meeting the unique needs of students living in poverty, and helping learners of all ages discern fact from fiction in the information they consume. Jennifer is the coauthor, with Darren Hudgins, of Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking in the Age of Fake News (ISTE, 2018) and Developing Digital Detectives (ISTE, 2021). She is also a part-time lecturer in the MLIS program at Rutgers University, where she has taught courses including Emerging Literacies, Young Adult Literature, and Children’s Literature. In addition, Jennifer serves as the Library-Literacy Mentor with Bookelicious and hosts the podcast The Reader’s Heart. She currently lives, works, reads, and drinks lots of coffee in Olympia, Washington. You can follow her adventures at www.librarygirl.net.

David Pallash is the Director of Learning Through Play within the LEGO Group 39;s Global Social Responsibility team. He leads the development of programs, content, and experiences that use play to help children build creativity, confidence, and problem- solving skills while addressing real-world social and environmental challenges.