Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fleming gives copyright presentation at national librarians’ conference
BELLA VISTA — Bella Vista’s Brittany Fleming recently gave a presentation at the American Association of School Librarians in Salt Lake City.
Fleming is the librarian at R.E. Baker Elementary School in Bentonville. She attended the national conference in late October and had the honor of being able to give a presentation. She said her presentation was on copyright.
She is a board member of the Arkansas Association for Instructional Media and serves as the exhibits chair. She arranged for a group called Copyright and Creativity to come to the Arkansas state conference, and they put her through a professional development and trained her in copyright.
She noted the national conference she went to is considered professional development, which teachers are required by law to have a certain number of professional development hours.
“I like presenting to teachers, and I like doing professional development,” she said.
She said other presentations at the event were on all kinds of topics such as how to spark a love of reading and how to promote the school library. Authors spoke, and she was able to meet librarians from across the country.
“It’s nice being able to network because you get ideas from people,” she said. “We have so many facets of our job — budgets, ordering for the library, teaching, being a resource for teachers.”
She noted, “We’re lucky in the state of Arkansas because all librarians have to be certified. Not all states do that.”
To be certified, Arkansas librarians must have a master’s degree in library science.
Fleming earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. She grew up in south Arkansas until finishing junior high and then went to high school in Vilonia. She has lived in Bella Vista for eight years. Her husband, Josh, is also a teacher and teaches English at Grimsley Junior High School.