 First of all welcome. It's so great to see all of you here new faces lots of old friends Each one of you has a story to tell each one of you has something to add to this dialogue and I ask you today to join us as we journey take this journey together This morning we are lucky to be joined by a champion for all children Including for those children whose voices aren't always heard Someone who knows how very important it is to serve youth well Since he's been a youth services librarian himself It was just a little over a year ago that ALA announced that he received the Sullivan award for public library administrator supporting service to children a Man, I'm proud to work for but also proud to have at the helm of the library in the city I love so much. Please welcome San Francisco City Librarian Luis Herrera Thank you Meredith What a rousing crowd I'm actually very inspired and hard-warmed by your presence here. It's a full house and I'm always thrilled to welcome children's librarians school librarians For very very special reasons. First of all, I started as a school librarian many many years ago in my own middle school And then I went into the public library realm So I just have this commitment to ensure that we support Services to children and I want to let you know that this is an opportunity for me to thank you on behalf of all the library administrators and Electeds and all the mucky mucks out there that really own a special debt of gratitude for the work you do I believe very strongly that Children's librarians youth librarians are the best Conveyors of our narrative in libraries. You are the storytellers. You are the ones that make those connections With our community and so I commend you for that And really it's it's what you do sets the standard for all of Librarianship, so keep up the great work. I also want to say that I'm very proud of our staff Meredith all of you that have leadership roles in the ACL Institute, which dates back to 1930s I found out that's pretty darn impressive And I think the the caliber of the work and the importance of your work certainly demonstrates your commitment But Kimberly Lauer who is also in our staff and Christina Mitra Pat Tony and all the others I think I'm just very very proud of you for your leadership role in putting this together to the organizers What a relevant Topic and theme it can't come at a better time Because I think you all agree that our nation is facing tremendous challenges in terms of social justice equity Issues where you know the have-and-have-nots the bridge and the gap is even greater and So we have to have those conversations We have to have that dialogue in what better place than librarians and libraries and you to lead the effort It's critically important that Libraries are in fact part of the solution to some of the issues that are facing our nation libraries in so many ways are the great equalizers aren't they and I think that we have to make sure that we set the tone and the expectation For equity and in everything we do whether we're talking about collections that represent and reflect the diversity from a linguistic standpoint from cultural competencies To all the voices of authors that are not heard so when I see Jacqueline and Maya and I and Melinda Makes me very proud That you're pushing the envelope to ensure that those voices are heard and heard loudly I'm also very appreciative of the fact that as we evolve in our service delivery that we continue to always have that core value of equity And that we push hard so that the administrators and the folks that dole out the funding Always keep in mind the priorities of serving our communities So with that, I just want to welcome you to the San Francisco Public Library We're very proud of how we're evolving you may hear some construction going on because as we speak Actually in about two months. We're gonna be opening the mix Which is a wonderful digital media lab for our young people and youngsters I may not have access to all that's happening in the tech world But hopefully this will in fact be that wonderful equalizer And we welcome you also in June as host of the American Library Association conference So with that have a wonderful day wonderful time and enjoy your your stay. Thank you