Bringing Stories to Life:

AFTER COMPLETING THIS COURSE, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO:

• Select an in-person or virtual visit based on your school's space, schedule, and student needs
• Identify practical strategies for finding, contacting, and coordinating with authors and guest speakers
• Build a realistic budget, considering partnerships, admin support, fundraising, and grant opportunities
• Design promotional and engagement activities that build excitement across different grade levels
• Plan the logistics of event day, including a flexible plan for handling last-minute changes or cancellations

You will leave with practical next steps and a clearer sense of how to make author visits a realistic, repeatable part of your library program.

If you’re someone who:

• has been meaning to plan an author visit or speaker event but keeps putting it off because it feels like a lot to figure out
• isn’t sure where to start with finding authors, reaching out, or making the logistics work
• wants to create something meaningful for students, but needs it to be realistic for your time, budget, and capacity
• is trying to build more excitement around reading and the library, but needs ideas that will actually land with students
• wants events that feel engaging and worth the effort, not something that’s stressful to plan and underwhelming to attend

This course was built for you.

This course is especially useful for:

• school librarians planning or supporting author visits, assemblies, or literacy events
• library staff working with teachers or administrators to bring in guest speakers
• librarians looking to expand programming beyond the usual events or book-related activities
• anyone responsible for student engagement, reading promotion, or school-wide programming

If part of your job is creating experiences that get students excited about books, authors, and ideas, you’ll find this useful.

Session 1 | 

Finding Your Author and Making the Budget Work

Start with the big decisions: in-person or virtual, and what that means for group size, location, and your school's schedule. We'll cover practical ways to find and contact authors and speakers, with real examples to spark your own list of possibilities. You’ll learn how to make the budget work through partnerships with bookstores or public libraries, admin support, fundraisers, and grants. You'll leave with a clear, realistic starting point for turning "someday" into "here's who I'm contacting."

Break | 

Session 2 | 

Building the Buzz and Pulling Off Event Day

Get your school invested with age-appropriate promotion — posters, social media, and activities that get students genuinely excited, with plenty of real-world ideas to borrow along the way. Then we'll walk through event day itself: green room, book signings, tech, decor, and easy-to-forget details like student passes and a gift for your speaker. You'll also get a plan for handling last-minute changes, so you're ready no matter what the day brings.

COURSE INSTRUCTOR

Lauren Mobley, Media Specialist

A self-proclaimed edtech and book nerd, Lauren Mobley is the host of the podcast Library on Lock and a Georgia high school library media specialist. She earned her Ed.S in Instructional Technology from the University of West Georgia, her M.Ed. in English Education from Valdosta State University, and her B.A. in English Education from the University of Georgia. Mobley is a member of the American Association of School Librarians and the Georgia Library Media Association, where she serves as the president-elect. Mobley is committed to improving literacy and education by collaborating with teachers and supporting all students. She believes in and strives to empower student joy, voice, and choice.

A great author visit can turn a reluctant reader into an enthusiastic one, spark a student's interest in writing, and remind your whole school community why the library is at the heart of it all. This two-hour live course is built to help you make that happen practically, creatively, and on a real school budget.

You'll explore how to find and connect with authors and speakers, and how to structure visits for maximum engagement. You'll also discover creative alternatives to in-person visits that expand what's possible even when travel budgets are tight. You'll leave this session with practical next steps, fresh inspiration, and a clearer sense of how to make your next author visit your best one yet.

WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE

This course is designed for K-12 school librarians.

GROUP OPTIONS

Training a team? Choose the setup that matches how you want to plan and pay :

Group course enrollment: Enroll 3+ staff in this course and save.

Bulk course credits: Prepay once, get the highest per-seat discount on every course, and assign seats later.

Unlimited annual licensing: System-wide access for a year with no per-course approvals.

Request Discounted Group Pricing

Questions? Email groupsales@libraryjournal.com.

COURSE FORMAT

This will be a 2-hour online crash course and will include:

Live sessions: Guest speaker presentations by leaders in their field. All sessions are recorded for on-demand access for six months after the course ends.

Facilitated discussions: Audience participation in Q&A and discussion with guest speakers.

Asynchronous workshop: On-demand project-based modules connecting what you’re learning to your professional practice. Includes peer-to-peer sharing via discussion forums.

Online classroom: The virtual learning platform holds all course content and remains accessible for six months after the course ends.

Note: The asynchronous work is designed to be completed over three weeks, but you will have six months of access to work at your own pace.

EXPECTED TIME COMMITMENT

If you attend or watch recordings of all live sessions and complete the online workshop, you will spend approximately 2 hours on this course. You will earn 2 hours of professional development credit and a School Library Journal certificate of completion.

ON-DEMAND ACCESS

All live guest speaker sessions are recorded and available on demand for six months following the initial broadcast as part of your purchase.

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

Complete all course requirements to earn 2 professional development credit hours and a School Library Journal certificate of completion. Certificates are emailed upon completion.

ACCESSIBILITY

All video recordings feature auto-captioning. If you require accommodations, please email course-support@libraryjournal.com upon registration and we will make our best efforts to support your needs.

SUPPORT

For technical or course-related support, please contact course-support@libraryjournal.com.