The mission of the Arizona Library Association shall be to promote library service and librarianship in libraries of all types in the state of Arizona.

• Developed statewide materials purchasing contracts
• Lobbied and obtained the end of use taxes on books
• Provide continuing education credits for school librarians
• Sponsor the Horner Fellowship
• Provide regional forums to obtain statewide input to the association
• Nominate young librarians to the Snowbird Leadership Institute

Title: Libraries, Literacy, and Play

Date: Thursday, September 11, 2025

Time: 1 pm

Webinar Description:
Mr. Rogers said, “play is serious learning” and “play is the most important means of communication.”  

Libraries are the perfect place for parents and children to play and learn together. Participants will learn about child led play for gestalt language processors. Analytic and gestalt are the two ways that children can process and develop language. A child processing language in an analytic way attends to and learns the meaning of single words. Gestalt language processors are intonation babies and learn language by memorizing whole phrases or chunks of language.  Analytic language processing is a progression of acquiring language from parts to whole. Whereas gestalt language processing progresses from whole to individual parts. This webinar will focus on sharing ideas for literacy and play for gestalt language processors. 

The learning objectives for this webinar are: 

1) Gain knowledge about gestalt language processors and natural language acquisition.

2) Brainstorm ideas for open play and literacy at your library.

3) Support neurodiversity affirming story time and programs in your community.

Presenter Bio: 

Naomi Bishop is currently the library manager at the Ak-Chin Indian Community Library. Previously, she worked as an Associate Librarian at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix. She has experience in academic science, engineering, and biomedical libraries for over 15 years. She received her Master of Library and Information Science degree from University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2010. From 2010-2012 she worked as the Librarian in Residence at University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

Naomi holds a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies and Political Science from the University of Arizona. She completed a year of studies at the Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.

She is a member of the Arizona Library Association; the American Library Association, and the American Indian Library Association. Her ultimate career goal is to improve access to information services in Native American communities and to promote libraries, literacy, and lifelong learning in all communities.