The program  below is one of many featured on ALA’s online clearinghouse for school/public library cooperation managed by the AASL/ALSC/YALSA Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation.  Visit the clearinghouse to learn more or share your own exemplary partnership!

Title of Program: Middle School Teacher Resource Center
Type of Program: Assignment Alert
Age level: Middle school
Description of Program: The Middle School Teacher Resource Center is an online website that supports Portland Public School teachers and librarians. This online resource links teachers with librarians (school and Multnomah County Library) and curriculum specialists. Specific goals are to: help librarians and curriculum specialists reach and help more teachers and students; allow teachers, librarians and curriculum specialists to share their “best” units, and allow centralized librarians (Prof. Library, School Librarians & Public Librarians) to serve more schools.
This website specifically provides:

• Lesson Plan Database–an archive of continually growing curriculum activities and resources searchable by grade level, curriculum area and topic. This website allows the lesson plans (pathfinders) to be collaboratively developed and shared by teachers, Professional Library, TOSA’s and Multnomah County Library to specific teacher needs.
• Curriculum assistance–online curriculum “help request” for teachers that immediately alerts the school librarian & curriculum specialist, Professional Library and Multnomah County Library to specific teacher needs.

Contact Information:
Doni Stewart
Portland Public Schools
Portland, OR
dstewart@pps.k12.or.us

Last night, YALSA hosted a lively chat on teen programming, focusing on inexpensive ways to hold programming. The chat was hosted by Jenine Lillian, editor of YALSA’s new book, Cool Teen Programs for under $100. Thanks to Jenine and our participants!

You can read the chat transcript (PDF). Join us next month, on Dec. 2 when we talk about teens and technology (and stay tuned for an important announcement regarding our Wednesday chats. Don’t worry, they’ll continue, just better than before).

Join YALSA for its monthly e-chat tonight in ALA Connect from 8-9 p.m. Eastern! We’ll be discussing inexpensive teen programming. Jenine Lillian, editor of YALSA’s new book, Cool Teen Programs for under $100, will lead the discussion. Come find inspiration for inexpensive programming for your library or share how you’ve been able to stretch your programming dollars.

To join us, visit YALSA’s area in ALA Connect (the chat is open only to YALSA members). YALSA members should use their login for the ALA website. If you’ve lost your password, you can recover it through the ALA website. Once logged in, head to the YALSA area (it’s http://connect.ala.org/yalsa or you can navigate there within Connect by choosing “YALSA” from under “My ALA Groups”) and then click “Chats.”

Can’t make it? The transcript will be posted on the YALSA Blog on Thursday.

When a lot of people hear “3.0″ they immediately think “technology,” but really, where are we NOT thinking of technology these days?

However, the X.0 concept really just means “next generation.” What are our next gen users going to want? Expect? Find archaic? This is ultimately what Libraries 3.0 is attempting to get us to think about.

Anyone remember the conventional wisdom “Teens will only read paperbacks?” If you were still following that maxim, you wouldn’t have gotten New Moon in your collection til last summer.  Or graphic novel collections that assumed all graphic novels were for teen collections? What are some outdated ideas that we might be holding onto RIGHT NOW just waiting for us to think our way through and overthrow?

Accomplishments

• Each fall YALSA’s Executive Committee meets in Chicago to discuss plans for the coming months. The meetings this year took place October 23 and 24 and the group talked about a range of topics including supporting and recognizing members in a recession, providing training for YALSA leadership, YALSA’s selected lists portfolio, and evaluation of the spending of Morris Endowment funds. Plans covered at the meetings are now being discussed by the full YALSA Board and will help in developing upcoming YALSA programs, services and opportunities. (more…)

The YALSA Board of Directors will meet by conference call on Nov. 11 from 3-4 p.m. to discuss ALA policy changes regarding committee participation, and how those changes will impact YALSA. YALSA members who would like to sit in on the conference call can contact Letitia Smith at  yalsa@ala.org to find out the phone number and password for the call.

Update: That’s 3-4 p.m. Eastern.

With Halloween just a day away, one cannot help but think of ghosts and spirits.  Washington D.C. has plenty of opportunity for frights, even when you don’t count the politicians!  When you come to ALA Annual next June, you just might see a spirit or two!

D.C.’s most famous haunted house is, of course, the White House.  Abraham Lincoln has been seen in the East Room (where his body lay in state), the Oval Office, hallways, and in the Lincoln bedroom.  Abigail Adams has also been see in and around the East Room, carrying and hanging laundry.  The White House was still under construction when she was living there, and the East Room was the only non-drafty space – perfect for hanging laundry!  During Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, First Lady Wilson requested that the Rose Garden be dug up, but these plans were canceled after the workmen reported seeing the ghost of Dolley Madison there, preventing them from removing the plants.  Dolley had planted the original garden, and it still grows today.  People have also reported hearing a voice say, “I’m Mr. Burns.”   The land the House was built on once belonged to a David Burns; maybe he doesn’t want to be forgotten!

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In a previous post I wrote about ALA/YALSA Fall Exec, the time when the Executive Committees from ALA Divisions meet (individually) to plan for the upcoming months and year. Last weekend was the 2009 Fall Exec weekend and I wanted to follow-up the previous blog post with some information about discussions and plans. (As a reminder, all of the documents for Fall Exec are available to YALSA members in the Members Only section of the Association web site.) (more…)

Earlier this month I asked for your suggestions of titles the 2010 Odyssey Committee should be sure to consider. Thanks to those of you who emailed me with your favorite titles produced between November 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009. Please keep those suggestions coming – just email me at sharon.grover@yahoo.com and I’ll pass them along to the committee.

The Odyssey Award is the only media award committee I know of that’s administered by two divisions of ALA and that’s part of the great fun of serving on it. Each year, the committee switches administration between ALSC and YALSA. There are nine of us on the committee, so in a YALSA year there are 5 YALSA members (the chair’s appointed by the division administering that year’s award) and 4 ALSC members. This year, ALSC is administering the award. But here’s an interesting fact – by about midway through our year of service (and this is my second time around on Odyssey with my first appointment being from YALSA) no one remembers who was appointed by which division. We’re all just listening for the best audiobooks for children and/or young adults.

So what are we listening for? What, exactly, makes a great audiobook?
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Congratulations! YALSA named its two 2010 Emerging Leaders! Anna Koval, teacher-librarian at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, California, and Amy Barr, youth services librarian and assistant director at Kilgore Memorial Library in York, Nebraska. Both will attend the 2010 Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. The Emerging Leaders are funded through the Friends of YALSA.

E-Chat Next Week! Mark your calendars! YALSA’s monthly online chats return next week in ALA Connect. On Nov. 4, we’ll be discussing inexpensive programming and ways to stretch your programming dollars with Jenine Lillian, editor of the new YALSA book, Cool Teen Programs for under $100. To join us, visit YALSA’s area in ALA Connect. YALSA members should use their login for the ALA website. If you’ve lost your password, you can recover it through the ALA website. Once logged in, head to the YALSA area (it’s http://connect.ala.org/yalsa or you can navigate there within Connect by choosing “YALSA” from under “My ALA Groups”) and then click “Chats.”

Lit Blog Applications and CE Proposals Due 10/30! Interested in editing YALSA’s new blog, focused exclusively on teen literature? Read the announcement to see the qualifications and find out how to apply. The deadline to propose new continuing education (online courses and face-to-face institutes) is tomorrow as well; see our announcement for topic ideas and the proposal form. Applications for the new blog manager and the CE proposals are both due to Beth Yoke at byoke@ala.org tomorrow.

After the jump, find out how you can sign up for special events at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, apply for $40K in grants and awards, promote the Teens’ Top Ten at your library, or receive a stipend to attend the 2010 Young Adult Literature Symposium.

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