Annual Starts Next Week! Here’s what you need to know as YALSA prepares for ALA Annual Conference!

Coming to Chicago? Download the PDF Schedule to see where all of YALSA’s meetings and activities are. Read through the YALSA Wiki for details on our programs, meetings and events and to learn more about the city. Twittering about conference or posting photos to Flickr? Use hashtag #yalsaac09.

Can’t Make It? Keep your eye on the blog and on Twitter! We’ll be blogging, liveblogging, Twittering, taking videos and podcasting for all our members who couldn’t make it.

After the jump, details on YALSA’s conference plans!

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Fifteen years ago, the Mayor of the Education City  was presented with an unwelcome surprise by his superiors: twin six-month-old boys whom he must raise as his own. As the Mayor reluctantly accepted the two babies, Umasi and Zen, he had no way of knowing that when they grew up, they would change the city forever…

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Last night, YALSA hosted a lively online chat in ALA Connect on summer reading programs. Thank you to all of our participants and to Sarah Debraski for leading it! Read the full transcript (PDF).

If you weren’t able to attend (or even if you did attend) the chat and have follow-up ideas or questions feel free to add them to the comments. Keep an eye on the blog to find out when we’ll have our next online chat and what topic we’ll use.

In this series of audio files learn about some of the ins and outs of YALSA’s Committees, Interest and Discussion Groups, web tools, and projects. The short audio files (each is between three and 15 minutes) cover YALSA’s:

• Organization & Bylaws Committee with Chair Melissa Rabey and YALSA President Sarah Debraski

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• Financial Health and Advancement with Fiscal Officer Mary Hastler

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The ALA Committee on Literacy invites members to a discussion and planning meeting on Saturday, July 11 at 1:30 pm at McCormick Place West in W-176c to share ideas about an exciting new project to support online information and learning opportunities for adults and teens with low reading skills.

The objective of this meeting is to explore the possibility of a national project to support cooperative collection development of online information portals for adults and teens with low literacy skills. Project participants would share responsibility for and access to a web library that will respond to the common information needs of teens and adults with low reading skills. (more…)

Join YALSA President Sarah Cornish Debraski tonight as she leads an online chat on summer reading programs, 8 p.m. - 9 p.m. Eastern. We’ll be chatting in YALSA’s space in ALA Connect. You must be a YALSA member to access YALSA’s area in Connect.

How can you participate? Log into ALA Connect at http://connect.ala.org. 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? We’ll post the transcript tomorrow.

YALSA’s Partnerships Advocating for Teens (PAT) Committee will be hosting “It Takes Two: School and Public Libraries, Partnerships That Can Work” at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, on Sunday, July 12, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. In addition to featuring two speakers who have considerable knowledge and expertise on the subject, the program will consist of several presenters of “best practices” in collaborative programming or partnership for school and public libraries.

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YALSA’s Division and Membership Promtion Committee is excited to change things up  this year with our Annual YALSA 101 program!

We’re hosting a casual session in which you can go head to head with fellow YALSA members, chairs, and leaders to ask questions, gather information, and network. We’ll have information on discussion and interest groups, professional development, publishing, events, happenings at Annual, and the perks of YALSA membership.

Whether you’re a long-term member looking for new ways to contribute or a newbie looking for ways to become engaged, this’ll be the program for you.

Conveniently located in the same hotel as the fabulous YALSA Happy Hour and Fashion Show, YALSA 101 will take place from 4-5 p.m. at the Westin River North, Promenade BR A.

See you in Chicago!

Amy Alessio interviewed Genre Galaxy preconference speaker Patrick Jones about his take on edgy fiction. Enjoy their conversation below! (for more information about the preconference, visit the Genre Galaxy wiki!)

Why do you think so many teens want edgy or ‘urban’ fiction now?

The urban part reflects the literature catching up with the music. The influence of rap and hip-hop culture washes over every part of teen life, so that it would finally find its way into book isn’t a surprise. I just wonder why it took so long. It also mirrors what is going on in the adult market with rise of street fiction for similar reasons. As far as edgy, that is certainly a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” (”Won’t Get Fooled Again” by the Who). I wrote an article over a decade ago celebrating that new edge in YA fiction, so it never surprises me. As I’m writing this, there was a big article in the Wall Street Journal about teen fiction; it was the usual decrying of the books being too dark. You get that article every ten years it seems.
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This video highlights how the Technology for Young Adults Committee wants to transition to an Interest Group and what you can do to help.