I’m excited to go to YALSA’s first-ever YA Literature Symposium for a number of reasons (including getting to see my friends, and sneaking a trip to the country music hall of fame), but one of the most important is that this is the first conference I’ll attend as an official representative of my library. In the past, I’ve been a bit of a follower at conferences. I went to my first ALA midwinter this past January, and I wasn’t yet in my current position as a teen librarian, so I got to tag along a lot and learn the ropes. I went to Computers in Libraries (CiL) this spring, but talk about a conference where everyone knows each other and knows the drill–I was a definite newbie. (I don’t mean to say that I felt left out; the people I met were super nice and I even made some new friends.)

This time, it will be different…and I have the business cards to prove it.

I’m going to be approaching the Symposium with an eye for application: how can I take what I learn and use it to develop our new teen program?

The first thing that came to mind when checking out the Symposium program of events was that I can actually get to meet some authors. Real authors. And maybe those authors will want to come visit me! Maybe they’ll be excited to hear what’s happening in our library. And how cool would it be to kick off our new slate of teen programming with a visit from someone like Coe Booth (swoon) or Barry Lyga? And even if no one at this particular event can make it to our neck of the woods, it will be great practice for me to learn how to promote our library and form connections.

Much of the programming will teach me how to start branching out beyond novels. I’ve got books down pat; what’s next? Well, I’ll get to learn about zines, graphic novels, audio books, and on-screen reading. Can zines fly in a traditional town? Hmmm, I have a funny feeling the answer is YES. And lord knows teens in Darien are already texting, tweeting, blogging, and social networking, so let’s learn how to tap into that. I’m also excited to focus on non-fiction, an area that a lot of libraries aren’t providing enough of for teens.

All of this will come in incredibly useful when I’m thinking about growing and developing our collection beyond the novel. Any teen librarian worth his or her salt knows how to order the starred titles in PW and SLJ; are those the books that teens are drawn to? Is that what they’re coveting? When (okay, IF) they go to Barnes & Noble, is that what they browse through?

Since this is a symposium centered around, nominally, literature, will I be able to learn anything about outreach or programming? Well, of course. I’ll be able to write more about this after the Symposium, when I’ve been given some great ideas, but I’m pretty sure that there will be a ton of excellent tips and resources on how to get teens into the library, promote that killer collection you’ve built, and create teen-centric programming–especially since there’s a session just on fandom and participatory culture (Twilight, anyone?). Sweet.

Thanks to those friends who took the time to introduce me around at midwinter and CiL, I won’t feel like such a newcomer this November. And it will be nice to be with like-mided people who are committed to serving teens; that’s always great way to generate ideas. I know this symposium will kick-start and inspire me, the fledgling teen librarian, and others like me, and all you veterans out there. See you in Nashville!