I briefly attended the ALA town hall discussion where topics of concern were brought up by ALA members and will be passed on to the Barack Obama Administration.  ALA President Jim Rettig, the Chair of the Legislation Committee, and representatives from the ALA Washington Office staff were there. According to the wiki about the discussion, there were about 259 ALA members and 45 that took to the mics.  Having qualified librarians in school libraries was a frequently raised issue.

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Saturday morning of conference, YALSA schedules what is called the Leadership Development for Chairs meeting.  This time the meeting was quite a bit different.  Even if you are not a chair of a YALSA committee-keep reading-the meeting had something for everyone! (more…)

I found myself in the awards with a great seat and an outlet and working wireless, so what the heck–I liveblogged the awards. You can now view the replay, although the ALA Webcast is more comprehensive. (Though I’m sure it’s putting quite a strain on the server at the moment.)
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The candidates for YALSA’s elected positions spoke at an open forum here at Midwinter. They each introduced themselves and made a brief statement, and then answered questions from the audience. Here’s some of what they said. (Note that not all candidates were in attendance.) (more…)

One of the pleasures of coming to Midwinter is that there is some oportunity to not only network with colleagues but spend some time with friends. And to make some new friends, too. I finally had the chance to meet Lynn Rutan and Cindy Dobrez this morning. Jen Hubert was at the same breakfast as was Monica Edinger. Talk about brain trust! Atfer the meal, severa of us stood and waxed about our personal favorites for the awards. Who knows if any of our selections will be announced tomorrow? The fun is making predictions and sharing thoughts about our reading.

I hope all of you will tune in for the announcements. Some of us will blog here.

So, rise and shine and join us for the Academy Awards of Children’s and YA Books.

One of the activities of the YALSA Board Friday’s at Midwinter, is a Board Planning session. At that session Board members talk about where the Division is and where it should be headed. Topics at yesterday’s Board Planning session included the financial health of the Division, the status of the YALSA Strategic Plan, responsibilities of Board members, and Division policies and procedures.

During one brainstorming session at the meeting, each Board member was asked to write down single words (hyphenation was allowed) to describe how she would like to see YALSA remembered by the end of her term on the Board. The brainstorming wasn’t focused on specific projects, but on the direction of the Division in terms of what members should say about the organization’s work, projects, and initiatives. The word cloud below gives a visual of the words generated from that discussion. (more…)

I was just about to set up the CoverItLive session for MidWinter when I realized that the poll had only received six votes. As a wise man once said–d’oh.

I’m leaving the voting open until midnight tonight (Eastern Standard Time) so that more folks have a chance to have your say.

And one sort of embarrassing note–although the ALA Youth Media Awards Press Conference is currently in the lead (with a whopping three votes), that may not be the best choice; ALA is already providing a free live webcast starting at 7:45 (Mountain Time), as well as what I’m sure will be comprehensive coverage on Twitter. I’m sorry I didn’t consider that when I sort of arbitrarily provided the poll options. (But you can still suggest your own!)

I’m leaving the press conference as an option on the poll, though, because this is the democratic process, and if you want even more thorough coverage of the awards, well, then, we’ll provide it! (Um, when I say “we,” though, I might have to recruit some help if that’s the event The People choose–because in the interest of full disclosure, I have a 10:40 shuttle to the airport, and I was kind of planning on running the live blog.)

Please vote!

Have you ever thought “I could really use a list of _____ books”? I know I have:vampire books, street lit for teens, historical fiction for teens who hate historical fiction…

That’s one reason I’m glad to be part of the Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults committee. Our job is to come up with lists of young adult titles that are popular and fit a certain theme of the committee’s choosing. Looking for YA books on sports? crime? magic? religion? with proven teen appeal? Look no further!

At ALA’s Midwinter meeting, the committee will be working busily to select titles for this year’s lists: Death & Dying, Fame & Fortune, Journey > Destination, and Spies & Intrigue. We’ll also pick the themes for next year’s lists.

The committee has been passing theme ideas back and forth on our wiki, but we also want to hear from you. What kind of list could you use at your library?  Any suggestions?

One of my esteemed IF Committee colleagues touched on this point a couple of posts back, but I find a need to bring it up again. There have been a couple of intellectual freedom related issues that have cropped up in my library and community as of late; The debates were centered around two books: Elizabeth Scott’s ‘Living Dead Girl’ and Susanna Kaysen’s ‘Girl, Interrupted’ and their suitability for a teen audience. This has had me pondering the meaning of the word “appropriate” and the way it sometimes gets tossed about in our line of work. (more…)

We know not everyone can make it to Midwinter Meeting. As excited as we are to see the many YALSA members attending the Denver meeting in person, we want to make sure that everyone can play along at home, too.

We’ll be blogging and podcasting from Denver right here on this very blog, and you can also see information about what we’re be doing on our Twitter feed. Check in to see highlights from the whole weekend, including the Reaching Diverse Teens preconference, YALSA Mixer & Tech Playground, YALSA Candidates’ Forum (it’s not too late to ask questions),  (more…)