One Week Left! Register for the SummerSlam Reading Jam, a pilot project from YALSA and World Wrestling Entertainment by next Friday — your patrons could win a free trip to the SummerSlam pay-per-view event in LA or the WWE Encyclopedia, and your library could win $1,000 for your teen and tween connections. Registration is limited to the first 500 people to sign up by June 8. See the full details, and the official rules, online at the SummerSlam Reading Jam webpage.

New Book from YALSA! YALSA’s latest book, Quick & Popular Reads for Teens, collects and annotates the Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults list. Edited by Pam Spencer Holley and published by ALA Editions, this provides a one-stop guide to two of YALSA’s favorite booklists. Check it out today.

After the jump, read news about YALSA’s next symposium and find out how you can still sign up for special events at ALA Annual.

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On June 22 the White House is set to launch an initiative tentatively called the Summer of Service. This initiative will be run through the Corporation for National & Community Service and the goal is to encourage Americans to take some time this summer to volunteer in their local communities. One area of focus will be summer reading. Americans will be encouraged to volunteer at their local libraries to help with summer reading and library card registration programs in an effort to prevent the ‘summer slide‘ that many students experience. (more…)

Every five years, ALA conducts a major evaluation of programs and services and plans for the future. A series of discussion forums will be held at state and regional meetings in the coming months to gather ideas.  Be sure to attend and advocate for the interests of teens and YALSA! 9000 members participated in a recent survey to evaluate our progress towards the 2010 goals and help shape our association in the years to come. Were your opinions counted? Be on the lookout for opportunities to provide feedback and have a voice in ALA’s new strategic plan. What is your vision for the future of ALA?

Are you interested in being a part of a new YALSA Interest Group that focuses on serving older teens? The mission statement of the proposed group is:

The purpose of this Interest Group is to discuss issues relating to serving young adults in their late teens and early twenties. We seek to develop and exchange ideas on how libraries can continue to best serve these “new adults” as they navigate life after the high school years. Identifying the needs of this age group, compiling & sharing collection and programming guidelines to address those needs, and considering ways to provide participatory opportunities for them is a focus of this Interest Group

The process for starting a new Interest Group with YALSA requires a petition, of at least 15 signatures, to be submitted to the Division. If you are willing to add your signature to the petition, please contact Penny Johnson at newadventures@centurytel.net. You must be a member of YALSA to be eligible to sign. In your email please include your ALA member number, address, phone, and email address.

Your signature will indicate your interest in contributing to this group’s discussions.

To read more about the proposed group you can check out an earlier blog post.

My library has seen a surge of interest in volunteering lately, and we’re looking for ways to balance the number of people who’d like to volunteer with the energy and staff time it takes to manage a good volunteer program. We see lots of teens who have been assigned volunteer service as part of a probation agreement with the courts, and with the tight job market, some teens who can’t find work are searching for alternatives to gain experience that could land them a job in the future.

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Geek Charming by Robin Palmer
What would it be like to be popular?
Josh needs to know. He’s making a documentary about popularity for college. And since he was the savior of her drowning purse, Dylan, queen of the A-crowd, is in on it. But when the camera turns on, Dylan’s perfect world starts breaking apart, and her diva mask is shattered. Will Josh’s camera capture the real Dylan or the fake?
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Today I read a blog post about The Smithsonian crowdsourcing its vision on YouTube. As Beth Kanter writes on her blog:

The Smithsonian has opened the conversation up to the world and is inviting people to submit a one-minute video sharing their vision for the Institution’s future. The question they’re asking: Given the news ways of acquiring and sharing knowledge through technology: the internet, social networking, video sharing, and cell phones—where do you see the Smithsonian’s museums and websites going in the future? How can we make education more relevant to you in a digital age?

When I read that I first thought, “What a great idea.” (more…)

Animazement is a large anime/manga con that is held each year in the Raleigh area. Last year, the Wake County Libraries had an outreach table where we advertised what the libraries had to offer for anime fans.

This year, Animazement contacted us in early spring to ask if we wanted to sponsor their first ever manga library. Of course, we said yes. This was a great opportunity to continue our outreach to this crowd. As an extra bonus, the con had moved to the Raleigh Convention Center, providing more space for the activities. (more…)

In this podcast Linda Braun talks with YALSA President Sarah Debraski about National Library Legislative Day.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can also subscribe to YALSA’s podcast feed. (Note: YALSA has a new podcast feed. You will want to update your podcast subscription in order to know when a new YALSA Podcast is available.)

In the audio Sarah talks about: (more…)

Howdy YALSA Members!

Please join YALSA Tuesday June 9th for a discussion about the impact of the recession on library workers who serve teens and how the association might provide support to our members in this economic climate. YALSA President Sarah Debraski will convene the discussion at 8:00PM, eastern in YALSA’s space on ALA Connect at http://connect.ala.org/yalsa. Please feel free to drop in any time between 8:00 and 9:00PM, eastern to share your thoughts and/or listen to what others have to say on the topic. Click on the link called ‘chat’ in the upper right corner of the page at any time between 8 and 9 to participate. (more…)