“I tried to join a ping-pong club, sign on the door said all full up!  I got nicked, fighting in the road an’ the judge didn’t even know…what’s my name…?!” – The Clash

Back in July, there was a rather sprited discussion on YAAC about the idea of reordering some of our most hallowed boxes of stickers.  Much of the converstaion, it seemed, centered on the idea of service being provided to the 18 – 30-ish age bracket; whether or not we have a responsibility to help transition people to adult services, and how to collaborate in that area with the adult services department.  I do agree there is a definite need for such collaboration, as little seems to be exist in libraries these days for this crowd.  My esteemed colleague Alissa blogged about this very point just a few days past (most eloquently, I might add!).  But the discussions began on a point of  such seeming importance, one I feel like we get overly wrapped up in at times: what’s their label!?

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At the midwinter meeting in Chicago the Popular Paperback’s for Young Adults committee was hard at work narrowing down the scope of each themed list. The Change Your World subcommittee lived up to their name and altered the range of their list significantly. In an effort to open up the list to the fantasy and sci fi genres, the subcommittee decided to change the description. The new description is: “You say you want a revolution? What are you willing to lose?  What are you willing to do?  The future starts now.”  The Change committee is hoping that this new description will bring about more variety of nominated titles which currently include: Hoot, Pretties, An Inconvenient Truth, and Little Brother.

For more information about all of the 2010 PPYA lists and to nominate a title, visit http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/poppaper.

And remember, the future starts now.

My library, and perhaps many of yours, has made some serious cuts to our training, travel and professional development budgets. Ironically, I keep hearing about amazing non-library conferences I’d like to attend. Has anyone attended the BOOST conference? It’s one of the biggest conference for out-of-school time providers, and they’re currently accepting program proposals for their April 2010 conference in Palm Springs. If your program proposal is accepted, you get free registration! When I’ve talked with OST professionals, they’re always very interested in how to partner with the library.

Are there other non-library-specific conferences that you’d recommend to others?

Just a few short weeks ago, I held a teen summer finale party to honor those teens that had turned in hours of reading over the summer.  This is the first time at my current position that I have held a finale, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The program components were pretty standard:  food, Wii gaming, and a craft.  I invited the teens and had about 17 RSVPs.  Although I felt that my finale activities were fun, I wasn’t sure if IT would happen.

The teens started to trickle in to the room, and I felt nervous.  The room was so quiet.  A few kids were playing Wii, and other muched on cookies and watched them.  Unless something happend soon, I figured my party would be a bust.  No one was talking.  Then IT happened.  (more…)

In late July, a second round of A Day in the Life of a Library, launched. As I read posts librarians wrote for this project about how they spend their days as librarians, I started thinking how I spend my time as YALSA President. And, while it’s not a 9 to 5 job as is that of many librarians, it is something that I spend at least a bit of time on every day. I thought to myself, what about a blog post on a month in the life of a YALSA President?

It’s just over a month since I took on the job of YALSA President, and I can’t quite believe both that it’s been that long and all the conversations I’ve had about YALSA with a variety of people in that time. Don’t worry, this post isn’t going to go through every day of my first month as YALSA President, (more…)

We’re going to Albuquerque in November 2010! The YA Lit Symposium Task Force is very excited about the plans for the next Young Adult Literature Symposium: Beyond Good Intentions: Diversity, Literature, and Teens.

One of the best parts of being on the YA Lit Symposium Task Force is reviewing the symposium preconference, program, and paper proposals. This is where you come in – proposals are currently being accepted for the symposium. Does the current YA Lit meet the needs of your diverse teens? How do you use the literature with your teens? If it isn’t meeting the needs, what are some things that you are doing to meet their needs? What impact is current generation having on the literature world? The proposal deadline is October 1, 2009.

What do YOU want to learn about at the symposium?

Recently on YALSA-YAAC there has been some discussion regarding the terminology used to define library services to 12 – 18 year olds- is the term “young adults” an appropriate label for this age? Or is “young adults” more appropriate for the 19 – 35 age range?  What ages should we be providing services for?  Check out the discussion at http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/ya-yaac.

I’ve always struggled with the term “young adult” because as someone in the under 30 set, I’ve always considered myself a young adult.  I have begun refering to my department “Teen Services” because not only is that the terminology that my target audience identifies for themselves, but it also clarifies the confusion for patrons unfamiliar with the  library terminology.  The biggest adjustment has been for staff, who struggle to no longer refer to the Young Adult area (recently named The Teen Zone through a vote of  teen regulars) or me as the Young Adult Librarian (I go by Teen Services Librarian now).  Officially, my library defines my service age as 13 – 18, truly the teen years, however I also provide services to the 10 – 12 year old set as well in collaboration with the Youth Services department.  I believe that is how teen librarians should address the 19 – 25 set as well, through collaboration with Adult services. 

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A recent report of the top 10 search terms teens use, seems to reveal that many teens are more likely to search for Youtube than enter www.youtube.com into their browser. (more…)

The YALSA Board of Directors will meet via conference call on Aug. 25, 3:30-5 p.m Eastern. Members interested in listening to the discussion can email yalsa@ala.org or call 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4390, for the phone number and passcode.

It’s that time of year again!
The teens are gearing up for back to school and YALSA is gearing up for a new round of committee appointments. As YALSA’s new President-Elect, one of my duties is to appoint people to YALSA committees. This is a huge process that I am just beginning to get a grasp on. Thankfully I have great predecessors who have shared much appreciated helpful advice to smooth my way as I begin by making Selection Committee appointments. These will be made by October 30, 2009. (more…)