In eight weeks I’ll be in Boston for Midwinter 2010. I’m arriving early to go to ALISE (The Association for Library and Information Science Education) which this year includes a YALSA Happy Hour on Tuesday evening January 12, and a YALSA Booth throughout the ALISE conference. Along with getting ready for ALISE activities, I’m also spending time preparing for YALSA Board discussions that will take place in Boston. Board members are now looking over the draft agenda for these meetings and providing feedback on plans for discussions. Topics up for discussion include:

• ALA Committee Participation Policy Change – Recently ALA changed the rules regarding the number of virtual members that could be appointed to Division committees. Previously, YALSA was limited to having 1/3 of the members of any committees, that allowed for virtual participation, to be virtual. With the new ALA policies on virtual committee member participation, there is no limit on the number of virtual members that can be a part of a committee. There is also now the possibility for some committees to be made entirely virtual. (more…)

Are you giving out a lot of Wrestlemania reading logs, but not getting any returned to you? Try a countdown poster. I created one for our teen area. Use a post-it note to insert the correct numbers of days. If you start tomorrow, the number is 56.
Decorate your mini-poster with pictures of wrestlers or a catchy phrase. January 19 will be here soon!

Abby’s Road is a podcast in which high school senior, Abby Laporte, talks with peers and adults about a variety of topics of interest to teens and the adults who live and work with them. Over the life of the podcast Abby and her guests have covered topics including visiting colleges, sexual orientation, abuse, and, most recently, technology. (You can listen to the most recent podcast.)

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When listening to the latest podcast in the series, I was once again reminded of the value adults need to place on teen abilities to think critically. Throughout the podcast, Abby and the teens she talked with, demonstrated that they are all aware of the need to think about the actions that they take online. They also know that sometimes the actions they choose aren’t necessarily the best. (more…)

Winter online course registration now open YALSA opened registration this week for its winter session of online courses. Get teens engaged with reading after taking Booktalks Quick & Simple with Nancy Keane and rev up  your special events with Power Programming for Teens with Amy Alessio.  Classes last four weeks. Pricing starts at $135 for YALSA members (10% discount for groups of 10 or more). Learn more at YALSA’s Online Courses page or by contacting Eve Gaus at egaus@ala.org.

YALSA Events at Midwinter Join us for our two ticketed pre-Midwinter events, Libraries 3.0: Teen Edition and Games, Gadgets and Gurus.  Details and how to register for them after the jump (you can read about everything we have planned for Midwinter Meeting at the YALSA Midwinter Wiki).

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When I walked in my library this morning, I had no internet. No intranet, even–I couldn’t load the high school home page at all.

On another morning this might have sent me into a panic, but I already knew I had a light schedule for the day and wouldn’t be giving out many library passes because today’s an advisory day for frosh and sophomores, so I headed over to the front office, remembering that one of our secretaries was out for the day and her counterpart might need a hand.

Half an hour later, I returned to find that one of our paras had graciously stepped up and made a pencil and paper list of passes for juniors and seniors as well as one for a handful of book checkouts.

Low tech? Absolutely. Just as effective in a pinch? You bet!

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As I have visited other libraries and talked to many librarians across the country I can’t help but feel very thankful to live in Idaho. Why is that you may ask? Because Idaho partners!

I’m amazed at the Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICFL) and all of the partnerships that it has and shares with all of the libraries across the state and the partnerships that my library here in Rexburg, Idaho has. I would like to share a few examples.

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For the past few months, YALSA has been holding informal online chats in ALA Connect on the first Wednesday of each month. Beginning in December, we’d like to encourage YALSA members to connect with each other in person as well as online.

We’re thrilled to announce First Wednesdays with YALSA — a chance for our members to use our monthly chats as a tool for gathering with other members in their area to socialize, exchange ideas, network, and exchange news and tips about YALSA and the profession as a whole.

The next chat (focusing on teens and technology) takes place Dec. 2 – read on to find out how you can be part of First Wednesdays with YALSA!

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Being a student member of ALA and YALSA I have learned a few things about being a librarian that can’t be taught in school:

1. Being a librarian requires a love of learning that never fades
2. Librarians are innovative, always coming up with new and creative ways to reach teens
3. Librarians love to share their ideas on wikis, blogs, via Twitter and Facebook, at conferences, and in podcasts

It is for all of these reasons that there is nothing else I would rather do than be a librarian. And it is also for these reasons that libraries and librarians really have the opportunity to inspire teens this Teen Tech Week. (more…)

Fairy tale retellings often feel like a dime a dozen.  Whether they’re modernized or grounded in the past, gender flipped or boundaries blurred, the heart of the fairy tale must remain.  Otherwise, the retelling feels cold and disconnected, lacking all the magic of the original story.  But sometimes, a retelling gives the fairy tale a new complexity and shading.

Beauty
Robin McKinley
Published 1978
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This was the first time for me that a library conference was held in the city where I work. As a public librarian it was a great experience to hear the perspective from school librarians and network with a lot of great colleagues. Though the conference was a blend of academic and public librarians as well. (more…)