A short list of tweets posted over the last week that librarians and the teens that they serve may find interesting:

• Japanese Universities Draw Foreign Students With Manga http://nyti.ms/dSSd7m – @nytimesarts
• 11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year http://bit.ly/fMkp3p (via @tucksoon) – @donalynbooks
• NY Times discusses ‘The Dark Side of Young Adult Fiction: Room for Debate’ http://tinyurl.com/2ag2yea – @jpetoroy
• Best Mobile Sites for Education http://tinyurl.com/22ph35p – @edutek (more…)

Every time I pick up an issue of Library Hotline as it circulates around the reference office, I’m reminded of the country’s economic woes.   The public library district where I work has been fortunate so far, even as we’ve been affected by the budget issues of the larger system we’re a part of and of the state as a whole.

Our fiscal year began in July, so we are just halfway through the current budget cycle.  We try to keep our board of trustees happy by displaying fiscal responsibility, because next year’s budget is in their hands.  As we plan our budget each spring, Teen Tech Week is one program that we build in to our request.  We start with the assumption that a few hundred dollars will be needed for programming, promotion and giveaways. (more…)

Need a speaker for a workshop? Staff in-service? Beth Gallaway is offering libraries a great deal: if you pay her travel fees, she’ll waive her speaker fee for a 3-hour training or workshop of your choice. Can’t miss this deal at the NSS Auction in San Diego.

Need help with all that summer reading? Now is the time to plan ahead for Summer of 2011 with the help of Evanced Solution’s Summer Reader Software. They are offering, for new customers only, a free one-year subscription to their Summer Reader software. So give yourself a chance to get in some summer reading and bid away for your library.

At this time of year I always think, How can Midwinter already be here? Of course it is a bit earlier than usual this year, but still, how can Midwinter already be here? I’m actually going to ALISE which means I’m leaving in less than a week. Oh my gosh.

That’s enough about how soon I’m leaving. There are lots of things that I’m looking forward to at Midwinter 2011 and I hope to see some YALSA Blog readers at various events, meetings, and so on. (By the way, don’t forget that you can keep up with YALSA at Midwinter even if you aren’t going to be there. Follow the hashtags #yalsa and #alamw11 on Twitter and make sure to check-out the recap on Paper.li every day during Midwinter.)

As the YALSA Past President I’ll be spending time in a variety of meetings, including YALSA Board meetings. Don’t forget that YALSA’s Board meetings are open and that means you can attend. Read President Kim Patton’s recent post on what the Board has coming up for vote and discussion this Midwinter. Why not find a time to sit in for at least a little while to see how the association works? It is a great way to learn what’s going on and to get more involved.

Before I focus on some of the events and meetings at Midwinter that I’m looking forward to (outside of Board meetings that is), I have to mention one event that I’m unfortunately not going to see take place live. It’s something I’m definitely looking forward to seeing after the fact. I’m going to be on a plane on Tuesday morning, January 11, when the Today show is scheduled to have a segment on the Youth Media Awards, but when I get off that plane I’m going to make sure to check out the clip. YALSA Past President, Sarah Debraski, will be on the show to talk about the Awards and the winners. If you are in New York City you might want to cheer Sarah on outside of the Today show studios at Rockefeller Plaza. If not, make sure to check-out the segment either live or when it’s available on the Today show site. (We’ll be sure to link to it here on the blog.) (more…)

As we get closer to the deadline for submitting entries for YALSA’s Thinking Big About Advocacy Contest,  we’d like everyone to take a minute and think about your YA Book collection.  Every library has one now, don’t they?  Young adult books have never been more popular, and almost every major publisher has established an imprint devoted to the genre, but this was not always the case. (more…)

Title: Instagram
Platform: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
(Requires iOS  3.1.2 or later)
Cost: Free!

To best describe Instagram to librarians: It’s like Twitter with pictures.

To best describe Instagram to teens: It’s an app where you can share photos with your friends and it has all these cool filters.

Instagram is a photo sharing app, self-described as  “fast, beautiful and fun”.  It has feeds like many social media sites.  You take pictures, add filters, update your feed, and then look at what other people are posting. You can choose to follow other users and see their updates whenever they post a new picture. You can also easily share your Instagram photos with other sites. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Posterous, Tumblr and Foursquare are the sharing options offered.

The interface is quite clean and self-explanatory.  It looks like this:

(more…)

Have you always wanted to go to San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) but could never pull it off? Is ALA Midwinter the closest you are going to get to living that Comic-Con dream? If so, you can actually get pretty close to giving yourself the SDCC experience by taking back to your hotel room, and eventually home and maybe to your home library, SDCC in a Bag (Donated by YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels Committee). The bag will be filled with a lot of great graphic novel items. Including:

• Great Graphic Novels for Teens booklist nominees (some signed and some ready for you to get signed)
• Snacks (to tide you over as you wait in those long lines for high profile panels in Hall H)
• A gift certificate to a lovely restaurant or cafe near the San Diego Convention Center (more…)

January 7 is fast approaching and YALSA’s Not-So-Silent Auction will get your Midwinter experience off to an exciting start. Taking place on Friday from 8 – 10 pm in Convention Center room 7, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to bid on one-of-a-kind items such as a signed copy of science fiction author Cory Doctorow’s latest collection of stories, With a Little Help.  What’s so unique about this book is that it is only one of 250 that are being printed in hardcover.  Each copy has an embossed number on the spine and is hand bound at Wyvern Bindery in London.  In addition, the end papers are actually “original paper ephemera donated by various writer friends.” Read blogger Hal Stern’s reverential description of opening his copy—and wonder about the surprise in yours. (more…)

There’s still time to apply for this year’s TTW mini grants! The submission deadline is January 3, 2011 so hurry and submit your application materials.

What you win:

Four-hundred and fifty dollars to be used to implement a teen reading program that uses technology during TTW 2011. The 10 grant recipients will also be awarded $50 worth of official TTW promotional materials.

Who can apply:

All personal members of YALSA.

How to apply:

Read the guidelines on the YALSA website and then download the application and follow the submission instructions.

The winners will be announced the week of February 7th. Good luck!

Make sure you check out the 2011 TTW website for professional resources and program ideas.