Teen Tech Week 2011 (March 6-12) isn’t just for public libraries, as you know. There are lots of fun ways to incorporate it into your school library without breaking the budget.

This year, the theme of Teen Tech Week is Mix and Mash. It’s an awesome theme because you really can do anything at all with it. On February 24, I’ll be writing about programming and book displays for the teen library, but for this post, I thought it would be worthwhile to highlight some curriculum-based activities that can be tied into TTW. According to the YALSA TTW site, Teen Tech Week 2011″focuses on encouraging teens to use library resources to express their creativity by developing their own unique online content and safely sharing it by using online collaborative tools.” Fantastic – school libraries are the perfect place to create online content. And librarians are pretty good at guiding teens through the process of sharing their work online in a safe way, right? So here we go.

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

• 2010 Online, by the Numbers http://nyti.ms/ijC7T5 – @nytimesbits
• Video Games as Video Art, as curated by Matteo Bittanti http://bit.ly/g0gf4i -@henryjenkins
• “Changing Role of Educators” – very well done. http://bit.ly/hRSS7H #edchat #edreform – @NancyW
• How I Use Visualization To Drive Creativity http://tcrn.ch/i5CIck – @TechCrunch
• Wolfram education apps raise teaching dilemma http://bit.ly/fcQge9 – @CNETNews
• Download a free Teen Top Trends of 2010 Poster! http://fb.me/TcnBTMWK – @voyamagazine
• “Google has announced a program called Google TV for EDU”: http://bit.ly/hNSV3w #edtech -@emerginedtech (more…)

Just ten days left to the deadline for volunteering for a YALSA process committee, jury, advisory board, or task force! Don’t forget to take a few minutes to read the extensive list of committees that you can apply for, and then fill out the volunteer form by January 31. Remember, these are almost all 100% virtual–conference attendance not required. But they are all extremely important in terms of accomplishing all the work that YALSA does over the course of the year. Committee appointments will be made in February and March, and terms will begin July 1. You need to fill out a new form each year, so don’t put it off–do it now.

Name: Yours, Vincent: The letters of Vincent Van Gogh
Platform: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
(Requires iOS 3.0 or later)
Cost: FREE!

A while back I discovered that various museums have free apps, and since then I’ve been eagerly filling an iPhone folder with museum guides from around the world. While some, like the Explorer App for the American Museum of Natural History certainly informed my recent visit, others, like Your’s Vincent, make the actual visit icing on the cake.

Pentimento’s Your’s Vincent app created by Antenna Audio for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam uses Van Gogh’s own letters as a guide to his works. The app combines image, video, and sound into a personalized and detailed examination of the artist and his art.

Organized chronologically, the museum website claims that Your’s Vincent “features many of Van Gogh’s sketches and paintings from the Van Gogh Museum collection, video interviews with the museum’s letters experts and new picture galleries that showcase his art.”  Better yet, the app delivers on these claims. The app in engrossing and detailed and is able to stand alone from its exhibit. I have yet to visit Amsterdam or the Van Gogh museum, and this app gets me close to that possibility while still enticing me to actually visit (wistful sigh).  (more…)

December is always such a busy month and this one was no exception. As soon as the holidays were over and done with, many of us were all off and running (or flying as the case may be) to San Diego for the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January.  Most of December was so busy with Midwinter prep work that there wasn’t much time for anything else, but we did see one fantabulous new edition that kicked off just before the holidays.  The Hub,  YALSA’s new blog specifically dedicated to young adult literature was launched by blog Member Manager Sarah Debraski! Many thanks Sarah for leading YALSA’s successful new blog venture!

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The U.S. Department of Education is currently seeking peer reviewers for the 2011 Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grant program. The Department has set February 4, 2011 as the deadline for receiving resumes of potential reviewers.  The announcement is available here:

• http://www2.ed.gov/programs/lsl/lslpeers2011.doc , or at the LSL Web site:
• http://www2.ed.gov/programs/lsl/applicant.html

The DOE is interested in broadening their pool of reviewers to include individuals with experience in tying new media to effective instruction. For questions, please contact:

David Moore Miller

Education Program Specialist
US Department of Education
202-453-5621
David.miller@ed.gov

YALSA’s Board of Directors met recently at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting. Listed below are just some of the key decisions the Board made. A draft of the full minutes of the meeting will be posted on the Governance section of YALSA’s web site by the end of the month.

• At both Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting, the YALSA Board receives an update on the Association’s financial health. This update is provided by YALSA’s Fiscal Officer, Mary Hastler, and Executive Director, Beth Yoke. The report at Midwinter included suggestions that help guarantee that during financially difficult times, YALSA remains financially secure. The YALSA Board will continue to consider ways to control expenses and maximize revenues while meeting member needs. The full financial report is available from the Governance section of the YALSA web site (Midwinter board document #21).
• The Board approved a set of policies and procedures for YALSA’s new Readers’ Choice Committee. They can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2fdugut (more…)

As we anxiously await the announcement of our Teen Tech Week 2011 grant winners I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight some of our past grant winners and share their successful programming ideas.

TTW 2009 “Press Play @ Your Library”

Camden Tadhg from the Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, Minnesota hosted a “Party Like It’s Teen Tech Week” bash that featured hands on group instruction in Circuit-Bending while the Teen Tech Squad provided one-on-one software training. The day culminated in a Circuit Bending Jam Session where the teens made music with the instruments they created throughout the day. (more…)

On Saturday, June 25, I will be hosting a YALSA-sponsored program during the ALA Annual Conference about serving teens with disabilities. I am looking for a few good presenters who are interested in joining me and sharing their stories with the greater, teen-serving library community about how they are currently serving young people with disabilities in their public or school libraries with special programs, adapted services, or initiatives developed specifically to help foster a community of inclusion. If you are already planning to attend ALA Annual in New Orleans and are interested in possibly being a part of this workshop (see description below), please email me as soon as possible. In addition to including your name, title, and contact information in the email, please send me a brief description about how you are working with teens with disabilities. (more…)

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

• Digital Storytelling With The iPad: http://bit.ly/a08jxw – @web20classroom
• Google Announces the World’s First Online Global Science Fair http://rww.to/h6RfTJ – @rww
• Should Video Games Be Cited Like Other Works? http://post.ly/1TBcW - @s_francoeur
• Prezi for the iPad http://ow.ly/3BYwd #edchat #mlearning #edtech #ipad – @clifmims
• Latinos/blacks may be using mobile web more than whites, but that doesn’t mean digital divide is gone: http://usat.ly/hLS8PK (USAToday) – @zephoria
• Report Finds Parental Monitoring Software May Carry Privacy and Liability Risks http://rww.to/fHKw7p – @rww (more…)