It’s Valentine’s Day, and few things inspire a teen’s undying love like their favorite musicians, actors and other celebrities.

Screaming teenagers welcome The Beatles at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, Feb. 7, 1964

For some of us, keeping up with the ever-changing pop culture scene can be difficult. My very favorite session from the 2012 YALSA Lit Sympsoium in St. Louis was “Make it Pop: How to Use Pop Culture in Your Library,” presented by YALSA stalwarts Sarah Wethern and Scott Rader. I personally learned about many things that had missed my attention but which might give me a little more street cred with my young people.

So I’m terribly thrilled that Sarah and Scott will be highlighting pop culture here on the YALSA blog, a sort-of ongoing, serialized version of their awesome presentation called Trendspotting. Look for it on Thursdays. I expect it will become a go-to resource for those of us wanting to keep our fingers on the pulse of all that is new and cool to leverage it for our library programs.

Sarah is a youth librarian serving ages 0-18 at the Douglas County Library in Minnesota and is on the 2014 Michael L. Printz Committee. Scott is the Assistant Head of the Young Adult Department at Hays Public Library in Kansas and was on the 2012 Alex Award Committee.

Sarah’s first post, which will publish next week, looks at media depictions of the protraction of modern adolescence and what that means for the teens we serve.

In the meantime, a couple of related resources:

Brookover, S. & Burns, E. (2008) Pop goes the library: using pop culture to connect with your whole community. Medford: Information Today.

Hauser, Robert. (2013, February 6). “Don’t shy away from teaching pop culture.” Education Week.

Peter Gutierrez’s Connect the Pop column for School Library Journal

Pop Goes the Library blog (last updated January 4, 2010).