Welcome to the YALSAblog News of the Month. In this post we highlight a few news items from the past month that we think are of interest to staff working with teens in libraries, schools, and youth development organizations.
Month: November 2016
ALA Emerging Leaders
The ALA Emerging Leaders program is a leadership development program which enables newer library workers from across the country to participate in problem-solving work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. It puts participants on the fast track to ALA committee volunteerism as well as other professional library-related organizations.
I was incredibly blessed to have been selected as a 2015 ALA Emerging Leader. I was even more fortunate to have been sponsored by YALSA. My opportunity and experience as an Emerging Leader would not have been possible were it not for YALSA. The learning, networking, and enriching opportunity was one of the best of my life. After my Emerging Leaders experience I ran for ALA Council and I was elected, despite being a new librarian. Being a Councilor-at-Large is a great responsibility as I was elected to not only represent the interests, views, and needs of my fellow librarians and their libraries, but that of their patrons.
Since finishing my Emerging Leaders experience, I continue to work with young adults through selection of YA material, graphic novels, and participating in programs related to tweens and teens. When in doubt, I know that I can rely on the great resources YALSA has available to members and the public.
I am grateful to YALSA and ALA for all the help they have provided to my development, for opportunities afford me through the help of both, and the connections I have made by participating in conferences and programs.
Thank you, YALSA!
Johana Orellana is the Adult Services Librarian at North Richland Hills Library. She is an ALA Councilor-at-Large and a member of the APALA Mentoring Committee.
YALSA Offers Baker & Taylor Collection Development Grant
Do you wish there was extra money to buy more items for your library’s teen section? Are your teens wishing they had a larger selection of materials at their public library? Then this might be your lucky day! The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is now accepting applications for the Baker & Taylor/YALSA Collection Development Grant. The $1,000 grant, made possible by Baker & Taylor, will be awarded to up to two YALSA members to be used to support the purchase of new materials to support collection development in public libraries. The grant is also designed to recognize the excellent work of those YALSA members working directly with young adults ages 12-18 in a public library.
The committee is looking for proposals that present innovative ideas on how to expand young adult collections. Applicants will be judged on the basis of the degree of need for additional materials for young adults in their library, the degree of their current collection’s use, and the benefits this grant will bring to young adults. Other criteria, grant information and the application form can be found on the YALSA Awards and Grants website, http://www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/bwi. Applications must be submitted online no later than December 1, 2016.
Sara Ray, Teen Services Librarian, and B&T Collection Development Grant Chair is excited to offer this opportunity to YALSA members.
A Little Note of Welcome
I think most of us who’ve been members of YALSA for a while, might not remember getting a note of welcome from a YALSA Board Member. I vaguely remember getting one; I’ve gotten a few thank you notes from the Friends of YALSA over the years too. So when I became a Board member this year, one of our duties is to write a welcome notes to new members. When I was younger, writing notes to family and friends was something I did diligently around every holiday or birthday. I remember writing to friends during my early days in college too, some lengthy missives. So the opportunity to write letters to new members was so thrilling. So when I got my list of new members, a process that is divvied up between all the board members, I was delighted. I had received my package of note cards and envelopes and stamps from Letitia from the YALSA office and I was ready to go. So with my first list in hand and all my writing gear, I sat down at the children’s reference desk one evening at my library ready to write a note of welcome, imparting all my excitement and wonderful opportunities that lay ahead for them as new members of YALSA.
I begin writing my first note, telling the new member about all the different ways they can get involved and how they are part of the best division in ALA, about all the different ways they can find out what’s going on in the division. After imparting all this information I realize my handwriting has become so bad over the years. Who is going to be able read a single word I’ve written? I sat there in utter disbelief! When did my handwriting become so horrible? Then I began to ponder, when was the last time I actually wrote more than just a few words. When was the last time had I written a letter? When I was a member of the Financial Advancement committee, I would send thank you notes. And thank you notes are nice, but they were short and sweet and I always followed them up with an e-mail so members would have something for the tax records. So I started to really think about when had I written any lengthy? When I was in college e-mail was just getting going, and as my friends could attest I wasn’t a big fan of texting. But twenty years later I mostly text and I’m always sending e-mails. There was a time when I would write out drafts of policies on paper then type them on the computer, but now I just type straight into computer. I’ve even gotten bad at sending cards on birthday’s and holidays and it’s been quite a while since I sat down an wrote a letter to anyone in my family.
YALSA Executive Committee Report
Two weekends ago the YALSA Executive Committee met in Pittsburgh simultaneously with the YALSA Symposium. During a marathon Saturday meeting, the members of the Executive Committee (President Sarah Hill, who led the meeting; President-Elect Sandra Hughes-Hassell; Immediate Past President Candice Mack; Fiscal Officer Nick Buron; Secretary Crystle Martin; yours truly YALSA Division Councilor Todd Krueger; and Executive Director Beth Yoke) discussed many matters affecting the division.
One of the things that we discussed at length was making sure that the youth divisions (AASL, ALSC and YALSA) are well-represented in ALA governance, i.e. ALA Council and the ALA Executive Board. Because there are a number of YALSA members running for ALA Council this coming spring, we have high hopes that there will be more representation from members of youth divisions on ALA Council in the coming years. When the ballot arrives, be sure to access http://www.ala.org/yalsa/workingwithyalsa/election and check out the YALSA members running for Council. As the Division Councilor, I will be working with my companion Councilors in ALSC and AASL to make this objective a reality. It is a benefit to YALSA to have former president Jack Martin serving on the ALA Nominating Committee for 2017, which puts forward nominees for ALA President and Council for the following year. If you are interested in either of these positions, please contact me or Jack for more information.
A discussion about the future of ALA conferences and the ALA committee that is determining the scope and size of the conferences followed. Due to the way that YALSA has scheduled its meetings to avoid conflicts, any changes to future ALA conferences will likely not affect YALSA or its members in a negative way.
Support YALSA Members This #GivingTuesday
Every #GivingTuesday (this year it is Tuesday, November 29) I give to organizations and causes that have an impact on my community. This year I am giving to Friends of YALSA to support my colleagues serving teens in public and school libraries to recognize their hard work and give them the helping hand they need to become leaders in their community and in YALSA. Not a day goes by that I don’t see a story about a YALSA member doing something innovative, reaching a new audience, and putting teens first. I am grateful that I get to be part of an organization of passionate librarians, and I want to make sure that my colleagues in YALSA have the tools they need to keep moving forward into the future.
All Friends of YALSA donations go directly to members in the form of $14,095 worth of annual grants, scholarships and awards for members. These honor the hard work and significant contributions members give to YALSA (Volunteer of the Year Award, and Writing Award), to support their advocacy for teens (National Library Legislative Day travel grants), and to build their leadership skills (Board Fellow, Spectrum Scholar and Emerging Leader). As we near Thanksgiving, and you consider what you are grateful for, remember the helping hands that got you to where you are today, and consider donating to Friends of YALSA to help share these wonderful opportunities with your fellow YALSA members.
Donate here. Click on Divisions and then YALSA.
Kate McNair is a YALSA Board Member and has been a Friend of YALSA since 2012.
P.S. Many of the member grants and awards supported by Friends of YALSA have an application deadline of Dec. 1st!
When Libraries Become a Refuge for Youth in a Post-Election World
On November 8, 2016, the United States of America elected Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States. The campaign process and the election was both tumultuous and divisive. When the results of the election were announced, some people took to the streets to protest their anger and disappointment while others expressed hatred and bigotry in acts of violence, vandalism, and intimidation. Needless to say, our country is hurting and many of our patrons are living in fear for themselves and their families. In times like these, many assume that libraries must remain neutral and continue business as usual. However, for those of us who work on the front lines, we see the pain and we see the fear, especially from the youth. As young adult library staff, we can no longer remain neutral because it our responsibility to stand up for youth and convey to our communities that libraries are a safe space for all and we will not tolerate any behaviors that threaten the safety and the well-being of our youth.
Before we create a plan of action, we need to go back to the fundamentals of what it means to be a young adult professional. On June 27, 2015, the YALSA Board of Directors adopted the Core Professional Values for the Teen Services Profession (developed by YALSA’s Professional Values Taskforce) that outlines nine values that set the foundation for young adult professionals. Here are the nine values: Accountability, Collaboration, Compassion, Excellence, Innovation, Inclusion, Integrity, Professional Duty, and Social Responsibility. If you have not reviewed this document, take a few minutes to read it, especially the values that focus on: Compassion, Inclusion, and Social Responsibility. As young adult library professionals, some of us have already witnessed the backlash of the election as teens divulged their fears, shed tears, and made hasty decisions to do things that could harm them in the future. By upholding these core values, we have a responsibility to inform teens that they are safe in our buildings and that we, as library professionals, will help them in any way we can to make sure they have access to services and information to overcome any adversity they may face. More importantly, by demonstrating these values with our teen patrons, we have the opportunity to build, or reinforce, relationships where they know we care about them and that they are not alone. Here are some great ideas that youth services library workers are doing for their communities, post-election:
- Spending the Day with After the Election with Teenagers: http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2016/11/spending-the-day-after-the-2016-election-with-teenagers/
- The Post-Election Library: http://www.programminglibrarian.org/articles/post-election-library
- A Path Forward: How Libraries Support Refugee Children http://www.slj.com/2016/10/diversity/a-path-forward-how-libraries-support-refugee-children/#_
- After Election, Librarians, Book Creators Vow To Support Children: http://www.slj.com/2016/11/industry-news/after-election-librarians-book-creators-vow-to-support-children/
By standing up for our youth, not only are we modeling positive behaviors between youth services staff and teens, we are conveying to our non-youth services colleagues, fellow city workers, and community partners that we need to work together to ensure our youth is provided for, nurtured, and protected. In other words, start partnering with your city organizations to create a united front to convey to the community that we will stand up and protect the youth of our cities. More importantly, relay patron concerns to city officials and ask them to stand with us and our partners. As the Social Responsibility states, “[Social responsibility creates a] mutual trust between the profession and the larger public [by responding] to societal needs as they relate to teens and libraries” (2015). YALSA has some partnering resources on its wiki that you may want to explore. Continue reading When Libraries Become a Refuge for Youth in a Post-Election World
YALSA Seeks Content Experts for Teen Programming HQ
YALSA is seeking up to four teen programming Content Experts, especially those with expertise in STEAM, school libraries, ESL, outreach, or community partnerships, for its web resource, Teen Programming HQ.
The mission of the site is to provide a one-stop-shop for finding and sharing information about programs of all kinds designed for and with teens. The site promotes best practices in programming by featuring user-submitted programs that align with YALSA’s Teen Programming Guidelines and Futures Report.
The site also enable dissemination of timely information about emerging and new practices for teen programming; raise awareness about appropriate YALSA tools to facilitate innovation in teen programming; and provide a means for members and others interested in teen programs to connect with one another to support and share their efforts to continuously improve their teen programs. In its first year, the HQ ran contests where prizes were given out to “top” programs.
Content Experts will work with the site’s Member Manager to vet all incoming program submissions and determine which meet the necessary criteria for being featured on the site. As part of this effort, Content Experts will be expected to give timely, constructive feedback to individuals regarding their program submissions. Please note that the Content Experts will not be submitting the content; rather, they will be reviewing content that is submitted by others. Content Experts should also feel comfortable with social media and have an understanding that marketing the website will be a crucial part of their role.
Continue reading YALSA Seeks Content Experts for Teen Programming HQ
YALSA Symposium 2016: Empowering Teens, Empowering Library Staff
A little over a week ago, I packed my bags for the 2016 YALSA Symposium. It wasn’t easy to rip myself away from the Cubs euphoria raging in my hometown of Chicago, but I was excited to share a weekend with people who were passionate about something even more important: serving young adults in the library. The Symposium theme was Empowering Teens, and there was lots of discussion about ways to fostering teen ideas, talent, and leadership in our libraries. Letting teens take charge may feel like extra work, but the benefit to them is worth every bit of effort.
Continue reading YALSA Symposium 2016: Empowering Teens, Empowering Library Staff
Teen Read Week: Board Game Collection Encourages English Language Learners To “Read For the Fun of It”
Every year the Teen Read Week Committee selects the recipients of the Teen Read Week grants funded by contributions from YALSA and Dollar General. Cynthia Shutts at the White Oak Public Library (IL) was awarded one of this year’s Teen Read Week grants to create a circulating board game collection that focused on literacy skills to encourage the English Language Learners in the community to ‘Read for the Fun of It’. I spoke with Shutts recently to discuss the Teen Read Week Grant process, and evaluate the outcomes of the grant-funded program.
Shutts used Teen Read Week Grant funds to purchase a circulating board game collection focusing on literacy-based games. The White Oak Library plans to market this new collection to English as Second Language classes and other patrons who are learning English. The Library held a game night launch program during Teen Read Week. Shutts expects word to grow slowly but steadily about the game collection. The Library has promoted this new collection through many avenues, but the hope is that word of mouth will help increase knowledge of this service. By launching the board game collection during Teen Read Week, the hope was that teens and their families would come to the launch night.
The Illinois state budget crisis has hit White Oak Library hard, and because of this the programming budgets had been cut deeply. It would not have been possible to start this program without the generous grant from YALSA and Dollar General. Shutts used the Teen Programming Guidelines, and focused on aligning programs with community and library priorities. The White Oak Library has recently updated its strategic plan to include increased support for second language learners. The Library started conversation clubs and are adding a lot of books in Spanish to the Library’s collection. The next step in this plan was creating a collection focusing on literacy games.