Last year the YALSA Board of Directors approved adding a new Interest Group: Managing Young Adult Services. It’s mission is to be a forum on exchanging ideas on how supervisors and managers can support all level of staff working with young adults in public libraries and to develop strategies and tactics to address the needs of current and future managers in young adult services.

It has the potential to be an important Interest Group in YALSA. The problem? Due to a new job for me, I haven’t had the time to do anything with it. (more…)

YALSA is interested in starting a new Interest Group to discuss issues relating to managing young adult services in libraries. We aim to be a forum on exchanging ideas on how supervisors and managers can support all level of staff working with young adults in public libraries and to develop strategies and tactics to address the needs of current and future managers in youth services.

This is the perfect chance for YALSA members to talk with each other about their successes and challenges when managing teen services librarians or a teen department of any size. Members of a YALSA Interest Group can participate completely virtually using tools like ALA Connect. Interest groups can sponsor programs at conferences and submit articles for YALSA publications.

To get the new group started, YALSA members need to show their interest by signing a petition. We need 15 signatures in order to submit a Request for Board Action to have the new group approved. If you are interested in participating in this new group send the following information: name, ALA member number, institution, email, address, and phone number to Maureen Hartman, mlhartman@mac.com And stay tuned for more details!

We’ve extended the application for YALSA’s Great Ideas contest to July 15, 2010!

YALSA needs your Great Ideas – and you could win $250 in cash! We’re looking for creative help from you to help YALSA achieve its goals.

Do you have an idea to:
make YALSA’s awards and booklists into household names?
ensure young adult and school librarians have access to important research?
help YALSA better advocate for quality library services for every teen in every library?
develop continuing education or career services that librarians need?
engage YALSA’s current membership and recruit new members?

Great ideas like yours will help YALSA achieve the goals laid out in its most recent strategic plan: Advocacy, Marketing, Research, Continuous Learning, and Member Recruitment and Engagement. A PDF version of the Strategic Plan is available here.

Who Can Apply?

All current YALSA members and official member groups, including committees, juries, taskforces, discussion groups, interest groups and advisory boards.
How to Apply

Check out the guidelines for more information and the application form. Send your application to yalsa@ala.org as a single attachment no later than July 15, 2010.

Winners will be announced the week of Sept. 7, 2010. There will be a first place winner for an individual member and a first place winner for a member group. If there are no applicants in one of the two categories, we will choose two winners for a single category. Each prize is worth up to $250. Winners will have their idea and photo published in an issue of YAttitudes and have their idea implemented by YALSA.

Please direct questions to Sarajo Wentling, Strategic Planning Committee Chair, at: sjwentling@yahoo.com

I’m really excited to be participating in a National Afterschool Matters fellowship that gives practitioners in the out-of-school time (OST) field an opportunity to investigate and write, for an academic journal, about an OST issue in their profession/workplace. This program was running in NYC for a few years and last expanded to Philadelphia and the Bay Area, and this year it’s Minneapolis’ turn.

I’m the only library person, but it’s fascinating to talk with my colleagues in the field. We’ve only met once but I’m looking forward to the year and getting some time to write about where libraries fit into this important area. Has anyone else participated in this or similar fellowships in other parts of the country? We have so much in common with other OST providers, but so much that’s different, too. What has been your experience working with other youth-serving providers in your area?

My library, and perhaps many of yours, has made some serious cuts to our training, travel and professional development budgets. Ironically, I keep hearing about amazing non-library conferences I’d like to attend. Has anyone attended the BOOST conference? It’s one of the biggest conference for out-of-school time providers, and they’re currently accepting program proposals for their April 2010 conference in Palm Springs. If your program proposal is accepted, you get free registration! When I’ve talked with OST professionals, they’re always very interested in how to partner with the library.

Are there other non-library-specific conferences that you’d recommend to others?