Happy New Year, readers! Do you realize that now that it’s 2012 the YALSA 2013 election is a mere year (or so) away? The Governance Nominating committee is beginning work on identifying candidates for the 2013 election.  We will be seeking people to run for the offices of President and Director on the Board.  These positions are obviously not to be taken lightly and the committee can discuss the positions at length with interested persons and is available to answer questions.

If you are remotely considering running for one of these offices I highly encourage you to sit in on at least one Board meeting during the Midwinter conference next week.  The meetings are scheduled as follows:

• Board of Directors Meeting I, Saturday January 21, 1:30 to 5:30, convention center room C143
• Board of Directors Meeting II, Sunday January 22, 4:00 to 5:30, convention center room C143

• Board of Directors Meeting III, Monday January 23, 1:30 to 3:30, convention center room C143

It is the very best way to understand how the Board works and what the different roles are.  Some committee members may be at some of the Board meetings, so you can feel free if you see one of us to come on over and introduce yourself.

YALSA has so many enthusiastic, dedicated members.  I’m looking forward to seeing who among you will be our newest elected leaders in 2013!

Sarah Debraski, chair 2013 Governance Nominating Committee  (slcornish@gmail.com)

2013 Governance Nominating Committee members are: Francisca Goldsmith, Kim Patton, Maria Gentle, and Michele Gorman

I’m very excited to announce the launch of YALSA’s newest blog, The Hub.  If you like to read teen books, talk about teen books, listen to things about teen books, this blog is for you.  Sure, there are thousands of blogs out there chronicling what people read in teen literature (heck, I do one myself!), but this new blog is a bit different.  We’ll include book reviews by member bloggers, but we’ll also be directing you all over the web to interesting, funny, relevant sites, posts, videos, podcasts and more.  We hope you’ll visit The Hub daily for a peek into what the online world is saying about YA books.   We’ll also be writing about YALSA’s awards and selected lists (2011 awards announced this coming Monday, January 10!).

Please stop by and see what we’re all about!

Sarah Debraski
Member Manager, The Hub
http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/

Hello readers! As many of you may already know, YALSA is at work on launching a new blog dedicated to young adult literature. While our award winning YALSA blog will still be the place to turn for great posts about young adult librarianship, advocacy, YALSA, and more, this new blog will be solely focused on young adult literature.

The Hub, as it will be called, will be your stop for interesting posts, interviews, links, and more about the world of ya lit. One of the ways the new blog supports YALSA’s Strategic Plan is by promoting and supporting YALSA’s awards and lists.  In addition to original content it will also connect readers to sites, videos, podcasts, and images relevant to teen literature already on the web.  You can read the original announcement here.

If you are a YALSA member and interested in writing for the blog, please contact me, Sarah Debraski, at slcornish@gmail.com.  Thanks, and I’ll see you at The Hub!

Sarah Debraski
Literature Blog Manager

This week YALSA Board members are writing about their experience serving on the Board.  This post is one in that series.

The unique thing about running for YALSA President is that, if elected, you will fill three distinct roles in three years. All of the things that Sara Ryan mentioned in her perspective as a Board member hold true, plus there are additional responsibilities.

As President-Elect you will spend the year working hard on making committee and task force appointments.  This is no small task, but it is a great way to get to know many YALSA members.  You will also be serving on the Executive Committee and have those meetings (including an in-person meeting in the fall), in addition to regular YALSA Board meetings.  There is a lot of observing and learning during this year, as well as developing a working relationship with the President and Executive Director.

What skills do you need to be President-Elect? An attention to detail, a willingness to learn, and a good system for organizing your work. (more…)

Like many people digital photography has opened up a whole new hobby to me: photography.  I love being able to take as many pictures as it takes to get just the right shot and when I learned how to use the macro setting on my camera, well, suddenly all my photos were extreme close ups.  And, like many of you, I share my photos with friends, family, colleagues, and strangers via email, photo album sharing (i.e. Picasa, Flickr, Shutterfly, etc.), Facebook, and my personal blog.  Just yesterday I noticed that WordPress had a new theme specifically for photoblogs (Duotone.)  Hmm…a blog that is simply a new photo each day.  I had thought about doing a “365″ project for a while and this was the incentive I needed.  I signed right up for yet another blog. Perhaps you’re wondering what this has to do with teens and libraries? Well, after I posted my first two pictures I started thinking about how much fun it would be to do something like this at the library. I like it that it wouldn’t take up extra space on your website.  You could just have a link on your front page to your “Picture of the Day” that would take you to the photoblog.

You could photograph all kinds of things at your library: people doing different activities (reading, using the computer, etc.),  beautiful or unusual parts of the building, staff and patrons interacting, children responding to programs, and whatever else might capture your eye.   And why not get teens involved in this? What a great way to empower the teens who use your library and support their point of view and art.

Aside from just being a cool project, this is a great way to show the many facets of the library and your community.  After all, a picture is worth a thousand words! Have a 365 project? Why not leave a link in the comments?

Sarah Debraski

YALSA Immediate Past President

It’s no news to anyone that when library budgets get tight and cuts need to be made, one of the first things to go is the travel budget. Follow that with any continuing education budgets, then staff cuts that make even using personal time to take a day to go to a workshop difficult, and before you know it librarians can find themselves feeling isolated, cut off, and downright grouchy about it.
So how can you remain involved when you’re stuck at home (so to speak)?

• Right now you are doing one great thing-reading the YALSA blog! This is a good way to keep abreast of trends, news, and topics of interest (such as weathering the economy!). Much as I love the YALSA blog, though, it is not the only one out there. There are many blogs and sites about young adult librarianship and literature. Find an online library community you enjoy (a blog or even a group on ALA Connect) and fresh content and voices will help keep you in the library loop and excited about what you’re doing. (more…)

One of the things that struck me the most about the many comments on YALSA’s new readers’ choice list, is the opposition some people in the field have had to the idea of creating a list based on input from YALSA’s 5,700 members.



One of the key messages I emphasized to the press during my year as president–something I said over and over again–was that teens and their caregivers should turn to their local school or public librarians for guidance in choosing reading materials.  YALSA works hard to show that young adult librarians are the experts in the field–not just a few, but all librarians.  It’s an important message and YALSA even has a white paper on the topic.  (more…)

Hello members (and conference goers),
Today the YALSA board began its meeting at this Annual Conference. It’s very exciting to see how much we’ve already accomplished!
The Board officially approved the creation of several new member groups: Intellectual Freedom interest group, Outreach to Young Adults with Special Needs interest group, Partnerships Advocating for Teens interest group, Professional Development interest group, and Serving Older Teens interest group.
The Board accepted the YALSA-TV Taskforce’s final report and voted to appoint a group to begin implementing the ideas contained in the report.
A proposal to form a Past Presidents Committee was approved.
A proposal to create an all virtual reader’s choice list was approved.
A few items on the agenda were moved (our agenda gets adopted with flexibility, which allows us to do this), including item #14 (Modernizing the Selected List Portfolio) which has been moved out of the action portion of the agenda and into the discussion portion.
Official minutes from the Board meeting will be posted after the conference, but I hope this message gives some insight into what sorts of things occur during Board meetings. If you are interested in considering serving on the YALSA Board or learning more about association governance, I encourage you to consider sitting in on all or part of a meeting.

Sarah Debraski
YALSA President

Hello YALSA world!

I am so excited to be here in Chicago at the ALA Annual Conference. Along with the rest of the Board I’ve been busy reading our Board documents and preparing for the meeting, as well as for our other scheduled events.

We’ll be covering many items during the course of the agenda including some that propose new ways of serving members.

I find it useful to gain context and history by reading past minutes of prior Board meetings. These can be accessed here:

http://ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/boardandcommittees/boardcommittees.cfm#minutes

All Board meetings are open. There have been a couple of schedule changes to the agenda. Item #21 will be addressed around 5pm on Saturday and item #14 will be addressed around 11am on Monday.

I look forward to seeing many of you very soon!

Sarah Cornish Debraski

YALSA President

The YALSA Board is comprised of dedicated, thoughtful, lively member leaders who come together to discuss the direction of our association.  Recently, Board member Sandra Payne resigned from the Board due to personal reasons.  We thank Sandra for her service and will miss her.  According to the YALSA Bylaws,   “Vacancies other than those provided for in these Bylaws shall be filled by the Board of Directors by appointment until the next annual election, at which time two candidates shall be nominated to fill each unexpired term.” (Article XIII, Section 15) The Board of Directors has appointed Jerene Battisti to fill this position.  Jerene will begin serving immediately and through the next Annual conference.

(more…)