I’ve been thinking a lot about the Save Libraries campaign so I asked YALSA’s Blog Manager, and high school librarian, mk Eagle to chat with me on the topic. The following is the transcript of our conversation.

LWB: Hi mk, I wanted to ask you about something I’ve been thinking about a lot do you have a few minutes. (And beware I’m going to poke, prod, and play devil’s advocate.)

mk: Absolutely. (more…)

Be sure to take part in FOY’s (Friends of YALSA’s) Give $10 in ’10 campaign that will kick off at Annual in Washington, DC. All FOY funds collected during 2010 are earmarked to support YALSA’s Advocacy efforts.

On the Tuesday of Annual, library advocates from across the United States will meet on U.S. Capitol grounds as part of a rally in support of libraries, followed by meetings with elected officials and their staffs. Five YALSA librarians applied for, and received, funds (provided by FOY) to extend their conference days and attend Library Advocacy Day. In addition, FOY funds are being used to print materials in support of advocacy and to develop an online class in Advocacy Techniques. (more…)

Last November, armed only with a copy of Teen Spaces by Kimberly Bolan and a budget of $1,000, I set out to create a teen space in my library. The budget actually seemed huge to me at first, but after looking up the price lists for a number of nice contract furniture companies, I realized it was almost enough to buy a chair. Woo. Hoo.

Undaunted, I expanded my search to include residential and school furniture, until I found something with an acceptable balance of quality, versatility, and price. During the process, I learned a number of things I wanted to pass on to anyone else in the position of choosing furniture for a teen space without the benefit of a consultant or even the advice of a furniture company.

1. If you don’t have access to floor plans for your building, you can make ones using free online tools. I started out with a tape measure and graph paper, but I ended up using floorplanner.com. The best part was that after I created an outline and entered the dimensions of the shelves I was working with, I could drag and drop them anywhere and get a 3-D simulation. I think my coworkers were more impressed with the 3-D simulation than anything else I’ve done this year. (more…)

Two-thirds (65%) of Americans report using their public library either in person, by telephone or via computer in the past year. That’s over 151 million people using public libraries! The 2010 Harris Poll Quorum Household Survey, available on the ALA website, reveals some interesting data about library use.

Among those who have visited the library by computer in the past year, one third (35%) report increasing their public library access by computer over the past 6 months. While taking out books remains the top service library users report as a reason to visit the library in person, patrons who use the library by phone or computer report increased renewals as well as catalog and website visits.

Additionally, 62% of unemployed adults had used their library in the past year, including many who visited libraries to complete an online job application, search employment databases and create resumes.

So what does all this mean for you?
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I am a child of the late 70′s and 80′s.  When I was a kid, we believed that by the year 2000, we would be flying around with jet packs, and living on the moon.  However, here we are in what is about to be 2010, and these things have yet to have happened.  You may be wondering “Where is she going with this?”… (more…)

In February I wrote a YALSA blog post about how, during tough economic times, opportunities arise for trying out new ways of providing services to, and connecting with, teens. What if every library took to heart the idea that economic challenges are an opportunity to improve service and take chances? What if teen librarians started to say, “OK, lets start thinking completely differently – or at least a little bit differently – about what we do and how we do it? What if, as we struggle to make ends meet, we don’t just try to maintain but we try to rethink? What if, we don’t think small but actually think big?” It sounds risky, doesn’t it? But, maybe it’s the perfect time to be risky. Take a chance, walk with me on the edge for a few minutes: (more…)

Looking for a fresh approach to staff development? Suffolk Cooperative Library System tried an “unconference” format and found that sometimes the best ideas are the least expensive.  http://campya.pbworks.com/

The plans for this conference were an adaption of the June 2009 LibCampNYC sponsored by METRO and Brooklyn College Library. http://libcampnyc.pbworks.com/

“LibCampNYC was a participatory user-generated “unconference” focusing on libraries and library technology; attendees were expected to share their work, skills, or knowledge as active participants. Participants determined the day’s offerings in the opening session, and all sessions were summarized in the closing session. This collaborative environment presented unique opportunities for learning, sharing, and relationship-building that can be elusive at more formal conference.” (more…)

The other day The New York Times published an article on teens and the recession. The article focused on teen spending practices as a result of the downturn in the economy, how home finances are having an impact on teen spending, and how typical teen oriented stores are faring during the recession.

The article was an interesting look at teens and their spending practices, but it also got me thinking about how teens earn the money that they spend. That thinking led me to another New York Times article. This one is on teen entrepreneurs, those teens that decide the traditional teen employment – jobs at fast food restaurants, as camp counselors, and so on – isn’t for them. (more…)

Once you’ve identified the areas of need for your community/school teens, it is time to put the parts together for the grant. There are usually parts of a grant that work together as a whole, but these parts explain to the grant committee how the grant will work: the narrative and the budget. The narrative is the overview and will describe the “big picture” in a way that explains the grant goals, objectives, and how the grant will benefit your target group, teens. It will have sections that you will need to address such as describing how the grant will be implemented, who is willing to donate time and funds for “cost sharing,” and how the success of the grant will be evaluated and the results disseminated. The budget is a tricky piece that is a detailed accounting of how all monies will be spent, and if this is a federal grant, there will be rules that have to be strictly followed.

For successful writing, remember that your “data,” how it will be collected, analyzed, and evaluated, will be critical because data is the only thing that will show if the grant has been successful, and the grant committee members will be closely examining how you will show that their investment will be used to benefit the greatest number of teens in the most efficient way. The narrative will be more credible when you use the data from your needs assessment to justify the need for the program you and the grant committee/network envision for the community/school. (more…)

Yesterday Beth Gallaway wrote about Return on Investment (ROI) and how to make sure to get a good bang for your buck. Beth’s specific focus was on how gaming provides great opportunities to demonstrate ROI.

Continuing on the theme of ROI, how do you:

• Make sure that administrators, community members, foundations, grant makers, etc. understand the value of all aspects of the job that you do?
• Demonstrate that the full scope of services for teens is an invaluable part of what the library offers?
• Guarantee that those who have the bucks will make sure that you have dollars that you need when you need them?

In order to prove that the money spent in teen services is a good investment, it’s important to have data and stories that you can present to others. How do you do that? Focus groups, circulation statistics, door counts, and surveys are traditional methods libraries use. But, in the web 2.0/social networking world, there are several other techniques to employ in order to find out what other’s have to say about your services and their value: (more…)