First, our thanks to Gretchen Kolderup for her leadership as The Hub’s member manager since 2011. Thank you, Gretchen!

Gretchen will be leaving her role as manager of The Hub when her term ends on August 14, 2013, so YALSA is seeking a new member manager to begin in August 2013. Interested in the job? Read on  to see the position description and qualifications and find out how you can apply. Applications are due to jfinneke@ala.org by July 1, 2013.

YALSA is seeking a Member Manager for its YA literature-focused blog, The Hub, with the mission to provide a one-stop-shop for teens and librarians to help them locate high quality audio, video, and text content related to young adult literature. The deadline for applications is July 1, 2013.

The Member Manager will lead an advisory board and together the group will be responsible for the site, including recruiting bloggers and soliciting content submissions from the YALSA community. (more…)

On June 24, 2013, YALSA will celebrate it’s 56th anniversary and we want you to be a part of the festivities!In 1957, when YALSA was founded, it wasn’t the large organization we know today. Originally called the Young Adult Services Division (YASD), there are many things you would recognize in today’s organization. YASD was committed to librarians who served teens in all kinds of libraries and focused on selected booklists and a professional publication (a joint venture with ALSC). For 56 years YALSA has been committeed to serving and connecting young adult librarians, and this year we want to celebrate our organization’s accomplishments.
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In March 2013, staff members of the Youth Services department at the Kansas City Public Library took a group of teens on a field trip to the Missouri State Capital in Jefferson City.  This trip was just one of many that have come from a partnership between the Kansas City Public Library and Truman Medical Center (Kansas City, MO).  Not only are teens able to expand their knowledge of places in the Missouri area, but they are getting an opportunity to see different things that may affect their lives.  Teens are experiencing a host of activities that are enriching, educational, and fun.  The impact of these trips is obvious to us as librarians – we are hoping to create lifelong learners.  To those outside of our profession, we must advocate for teens, libraries, and the magical experiences in between.

Crystal Faris, the Director of Teen Services at the Kansas City Public Library, took the time to answer a few questions about the teen trips and the effect on teen programming at the library.

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YALSA has announced the results of its election!

Candidate results are as follows. Thank you to all who ran for office this year!

YALSA President-Elect

Chris Shoemaker

YALSA Board of Directors

Maureen Hartman
Krista McKenzie

Edwards Committee

Alicia Blowers
Sophie Brookover
Gail Zachariah

Printz Committee

Robin Brenner
Diane Colson
Angela Frederick
Shelly McNerney

Nonfiction Committee

Todd Krueger
Drue Wagner Mees
Joy Millam
Brenna Shanks

Visit ALA’s web site for their election results.

A weekly short list of tweets that librarians and the teens that they serve may find interesting.

Do you have a favorite Tweet from the past week? If so add it in the comments for this post. Or, if you read a Twitter post between May 3 and May 9 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the Week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.
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Marcy Rhodes has three possible sweet squeezes: Steve, who drops out of the running when he goes off to college; Rick, a nice, dependable kind of guy, and Bruce, a looker with a yellow convertible. When Senior Prom approaches, Marcy has to go with someone, so like many heroines in chick lit, she picks the guy with the convertible. During prom, however, Marcy realizes that Bruce intends to stay out all night. Marcy panics, since this was not her plan at all. Fortunately, nice guy Rick gives Marcy a ride home. The next day she learns that Bruce totaled that yellow convertible in after-prom hijinks.

It sounds like the plot of a Meg Cabot novel, but Senior Prom, written by Rosamond Du Jardin, was published in 1957. Du Jardin was the author of seventeen young adult books, including four books in the Marcy Rhodes series. Young Adult Literature, although far from the market giant it is today, was robust in the years following World War II. Such was the cultural backdrop when the American Library Association created the Young Adult Services Division (YASD) in June, 1957. Mildred Batchelder served as the first Executive Secretary. The early years included scuffles with other ALA divisions and a fight to keep the TOP OF THE NEWS journal focused on Youth Services.

Want to know what happens next? You can find more about the history of YALSA in the YALSA Handbook in the History section.  The YALSA Handbook is a nifty document that not only chronicles the backstory of our vibrant ALA Division, but contains all kinds of information about today’s YALSA as well.

2013! It’s a big year for YALSA and for the future of libraries and teens. Why? Because not only did YALSA receive funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to figure out what that future is, the association partnered with Connected Learning.TV for a month-long series of events on the very same topic topic. (Obviously the future of libraries and teens is something worth talking about.) The Connected Learning.TV series fits perfectly with all of the other activities YALSA has going on as a part of the National Forum on Libraries and Teens. As a matter of fact, the two projects come together in late May when a YALSA & Connected Learning TV event on May 21 at 1PM Eastern provides a lead in into the next and final virtual town hall that will take place at 2PM (that same day) in YALSA’s Adobe Connect Space.

This final virtual town hall is another excellent opportunity for library staff serving teens, educators, library administrators, and stakeholders to come together and make their voices heard. The topic for this town hall is the future of libraries and teens. Participants will be asked to consider ideas such as:

• Imagine that you have the power to create the ideal library services for teens.  What would they look like?
• What do you think is exciting about the future you imagine for library services to teens? (more…)

YALSA and Connected Learning TV go live next month! Next week, even!

Please join moi, YALSA President, and Crystle Martin, Postdoctoral Researcher for the Connected Learning Research Network, next month for a series of free virtual chats which will explore the roles social media and teens play in the future of public and school libraries. We’ll be facilitating discussions with Renee Hobbs, Mimi Ito, Craig Watkins, Chris Shoemaker, Wendy Stephens, Joyce Valenza and many more about the challenges surrounding leveraging social media in library programs. YALSA members are invited to participate and to share what has or has not been working in their own libraries. You all will be hearing about best practices from around the globe you can  implement in your library.

Participants can watch in real time, connect via Chat with others, and ask questions on Livestream join the Connected Learning Community Google+ Page, and contribute to the #futureoflibraries conversation on Twitter. Be sure to check the YALSAblog the month of May, where discussions will continue there as well.

You can find out more here, including a nifty intro video!

Each virtual chat will begin at 1pm, eastern, and you can find out more on each individual series by clicking on the titles below.  Please check the pages below regularly for updates as we add more speakers.

·         May 2: Kick-off: Teens and the Future of Libraries

·         May 7: The Importance of Youth Access to Technology in Libraries

·         May 14: Effectively Leveraging Social Media in Library Programs

·         May 21: Getting Library & IT Administrators On-Board with Leveraging Social Media

·         May 28: Teens and the Future of Libraries: Sharing Best Practices

After the last session, connectedlearning.tv and YALSA will put together a free summary report with tools and resources for librarians and library workers to use in their library.

Tune in all month! I can promise plenty of awesomeness!

Although the 2013 spring election to select the new members of the Edwards, Nonfiction, and Printz Award Committees is still ongoing, members of the 2014 Award Nominating Committee —  Joy Kim, Stephanie Anne Squicciarini, Patti Tjomsland, Rollie Welch, and Pam Spencer Holley — are already at work collecting and vetting viable candidates for next spring’s election. That process which will continue through August of this year, when candidate names will be submitted to the YALSA Board.

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