The speed networking event is a fun, simple way to connect with others who work with teens in libraries. It’s inspired by the speed dating model of getting to know someone: everyone will be divided into small groups and seated at tables. Every few minutes, groups will swap tables, giving you a chance to get to know a lot of your fellow teen-serving librarians in a more personal way in short period of time.

You’ll talk about great ideas, swap stories of successes and failures, and have the opportunity to meet people from across the country who are at all different points in their careers and professional involvement. Conversations will be informal and fun. Bring your expertise and your curiosity!

This session will be held on Sunday, June 24th at 1:30 in the Pacific A room of the Hilton Anaheim hotel. I hope I’ll see you there!

And of course, you’ll need to eat.

Looking for unique street food without the big city hassle?  Try Bruxie in the city of Orange: a gourmet waffle sandwich restaurant that has gotten a lot of buzz this year.  From over a dozen savory or sweet waffle sandwiches filled with deliciousness, each pairing appears increasingly more delectable the longer you stare at the menu.  Lightly crispy with a doughy center, these authentic Belgium waffles are more like bread than pancakes, which makes them perfect for any meal of the day.  Be warned: sandwiches are generous in size and you’ll have a very difficult task of selecting just one.  This is the perfect place to get a group together and order everything off the menu!

Start with something savory.  For good ol’ American soul food, try the Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Waffle sandwich, battered fried breast with a sliver of chili honey and a sprinkling of cider slaw.  If you’re looking for more meet, try the Bruxie Burger, Angus beef with all the proper toppings wedged between a wide crispy waffle, or the Hot Pastrami Bruxie with gruyere cheese and cider slaw.  Or for something a little more fancy, try the Smoked Salmon Bruxie—Michel Cordon Bleu smoked salmon with herb cream cheese, crispy cucumbers and chives in a waffle fold.

Feeling nostalgic for your favorites?  Bruxie takes care of that, too!  In their waffle sandwich alter egos, PB and J, S’Mores, and Lemon Meringue Pie never sounded better.  There are also vegetarian and gluten free options, but if you’re not satisfied with their offerings, as long as they have the ingredients, they can make it!

In keeping with the theme, Bruxie also offers waffle cut fries and Belgium waffle originals; get the Liege waffle with caramelized pearl sugar or a chocolate filled Liege with nutella or chocolate sauce.  There’s also an entire menu of specialty drinks: Peets lattes, old fashioned sodas, ice cream floats and shakes.  As if that wasn’t enough, they also have soft serve Wisconsin frozen custard and sundaes served in waffle cones!

Bruxie is located about five miles east of the Anaheim Convention Center in a quaint little neighborhood in the Chapman University district.  Down the street are shops and cafes that look like homes interspersed between houses that are actually homes.  There are no shortages of antique stores, so if you feel like a stroll, catch them before they close!  For more info and pictures, visit their website at www.bruxie.com.

Bruxie | Old Town Orange | 292 North Glassell Street, Orange, CA | 714-633-3900

Hours: 9am-9pm Sunday – Wednesday | 9am-10pm Thursday – Saturday

See you in Anaheim!

Of course, with all the excitement of the conference, you’ll need to take a break from the convention center once in a while– why not go to the beach for some fabulous BBQ?  Only 20 miles away from Anaheim is Seal Beach, home to the second largest wooden pier in California.  Take a walk on the beach to work up a good appetite, and then stop into Beachwood BBQ: Where the Fork . . .  Meets the Pork.  Beachwood is BBQ with a twist, and can be a hot spot to eat, so try going at off hours or plan on having time to look at the shops on Main Street.

Photo by asmythie

The food is so good, you may find it difficult to pick just one thing off the menu.  Try the BBQ favorites like brisket and pulled pork.  Be more adventurous and order the Mini Lamb Corn Dogs with Habanero-berry “katsup” or the amazing Tater Tot Casserole.  By its name alone, the Tater Tot Casserole may not catch your eye, but wait till you hear about it.

The dish has tater tots dusted with porcini mushrooms, which are then cooked in duck fat.  But that’s not all.  Then the tater tots are covered with melted smoked cheese curd and a duck gravy.  Is your mouth watering yet?

Photo by punctuated

Vegetarians have lots of choices too at the Beachwood BBQ, including a fabulous fried green tomato sandwich with smoked mozzarella and Tabasco vinaigrette or the baked macaroni and cheese with bacon and a Gruyere beer sauce.  

Speaking of beer,  Beachwood has a huge selection of microbrews on tap.  Chalkboards on the wall of the restaurant list the many choices.  Feel like trying the local flavor? Beachwood also makes their own craft beers.

If you aren’t full after all of that, walk a couple store fronts down towards the water and stop at Sweet Jill’s Bakery for a giant cinnamon roll or a chocolate chip cookie dough brownie!

Find Beachwood BBQ just a block away from the beach at 131 ½ Main Street, Seal Beach, CA. 90740 and plan your meal by checking out their Web site at http://beachwoodbbq.com.

Find Sweet Jill’s Bakery at 123 ½ Main Street, Seal Beach, CA. 90740 or look at their tasty treats at http://www.sweetjillsbakery.com.

See you in Anaheim!

April was a very interesting month for me on the YALSA front. I’m just back from a week in Washington, D.C. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of last week, YALSA Executive Director Beth Yoke and I, along with several hundred other library supporters, attended National Library Legislative Day. Beth and I had eight separate meetings over two days, with legislators’ staff members, and with representatives from other organizations that have similar interests to YALSA, such as the Afterschool Alliance, the Center for Excellent Education, and the International Reading Association. We talked about how we could support one another’s missions.

Then on Friday and Saturday of the same week, I staffed the YALSA booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival at the Washington Convention Center. Along with DC-area YALSA members, I handed out bookmarks and flyers, showed the demo of the YALSA Teen Book Finder App (available in May—we hope—from Apple’s App Store), chatted with teens, parents, teachers, and librarians, and did some on-the-fly readers’ advisory. We encouraged teens to participate in this year’s Teens’ Top Ten, and there was a lot of interest and enthusiasm.

Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on.

Committees

• Committee Chairs:
  • I had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the work of their committees.
• Committee/Jury/Taskforce Appointments:
  • I appointed members to fill vacancies on several committees.
  • I continued appointing members to fill new task forces created by Board action at Midwinter

Board Activities

• I participated, with other Board members, in an online chat about recruiting and engaging members.
• I worked with Board members on their self-assessments.
• I worked with Executive Committee members to create an agenda for the Spring Executive Conference Call, to be held on Thursday, May 3.
• Board members, for National Volunteer Week, wrote thank-you notes to YALSA committee members.

Partnerships.  

• Mary Fellows, ALSC President, and I, along with our Presidents’ Program co-chairs, have been making final arrangements for our combined Presidents’ Program at ALA Annual. I hope many of you will be able to join us bright and early Monday morning to hear Dr. Michelle Poris of SmartyPants and Stephen Abram of GaleCengage share their insights on the Digital Lives of Tweens and Young Teens.
• I continue to participate in the School Libraries Task Force with members of other ALA divisions.

Writing.

• I wrote a post for the YALSA Blog’s “30 Days of Innovation” series on YALSA’s new badges for lifelong learning grant project.

 Media & Outreach.

• Spoke with Jeff Rivera, for Entertainment Weekly, about trends in YA literature.
• Spoke with Carlie Geisinger, of the Gilroy (CA) Dispatch about teen spaces and the value of having teen rooms in libraries. The occasion of the article was the opening of a new library building in a community that had never had a separate teen room.
• For National Volunteer Week, I wrote notes to YALSA Board members thanking them for their many hours of volunteer service to YALSA and its members.
• Contributed statement for YALSA press release on new sponsorship program.

 Important YALSA News & Reminders

• Committee chairs: Quarterly reports are due May 15.
• If you are going to Anaheim for ALA Annual, don’t forget to register for special events. If you did “bundled registration” last fall, you will need to go back in to your registration for to add special events, such as:
• Two great half-day preconferences: Books We’ll Still Talk about 45 Years from Now and Source Code: Digital Youth Participation.
• The Margaret Edwards Award luncheon, featuring author Susan Cooper.
• The YA Author Coffee Klatch—your chance to get up close and personal with 35 YA authors, including Printz award and honor authors Corey Whaley, Maggie Stiefvater, Craig Silvey, Daniel Handler, Christine Hinwood, and more!
• The Printz Award Program and Reception, with speeches from all of the honored authors.
• To add these events if you’ve already registered through ALA registration: (1) By phone: Call ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084 and ask to add a workshop or special event to your existing registration; (2) Online: Add an event to your existing registration by clicking this Annual Conference Registration link. Use your log in and password to access your existing registration and add events in the “Your Events” section (screen 6). Then simply check out and pay for the events you’ve added.
• YALSA’s summer online course will be Making the Match: Finding the Right Book for the Right Teen at the Right Time. This six week course will take place in July 2 – August 13 2012.
• Don’t miss May’s webinar: Book Blitz! 45 Must-Know YA Titles in 60 Minutes with Shauna Yusko, on May 17.

 Thank Yous and Congratulations

• A big thanks to the Legislation Committee for creating the Tweet Your Senator map.  The Tweet Your Senator map received just over 8,000 views in two weeks’ time.  About 140 individuals Tweeted their Senators and just over 50 re-tweeted YALSA’s message.
• Please join me in congratulating YALSA’s Letitia Smith, Membership Coordinator, who is the recipient of this year’s ALA Staff Achievement Award. Letitia is the staff person who keeps track of membership, maintains the committee rosters, answers the phones, and basically keeps us all organized.
• Also join me in welcoming Tawnee Calhoun to YALSA.  She is an intern (grant-funded) who will be working on YALSA’s badges for learning project throughout this year.
• Thanks to Linda Braun and the Financial Advancement Committee for organizing the first Booze for Books event in support of YALSA’s Books for Teens effort. Next month I hope to be able to report how much money was raised.
• Thank you to Emily Sheketoff and Jeff Kratz in ALA’s Washington Office for setting up all those Legislative Day meetings for us—and for all the work they do, keeping up on legislative issues for all of us.
• Thanks to Priscille Dando, Maria Gentle, Jennie Rothschild, Annalee Schnebele, Carrie Kausch, and Alicia Blowers for helping out at the YALSA Booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival.

YALSA Membership: 5,233  (Up slightly from last month, but down 3.8% from last year): don’t forget to renew!

Friends of YALSA March donations: $200

Leadership Endowment March donations: $500

 Respectfully Submitted,

Sarah Flowers

YALSA President

In serving this broad age range with teen materials, I find that I need to have different cultural glasses at the ready during readers’ advisory.  After all, the patron whose adolescent experience is being molded right now, page by page, is different from the patron who fondly recollects reading a particular book the summer when she first fell in love.

Here is some information we teen librarians can use during readers’ advisory to guide adults to new teen titles similar to those they loved in their adolescence.

Graduated 2000—Born 1982—Today 30 years old
Cultural milestones^*:

• A “45″ is a gun, not a record with a large hole in the center.
• The year they were born, AIDS was found to have killed 164 people; finding a cure for the new disease was designated a “top priority” for government-sponsored research.
• They have never referred to Russia and China as “the Reds.”
• There has always been a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
• They feel more danger from having sex and being in school, than from possible nuclear war.

Technological milestones:

• They have always bought telephones, rather than rent them from AT&T.
• There have always been ATM machines.
• The year they were born, the New York Times announced that the “boom in video games,” a fad, had come to an end.
• They have never used a bottle of “White Out.”
• “Spam” and “cookies” are not necessarily foods.

Popular YA books in 2000^†:  Little separates the books on the children’s bestseller list from the books on the youth bestseller lists.  All of the books on both of the lists fall into either the sci-fi or fantasy genres, and the Harry Potter phenomenon is at full steam.  When romance is a part of these titles, it is not a primary selling point.

Suggestions for YA books today: For fantastic world-creation and mild or secondary romantic content, I would recommend Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series, Michael Grant’s Gone series, the books of Scott Westerfeld, and “The Scorpio Races” by Maggie Stiefvater.

Graduated 2005—Born 1987—Today 25 years old
Cultural milestones:

• Heart-lung transplants have always been possible.
• Pixar has always existed.
• Aretha Franklin has always been in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• “Baby M” may be a classmate, and contracts with surrogate mothers have always been legal.
• Snowboarding has always been a popular winter pastime.

Technological Milestones:

• They learned to count with Lotus 1-2-3.
• Car stereos have always rivaled home component systems.
• Voice mail has always been available.
• They may have fallen asleep playing with their Gameboys in the crib.
• They have always been challenged to distinguish between news and entertainment on cable TV.

Popular YA books during adolescence^¥: Realistic fiction such as “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and “Because of Winn Dixie” dominate the youth charts, while television tie-ins (primarily Dora the Explorer) crowd the children’s bestseller list.

Suggestions for YA books today: I find that titles by Ellen Hopkins and John Green make good choices for this group.  For patrons wanting less angst, perhaps recommend a book by Deb Caletti or Sarah Dessen.

Graduated 2010—Born 1992—Today 20 years old
Cultural milestones:

• With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.
• Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.
• DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
• Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
• Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.

Technological milestones:

• Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
• Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.
• Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
• They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.
• They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.

Popular YA books during adolescence ^Ω: Books with movie tie-ins take up nearly the entire youth bestseller list, with all four books of the Twilight Saga, three of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, and two of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books on the list.  The children’s list reflects this same preference for multi-platform characters.

Suggestions for YA books today: Only a few years out of high school, these young adults are, in my experience, most likely to share tastes and interests with today’s teens.  I prefer to recommend titles whose themes are culturally on point, but which demand mature reflection, such as the works of Kristin Cashore; dystopian tales like “The Pledge” by Kimberly Derting and “Bumped” by Megan McCafferty; or dark romances along the lines of Meg Cabot’s Abandon series.

Do you serve this broad an age range in your teen department?  What teen materials do you recommend to adults?

^* Cultural and technological milestones obtained from the Beloit College Mindset Lists.  See http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/.

^† 2000 USA Today List: http://books.usatoday.com/list/index?date=2000-04-03&f=5,0,150

^¥ 2005 USA Today List: http://books.usatoday.com/list/index?date=2005-04-04&f=22,0,140

^Ω 2010 USA Today List: http://books.usatoday.com/list/index?date=2010-04-05&f=22,0,140

Have you registered yet? Remember to take advantage of Early Bird registration – just $215 for YALSA members until May 13th.  Check out all of YALSA’s can’t-miss Conference sessions and start putting together your schedule now.

In our ongoing series of posts, YALSA’s Conference Marketing and Local Arrangements Committee has shared practical tips on how to make the most of your ALA experience and many reasons to come to Anaheim. Now that the big event is approaching, here is a refresher.

1. Plan ahead
Make lists and really prioritize what to see at conference, especially if there is a time or distance limitation. There always seems to be one program that conflicts with another great program or one that is located far away from the conference. Your schedule can be really tight when you have commitments, such as a committee obligation or presenting a program.

To ensure that you see what you came to see, take the time to create a basic schedule before you come to Anaheim. Keep in mind the purpose behind your conference attendance. Maybe your library wants you to learn about new systems, or to meet with a certain database vendor. Perhaps you are there to plan/purchase the furniture for your new teen area. There are always those high priority items that must be addressed first, even if you plan more than you can get to.  

Highlighting or putting tape flags on the conference program is a great idea to organize your schedule. Following a “track” is a good way to minimize conflicts. Some days you will feel overwhelmed by all the programs and exhibits and may need to take a break and relax, so plan some time for that too!

2. Map it out
Anaheim is not necessarily a pedestrian friendly area. So, fellow YALSA peeps, pace yourselves and check the shuttle bus/hotel map to save your feet, and take a look at our “Getting Around Anaheim” guide on the YALSA wiki.

3. Pack light
We like to pack light and leave lots of room in our luggage to bring stuff home. Layers are a must, as well as non-wrinkle clothes that can be rolled up into a small carry-on. If you are driving, then you don’t have to worry as much about the weight. Remember, wheeled carts are not allowed on the exhibit hall floor, and your shoulders will not be happy with you lugging all those bags around. As we have advised previously, if you load up on swag, be selective. Find a bag check to store things. If you are staying nearby, there may be a shuttle bus for you to take things back to your suitcase. It is often convenient (and cheaper than airline baggage fees) to ship items directly from the convention center, depending on how long the line is. So, enjoy, but don’t get bogged down by too much weight.

4. Bring some CASH
Stash some hidden cash about your person so you don’t have to pay those heavy-duty tourist ATM fees. That said, always be aware of your surroundings any time you travel. Think twice about bringing expensive jewelry or precious items.

5. Bring snacks
Load up on non-perishable snacks so that you don’t have to pay for them at the convention center. Don’t forget your reusable water bottle, either. We all know it’s expensive to eat at a conference, or you will have to walk far to find more choices. Hit all the free receptions for more sustenance including ones on the exhibit floor. If you have food allergies or other dietary restrictions, you already know the importance of bringing your own safe snacks.

6. Disneyland
If you want to go across the street to Disneyland, don’t take more than a small backpack or shoulder bag with you, as the park’s storage lockers are very pricey. Also, always remember your water bottle, sunscreen, and layers for after dark when the temperature drops drastically. Take a bus tour to other local theme parks and attractions if you have the time– for ideas, visit the YALSA wiki and see what else the Orange County area has to offer.

…and most important of all, bring your walking shoes.

See you in Anaheim!

We are all aware that because of the rapidly changing nature of how information is created and delivered, librarians must constantly learn new skills to be effective in our daily work. In addition, we know that in today’s world, learning happens everywhere, and YALSA wants to help librarians and library workers get recognition for the skills they are acquiring outside traditional settings. In looking for ways to be innovative in our approach to CE, YALSA was fortunate enough to be able to partner with Mozilla, the Macarthur Foundation, and HASTAC in their Badges for Lifelong Learning Project.

In March, YALSA, in cooperation with Badgeville, was awarded a $75,000 grant to create a Badges for Learning project that will increase YALSA’s capacity to deliver professional development in an exciting, innovative way.

The badges—at no cost to learners—will be based on YALSA’s Competencies for Librarians Serving Youth. In the initial project, curriculum will be based on three competency areas: Communication, Outreach & Marketing; Knowledge of Materials; and Services. In each area, learners will complete four sets of “minor” badge activities, after which the learner will earn a gold badge for that content area.

Learners might develop the skills needed for the badges in the work place, at a local workshop or gathering, or by engaging with specific resources or other members on YALSA’s web site. Badges for Learning offers learners an efficient and effective way to learn and demonstrate new skills and to interact with peers, and a way to help them get recognition from their supervisors and administrators for these new forms of learning.

And badge earners can be innovative in how they use the badges: in virtual resumes or portfolios, in their yearly employee evaluation or goal-setting process, on web pages or blogs, or in some other way that showcases the work they’ve done. Badges are a great way to demonstrate that you are always growing and improving in your commitment to serving teens in libraries.

Which is where YOU come in! How are you engaging with the digital lives of tweens and young teens at your library? We are calling for video submissions from librarians on the front line. We want to know: what have you done? What worked? What didn’t — and what did you learn as a result? What will you try next?

Videos should be 2-3 minutes in length and created by librarians, for librarians. Show and tell us about an experience or project dealing with tweens and young teens and technology at your library. Here’s how to enter:

• Post it on YouTube with the tag “youthprezprogram12”
• Email co-chairs Tessa Michaelson Schmidt and Sarah Couri at tweenlibraryvideos at gmail dot com with the YouTube link and your contact information
• Deadline for submissions: Monday, April 30, 2012 at midnight (coming up — but you still have time!!)

All video entrants will be eligible to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Selected videos will be shown at the 2012 ALSC and YALSA Joint Presidents’ Program in Anaheim! Speak up and speak out: how are you working with technologically active tweens and young teens?

And, if you would like more information about the 2012 Presidents’ Program: Michelle Poris (of Smartypants) and Stephen Abrams will be talking about tweens and young teens, exploring their use of technology, and asking the question “What should libraries be doing?” We hope to see you there!

What about building capacity in our own work situations or even as we participate in the committee and taskforce work of YALSA? I know there are times when I’m so involved in the day-to-day routine or feel overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done that being innovative is the last thing on my mind. I find though, that many moments of engagement and job satisfaction have been rooted in efforts to try new approaches. I came across this Think Simple Now blog post, 7 Habits of Highly Innovative People, which I think provides practical ways to harness our inner innovator. I gave the habits my own spin below, thinking about how I would interpret them in my school library environment, and how they apply to YALSA committee and Board work.

1. Persistence Most great ideas don’t come from out of the blue. When something isn’t working, it may take a period of evaluation and trying different approaches before finding one that makes a difference.
2. Removing self-limiting inhibitions We all have our comfort zones and taking on challenges requires energy and motivation to be successful, but because you are approaching something from a fresh perspective as you learn your way, your contributions can be the new insight that leads to an innovative breakthrough. Volunteering in YALSA certainly provides multiple opportunities to stretch yourself in different ways from your day job.
3. Take risks, make mistakes As discussed most ably in a recent YALSA blog post, a willingness to risk failure in trying something new is a hallmark of innovation.
4. Escape For me, the least successful strategy to solving a problem or trying to be creative is forcing it when it’s just not there. Relieve some pressure and take a break–often my best ideas arrive when I’m not directly trying to drum one up.
5. Writing things down Sometimes just the process of getting your thoughts on paper (or screen) helps to clarify your thinking. A list of questions or a task analysis breakdown forces organization and is a springboard for conversation with others.
6. Find patterns and create combinations One of my favorite things to do after conferences is to look over my notes and identify ideas I can immediately implement with some modification for my own library environment. Bouncing off of other people’s experiences can be an easier path to innovation.
7. Curiosity Innovators want to learn, and usually the first step to finding creative ways to solve problems is by asking questions.

What would you add to this list? How have you managed to foster innovation in your own environment?

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 April 13 and April 19 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.