Tag: Financial Advancement Committee

From earlier parts of this blog series (part 1, part 2, and part 3), you’ve read about reasons to give to YALSA–particularly to Friends of YALSA.

When I first joined ALA in 2010, I didn’t know what Friends of YALSA stood for.  I thought it simply meant: “YALSA is awesome” and “I will be friends with anyone in YALSA.” It was naive of me, but in my defense, I was new to the field and had just started library school.  It wasn’t until I saw a list of names in a monthly YALSA newsletter that I realized what it meant.  The Friends of YALSA are those who donate to these funds. The Friends of YALSA support over $16,000 annually in member stipends, grants, scholarships, and awards.  The Friends of YALSA are likely to be highly passionate about YALSA and teen services.

As a YALSA member, you get access to hundreds of outstanding professional tools and online learning opportunities such as webinars and videos. You’re also eligible for YALSA grants, stipends, and awards.

However, as a donor to Friends of YALSA, you’ll help fund these member grants, stipends, and awards which in turn allow more librarians to do great work, which then increases the likelihood that they’ll bring back their experiences to share with the wider YALSA membership!

So here are more reasons why you should give to YALSA.

Reason #13: Webinars

Why give to YALSA? There are plenty of reasons, but professional development appears high on that list. YALSA members get free access to over 75 webinars which are high quality in information and relevant to your work with teens… plus, you can learn at your own pace and at your convenience.

Here are some recent and upcoming webinars:

• What I Stopped Doing: Improving Services to Youth by Taking On Less
• Connecting with Immigrant and Refugee Youth in your Community
• Content Creation Tools for You & Your Teens
• Cultural Competence in the Library
• Identifying and Serving Homeless Youth
• Welcoming Spaces: Serving Patrons with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders)
• Serving LGBTQ Teens
• Ready, Set, Go! 30 Ways to Reach Reluctant Readers in 60 Minutes
• Community Collaborations: School and Public Library Partnerships
• Collecting and Vetting Digital Content
• Commence Learning! Prepping for College Readiness Library Programming and Services
• Life Hacks 101: Strategies for Preparing Your Teens for Adulthood
• Making the Leap from Summer Reading to Summer Learning to Increase Impact
• (Upcoming) July 21: Connecting Teens & Community Inside and Outside the Library
• (Upcoming) August 18: Connecting Teens to Mental Health Support and Services

More about webinars can be found:  http://www.ala.org/yalsa/onlinelearning/webinar

“YALSA’s free webinars for members are a great way to squeeze in professional development if you can’t get away from your [library]!” -Ariel Cummins, New Braunfels Public Library

Reason #14:  Toolkits

Did you know that in addition to all the various resources available on the website, wiki, courses, webinars, blogs, member communities, and other resources for members, YALSA has toolkits that features step by step instructions and best practices for a variety of hot topics for teen services? Check them out.  These toolkits are available to download.

Advocacy Toolkit

Legislative Advocacy Guide (PDF)

Making in the Library Toolkit (PDF)

Research Tools

Social Networking Toolkit (PDF; updated 2011)

Social Networking: A Guide for Teens (PDF; updated 2011)

STEM Programming Toolkit (Word doc)

Teen Intern Toolkit (PDF)

Teen Reading Guide for Parents and Caregivers (PDF)

Teens’ Top Ten Toolkit (Word doc)

YALSA Road Trip (PDF)

“YALSA tool kits are essential to every Teen Librarian and helps me advocate for my teens!” -Dora Ho, Los Angeles Public Library

To view YALSA’s whole list of professional tools and online learning resources, visit:

Online Learning:  http://www.ala.org/yalsa/onlinelearning

Professional Tools:  http://www.ala.org/yalsa/professionaltools

Continue reading 16 Reasons to give to YALSA in 2016 — Part 4

Read reasons #1-4 here, and #5-8 here.

We asked YALSA members to share their top reasons to give to YALSA, and here are some of them:

Reason #9:  Grants and scholarships

Yep, you heard that right. There’s money out there. YALSA offers nearly $200,000 a year in awards and scholarships to members. Some of these are sponsored by library vendors, like Baker & Taylor, and Greenwood, but others are sponsored directly by the Friends of YALSA. YALSA supports Spectrum Scholars and Emerging Leaders, and gives grants to members so that they can attend conferences and Library Legislative Day. By supporting YALSA, you are supporting members who are working directly with or on behalf of teens. Find out more here: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/yalsaawardsgrants.

Reason #10:  Recognition and Awards

In addition to scholarships and grants, YALSA acknowledges the good work that YALSA members do in a variety of areas. The YALSA Writing Award acknowledges the best writing each year in YALSA’s blogs and journals. The Volunteer of the Year Award acknowledges the contributions of YALSA members who have demonstrated outstanding service to the mission, goals and work of YALSA during a given service year.  Awards are given out for chair, member, and/or a group as a whole. http://www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/yalsaawardsgrants.

Continue reading 16 Reasons to give to YALSA in 2016 — Part 3

Here are some truly awesome reasons to give to YALSA.  Read reasons 1-4 here.

Are you looking for ways to better serve the teens in your community? Then you, yes YOU, should be looking at YALSA and how you can support this fine organization.

Reason #5:  You will get great ideas
Programming ideas from nation-wide programs like Teen Read Week and Teen Tech Week. Plus all of the valuable ideas you’ll get from you fellow teen librarians from around the country and the world. A great place to start is YALSA’s Programming Headquarters.

Continue reading 16 Reasons to give to YALSA in 2016 — Part 2

I’m the only high school librarian in my school. I love the independence, yet constantly updating and fine-tune services is challenging. YALSA has developed robust programs that help me succeed every year. When I use these resources, I know I am getting the latest and greatest professional information. And, when I give to YALSA, I am helping YALSA continue to improve my profession.

Why do I join YALSA every year?

Reason #1:  YALSA helps me keep ahead of the trends

YALSA published The Future of Libraries for and with Teens: A Call to Action in 2014 to help me meet the needs of today’s and future teens. While I can read and share this document without joining YALSA, my membership makes projects like this possible.

This document is dense with substantial ideas explained in clear, succinct language. It has produced shifts in my attitude resulting in real changes in our library program. The section “Embracing Our Role as Facilitator Rather than Expert” gave me permission to learn on the job, learn in front of students–and enjoy learning from them. Thanks to The Future of Libraries for and with Teens: A Call to Action, I confidently step aside and learn alongside students. Next year I plan to implement some action around the section “Supporting Library Staff in Gaining New Skills.”

“The Future of Libraries is affecting change in libraries across North America. Read about five libraries’ work in Case Studies: Real-World Examples of How Libraries Are Re-Envisioning Teen Services. And, the change isn’t limited to libraries. Using this document as a guiding force, YALSA has developed a new 3-year strategic plan.

With a YALSA membership, you get guidance on how to implement The Future of Libraries by listening to this webinar on YELL!, the YALSA e-Learning platform:

What I Stopped Doing: Improving Services to Youth by Taking On Less by Jennifer Velasquez.
Listen to the Recording
View the Slides

Continue reading 16 Reasons to give to YALSA in 2016 — Part 1