YALSA’s First Webinar: Join YALSA on March 31 at 2 p.m. Eastern for a FREE webinar! Linda Braun, YALSA president, will lead the hour-long session on the topic of Getting Involved with YALSA. Topics include the various ways to participate in YALSA, and how doing so can help your daily work and career development. Registration is limited, so please contact Eve Gaus at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 5293 or egaus@ala.org to reserve your space.

Process Volunteer Forms Due Today YALSA will begin appointing process committee, jury, task force, and advisory board members this spring! Be sure to fill out your Committee Volunteer Form by March 12 so that Kim Patton, YALSA’s president-elect, will know you’re interested. (Read Kim Patton’s post on the process to find out more about serving on YALSA’s committees).

After the jump, learn more about YALSA’s preconferences (including which authors will appear!), how to access YALSA’s newly revised competencies, details on YALSA’s upcoming mentoring program, how to enter the 2010 Great Ideas contest, and information on the 2010 Young Adult Literature Symposium.

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Ready for Teen Tech Week? Teen Tech Week starts this Sunday! Tell us what you have planned at your library at the YALSA Wiki. Looking for last-minute inspiration or publicity tools? Visit the Teen Tech Week website. Have your teens help chose next year’s theme by taking the Teen Tech Week Survey.

Early Bird Ends Today! Today is the last day to get the Early Bird rate for Annual 2010 in Washington, D.C. Registration is also open for YALSA’s preconferences (and remember, you don’t need to register for Annual to attend either preconference). Learn more about our preconferences (there’s info after the jump, too) and see what YALSA has planned for DC at http://tinyurl.com/yalsaac10.  Remember, you don’t need to register for Annual to attend either of YALSA’s preconferences.

Process Volunteer Forms Due March 12 YALSA will begin appointing process committee, jury, task force, and advisory board members this spring! Be sure to fill out your Committee Volunteer Form by March 12 so that Kim Patton, YALSA’s president-elect, will know you’re interested. (Read Kim Patton’s post on the process to find out more about serving on YALSA’s committees).

After the jump, find out more about YALSA’s preconferences before ALA Annual, how to register for YALSA’s first webinar (it’s free!), and what’s on tap for the 2010 YA Literature Symposium

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In January, YALSA and ALA announced the winners of the 2010 Youth Media Awards. As you begin highlighting the award winners at your library, be sure to take advantage of promotional tools from YALSA:

• Downloadable bookmarks. These bookmarks (PDF) include all of YALSA’s literary award winners, including the Alex, Edwards, Morris, Nonfiction, Odyssey, and Printz awards. Each bookmark lists the winner and honor books. They also allow you to add the location of the titles in your library and to customize the back of the bookmarks with your library’s logo and contact information.
• Customizable press releases. You can also spread the word on your library’s website or blog, your school or public library newsletter, or even in your local newspaper. Just download a customizable Word template for each of our awards — the Alex, Edwards, Morris, Nonfiction, Odyssey, and Printz.

How do you promote award-winning books at your library? Tell us in the comments.

Even though Midwinter Meeting ended over a week ago, the YALSA Board continues to actively work on Association decision-making and projects. Some of what the Board has worked on in the past week includes:

• Discussing the 2015 ALA Strategic Plan. These discussions are taking place on the YALSA Board’s ALA Connect space and Board members are conversing about questions they have about the plan, how the new plan supports the work of YALSA, and how YALSA can support the work of the ALA plan. ALA is asking for Division feedback on the draft plan by February 15, YALSA will submit their comments to ALA by that deadline.
• Answering questions about YALSA’s selected lists. Last week Frequently Asked Questions related to these lists were posted on the YALSA web site. Over the past several days YALSA Board members have continued to answer questions about the lists. The FAQs have now been updated to reflect the conversations Board members are having. To read an updated version of the FAQs visit the YALSA web site. (more…)

Promote the Morris Award shortlist @ your library^® The Morris shortlist is out! You can promote it to teens in your library with a downloadable bookmark (PDF) that allows you to put each book’s location at your library and customize the back with your logo and contact information. Congrats to this year’s five nominees!

Nonfiction Award shortlist next week Watch YALSA’s website and this blog to see the shortlist for YALSA’s 2010 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award! The shortlist will be announced next week. This new award honors the best fiction written for young adults in a Nov. 1 – Oct. 31 publishing year. Learn more at www.ala.org/yalsa/nonfiction.

Register for YALSA’s Midwinter events Even though today is the last day to receive the advanced registration discount, prices won’t change for either of YALSA’s pre-Midwinter ticketed events:  Libraries 3.0: Teen Edition and Games, Gadgets and Gurus. You don’t need to register for Midwinter to attend either one.  Details and how to register for them after the jump (you can read about everything we have planned for Midwinter Meeting, including a free program and reception honoring the 2010 Morris and Nonfiction Award honorees, at the YALSA Midwinter Wiki).

Read on for details on YALSA’s pre-Midwinter events, the Young Adult Literature Symposium Stipend, Teen Tech Week registration, and YALSA’s winter online courses.

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Congratulations! YALSA named its two 2010 Emerging Leaders! Anna Koval, teacher-librarian at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, California, and Amy Barr, youth services librarian and assistant director at Kilgore Memorial Library in York, Nebraska. Both will attend the 2010 Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. The Emerging Leaders are funded through the Friends of YALSA.

E-Chat Next Week! Mark your calendars! YALSA’s monthly online chats return next week in ALA Connect. On Nov. 4, we’ll be discussing inexpensive programming and ways to stretch your programming dollars with Jenine Lillian, editor of the new YALSA book, Cool Teen Programs for under $100. To join us, visit YALSA’s area in ALA Connect. YALSA members should use their login for the ALA website. If you’ve lost your password, you can recover it through the ALA website. Once logged in, head to the YALSA area (it’s http://connect.ala.org/yalsa or you can navigate there within Connect by choosing “YALSA” from under “My ALA Groups”) and then click “Chats.”

Lit Blog Applications and CE Proposals Due 10/30! Interested in editing YALSA’s new blog, focused exclusively on teen literature? Read the announcement to see the qualifications and find out how to apply. The deadline to propose new continuing education (online courses and face-to-face institutes) is tomorrow as well; see our announcement for topic ideas and the proposal form. Applications for the new blog manager and the CE proposals are both due to Beth Yoke at byoke@ala.org tomorrow.

After the jump, find out how you can sign up for special events at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, apply for $40K in grants and awards, promote the Teens’ Top Ten at your library, or receive a stipend to attend the 2010 Young Adult Literature Symposium.

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Teen Read Week Registration Winding Down Teen Read Week registration ends next week! If you haven’t already, sign up today and take a stand for the importance of teen reading. After you register, check out the Teen Read Week website for activity ideas and publicity tools (including PSAs featuring Nancy Cartwright) to get attention for your celebration. TRW registration ends Sept. 18.

Make Sure Your Teens Voice Their Choice Teens’ Top Ten voting is in the final stretch, too! Teens can vote online at www.ala.org/teenstopten for their favorite books from the last year through Sept. 18. Then, tune in during Teen Read Week for a webcast announcing the winners, featuring Superstars and Divas from World Wrestling Entertainment.

Tech Poster Proposals Now Open YALSA will sponsor a poster session at ALA Annual Conference 2010 on Teen Tech Week! Show off your work in DC this summer. Proposals accepted through Oct. 16. Read our Tech Poster Session page for details.

After the jump, learn more about YALSA’s latest book, how to get your program or poster into the 2010 YA Lit Symposium, and how you can win an online course from YALSA!

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YALSA’s Online Courses Cooler temperatures, falling leaves … why not complete the picture by signing up for one of YALSA’s Online Courses this fall? YALSA is offering three courses  (including two brand-new ones!): AIMing at Tweens: Advising, Involving, Motivating (taught by Teri Lesesne); Graphic Novels and Teen Readers: The Basics and Beyond (taught by Francisca Goldsmith) and Reaching Teens with Gaming (taught by Beth Gallaway). Read descriptions and register at YALSA’s Online Courses page.

Bundled Registration Open If you’re planning to attend both ALA conferences this year (Midwinter Meeting in Boston, Jan. 15-19 and Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., June 24-29) , take advantage of bundled registration and save 20% off of advanced registration for each conference separately. You’ll be able to register for hotels now, too. Starting Oct. 1, you can add registration for YALSA’s Midwinter Institute, “Libraries 3.0: Teen Edition” and YALSA’s Midwinter Social Event, “Games, Gadgets & Gurus.”

After the jump, learn how you can propose a program or paper for the 2010 YA Lit Symposium, see how you can preorder YALSA’s newest book, tell YALSA your opinion on future continuing education topics, and find out deadlines for the Teens’ Top Ten and Teen Read Week.

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YALSA’s Next Online Chat! Join YALSA on July 1 for our second online chat! President Sarah Debraski will lead a chat on summer reading programs in ALA Connect, starting at 8 p.m. on July 1. Details in this blog post. Can’t make it? Check the YALSA blog on July 2 to see a transcript.

YALSA Needs Usability Testers at ALA Annual Coming to ALA Annual Conference? Help YALSA and ALA improve website usability by signing up to be one of our usability testers! YALSA needs four usability testers to participate in a session on Sunday, July 12, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. in McCormick Place West W-472. Participants will receive a $50 gift card for the ALA Store. Interested? Contact Stevie Kuenn at skuenn@ala.org by Wednesday, July 1.

After the jump, read more about YALSA’s Ultimate Teen Bookshelf, the United We Serve Initiative, Quick and Popular Reads for Teens, and symposium deadlines!

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This podcast is a recording of middle school librarian Stella Farris’ presentation at the graphic novel preconference during the YA Lit Symposium.  The audio begins with Farris’ introduction to her presentation.

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