Posted by Linda W. Braun
Today I went to a workshop that was led by two of YALSA’s SUS (Serving the Underserved) Trainers – Jack Martin and Sheila Schofer. The session was attended by over 40 librarians that serve teens in some way – YA specialists, generalists, children’s librarians, and directors. I left the session invigorated by the ideas of the presenters and the audience.
During the session Jack and Sheila gave participants a chance to talk about teens in the library, what they do there, and how those serving teens can help colleagues better understand the importance of providng high-quality service to teens. They connected the discussion to the Search Institute’s Developmental Assets and talked about how the Assets can be a tool for librarians to use when trying to educate colleagues about YA services.
One of the best activities was when Jack and Sheila had participants create a checklist for YA service The ideas were recorded on Word during the session, they were then printed out, and each of the people at the workshop was able to take the document back to their library and use it with staff/colleagues immediately.
This experience was a reminder of the great work that SUS trainers are doing and how they are helping to make sure all library staff is well-versed in YA.
You can read more about SUS on the YALSA website.
