By now, I’m sure you know that YALSA is seeking to provide more and different ways for members to participate in the division.’ One of the ways this is happening is the transition of small committees to formats that allow for broader participation (with no conference attendance requirements!).
YALSA’s Outreach to Young Adults with Special Needs Committee is being restructured as an Interest Group so that any YALSA member interested in library services to young adults who do not or cannot use the library because of socioeconomic, legal, educational, or physical factors may participate.
As a committee, YALSA Outreach to Young Adults with Special Needs has been involved with several recent projects including:
- Selecting the titles, discussion questions and supplemental reading list for the Great Stories CLUB.
- Hosting the “Hyperlinks: Technology as an Outreach Tool†program at Annual 2008.
- Creating the hospital outreach guidelines for the Operation Teen Book Drop.
The new Interest Group format still allows participants to sponsor programs, publish and do many of the same things as smaller committees.’ Current members of the Outreach Committee have also discussed possible programs, papers and even books on library services to teens experiencing homelessness, teens who are undocumented and teens in the foster care system, just to name a few, so there are lots of ways the new Interest Group can have an impact in the future.
If you would like to help make this exciting change, please send the following information to vcterrile@yahoo.com: name, ALA member number, institution, email, address,’ and phone number. We need 15 YALSA members on the petition to take it to the YALSA Board. The transition will be complete in 2010.
If you have any questions at all about the YALSA Outreach to Young Adults with Special Needs Interest Group, please feel free to contact vcterrile@yahoo.com or vikki.terrile@ queenslibrary.org
