Accomplishments
- Each fall YALSA’s Executive Committee meets in Chicago to discuss plans for the coming months. The meetings this year took place October 23 and 24 and the group talked about a range of topics including supporting and recognizing members in a recession, providing training for YALSA leadership, YALSA’s selected lists portfolio, and evaluation of the spending of Morris Endowment funds. Plans covered at the meetings are now being discussed by the full YALSA Board and will help in developing upcoming YALSA programs, services and opportunities. Documents prepared for the the meetings are available to YALSA members in the Members Only section of the Association’s web site. A post with more details on what was discussed at the meetings is available on the YALSA Blog.
- Over the past several weeks, the Organization & Bylaws Committee of YALSA has looked at the policies and procedures of all of YALSA’s selection committees with an eye to clarifying these and creating consistency between the structures of each group. I’d like to thank the Chair of the Organization & Bylaws Committee, Shannon Peterson, and her members for the work they put into the documents submitted.
- The Chair of the Division Membership and Promotion Committee submitted a set of survey questions that will be used in an upcoming YALSA member survey. Thank you to Candace Mack, the Chair of the Committee, and her members on this survey.
- YALSA is getting ready for Midwinter Meeting 2010 and has plans for several programs, meetings, and social opportunities. As this year’s meeting is in Boston, we wanted to reach out specifically to members of the Association that live in Massachusetts. An email was sent to all of those members letting them know what YALSA is planning for Midwinter 2010 and to inform them how they can participate. Boston Public Library teen staff are working with YALSA to help promote Association Midwinter events and to provide information on local activities, sites, lodging, and restaurants to attendees.
Media
- Participated in three radio interviews to talk about Teen Read Week, Teens’ Top Ten, and teen reading. Interviews were completed with KISS-FM in Seattle, Radio Disney in Atlanta, and Radio Disney in Detroit.
- Provided quotes to YALSA’s Communications Specialist Stevie Kuenn on Teen Read Week and Teens’ Top Ten for YALSA press releases.
In Progress
- YALSA’s Executive Director, Beth Yoke, and I are working with a grant writer on an IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Grant proposal. We have identified three states that will partner with YALSA on this project – Connecticut, New Mexico, and West Virginia – which focuses on providing face-to-face and web-based training, mentoring and support, and web-based social capabilities to librarians working with teens that are not teen librarians.
- In order to provide YALSA members, teen librarians, and library school students with the chance to meet and discuss topics of interest, YALSA is developing opportunities for members to host local meetups in their communities. These meetups will coincide with YALSA’s echats held on the first Wednesday of every month as a follow-up opportunity to continue discussing the topic of the month’s chat and/or as a way to participate in the chat as a group.
- YALSA received resumes for the position of Editor of the Association’s new research journal. The Search Committee has reviewed the resumes and will meet via conference call the first week of November to discuss the candidates and determine next steps.
- Members of the academic community are important members of YALSA. This year, as a part of the ALISE (Association of Library and Information Science Educators) Conference in Boston, held just before ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, YALSA plans to host a happy hour for library school professors and instructors.
- In 2004, a YALSA Task Force, convened by then President Audra Caplan, developed a set of recommendations for the use of Morris Endowment funds. The document developed by that Task Force included a recommendation that the spending of these funds be evaluated every five years. As YALSA is now at the five-year mark, I am appointing an Ad Hoc Committee of the YALSA Board to perform the evaluation and submit a report by Midwinter 2010. Thank you to YALSA’s Fiscal Officer, Mary Hastler, who has agreed to Chair this Ad Hoc Committee.
Additional Important YALSA News
- The Midwinter Meeting is just 2 /12 months away and YALSA is sponsoring several events. The Friday Institute is titled Library 3.0: Teen Edition and will focus on helping teen librarians think about the future of library services and includes a Skype conversation with author Cory Doctorow and a presentation by futurist and California state librarian Stacy Aldrich. You can register for the Institute on the Midwinter Meeting web site.
- Also on Friday, January 15, at Midwinter, YALSA is sponsoring the Games, Gadgets, and Gurus social event. This is a chance to try out a variety of technology tools and meet with peers to talk technology and teen services. You can register for this program on the Midwinter Meeting web site, and if you register for both the Institute and the Games, Gadgets, and Gurus event you will receive a discount.
There is still time to apply for YALSA’s 2010 Young Adult Literature Symposium stipend. The Symposium takes place November 5-7, 2010 in Albuquerque, NM and stipends are available for up to $1000 each to two YALSA members. Learn how to apply for the stipend on the YALSA web site. - The official announcement of the two YALSA members selected as 2010 Emerging Leaders was made this month. Congratulations to 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. YALSA’s Emerging Leaders are funded through the Friends of YALSA.
- October was the first month for YALSA’s new Blog Manager, mk Eagle. Over the past month mk has been working with the Association’s committees, bloggers, and podcasters helping them to formulate ideas for posts and audio content. Thank you to mk for taking on this role and working on ways to enhance and extend the blog’s authorship and readership.
- Thank you as well to the Chair of the Teen Read Week Committee, Carla Land, and her group. The 2009 Teen Read Week was a great success and the work of the Committee helped bring about that success. 2010 Teen Read Week will be held October 17 – 23 and have the theme “Books with Beat @ Your Library.”
- Fall is a busy time of year with many state and regional conferences being held. Several YALSA members will host YALSA Road Trips during these events. Thanks to all the YALSA members who are organizing Road Trips.
