Risky Business
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The mission of the Young Adult Library Services Association is to advocate, promote and strengthen service to young adults as part of the continuum of total library service, and to support those who provide service to this population.
Mission Moment
How Recent YALSA Activities Support the Association’s Mission and Strategic Plan
Advocacy is the first goal listed in YALSA’s strategic plan and in May several activities of the Association supported this goal.
- Five YALSA members were selected to receive a stipend in order to make it possible for them to attend Library Advocacy Day on June 29 in Washington, DC. Thanks go to the Task Force (chaired by Chris Shoemaker) that reviewed applications and selected to whom the stipends would be awarded.
- YALSA held a webinar on advocacy which was facilitated by Karen Keyes. Association members can access the webinar on YALSA’s Members Only website.
- A packet of information was sent to faculty at library schools to highlight the importance of YA services in libraries, encourage expanded teen service oriented curriculum, and inform them of the resources and support YALSA can provide.
Accomplishments
- Each year ALA Division Presidents are asked to submit an annual report to ALA Council. YALSA’s report was submitted in May and is available in the Annual Reports area of the Governance section of the YALSA website.
- Incoming, outgoing, and continuing chairs of YALSA member groups participated in a chat that covered planning for Annual Conference, planning for Leadership Development and All Committee meetings at Conference, and the updated Job Description for YALSA Chairs and Job Description for Member Group Members, both recently approved by the YALSA Board. The updated job descriptions are designed to assist those planning on joining or chairing a YALSA member group, and those who have accepted member group appointments, understand expectations of service.
- As mentioned in the April President’s Report, the YALSA Board worked last month to develop a document that provides insight into the benefits of serving on the YALSA Board. That document is now available on the YALSA website.
- In order to continue to support members successfully, YALSA launched three new Task Forces in May. A Mentoring Task Force is charged with reading through mentor and protege applications submitted for YALSA’s new mentoring program and matching mentors to proteges. A Space Guidelines Task Force is charged with continuing the work of a previous Task Force in order to develop a set of teen space guidelines which will be presented to the YALSA Board at Midwinter 2011. And, the Table Talk Task Force is charged with planning and implementing a table talk session at Annual 2011. Thanks to chairs Alexendra Tyle Annen (Mentoring), Dawn Rutherford (Space Guidelines), and Matthew Moffett (Table Talk) – along with their task force members – for agreeing to take on this important work.
- Following YALSA elections, new Board members, who will start work just after Annual, are appointed mentors who can help these new Board members get ready for the work ahead. Mentors have been appointed for Jack Martin, Chris Shoemaker, and Priscille Dando – all who will be serving on the YALSA Board for the first time. Thanks to Jerene Battisti, Sarah Debraski, and Dawn Rutherford for agreeing to act as mentors.
In Progress
- With Annual Conference just around the corner, the YALSA Board and Executive Committee has been working on the agenda for their meetings during Conference. In May the Board approved agenda items including the Reader’s Choice Award, YALSA’s YA Literature Blog (formally known as YALSA-TV), a new member recognition award, a competencies evaluation tool, continued support to member group members and chairs, YALSA’s strategic plan and action plan, and the 2012 YA Literature Symposium location. The full agenda and supporting documents will be available on the YALSA website two weeks prior to Conference – in the Board Documents and Minutes section of the site. Don’t forget that anyone is welcome to attend YALSA’s Board meetings. Dates and times of the meetings are available on the YALSA wiki.
- The transition of seven YALSA committees to interest groups is almost complete. The transitioning committees will have meetings at Annual Conference. Following Conference these groups will formally be recognized as interest groups or be considered inactive. (Groups that are transitioning to an inactive status were unable to secure a convener. If members are interested in bringing the interest group back to active status they can contact lbraun@leonline.com to discuss how to move that action forward.) Selection of conveners for the transitioning groups will be completed in June. Information on YALSA interest and discussion groups is available on the YALSA website.
Media
- Answered questions, for an article that will appear in Children’s Writer, on the reading interests and habits of eight grade students.
Other Important YALSA News
- This year the YALSA President’s Program is going virtual and members of the President’s Program Committee are putting together a selection of audio, video, and print materials for the program. Visit the President’s Program website during Annual Conference to see all that’s available. Thanks to Sarah Couri and her Committee members for organizing the first-ever virtual YALSA President’s Program.
- Don’t forget there is still time to submit an application to be a mentor or a protege as a part of YALSA’s mentoring program. More details on the program are available on the YALSA website.
- YALSA has a lot planned for Annual conference including two preconferences, a happy hour, a membership meeting, an array of programs, the Margaret Edwards Award Luncheon, the Odyssey Award Program, The Alex Awards, the YA Author Coffee Klatch, and the Michael L. Printz Award program. You can find more information on all that YALSA has scheduled on the YALSA wiki.
- YALSA’s upcoming webinars have been announced and include VIP Reading hosted by Sarah Debraski on June 17, who will discuss YA Classics – 1951 to 2003; Risky Business hosted by Linda Braun, on July 15; and Back to the Facts: YA Nonfiction hosted by Angela Carstensen on August 19. Learn more about the webinars on the YALSA website.
- Registration for YALSA’s summer online classes is open through July 6. Courses offered this summer are Beyond Booklists: Serving Today’s Diverse Teens and Power Up With Print. More information and registration is available on the YALSA website.
- Minutes of YALSA’s Executive Committee meeting, held via conference call in late April, are now available on the YALSA website. You can also read about the work of the Association’s Executive Committee in the Governance section of the site.
