You’ve seen’ the slate of candidates, but want to hear more from the nominees for YALSA President and the YALSA Board?’ We’ll be talking with those individuals this week and next here on the YALSAblog.
Candidates, who will be presented in alphabetical order, were asked to contain their responses to a twitter-ish 140 characters, but I know their enthusiasm comes through even given the enforced brevity.
Today,’ YALSA Board Candidate Maureen L. Hartman.
Your current position and institution
“Coordinating Librarian, Youth Programs and Services, Hennepin County Library
Why did you decide to run for YALSA office?
Passionate about lib svcs to youth, YALSA. Ready to work hard, listen to members, make tough decisions.
In a nutshell, what is your platform?
Teen librs are awesome-creative, passionate, brilliant. Sometimes admin/world doesn’t understand — need to advocate and partner differently
What experiences have you had within the division?
I was on QP; also chaired. I have written 2 articles for YALS on partnerships + OST, been on Strategic Plan, President’s Program Planning
What in your background makes you a good fit for this position?
Former teen svcs libr; now YS manager for a large urban/suburban system; lots of exp in partnership building, grantwriting, facilitation
What do you think is the most pressing issue facing YALSA?
Good, high-quality services to teens can’t just be provided by teen librarians. All staff need to be involved and engaged in serving youth
How can YALSA improve services to teens?
Make serving teens understandable, supportable by other staff and admin. Can’t only add more teen libs–libs changing; YALSA must change too
Should YALSA change their name? If so, to what?
Yes, to something with the word “advocacy” and “youth” in our name
What else do voters need to know about you?
Twitter is fav way of keeping with profession, but also a huge fan of an old fashioned pen and notebook. Wish I had time to tweet more
