October 2013 President’s Report
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is a national organization of librarians, library workers, and advocates whose mission is to expand and strengthen library services for teens, aged 12-18. Through its member-driven advocacy, research, and professional development initiatives YALSA builds the capacity of libraries and librarians to engage, serve, and empower teens.
Activities
- With the YALSA Executive Board and Beth Yoke, met with ALA Executive Director Keith Fiels and YALSA’s liaison to the ALA Executive Board, Rob Banks, to discuss current challenges, possible solutions, and strategies for working more closely with ALA and division colleagues.
- Authored a column for the Winter issue of YALS.
- Led YALSA Executive Board meetings during ALA Fall Exec.
- Worked with Beth Yoke to plan a facilitated session with the YALSA Executive Board on organizational mission. Thanks to Davidoff Communications for leading an engaging discussion.
- Participated in the annual Division Leadership session at ALA Fall Exec.
- Met with leaders from AASL to discuss current initiatives and advocacy efforts.
- Held a discussion and called a vote with the YALSA Board to decide upon a location for the 2015 Young Adult Literature Symposium. Portland, Oregon, you’re next!
- Discussed Teen Read Week and the importance of YA Literature with reporter Ashley Strickland at CNN.com.
Updates
- There’s an award or grant for every YALSA member and the deadline is approaching fast! Be sure to visit this page for more information and submit your form by December 1st.
- Giving Tuesday is right around the corner! To learn more about how you can support your colleagues in ensuring that libraries remain awesome for teens, check out our giving page.
- The dust is settling on fall appointments, are you still looking for ways to get more involved? YALSA has a plethora of ideas to suit your talents.
- YALSA wants to collect stories to better communicate the amazing work that you do to support, educate, and entertain teens! Submit YOURstory or sent YALSA a tweet with hashtag #yadvocacy.
- Best Buy has stepped up to partner with YALSA on Teen Tech Week 2014! Join the TTW Ning for updates and great member-driven ideas and resources.
- Congrats to the winners of this year’s Teens Top Ten and thanks to the hard-working TT book groups for creating a fantastic nomination list.
Gratitude
- Thank you to the YALSA Executive Board and Executive Director for meaty discussions, thought provoking ideas, and altogether too much fun at the ALA Executive meetings.
- Thanks to those that provided feedback on the Future of Teens and Libraries white paper. Haven’t seen it yet? The draft is still available.
- Three cheers to Chris Shoemaker, Candice Mack, Beth Yoke, Lalitha Nataraj, and Allison Tran for enthusiastically helping out at the California Library Association’s YALSA booth.
- Thanks to Monique Delatte Starkey and Sarah Flowers for fantabulous webinars! Weren’t able to attend? Check out the YALSA E-Learning Library for free on-demand training.
- Thanks to our friends at AASL for making time during a busy meeting schedule to’ chat.
- Mega props to Courtney Lewis and the Teen Read Week committee for fabulous planning and implementation of TRW 2013!
YALSA membership for September 2013 stood at 5,113 (down 1.2% from that month in 2012)
Donations for September: $260
