Virtual Road Trip: Massachusetts

Annual Teen Summit Focuses on Professional Development for Librarians Working with Teens

This fall, Massachusetts librarians working with teens will be celebrating their 6^th Annual Teen Summit. The Summit is a professional conference, focused on the needs of librarians working with teens. Originally developed as a concluding program for a LSTA Serving Teens and Tweens grant, the summit has grown to an annual event that includes national speakers, peer-led breakout sessions and much needed networking opportunities for our librarians.

The summit was developed to address the need for professional development needs of our librarians working with teens. While our regional systems did an excellent job covering collection development, technology, and programming trainings, the state youth consultants saw a need for training on bigger themes as well as a great need for networking opportunities for those who work with teens.

Past topics have included: Library as a Safe Space, S.T.E.A.M. programming and bullying. In 2014 we’re going back…and forward! The Teen Summit this fall will be titled “The NEW Basics” and will include discussions on the new YALSA report “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: a Call to Action”. This year, we encourage our attendees to bring their director, supervisor and/or community supporters with them to the Summit for this important topic.

Sarah Sogigian and April Mazza, advisors at the Massachusetts Library System, and Cheryl Space, Library Program Specialist at the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services, coordinate the annual Teen Summit. In 2013, our summit broke beyond MA state lines and included librarians working with teens from Rhode Island. Programming ideas come directly from the librarians that attend the summit. Both of our organizations work together to cover the majority of costs, so that our attendees can attend just for the price of meals. We’ve welcomed authors ‘ such as Mitali Perkins, Nancy Garden and Marissa Meyer to past summits and continue to present speakers that are knowledgeable and thoughtful; who also inspire our librarians to elevate their services to teens. ‘ To view past presentations, handouts and other summit info, please visit our resource guide: http://guides.masslibsystem.org/youthservices/ts

Submitted By Sarah Sogigian
Advisor for Youth Services
MA Library System