Spring is just about here and YALSA is ready to support your professional learning needs with our spring Snack Breaks, webinars, and e-courses. Here’s what’s we’ve got for you:
Snack Breaks
Every month YALSA posts a new Snack Break, a short video about a topic of current interest to library staff working with teens. The March installment, produced by Megan Christine-Carlin Burton (from the Kitsap Regional Library) features teens describing what STEM means to them and how the activities they take part of in and through the library supports their teen learning.
You can check out our past Snack Breaks and find the new productions posted each month in the YALSA Snack Break playlist.
Webinars
On the third Thursday of each month, at 2pm EST, YALSA hosts a webinar that is free to members and available for a small fee to non-members. Coming up this spring:
- STEM Impact Through Youth Voice features staff from the Kitsap Regional Library (WA) who will talk with participants about how the process of supporting 21st century skill building with volunteers and interns who design and implement programs, can also build a library’s capacity to offer meaningful, authentic, and awesome STEM programs in which youth have a voice. Participants will leave the webinar with an understanding of the steps required to integrate teen internships into STEM initiatives, know how to build support for youth voice in STEM programming and understand how youth voice helps to build strong teen library programming.
- April is the month for the webinar, Building Their Own World: Teen-Driven Community Engagement. This session gives participants the chance to discover how teen library initiatives, by providing a positive open and creative environment, can encourage teen participation in elections, teen-driven service learning projects, and exposure to experiences that boost cultural competence. Participants will also learn how to connect teens to community organizations, strengthen partnerships with teachers by providing outlets for teens to practice what they learn in the classroom, and empower teens to be self-advocates. The session will be led by Izabel Gronski and Regina Townsend, Young Adult Librarians in the Chicago suburbs, Oak Lawn and Forest Park, respectively.
- In May the webinar topic is restorative justice. Shauna Anderson from the Skokie Public Library will facilitate the session titled, Repair the Harm: Restorative Approaches to Behavior Management in Libraries. Shauna will discuss with participants the many approaches to take to guide and manage behavior in the library. Those who attend will learn how libraries can make use of restorative practices to help teens learn from their behavior, in meaningful and transformative ways, and maintain access to their library.
All webinars are free to YALSA members. Non-members can purchase the recording of the session within 24 hours of the live event. More information is available on the YALSA website.
Spring E-Course
Building Reflective Collections…Always Teens First
March 20-April 16, 2017
Julie did a great job presenting the material and letting us come up with our interpretations and how to make the ideas work for our community.”
In this four-week eCourse, participants will explore building reflective, responsive collections that represent their teen communities. We will discuss ways to learn about patrons—both users and “not-yet” users, in addition to assessing current collections. In the process of acquiring materials, we will discuss #ownvoices, problematic reviews, counter stories and the need for diverse professional networks. The framework threading through this course will be that diverse collections are only one step in building inclusive libraries. The course will be facilitated by Julie Stivers (MSLS, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has worked with teens in different settings, including schools in Durham and Wake Counties in North Carolina and with incarcerated youth at the Durham Youth Home. She is currently the Librarian at Mount Vernon School, an alternative public middle school in Raleigh, NC, where she loves finding engaging, reflective literature to put in her students’ hands.
Learn more about YALSA’s CE opportunities on the association’s website. If you have questions get in touch with me, Linda W. Braun, at lbraun@leonline.com.
