Wanna get involved in YALSA right now? YALSA needs your help! We’re looking for expert programmers, Teen Read Week gurus, Teen Tech Week geniuses, Road Trip afficionados, Common Core Standards experts and more!
Based on Board decisions at the 2013 Midwinter Conference, I’ll be making appointments to the following Super! Awesome! Taskforces! All you have to do is complete the volunteer form.
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Midwinter was only a week ago, but so much of it is still fresh in my mind. Not just all the ballyhoos and love bombs, but all the really important work the YALSA Board did during the conference.
First, over the next few weeks I’ll be making appointments. Lots of appointments to lots of awesome new taskforces. Just like our Teen Space Guidelines, we’re looking for some ace teen librarians to help YALSA create some Programming Guidelines to help members and non-members alike ramp up, fundraise or create some library programs for teens. Read More →
I’m en route to Seattle even as I type this! What will the board and I be up to at the 2013 Midwinter conference? Keep reading to find out.
It’s going to be an awesome conference. We’ve got programs, meetings and activities everywhere. We’ll be talking about advocacy, collaborations, books and reading, the future of teen services in libraries and more.
First, I’ll be helping YALSA host the first National Forum on Teens & Libraries on January 23 and 24. This is the first summit of its kind, and we’ll be bringing leaders on youth development, libraries, technology, publishing, everything. The goal is figure out where teen services is going and where it needs to be in the 21st Century. ALA President Maureen Sullivan will be the lead moderator, and we’ve got some amazing special guest stars, including Lee Rainey, head of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Mizuko Ito, Professor in Residence and MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at the University of California, Irvine, Renee Hobbs, Director of the Harrington School of Communications & Media at the University of Rhode Island and George Needham, Vice President for Global and Regional Councils at the Online Computer Library Center. We’ll be talking lots of teens, literacy, library, technology and more. I’ll even be leading the Youth Panel portion of the forum with special awesome teens from YALSA President-Elect Shannon Peterson. We’ll be tweeting, blogging and posting the entire time, so check out our social media channels to find out what’s going on.
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Hey Everyone,
As you can guess it’s been another super-duper busy month in the YALSA world. Here’s what we’ve been up to!
Key Activities:
Worked with the Capacity Building Taskforce to initiate plans for implementing YALSA’s new goal in the Strategic Plan.
Hosted two online trainings for Selection and Award committee chairs and members. Thanks to everyone who was able to participate!
Worked with the YALSA Executive Director to appoint YALSA’s new Blog Manager, Wendy Stephens. Congratulations, Wendy!
Worked with YALSA’s Executive Committee and the Executive Director to plan and create the agenda for the 2012 Midwinter conference.
YALSA is finalizing an exciting new partnership with a national retailer that will expand programs and improve digital services for teens in libraries across the country! Stay tuned for the official announcement in late January!
Outreach and Media:
Interviewed by About.com for a story on trends in teen reading and literature.
Statistics & Data:
December donations received were $1,775.00 for Friends of YALSA and $250.00 for YALSA’s Leadership Endowment.
The most recent membership stats are from November 2012. YALSA currently has 5,218 members, down .9% from last year.
Thank you!
A big shout-out to the Morris and Non-fiction committees for choosing their finalists!
Thank you also to the Teen Tech Week committee for launching the 2013 website: www.ala.org/teentechweek.
Congratulations to The Hub for having its best month ever in terms of the number of visits to the site: www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub
Thanks again for all that you do for our association,
Jack
November President’s Report:
Key Activities:
Attended the 2012 YA Lit Symposium in St. Louis, Missouri and had a blast meeting all of the amazing attendees and authors! I’m really looking forward to 2014’s event, October 31-November 2 in Austin, Texas!
Worked closely with the YALSA Office, Linda Braun and the Forum Advisory Council to hone the details for the upcoming National Forum on Libraries and Teens summit in Seattle this January. Thanks to all of our members who applied! Learn more at www/ala.org/yaforum.
Participated in Giving Tuesday, a special after-Thanksgiving national fundraising effort to help YALSA build support for our Spectrum Scholarship.
Worked with the YALSA office to develop a new training module for Selection Committee Chairs. I’m looking forward to chatting with chairs and committee members on December 6 and 13!
Chaired the November board conference call. It was great hearing about all of the exciting work that YALSA’s committees, juries and taskforces are doing. Minutes will be posted in the governance section of the website.
Worked with the Executive Committee to review applications for the YALSAblog Member Manager position and set up phone interviews.
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Friends! What with Fall Exec, the YA Lit Symposium a whole lot more, the past few weeks have been super duper busy for me and all of YALSA. Here’s what we’ve been up to, but if you want to read about all of YALSA’s activities, be sure to read our eNewsletter, emailed directly to your inbox the second Tuesday of every month:
Key Activities:
Coordinated with Valerie Davis, chair of the Virtual Selection/Awards Manual Committee, to build out the first draft of the the manual which will launch after Midwinter 2013.
Attended the first meeting of the National Forum on Youth Services in Libraries Advisory Board meeting.
Met with ALA President Maureen Sullivan, Beth Yoke and Linda Braun to plan out the agenda for the upcoming National Forum on Youth Services in Libraries in Seattle.
Along with Shannon Peterson, led the 2012 ALA Fall Executive Committee meeting with the YALSA Executive Committee. You can find our agenda items and notes here.
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Hi All! September was another super busy month! Here’s what I’ve been up to:
September YALSA President’s Report
Key Activities:
Collaborated with ALISE to brainstorm about the creation of a jointly sponsored scholarship between ALISE and YALSA to support Library and Information School doctoral candidates who want to pursue studies in libraries serving young adults.
Worked with Strategic Planning chair Renee McGrath to spread awareness and promote YALSA’s new Strategic Plan with membership and beyond.
Met via conference call with YALSA’s Executive Director, Linda Braun and ALA President Maureen Sullivan to discuss the rollout of YALSA’s exciting IMLS-funded initiative around the teen services in libraries summit this January. LLAMA representative Mary Frances Burns will be serving on the advisory board along with key YALSA members and educational stakeholders from around the country. More information about the National Forum on Teens in Libraries can be found here: http://www.ala.org/news/pr?id=11490.
In partnership with YALSA’s Executive Committee, appointed Past-President Linda Braun to the position of YALS editor.
Brainstormed with Carrie Kausch, fabulous chair of the President’s Program Committee about the content for an exciting 2013 program that will celebrate innovative programming and activities for young adults in libraries.
Finished appointing three new taskforces to support YALSA’s mission: the Capacity Building Taskforce, State Association Outreach and 365 Days of YA.
Wrote the welcome message for this years YA Lit Symposium. I’m going, are you??? Register by October 9 for the lowest rate at www.ala.org/yalitsymposium.
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It’s been another busy month for YALSA! Here’s what we’ve been up to:
Key Activities:
In collaboration with the Division Membership and Promotion chair Sarah Couri, co-hosted YALSA’s first monthly tweetup on using Twitter in libraries. Future tweetups will be happening on the first Tuesday of every month.
Hosted the first Connect. Create. Collaborate. e-chat with the YALSA membership and got some terrific ideas on some new activities for the association, including how YALSA can better reach out to members on a local level.
Kicked off the virtual Presidential Road Trip on the West Coast, and began building a new YALSA President Facebook presence to capture my findings.
Led the first YALSA Board meeting on August 28 and discussed committee chair reports, the action plan and the board self-assessment process.
Appointed volunteers to several vital new taskforces including the State Association Outreach, 365 Days of YA, President’s Program and Youth Engagement taskforces. We are still seeking volunteers for the Capacity Building taskforce!
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Every day librarians and library workers who serve teens connect, create and collaborate with schools, community-based organizations, teen advisory groups, fellow library workers and more to improve services to teens. That’s why my Presidential Advisory Task Force and I chose the theme, connect, create, collaborate, for my Presidential year. It’s a theme that hones in on the important work library staff serving teens do every day in school and public libraries.
Over the next several months on the YALSAblog you’ll get to read how others are connecting, creating, and collaborating with teens in libraries. These posts will give you what you need to try new things, extend what you already do, and maybe even ramp up services for teens in your library. Every Thursday, starting next week through June 2013, a team of YALSA bloggers will write posts on a wide variety of topics related to this theme. I’m really excited to read, see, hear and watch what they cook up. Next Thursday will be the first of these posts. Stay tuned!
YALSA is seeking enthusiastic volunteers for three exciting, new taskforces. We need your expertise to help mobilize and build out these new projects so librarians & library workers all across the country can better serve teens in their libraries. The new taskforces are:
State Association Outreach Taskforce
Term of appointment: 22 months starting in Sept. 2012 and ending June 30, 2014. Member group size: 6 virtual members, plus a chair.
Task force term: Sept. 2012 through June 30, 2013. Member group size: 4 – 6 virtual members, plus a chair.
Any questions? Contact Jack Martin or Beth Yoke at byoke@ala.org.