On Wednesday, the much anticipated Pokémon Go app was released in the United States.
Unlike previous Pokémon games this is an app for your phone that allows players to catch Pokémon in the real world.
Rose Quartz and Serenity are the official colors of 2016, according to Pantone.
Normally, one color is selected each year, and it influences fashion, impacts what consumers will see in movies, television, media, and design, and invariably reflects our culture.
Normally I don’t pay attention, but the selections for this year are meant to help start a conversation about gender, and break down our preconceived notions about color assignments.
Recently I was privileged to meet School Librarian Elaine Harger from Washington Middle School. She was talking about her library and mentioned the roll out of a technology one to one program, and how the ways in which it didn’t do as planned. In libraries we rarely talk about what didn’t work, so I asked her if she would be so kind as to share with YALSA blog readers so that you can learn from her experience.
Below is her response.
On Nov 7-8 YALSA brought together librarians, authors, and other professionals passionate about serving teens. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the YALSA Literature and Young Adult Services Symposium, but for those of you who had to remain at home, here are some themes from the event:
In 2000, the world’s leaders joined together to establish the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. They selected 8 issues that impacted the world, and set a deadline of 2015 to address. In 15 years humanity joined together to reach most of the goals.
Now they have set new goals for us to reach by 2030. They may seem huge, but humanity can be amazing! Everyone will need to reach beyond themselves to help reach these goals, but as providers of service to young adults we can help inspire and encourage everyone to think about these issues that impact the whole world.
Recently this image has gone viral. It’s a photo from Sacramento Public Library that seems to have been first posted online in January. Many of my colleagues have been inspired to post a similar sign in their branches. This sign demonstrates a practical solution for providing assistance to teens who, for whatever reason, are reluctant to ask staff for help.
Many teens I find roaming in the library often do not want to engage with staff. I do things like wear fandom buttons on my lanyard, which has helped to start conversations, but when most staff offer to help a teen find a book or show them how to use an e-source, they politely decline.
So how do you serve someone who doesn’t ask for help? Read More →
When it was brought to public attention that Hillary Clinton had used a private server for emails that should be accessible as public record, it started a conversation in my organization about public record and data storage. Being a government employee at a public library means that some of the things I do could be subject to public record. The administration at my library encouraged professional staff to refrain from using personal devices or personal accounts to complete library work. However for years several librarians have used personal accounts on Facebook and Google, or personal devices like cell phones and iPads for all aspects of our job.
To end out our week of making I’ve asked my colleague Michelle Angell to share her experiences with Maker culture. She started out with programs and wanted to create makerspaces, but found that a Maker Fair was an even better way to celebrate and embrace the Maker community. The following is Michelle’s response. Read More →
One thing many of my teens enjoy is competition. Whether they play for bragging rights or a gift card, they enjoy being the master or best in their favorite games. Over the years I’ve learned that hosting tournaments is an easy program that can gets my teens really excited and involved in the planning.
Last week to celebrate Woman’s History Month several Youtube personalities created videos highlighting some of the issues with America’s gender norms.
One of the vloggers, Kristina Horner, created a video about how YA literature has become gendered. From different covers to how we label genre’s there are many ways subtle clues are sent to potential readers about what books they are meant to read.