Have you tweeted at your U.S. Senator today?

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It’s National Library Legislative Day! Today, library supporters across the United States are participating virtually by contacting their representatives to encourage them to support libraries. YALSA has created the Tweet Your U.S. Senator Map to simplify the process for you. Two clicks, and you’re a library advocate. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Visit the Google Map (below or at this link). Make sure you’re logged into Twitter through your web browser.
  2. Click the Tweet Me button on your senators.
  3. A message automatically generates, encouraging your senator to fund LSTA and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Act with the #nlld hashtag. All you have to do is click “Tweet.”

It’s that simple. Share the map and advocate for libraries today!


View YALSA Tweet Your US Senator Map in a larger map

The Teens’ Top Ten

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Nine thousand teens voted in this year’s Teens’ Top Ten! Watch the results and see an acceptance from our winning author:

  1. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (Simon & Schuster)
  2. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
  3. Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick (Simon & Schuster)
  4. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (HarperCollins)
  5. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (Harlequin)
  6. Matched by Ally Condie (Penguin)
  7. Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson (Little, Brown & Company)
  8. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White (HarperCollins)
  9. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (HarperCollins)
  10. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer (Penguin)

Thanks to everyone who voted and to our YA Galley book groups!

The YALSA Update: Keep On Votin’

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Teens’ Top Ten Voting Continues Teens’ Top Ten voting is going strong! What books do your teens love? Have them vote for their favorites through Sept. 16 at www.ala.org/teenstopten. Want to encourage teens to vote? Embed the code between the brackets on your website, which includes the new Teens’ Top Ten logo:

[<a title=”Vote for Your Favorite Books in the Teens’ Top Ten!” href=”http://www.ala.org/teenstopten”><img alt=”Teens’ Top Ten” src=”http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/teenstopten/TeensTopTen_logo_web.gif”></a>]

Voting ends Sept. 16!

YALSA Member Kudos: Congratulations are in order for YALSA members Hannah Gomez, who will be YALSA’s 2011-2012 Spectrum Scholar, and Gretchen Kolderup, who takes over as member manager of The Hub from Sarah Debraski on Monday.

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YALSA Updates: Teen Read Week Photo Contest

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Guess which YA title this is? YALSA is holding a photo contest for Teen Read Week! If you follow us on Facebook (and if you don’t, by all means become a fan today!), you saw YALSA staff make a few attempts at the contest themselves. Use our two entries as inspiration and encourage your teens to join the contest — we’re accepting entries now through Oct. 31 from teens ages 13-18 on Flickr (you must be at least 13 to establish a Flickr account, per its terms of service). Entries will be judged by Jay Asher, 2011 Teen Read Week spokesperson. Any teen, or group of teens up to three, can enter the contest now through Oct. 31:

  • ‘ Select a YA book
  • Come up with a creative image expressing the book’s title and ensure it meets the contest guidelines (PDF)
  • Upload the photo or illustration to Flickr and tag it TRWcontest11
  • Enter as many times as you’d like!

Five finalists will have their photos featured on the YALSA website and win a prize pack from Penguin Books for Young Readers that include signed copies of Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why as well as Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler’s The Future of Us. A winner will receive an e-reader preloaded with teen titles and will be featured on YALSA’s blog and in a press release.

Start entering at Flickr today!

Promote positive mental health with ReachOut Reads this May!

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The Inspire USA Foundation, the non-profit organization behind the youth mental health site ReachOut.com, is releasing a list of recommended young adult fiction titles dealing with a range of issues like depression and eating disorders. Inspire USA is also announcing a schedule of live YA author chats on Ustream throughout the month of May, which is Mental Health Awareness month. The chats and books are listed at http://reachout.com/reachoutreads.

The goal of this campaign is to promote positive mental health and build awareness of ReachOut.com a resource for teen and young adult readers of popular YA fiction.’  The list of books was developed by YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, and has been reviewed by Inspire USA staff for positive mental health content.

Tweet Your U.S. Senator to Support Teen Services

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May 10 is National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) and it only takes a minute of your time to make a difference! All you need is Internet access and a Twitter account.

To learn more about other ways can advocate for library services to teens specifically, visit http://tinyurl.com/YAadvocate.’  Thank you for all that you do to ensure teens have access to great library services and resources and thank you to YALSA’s Legislation Committee for creating this advocacy tool!

  1. Make sure you’re logged into your Twitter account
  2. Visit YALSA’s Google map of U.S. Senators
  3. Click on the push pin in your state
  4. Click on the “Tweet Me” link
  5. Click on the “Tweet” button (the text of the message has already been created & appears in the text box)
  6. Encourage others to do this by forwarding the link of the map to them, adding the link to your Facebook page, blog or web site, etc.

We’re talking budgeting in YA Forum this week!

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YALSA’s YA Forum is a members’ only discussion that takes place the first week of each month, which is this week! All YALSA members are invited to sign into YALSA’s space in ALA Connect (http://connect.ala.org/yalsa) and join this week’s conversation on defending and stretching budgets, led by Monique Delatte! (Remember, this is for YALSA members only!)

Working with a budget is an important issue for every young adult and school librarian. Talking about and asking for money can be challenging, but having the skills to advocate for and defend your budget is an important part in supporting and growing library services to teens.’ YALSA will’ discuss tips and tricks for reviewing your contracts to make sure you are getting the most for your money,’ as well as’ how to communicate the importance of financially supporting teen services, where to locate financial support for teen programs and’  financial success stories. This discussion will be moderated by Delatte, a 2010 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and successful author and co-author of nearly $90,000 in’ grants.

The forum is open now and will remain open until 3 p.m. Eastern on Friday. So sign into ALA Connect and start discussing today!

YALSA 2011 Election Results

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YALSA has announced the results of its election! In addition to electing candidates, all four bylaws measures passed:’  creating a membership category for non-salaried librarians, creating a membership category for young adult services advocates, changing dues rates’  for certain member categories, and reorganizing the nominating committee. For details, visit YALSA’s elections page. For results from ALA’s general election, please visit the ALA elections page.

Candidate results are as follows; bylaws details are after the jump. Thank you to all who ran for office this year!

YALSA President-Elect

Jack Martin

YALSA Fiscal Officer

Penny Johnson

YALSA Secretary

Sarajo Wentling

YALSA Board of Directors

3-year Term

Sandra Hughes-Hassell

Gail Tobin

Christian Zabriskie

Edwards Committee

Charli Osborne

Ed Spicer

Jamie Watson

Printz Committee

Louise Brueggemann

Sharon Grover

Sharon Rawlins

Sarah Bean Thompson

Nonfiction Committee

Ruth Allen

Angie Manfredi

Judy Nelson

Laura Pearle

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