YALSA Volunteer of the Year Award

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YALSA is sponsoring a new award for 2013. The Volunteer of the Year Award acknowledges the contributions of YALSA members who have demonstrated outstanding service to the mission, goals and work of YALSA during a given service year. Awards are given out for:

  • Chair: leadership of an advisory board, jury, committee or task force
  • Appointed Member: contributions within an advisory board, jury, committee or task force
  • Group: work conducted as a whole by an advisory board, jury, committee or task force

Nominations will be accepted through December 1, 2012. The recognition includes a one year membership to YALSA.

Do you know of someone who goes above and beyond the call of duty? Nominate a colleague or yourself by accessing the form available at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/yalsaawardsgrants

Win $1000 with the MAE Award for Best Literature Program for Teens

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Do you run a spectacular teen book club? What about a great speakers series that gets teens engaged in reading? Did your summer reading program bring teens through the doors in droves? Have you come up with a great way to help teens connect with literature by using social media? You could win $500 for your pocket and another $500 for your library by applying for the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Best Literature Program for Teens!

YALSA members who have run an exceptional reading or literature program in the 12 months leading up to December 1st are eligible to apply for this award recognizing an outstanding reading or literature program for young adults. The MAE Award for Best Literature Program for Teens is sponsored by the Margaret A. Edwards Trust.

Applications and additional information about the award are available at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/mae. Applications must be emailed to Nichole Gilbert (ngilbert@ala.org) by December 1st. For questions about the award, please contact jury chair Mary Haas at mhaas@aacps.org.

Not a YALSA member? It’s not too late to join so you can be eligible for this award. You can do so by contacting YALSA’s Membership Marketing Specialist, Letitia Smith, at lsmith@ala.org or 800.545.2433 x4390. Reward yourself for bringing young adults and books together and encouraging the development of life-long reading habits. Apply today!

Share Your Innovative Programs with YALSA!

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YALSA will select up to twenty-five innovative teen programs from all types of libraries to feature at the YALSA President’s Program at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference and to include in a sixth edition of Excellence in Library Service to Young Adults.’  Successful applications will focus on programs that address new teen needs or interests, or that address ongoing teen needs or interests in an innovative or unique way.’  The top five programs will receive cash awards of $1000 each. Up to twenty “best of the rest” applications will receive cash awards of $250 each.’  For more details, or to apply, visit YALSA’s web site.

Join the Conversation about Teen Reading!

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On October 17, 2012, help YALSA celebrate Teen Read Weekâ„¢ by joining the conversation about teen reading and young adult literature via a Tweet-a-thon!’  YALSA wants to know: what’s on your YA lit reading list right now? ‘ Steampunk? Audiobooks? ‘ Horror? Graphic Novels?’  Nonfiction?’  Something else?

We’re encouraging people of all ages to Tweet their YA lit reading lists, recommendations, thoughts and ideas with the hashtag #TRW12 any time on Oct. 17.’  We’ll be following and re-tweeting our favorites.’  We want to hear from teens, librarians, library workers, educators, authors, editors and more!’  What might you Tweet on Oct. 17? Here are just a few ideas:

  • What you are reading, or want you want to read
  • Your opinions on who the contenders are for the Printz or other YA lit awards
  • Innovative ways that libraries are bringing reading to teens
  • Quotes about YA lit, or about reading in general
  • Book recommendations for others
  • Tips for getting more teens reading
  • Links to booklists, contests and other resources
  • What trends you’re seeing in YA lit right now
  • Visuals! Show us what you have going on for Teen Read Week by Tweeting a photo
  • Whatever else you’d like to share about teen reading and YA literature

So, librarians, library workers and educators please alert your teens — and encourage all the adults you know to participate, too. ‘ ‘ To learn more about Teen Read Week, please visit www.ala.org/teenread.

President’s Report: August 2012

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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!
Read More →

Are you ready to get involved? Step up to the plate with a YALSA Selection or Award Committee!

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This fall, with the help of a stalwart taskforce, I’ll be making appointments to the following selection list and award committees, which will begin their work on 2/1/13:

Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
Best Fiction for Young Adults
Fabulous Films for Young Adults
Great Graphic Novels for Teens
Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
Great Graphic Novels for Teens
Alex Award
Morris Award
Odyssey Award

Outstanding Books for the College Bound

I’ll also be appointing to these other awesome groups
2014 Midwinter Marketing & Local Arrangements Taskforce
2014 Midwinter Paper Presentation Planning Taskforce
Readers’ Choice List Taskforce

The 2014 Midwinter Meeting is in Philadelphia, Jan. 24 – 28

What do you need to bring to the table?
Experience in selecting and evaluating Young Adult materials as well as the time to volunteer your skills. We look for broad representation of our diverse YALSA members on all of our committees.

Below is some of the fine print to help both new and seasoned members get started in this year’s process.

How does the appointments process work?
To serve on a committee, you must be officially appointed by YALSA’s President-Elect. YALSA is collecting volunteer forms from now through Sept. 30 for members who would like to serve on selection and award committees that begin work on Feb. 1, 2013. If you are currently serving on a selection or award committee and you are eligible to and interested in serving for another term, you must fill out a volunteer form. This is the only way that I’ll know for certain that you’re interested in continuing on the committee. Also, please note that except for the 2013 and 2014 Popular Paperback for Young Adults committees, these selection and award committee members are required to attend both Midwinter and Annual conferences. Please ensure that you can travel to both conferences before you volunteer.

What do volunteers need to know?
Before you volunteer to serve on a committee or taskforce, you’ll want to learn what the group does and what your responsibilities will be. YALSA has created a free webinar with information about what it’s like to serve on a selection or award committee. Be sure to take the time to view it. You can also contact the chair directly to let him/her know you’re interested in serving and to ask questions about what your involvement will entail. Names and contact information for all the committee chairs are available from the Governance page on YALSA’s website. From the Get Involved page on YALSA’s website you’ll also find information about each of the committees’ functions, size, etc. Lastly, be sure to read through YALSA’s Handbook, especially the sections that list responsibilities for committee members.

In order to be considered for a selection or award committee, you need to fill out a Selection Committee Volunteer Form by Sept. 30.

What else? What’s next?
To learn more about volunteering for committees and taskforces, as well as the appointments process, visit the Get Involved section of the YALSA website. You can also feel free to get in touch with me with any lingering questions at smpeterwork@gmail.com.

Are you awesome for reading through to the end of this detailed post? Definitely.

 

App of the Week: YALSA’s Teen Book Finder

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Title: YALSA’s Teen Book Finder
Cost: Free
Platform: Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later

This week YALSA launched the Teen Book Finder app. It’s a resource for librarians, teens, parents, and others to carry around in a pocket in order to have quick and easy access to information from all of YALSA’s lists and awards. You can see how the app works in this screencast.

The app was developed by YALSA with funds from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. An Android version will be released later in 2012. You can read more about the app on the YALSA website.

On YALSA Award Winners and Ebooks

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In the spring issue of YALS, you’ll find an easy-to-reference listing of all the YALSA award winners and book and media lists announced at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Since ebooks are on the rise, I thought I’d take a look at which of the winners are currently available as ebooks and which are available for libraries on OverDrive.

Counting the winners and honors of the awards (except for Odyssey) and the top ten books on the Best Fiction, Quick Picks, and Popular Paperback lists, we end up with 50 unique titles. Of those, 37 are available as ebooks that can be purchased through the usual channels including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Google Books. The only titles that aren’t available electronically are non-fiction titles, graphic novels, and older fiction titles. Of the 37 ebooks, 20 are available for libraries to lend in OverDrive, according to their search engine.

As the ebook market continues to grow, I expect we will see more backlist titles become available, while full-color ereaders and tablet computers will allow graphic-intensive books to be offered electronically. Whether or not more ebooks will be available for library lending, however, remains to be seen. I hope that next year, more of the award-winning and noteworthy books honored by YALSA will be available to as many readers as possible in their desired reading format. Read More →

Update to Changes on Website

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In February, I posted about changes that were made to YALSA’s website that required a login to reach the selected lists and awards. I explained the rationale and indicated that there would be refinements in the process.

There have been refinements, but we haven’t done a very good job of sharing that information with you, so I want to apologize for that lack of timely communication and try to remedy it now.

First of all, I do apologize for the early glitches and for the unfriendliness of ALA’s web interface. It can be very discouraging to click on a link that says “login” and immediately get an “access denied” message. However, if you just click on the ALA login link in the upper right corner of the screen, all will be well. Read More →

Award Winners and Award Makers

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Spring is a great time to highlight the Best of the Best, and ALA Midwinter brought forth the lists of award-winning titles and authors for 2012. If you haven’t already seen the winners for this year, visit the YALSA Booklists or check your copy of Young Adult Library Services‘ for a complete listing. Of course, knowing which titles win doesn’t always mean you know what to do with the information. The following are some ways you can do more with these highlighted titles:

Read More →