Students: Win Tickets on Twitter to YALSA’s Games, Gadgets & Gurus in Boston

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YALSA is coming to Boston for ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, and we’re giving away seven tickets to SLIS students for ‘ our Friday night social event, Games, Gadgets & Gurus, on Jan. 15 from 8-10 p.m. Network with your YALSA friends and colleagues over refreshments, play with board games and video games; see demos of social networking, cloud computing, and more, try out library-friendly technology like e-readers, digital audio recorders, Flip Video cameras; get one-on-one advice from tech experts, and more. Other participants include Galaxy Press, PBS’s Digital Nation, and Tutor.com.

It should be a great time. So how do you win tickets? Easy. If you’re a library school student who can attend the event in Boston and you have a Twitter account (if you don’t, you can sign up for one —’ it’s free), ‘ post something by 5 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, Dec. 4 with the hashtag #gamesgadgetsgurus. That’s it! We’ll choose seven people who used the hashtag at random and will send you a direct message letting you know you’ve won on Dec. 7 (so make sure you’re following us at www.twitter.com/yalsa so we can get in touch with you!). Read More →

The YALSA Update: Winter Online Courses, Midwinter Events & More

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Winter online course registration now open YALSA opened registration this week for its winter session of online courses. Get teens engaged with reading after taking Booktalks Quick & Simple with Nancy Keane and rev up’  your special events with Power Programming for Teens with Amy Alessio.’  Classes last four weeks. Pricing starts at $135 for YALSA members (10% discount for groups of 10 or more). Learn more at YALSA’s Online Courses page or by contacting Eve Gaus at egaus@ala.org.

YALSA Events at Midwinter Join us for our two ticketed pre-Midwinter events, Libraries 3.0: Teen Edition and Games, Gadgets and Gurus.’  Details and how to register for them after the jump (you can read about everything we have planned for Midwinter Meeting at the YALSA Midwinter Wiki).

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YALSA Pocast #66 – Voices From Midwinter 09

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It’s just about half-way between the 2009 Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference and that means it’s the perfect time to listen to voices from Midwinter. Why? Because you’ll find out about many of the programs that YALSA is planning for Annual, learn what people took part in during Midwinter, and be reminded of how and why attending conferences is worthwhile.

Listen

For this Podcast Lindsey Dunn talks with librarians about a wide-variety of topics. Read More →

Updated – Live Blogging Best Books for Young Adults: Teen Session

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Thanks to all who participated in YALSA’s first event liveblogged with CoverItLive! Despite a couple of interesting technical developments, I think everything went very smoothly. Particular thanks to the fantastic Kelly Tyler, who took an astounding amount of photos and video–some of which we even managed to upload during the session!

You can now view a replay of the session, which includes selected book covers, video, and commentary from several folks who participated via Twitter.
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YALSA Mixer & Tech Playground

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Things really got rockin by the time the America’s Best Booktalkers were up for their performances. A cover song from Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love to introduce Ophelia by Lisa Klein to a description of Stargirl so good we knew who she was before the booktalker revealed the title. Chris Shoemaker was the fantastic Emcee for the event. A democratic vote took place via Twitter and the winner was’  . . . Read More →

Doings in Denver

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One of the pleasures of coming to Midwinter is that there is some oportunity to not only network with colleagues but spend some time with friends. And to make some new friends, too. I finally had the chance to meet Lynn Rutan and Cindy Dobrez this morning. Jen Hubert was at the same breakfast as was Monica Edinger. Talk about brain trust! Atfer the meal, severa of us stood and waxed about our personal favorites for the awards. Who knows if any of our selections will be announced tomorrow? The fun is making predictions and sharing thoughts about our reading.

I hope all of you will tune in for the announcements. Some of us will blog here.

So, rise and shine and join us for the Academy Awards of Children’s and YA Books.

Words Mean Everything

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One of the activities of the YALSA Board Friday’s at Midwinter, is a Board Planning session. At that session Board members talk about where the Division is and where it should be headed. Topics at yesterday’s Board Planning session included the financial health of the Division, the status of the YALSA Strategic Plan, responsibilities of Board members, and Division policies and procedures.

During one brainstorming session at the meeting, each Board member was asked to write down single words (hyphenation was allowed) to describe how she would like to see YALSA remembered by the end of her term on the Board. The brainstorming wasn’t focused on specific projects, but on the direction of the Division in terms of what members should say about the organization’s work, projects, and initiatives. The word cloud below gives a visual of the words generated from that discussion. Read More →

YALSA Online and In Denver

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We know not everyone can make it to Midwinter Meeting. As excited as we are to see the many YALSA members attending the Denver meeting in person, we want to make sure that everyone can play along at home, too.

We’ll be blogging and podcasting from Denver right here on this very blog, and you can also see information about what we’re be doing on our Twitter feed. Check in to see highlights from the whole weekend, including the Reaching Diverse Teens preconference, YALSA Mixer & Tech Playground, YALSA Candidates’ Forum (it’s not too late to ask questions),’  Read More →

Next Stop Denver

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It’s just three days until I leave for Midwinter in Denver and I think I’ve finally got my schedule all set. There are lots of YALSA events that I’m looking forward to. Including:

  • Happy Hour – YALSA began scheduling a Friday night Happy Hour at Midwinter and Annual Conference a couple of years ago and these “hours” have become the place to be. It’s a great way to start off the Midwinter Meeting, seeing people for the first time in several months and catching up before the work really begins. This year’s Happy Hour is from 5 to 7PM on Friday, January 23, at the Cap City Tavern.
  • Mixer & Tech Playground – For the past few years YALSA has sponsored a gaming or technology related event on Friday evenings at Midwinter.’  This year’s Mixer & Tech Playground sounds awesome, with lots of technology to try, games to play, and opportunities to hang-out and network with some great people.’  The Mixer & Tech Playground is a ticketed event on Friday, January 23, from 8 to 10PM’  at the Hyatt Regency Denver, Centennial A/B. Read More →