YALSA Plans for Fiscal Challenges 

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Last month, your YALSA Executive Committee moved forward with budgeting plans for the next fiscal year and in setting a priority to fund strategic planning activities. We’ve also been keyed into finding solutions for the programs and activities that were scheduled for the 2020 ALA Annual conference. In doing so, your YALSA Board is moving these pieces along with special attention to our fiduciary obligations given the current ALA financial environment.

During fiscal year 2020, YALSA’s budget plans were substantially impacted as current funds were utilized to cover ALA expenses. Furthermore, not just YALSA funds, but all other ALA division budgets were also impacted. The utilization of division funds is fully within ALA authority and is a strategy all divisions agreed upon, as is stated in the ALA operating agreement. With these current financial challenges in mind, your YALSA board is planning the next fiscal year’s activities from the seat of a zero-based budget to address our overall YALSA financial health. Perhaps you may wonder “but what does that really mean?” In a nutshell, this means:

  • The YALSA Board continues to fully support that we are ALL ALA and maintains shared ALA values.
  • The YALSA Board values the flexibility of the ALA operating agreement that provides us the opportunity to achieve our mission: to support library staff in alleviating the challenges teens face, and in putting all teens – especially those with the greatest need – on the path to successful and fulfilling lives.
  • The YALSA Board is interested in addressing solutions for improving the operating agreement’s policy strategies. One such strategy may be supporting a more efficient and targeted communication within the internal ALA structure on such matters. In other words, the YALSA Board is more interested in moving forward together, rather than dwelling on any errors of yesterday.

This also means that, as we move through these opportunities and challenges, we welcome your questions, comments, or concerns you may have regarding our financial situation. While we may have our own perspectives, your voice is vitally important in guiding the YALSA Board and focusing our efforts in better collaboration with our ALA Executive Board on YALSA members’ priorities.

We appreciate your time in sharing your thoughts regarding the future of YALSA’s financial health and, in doing so, the financial health of ALA.

Todd Krueger, YALSA President, and Amanda Barnhart, YALSA President-Elect

YALSA Board @ Midwinter Preview: Budget Priorities

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I know I know for some, maybe many, YALSA members learning about the YALSA budget and the fiscal priorities of the Association seems like incredibly dry stuff. But, in order for YALSA to provide members with the services they need in order to work with teens successfully, the YALSA Board and the Association’s members have to think what monies are spent on, and where funding is coming from. That’s why there are three documents on the YALSA Board Midwinter Meeting agenda that are important to look at:

  • Item 17 on the agenda is titled Prioritizing Endowment Funds. The document explains the current state of YALSA’s endowments and includes recommendations of how the funds generated from the endowments should be spent over the next year. Take a look to find out what initiatives the Board is going to look at funding in this way – maybe you’ll find there is a grant coming up that you’d like to apply for if these funds are used as suggested. This agenda item is an action item which means that the YALSA Board needs to make decisions at the 2015 Midwinter Meeting in order move the process forward. Read More →

TTW Ideas: No Budget, No Time Book Adaptations

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Teen Tech Week 2012 is still months away (March 4-10), but planning for it is well under way at my library, Niles Public, in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.’  The deadline for’ finalizing spring programs at my library is January 9 (gulp) just a month from now.

Fortunately, the official Teen Tech Week website has a planning toolkit that includes ideas for events and activities, including one that I worked on over the summer that called “No Budget, No Time Book Adaptations.”‘ ‘  The goal is to create a short movie adaptation (2 minutes tops) of a favorite book. Pull out only the most important parts and write a 2-page script, draw stick-figure storyboards, and put together simple costumes and props from materials you have on hand. Shoot it in order and do just one take of each shot. Edit it using simple software like Windows MovieMaker or Apple iMovie, or upload your footage to youtube and edit it there (yes, youtube has some editing software built into their site, now).

The idea sprung from a project I worked on with the Niles Teen Advisory Board for James Kennedy’s 90-Second Newbery festival.’  The TAB members chose to create a 90-second adaptation of The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle.’  They did everything from writing the script to selecting royalty-free music for it.’  I was there to serve as an adviser and help with the editing.

The end result is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6GJZZDNsWU.‘  Go watch it right now, then come back.’  Here are a few things that I learned from working on that video:

1. More’  Script = More Time
Umm, you probably noticed that it’s a little longer than 90 seconds.’  The script the TAB-members came up with was about 5 pages; 3 pages too long if you figure that one page of script amounts to about 1 minute of screen time.’  The dialog was really funny though, and when it came time to edit the finished video I didn’t have the heart to cut out all of those funny lines.’ ‘ A longer script also means’ more time spent shooting and editing, so if you only have a few hours to work on a video’ then you’ll need to set a page limit and stick to it.

2. Let the Teens Do All the Work
Besides writing the script, they came up with costumes and props.’  The locations we used were all in the library, and the teens were in charge of decorating the set.’  One teen worked the camera while another one worked the microphone.’  I did a lot during the editing process (more on that, later) but they were there with me, telling me what parts I could cut.’  The teens have more fun when they are doing everything.’  Give everyone a job, even if it is something deceptively simple like monitoring the set and props to make sure nothing is missing from shot to shot (this is an actual profession called “script supervising” that’ is’ perfect for’ people who like to pick movies and tv shows apart for continuity errors).

3. Don’t Skip Steps Like Storyboarding
We did, because the’ TAB members’ who like to draw were unavailable when we were in the planning stages.’  I think the video suffered because of it.’  Storyboards are basically a rough comic’ book version’ of what your video will look like when it’s done.’ ‘ They show you what each scene should look like’ from the camera’s point of view,’ which makes deciding where to set the camera much easier.’ Storyboarding’ takes time in the beginning, but having that visual guide’ ends up saving time later, especially when you get to the editing stage.

4. Editing Can Be Tedious, Simple Software Can Make It Less So
The more time you spend trying to figure out how your editing software works, the more time editing your project is going to take.’  My library has Sony Vegas editing software.’  It’s great software, and can do some cool things like speeding up and slowing down the video footage.’  It’s also not software that many teens (including our TAB members) are familiar with, and not the most intuitive software available.’  In my opinion, both Apple’s iMovie and Windows MovieMaker are easier to use.’  I had the teens help me, and their extra sets of eyes were a great help in figuring out how to do things like speeding up some sections of the video footage.’  If we’d had iMovie, they could have edited the whole thing themselves, and I would only be there to step in if they had a question.

5. Have Fun
The teens were a little disappointed that their no-budget video didn’t look professional.’  They were embarrassed to watch themselves on screen, even though they’d had fun when they were acting in front of the camera.’  To make them feel better, I showed them a bunch of the other crude-looking, badly acted 90-Second Newbery videos on youtube.’  Making a video with your teens should be fun.’  Try to inject some professionalism into it by using storyboards and a designating a script supervisor, but remember to laugh at your funny costumes, line flubs and’ flimsy set (part of ours fell down during the shoot) along the way.

Teen Space on a Dime

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Last November, armed only with a copy of Teen Spaces by Kimberly Bolan and a budget of $1,000, I set out to create a teen space in my library. The budget actually seemed huge to me at first, but after looking up the price lists for a number of nice contract furniture companies, I realized it was almost enough to buy a chair. Woo. Hoo.

Undaunted, I expanded my search to include residential and school furniture, until I found something with an acceptable balance of quality, versatility, and price. During the process, I learned a number of things I wanted to pass on to anyone else in the position of choosing furniture for a teen space without the benefit of a consultant or even the advice of a furniture company.

  1. If you don’t have access to floor plans for your building, you can make ones using free online tools. I started out with a tape measure and graph paper, but I ended up using floorplanner.com. The best part was that after I created an outline and entered the dimensions of the shelves I was working with, I could drag and drop them anywhere and get a 3-D simulation. I think my coworkers were more impressed with the 3-D simulation than anything else I’ve done this year. Read More →

Free Teen Tech Week Presentations for Small Budgets and School Libraries

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Libraries of varying shapes and sizes are gearing up for Teen Tech Week, including school libraries, libraries on a budget, and even some first-year celebrators! If you work in one of these’  library types, then you’ll want to check out the Teen Tech Week Voice Thread presentations. These free online presentations’  walk through the steps and ideas for arranging Teen Tech Week celebrations within restricted access school environments and’  low/cut budget scenarios.

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