Join us at the ALA/USBBY Annual Program!

by

The 2022 co-sponsored ALA/USBBY program will be held at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference on Sunday, June 26, 2022, in Washington D.C., from 1-2 pm. The program is titled “Celebrate Indigenous Storytelling: Books from across the Northern Border” and will be held in the Washington Convention Center, Room 149A-B. Save the program now in the online Conference Scheduler! 

Program Description: Join the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) as we celebrate indigenous storytelling! Hear from Inuit author Monica Ittusardjuat, as well as the co-founding authors of Inhabit Media, an Inuit-owned, independent Canadian publishing company. USBBY, an affiliate of ALA, serves as the U.S. National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People, which was founded to promote international understanding and good will through books for children and adolescents.

Authors:

Are you a member of USBBY? A diverse group, USBBY members join together to celebrate and promote international literature for children and young adults. The membership of USBBY includes authors and illustrators, publishers and editors, critics and translators, booksellers, social workers, teachers, university professors and students, librarians and parents. Membership in USBBY is open to anyone interested in its mission and starts at the individual basic rate of $50/year. Once a member, we’d love to have you volunteer to serve on one of our award, selection, or service committees! 

USBBY is governed by a Board of Directors that includes an elected Executive Committee and twelve Directors (four elected and eight appointed), who represent the USBBY membership as well as USBBY´s patron organizations: Children´s Book Council (CBC), the American Library Association (ALA), the International Literacy Association (formerly IRA), and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

This year your ALA Appointed Directors to the USBBY Board are Sarah Hill (YALSA) and Sara Kelly Johns (AASL).

YALSA Partners for Teen Success at Annual!

by

This week an awesome team of YALSA members (Chair Dina Schuldner, Rachael Bohn, Derrick Burton, Markita Dawson, Millie Moffett, Bill Stea, and Adrienne Strock) published a new toolkit, Partnering to Increase Your Impact, and I wanted to make sure you knew about some great partnerships that YALSA has formed for Annual conference this year in Chicago!

YALSA will partner with ALSC and AASL in the exhibit hall–visit us at #2731. And a shout out to these publishers for sponsoring the Best Fiction for Young Adults Teen Luncheon: Blink, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Scholastic!

Read More →

ALA Annual 2015 — How to Participate From a Distance

by

Summer is here and at least in Illinois, it’s heating up fast! With June halfway over, we know that ALA Annual is on the horizon. And what says summer better than San Francisco, California? The theme this year is “Transforming libraries, ourselves.” With 25,000 library affiliated folks coming to town, it’s an event you don’t want to miss!

Unfortunately, I’ll be diligently working in Illinois during ALA Annual, but that doesn’t mean I have to miss out on the conversations. If you’re like me and won’t be in San Fransisco, here’s a guide to staying in touch, from a distance.

Read More →

YALSA Shark Bowl: Meet the Finalist Erin Durrett

by

Erin Durrett, Youth/Teen Information Services Librarian at Novi Public Library in Michigan, is preparing to pitch an ambitious idea at the YALSA President’s Program Monday, June 29 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. She will advocate for a 3D virtual world created by teens in front of a panel of librarians and business leaders for the chance to win cash and technology prizes provided by YALSA, Tutor.com, Makey Makey, and 3D Systems.

We wanted to catch up with Erin before she heads to San Francisco for ALA’s Annual Conference.

YALSA Shark Bowl: Meet the Finalist Erin Durrett

RK: What was your inspiration for this project?

ED: Novi is a community that very much strives for achievement, be that excellence in academia, or other interests. When developing programs and services for our community, we often think about what skills our patrons would like to learn and what would help them feel more involved in our library and ultimately our community. I wanted to create a project that joined those ideas together. My pitch involves STEM ideas, especially engineering and technology skills and having teens learn those skills and then utilize them in the creation of an interactive display in which they curate and of which they feel ownership.

RK: In what ways are teens involved in this project?

ED: When I developed the idea, I wanted to know not only if our teens would be interested in participating, but any feedback I could receive from them, to help mold and shape the project. I went to the next TAB (Teen Advisory Board) meeting and asked the teens directly what they thought of the idea. They thought it was “cool” and brought up the idea of legacy and ownership. Specifically one teen asked “Can we put our names on the pieces we create?” As a lot of TAB members are juniors and seniors at the high school next door, they want to be able to come back and visit the display and point out the pieces they have created. (They also smartly mentioned making sure no one abuses the 3D printer!) My favorite aspect of this pitch is the inclusivity for teens, if you are a teen 12-18 in Novi or the surrounding community, you can participate in the creation of a piece for the display.
Read More →

YALSA Board @ Annual 2013: Getting Buy-in from Administrators

by

At the 2013 ALA Annual Conference, the YALSA board discussed an issue that we have been grappling with for some time: how do we get library administrators on board with the idea that teen services and programs are important, and deserve a fair piece of the library pie?

At the 2013 Midwinter Meeting, the board decided to survey YALSA members who are supervisors and managers, to get some input on this issue. The YALSA Executive Committee discussed the survey results at our April conference call, agreeing that we needed to focus on:

  • collecting and sharing case studies
  • helping members build skills that will enable them to better interact with administrators and articulate the needs of the teen services department
  • collaborating with other organizations in order to build stronger ties with administrators

Since that discussion, the following activities have taken place:

  • I wrote a six-part series for the YALSAblog on “What Your Manager Wishes You Knew” that incorporated information from the survey and tips from managers about what teen services librarians could do to work with administration to improve teen services.
  • YALSA and LLAMA (the Library Leadership and Management Association, another division of ALA) collaborated on a webinar for managers, “Increase Your Library’s Value by Amping Up Teen Services,” which was facilitated by YALSA and LLAMA member Mary Hastler.
  • LLAMA members received an e-blast in June about YALSA’s instructional kits. Read More →

YALSA Needs Your Help @Annual 2013!

by

Want the chance to meet and connect with others who enjoy working with teens? Looking for an opportunity to become more involved with YALSA and to share what a great resource the organization is for those who are not members? If you are heading to Chicago for ALA Annual 2013, we have the perfect opportunity for you! Whether you have only been a YALSA member for three months or 10 years, we need your help manning the popular and highly frequented YALSA Membership Booth in the exhibit hall!

Helping at the booth is a wonderful way to network with colleagues and to learn more about the benefits and resources provided by the organization, not to mention an easy way to become more involved.

Read More →

YALSA Board at Annual

by

Although the YALSA Board of Directors does a lot of work online and on the telephone throughout the year, our face-to-face meetings at ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual are big occasions for us to have some weighty discussions and make some major decisions. The agenda and board documents for Annual are now available online at www.ala.org/yalsa/workingwithyalsa/governance/board/annual2012. All members are welcome to attend any Board meeting.

The YALSA Board meeting at Annual is actually three separate meetings:

  • Saturday, from 2:30-5:30, in the Convention Center, Room 211A
  • Sunday, from 4-5:30, in the Convention Center, Room 211B
  • Monday, from 1:30-3:30, in the Convention Center, Room 212 B

Read More →

Call for Papers: Library Research Round Table

by

Here’s another thing to get you geared up for ALA’s Annual Conference in Anaheim this June. The Library Research Round Table is looking for presentation proposals related to three areas of library research. Abstracts must be submitted by December 20, 2011, and notification of acceptance will be sent in late February, 2012. Accepted proposals will be presented at the ALA Annual from June 21-26. If you have recent or in-progress research relating to users, problem solving, or innovation, consider submitting.

LRRT defines their three categories as this: Read More →

YALSA Podcast Episode #99: 2011 ALA Annual Preview

by

For episode #99 we’re talking New Orleans as we preview some of the upcoming YALSA-oriented events happening at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference. First we talk to Penny Johnson, who gives us the big rundown on The Nuts and Bolts of Serving Teens Pre-conference. Then Blog Manager MK Eagle interviews Matt Moffett about The Table Talk Mashup Program and things close out with Gretchen Kolderup giving us a nice overview of the Speed Networking for YA Librarians event.

2011 ALA Annual Preview

If’  you prefer, you may go to the’ YALSA Podcast Site, download the Mp3 file and listen to it on the Mp3 player of your choice. To avoid missing future episodes, add’ the feed to Itunes or any other rss feed tracker.

To find out more about these and other YALSA-related events happening at this year’s annual conference, take a look at the YALSA Conference Wiki.

 

 

The Nuts & Bolts of Serving Teens: Technology in Libraries

by

Gagdets, and gizmos, and apps! Oh, my! ‘ Keeping up with technology trends and incorporating new tools into library programming and promotion can be daunting—but it doesn’t have to be.

Join us at the 2011 YALSA Preconference:’ The Nuts & Bolts of Serving Teens, where Jesse Vieau will share his experiences using technology in teen programming and library promotion.’  Jesse is the Teen Services Librarian at the Madison (WI) Public Library.’  Formerly a Teen Services Librarian in the Loft @ ImaginOn, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library, Jesse’s work with teens includes collaborating with teen interns using Google Docs, facilitating digital projects in teen detention centers, and hosting a digital petting zoo in which teens mentor senior citizens as they explore new technology.

At’ The Nuts & Bolts of Serving Teens, Jesse will deliver ideas for practical, inexpensive ways you can use technology as you work with teens.’  You will discover new tools, gadgets, hardware, and software that are easy to use and appealing to teens.’  Jesse will also share his tips for using technology to manage your heavy workload and to promote library services to teens.’  You will leave the event with a list of user-friendly tools, and will be ready to implement new programs or services at your library.

The preconference will also include presentations on core competencies for teen librarians, collection management, teen behavior, and developing relationships between your library and teens, and is scheduled for 12:30-4:30 PM on June 24 in New Orleans.

To add’ The Nuts & Bolts of Serving Teens to your 2011 ALA Annual Conference Registration, visit’ http://www.alaannual.org/ or call’ 1-800-974-3084. Registration for 2011 ALA Annual Conference is not necessary to participate in the preconference. Tickets for the event cost $129 and include light refreshments.