Change to Blogger Meetup Time & Midwinter Liveblogging

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Our blogger meetup at Midwinter, originally scheduled for Sunday from’  1:30-3:30, unfortunately conflicts with the teen feedback session for Best Fiction for Young Adults–which we are, in fact, live-blogging. Any bloggers, new or returning, planning on attending the meetup should come to the Best Fiction location (conference center room 14) instead. I’ll be there starting at noon, and we’ll keep the agenda informal as usual to accommodate folks coming in from other meetings.

In related news, join us for live coverage of the teen feedback session, Sunday from 1:30-3:30! If you’re not at Midwinter you can hear what the teens have to say and join us in discussing nominated titles. As always, we’ll do our darndest to stream live video from the session. You can join the session directly from the blog, or you can participate by using the #bfya hashtag on Twitter. You can also log in with your Facebook or Twitter profile to include your profile picture with your comments.

YALSA will also be liveblogging the Youth Media Awards on Monday morning, so if you can’t get into the official ALA broadcast, join the discussion with us!

Live Blog for Best Fiction for Young Adults!

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Want to hear what teens have to say about the nominated titles for our very first Best Fiction for Young Adults list? Check out the live blog! As we did at Midwinter in Boston, we’ll be streaming live video of the teens, pulling tweets, and giving real-time coverage of all the action. The session will open at 1:30 EST and close shortly after the feedback session ends at 3:30. If you can’t join us in real time, you can also watch a replay of the live blog.

There are several ways you can participate. If you’d like to log in through Facebook or Twitter, your comments will be published using your profile photo. If you’d like us to publish your tweets without logging in, you can leave your Twitter username in the comments here (warning: all your tweets will be published while the live blog is running!) or just use the hashtags #yalsa and/or #bfya when you tweet. You can also join the live blog by clicking on the viewer window that will be posted here.

BBYA Teen Session Live Blog

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Join us for the BBYA Teen Feedback Session! Boston teens will weigh in on their favorites from this year’s nominations. Click on the viewer window to join. You’ll have the option to sign in using your Facebook, Twitter or MySpace ID. If you choose to log in that way, your avatar will also be displayed during the session.

All Twitter updates with the hashtag #BBYA will be published in the live session.

Join YALSA in Boston–or Your Living Room

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Those of you who aren’t with us in Boston or find yourself double (or triple!) booked can participate in several YALSA events via live coverage at the YALSA blog. Once again we’ll be using CoverItLive, with some exciting changes: live streaming video and social networking logins.

When you join the live blog session by clicking in the viewer window (see last year’s BBYA live blog to see the interface) you’ll have the option to log in using your Facebook, Twitter or MySpace login. Your comments will then appear with your avatar from that account. You’ll also be able to view our streaming video from the session thanks to integration with Qik.

The schedule of YALSA live blogs:

Best Books for Young Adults Teen Session: Sunday, January 17 1:30-3:30 PM

Youth Media Awards: Monday, January 18 7:30-9:00 AM

Morris and Nonfiction Awards: Monday, January 18 8:00-10:00 PM

Join Us for the President’s Program!

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Leaving annual early on Monday? Double-booked yet again and missing out on the President’s Program? Not in Chicago but trying to keep up with all of YALSA’s fabulous programs and sessions? Join us for a live blog of the 2009 President’s Program and Membership Meeting!

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Join YALSA in Chicago–or your living room

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We’re about three weeks away from ALA Annual in Chicago. Aside from the book cart drill teams and the vain hope that someday swag bags won’t be neon orange, for many of us that means getting ready for some fantastic YALSA programming.

By now, those of you attending have probably started using the event planner or penciling sessions into your calendar, and if you’re like me, you’re starting to have a tough time choosing between all the great events YALSA and other divisions have to offer. Or you’re realizing that the morning you fly home is also the morning of a great panel. Or you can’t make it to Chicago, but you’re really hoping the YALSA blog can help keep you up to speed.

Have no fear–liveblogging is here!

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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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Voting Is Still Open!

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I was just about to set up the CoverItLive session for MidWinter when I realized that the poll had only received six votes. As a wise man once said–d’oh.

I’m leaving the voting open until midnight tonight (Eastern Standard Time) so that more folks have a chance to have your say.

And one sort of embarrassing note–although the ALA Youth Media Awards Press Conference is currently in the lead (with a whopping three votes), that may not be the best choice; ALA is already providing a free live webcast starting at 7:45 (Mountain Time), as well as what I’m sure will be comprehensive coverage on Twitter. I’m sorry I didn’t consider that when I sort of arbitrarily provided the poll options. (But you can still suggest your own!)

I’m leaving the press conference as an option on the poll, though, because this is the democratic process, and if you want even more thorough coverage of the awards, well, then, we’ll provide it! (Um, when I say “we,” though, I might have to recruit some help if that’s the event The People choose–because in the interest of full disclosure, I have a 10:40 shuttle to the airport, and I was kind of planning on running the live blog.)

Please vote!

CoverItLive – Coming to MidWinter!

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I first learned about CoverItLive through Feministe, one of my favorite sources for feminist news and community. Before then, I’d always thought of “live-blogging” as the poor-blogger’s stenographer–attempting to cover an event with text only, updating as frequently as possible, but without true “live” capabilities. When blogs I read in college covered meetings of the undergraduate government, “live” just meant bloggers would comment on a post every few minutes with updates. Not exactly high tech.

As I learned when Feministe live-blogged the 2008 presidential debates, however, a software like CoverItLive can really engage a community in real-time discussion, voting, and content creation.

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