I Love My Librarian Award Spotlight: Laurie Doan

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Hand-scripted text reads I Love My Librarian Award 2017.

Recently, I had the pleasure of catching up with Laurie Doan, a 2017 recipient of the ALA I Love My Librarian Award. She currently serves as a Young Adult Librarian at the Tredyffrin Public Library in Wayne, Pennsylvania. One of only ten librarians to earn this year’s recognition, she was nominated for her extraordinary work in fostering educational opportunities for the teens in her community, and for encouraging a wide variety of creative pursuits. Among the countless projects she supports, an alternative theater program within the library has been wildly successful with teens and adults alike. We discussed this and other aspects of her work when we spoke earlier this month.
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Interview with Kelley McDaniel

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YALSA member Kelley McDaniel has developed an exemplary school library program at King Middle School in Portland, Maine. Her work was recently honored with the The Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award. This honor did not surprise me. As a colleague, I know her for her innovative programming, commitment to intellectual freedom, and the fact that she will never back down from a fight.

In her acceptance speech, she explained what drives her as a librarian:

The motto of my middle school library is “Inspiring students to be lifelong readers, lifelong learners, lifelong library users and engaged citizens.” Students may not remember my name or the library’s motto, but, when asked about libraries, I hope they smile and think, “I like libraries. I feel welcome in libraries. Libraries inform and enrich me. I see myself in libraries. I support libraries.

Kelley graciously agreed to be interviewed for the YALSA blog.

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YALSA Update: Symposium Early Bird Extended, Teen Read Week reg, Webinars & More

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Symposium Early Bird Extended! YALSA has extended early bird registration for the YA Lit Symposium in Albuquerque, New Mexico through Sept. 17! If you register in the next two weeks, you’ll enjoy our lowest rates. Join us Nov. 5-7 to network with your fellow librarians and educators, meet 30+ YA authors, and earn 12 contact hours. Learn more about the symposium and register at www.ala.org/yalitsymposium.

Bundled Registration Now Open Planning to attend both ALA Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting in 2011? Take advantage of bundled pricing and save. YALSA members pay just $300 for both conferences if they register at www.ala.org/midwinter by Sept. 30.

Teen Read Week Registration Teen Read Week registration ends in less than a month! Register by Sept. 20 to be entered into a drawing for free books from Carolrhoda Lab, Cinco Puntos, and Viz Media. Plus you’ll help show YALSA that initiatives like Teen Read Week or worth supporting. Learn more and register at www.ala.org/teenread.

YALSA’s Reluctant Reader Webinar Looking for guidance to reach out to reluctant readers in your library? Sign up for YALSA’s Sept. 9 webinar, Ready, Set, Go: 30 Ways to Reach Reluctant Readers in 60 Minutes, presented by Jen Hubert Swan. The webinar takes place at 2 p.m. Eastern and costs $39 for YALSA members, $49 for all other individuals. Group registration costs $195. Learn more and register at www.ala.org/yalsa/webinars.

After the jump, we have news on the Teens’ Top Ten, Selection Committee Volunteer Forms, online course registration, the I Love My Librarian Award, the YALSA Dessert Cookbook we’re auctioning off at Midwinter, and a link to American Libraries’ interview with Rob Reiner, director of Flipped!

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The YALSA Update: Valentines & Deadlines

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Tell Your Librarian You Love Them

This Valentine’s Day, have your teens, parents, children and library supporters flood federal elected officials’ district offices with Valentines that express love for your library and its staff and ask for support for important legislation.

The ALA Youth Divisions – AASL, ALSC and YALSA – are sending out a call to action to library workers to have teens, children, parents and library supporters in their community send “I Love My Teen Services Librarian” or “I Love My School Librarian” Valentine cards to their U.S. Senators and Representatives, and to ask their elected officials to co-sponsor the SKILLS Act &/or support LSTA funding for libraries.

Learn more on how to participate at the I Love My Librarian Campaign Wiki.

Great Stories Club Applications Due Next Week!
Apply by February 15 for a Great Stories Club program grant!

The Great Stories CLUB (Connecting Libraries, Underserved teens, and Books) is organized by the American Library Association Public Programs Office (PPO), in cooperation with YALSA. Major funding for the Great Stories CLUB has been provided by Oprah’s Angel Network.

Connect with hard-to-reach, underserved teens by conducting a Great Stories Club reading and discussion program in your library. All libraries located within or working in partnership with facilities serving troubled teens are eligible to apply.

For a list of the titles included, guidelines and the online application, visit www.ala.org/greatstories. You may also wish to review the Great Stories Club Resource Guide posted on this site as you plan your library’s application.

With questions, please contact the ALA Public Programs Office, publicprograms@ala.org.

Be A 2008-2009 Spectrum Scholar!
Starting in fiscal year 2008, YALSA will support one Spectrum Scholar! Applications for 2008-2009 scholars are due at ALA by March 1. To learn more about requirements and how to apply, visit the Spectrum Web site!

Established in 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program is ALA’s national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of under-representation of critically needed ethnic librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future.

Want to Get Involved? Join a YALSA Process Committee!
President Elect Sarah Cornish Debraski will begin appointing process committees (such as Teen Read Week, Intellectual Freedom, YA Galley and 25 others) and award juries (such as the BWI/YALSA Collection Development Grant and six others) this spring. So if you want to get involved, make sure to fill out a Committee Volunteer Form and submit it to the YALSA Office by March 1.

To learn more about YALSA committees, juries, and task forces, check out the committee descriptions or reread a few helpful blog posts about this very topic.

Early Registration & Housing for Annual
Annual Conference is just four months away! Make your plans to join us in Anaheim. Registration and housing for ALA Annual Conference 2008 is now open; for the best pricing, register by March 7.

What does YALSA have planned for Annual? Plenty! We’ll offer two preconferences—Got Tweens? Serving Younger Teens and Tweens and Turn Teens on to Reading through Booktalks—as well as the Edwards Award Luncheon, the Printz Awards Reception, and the Young Adult Authors Coffee Clatch. Find out about our special events at the Special Events page at ALA’s Annual Conference Web site.

Save the Date for the First Young Adult Literature Symposium
YALSA’s first biennial Young Adult Literature Symposium, How We Read Now, will be Nov. 7-9 in Nashville! Details on registration and more will be posted later, but you can find out the program slate now (and see the papers to be presented) by visiting the Young Adult Literature Symposium Web site.

I Love My Librarian Campaign

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The time is now to advocate for libraries! To celebrate this Valentine’s Day, have your teens, parents, children and library supporters flood federal elected officials’ district offices with Valentines that express love for your library and its staff and ask for support for important legislation.
The ALA Youth Divisions – AASL, ALSC and YALSA – are sending out a call to action to library workers to have teens, children, parents and library supporters in their community send “I Love My Teen Services Librarian” or “I Love My School Librarian” Valentine cards to their U.S. Senators and Representatives, and to ask their elected officials to co-sponsor the SKILLS Act &/or support LSTA funding for libraries. Currrently only about eight Congresspersons have signed on to co-sponsor the SKILLs Act. A major grassroots effort is needed in order for this critical piece of library legislation to get passed. Please consider participating in this campaign. For more information go to YALSA’s wiki.

Thanks for all that you do to ensure your community has access to wonderful library services and resources, and thanks to the youth divisions’ Legislation Committees for creating this campaign!
-Beth Yoke