Summer is coming! Do you live in the Washington, DC Area? We need your help!

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The first months of 2022 have flown by and registration for ALA’s Annual Conference has begun.  We are still looking for volunteers who live in the DC area to help with Local Arrangements and Marketing.   It’s a short volunteer term so it’s not too lengthy.  Volunteers will assist during the conference and what better way to meet other YALSA members in your area if you don’t know them already!  I know from personal experience its always nice to meet members in their hometowns, since you have the knowledge of the best places to eat and see! 

Here is the description of the task force: 

Annual Conference Marketing & Local Arrangements Taskforce – Washington DC

  • To plan and implement YALSA local arrangements activities in close cooperation with YALSA’s Program Officer for Conferences & Events, including assisting on-site with logistics for YALSA programs.
  • To work with YALSA’s Communications Specialist prior to the conference to create and disseminate online marketing materials that promote YALSA’s presence at the ALA Annual Conference. 

Committee members are expected to attend Annual. 5 – 7 virtual members including the chair. Term: 6 Months, January 1 to June 30 

And it’s March, so it’s really only 3 months now!  

If your interested in volunteering please contact Letitia Smith lsmith@ala.org or myself Franklin Escobedo fescobedo@cityoflarkspur.org 

I’ll see you too in DC!

Franklin Escobedo
YALSA President-Elect 2021-2022

New Taskforce for Volunteers!

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YALSA is known for its work in providing professional development toolkits to teen serving library staff. Take a look at a listing of all the toolkits YALSA provides under the ‘Resources and Tools’ tab-it’s a lot!

Like most information, the content periodically needs to be evaluated to determine what, if anything, may need to be updated in order to be more relevant. If that’s a task you would like to participate in-here’s your chance!

The YALSA Board recently passed a motion during Annual to create a taskforce to evaluate the need to update both the Teen Literacies Toolkit and the Teen Advocacy Toolkit with a recommendation report submitted by December of this year. While other toolkits may need to be evaluated as well, we’re starting with these two first.

If you’re wanting to apply, fill out the Volunteer Committee Form. Make sure your YALSA membership is updated and you follow the ALA Policy of a 3 committee limit.

Any questions? Contact Kelly Czarnecki, YALSA President 2021-2022 (kellyczarnecki1@gmail.com)

YALSA Joins CALA and ALSC to Form a New Taskforce

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The YALSA Board of Directors is excited to announce the formation of the Chinese American Library Association (CALA), Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC), and YALSA Joint Booklist Taskforce in celebration of CALA’s 50th anniversary! The Young Adult Library Services Association is honored to celebrate our sister organization’s continued impact on the profession by contributing towards centering Chinese American writers and characters in young adult literature.

This collaboration will produce a new booklist that will serve as a resource for members to diversify their library collections and ensure that underrepresented voices are amplified. The work of the taskforce is a two-year commitment and is expected to begin June 1, 2021 through March 2023. We need you, our members, to serve and help make this taskforce a success! Three YALSA members will be appointed to the taskforce.

Applications are now open and can be accessed at this link. The deadline to apply is May 14, 2021 Thank you in advance for volunteering to serve on the new CALA/ALSC/YALSA Joint Booklist Taskforce!

STEM Into Winter Programming

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Everyone’s talking about STEM (or the arts-added version showcased in the October issue of School Library Journal), and YALSA’s STEM task force produced an updated toolkit earlier this year to provide 41 pages of STEM programming resources just for young adult librarians.

SLJ_CV_OCT2013

If you’re stumped for ideas and looking how to integrate science, technology, engineering and math into your program schedule, look no further than YALSA’s STEM Toolkit.

It includes step-by-step program plans, advocacy information if you need to justify your program plans, resources, and dozens of ideas to get your program going.’ ‘ Chock-full of research on best practices and “why” STEM should be a priority for library professionals, the toolkit highlights the importance of developing a thorough program plan and guides you through initial brainstorming efforts to an adaptable teenprogram evaluation. Passive and active programming ideas from around the country are included,including three immediately replicable projects.

Check it out today! ‘ And ‘ thanks to STEM Task Force Member Jennifer Knight for the heads-up on this great resource.

 

Are you Taskforce ready?

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Wowsers is right, the ALA Annual meeting was an action-packed few days for the YALSA Board. Several Board members will be sharing background and information on select proposals that were brought forth over the course of the next few weeks, so please stay tuned. Obviously I’m a bit of a governance nerd myself, but I hope you’ll find that the processes and paths that the Board follows to come to these decisions are almost as thoughtful and interesting as the results themselves. I said it once and I’ll say it again: your YALSA Board volunteers are awesomesauce.

Part of my follow-up over the course of the next few months will be to madly appoint to some amazing new taskforces. Either as a newer member looking for a way to get more involved or as a seasoned vet ready to share your expertise, this could be you! Check out the taskforce descriptions below and if interested, please fill out a volunteer form.’ ‘ The more information you can give me related to the group(s) that you’re interested in serving on, the easier it will be for me to place you. And remember, if you aren’t selected in this round of taskforce appointments, President-Elect Chris Shoemaker will soon be perusing selection committee volunteer forms which are due September 30th.’ ‘ Thanks for considering!
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