Q: We hear so much about Mock Printz, Newberry and Caldecott programs – why don’t we hear about a Mock Alex program?

A: I think it’d be difficult to do a Mock Alex: there are so many books being published, and only the SLJ AB4T blog and Booklist reviews are focused on which adult books might actually work for teens.  Not to mention the fact that so many adult books are quite long. 

Q: Do you think that teens would read the books if you bring them to teen’s attention?

A: Absolutely, but just like YA books, not everything appeals to every teen. Some books, like Night Circus will have many readers.  The thing is, most kids over 16 are ready to explore what’s out there – they don’t care who published it or what the target age group is; the challenge is that they don’t know where to start and what books will be really appealing. 

Q: So what about the “New Adult” trend?

A: Those seem to be YA books with more sex in them, or books about 19-20somethings, set in college or graduate school (like The History of Us or The Fallback Plan). Just like adult books in general, it is necessary to look at the books individually to know which may appeal to teens

Q: What should we do to help them find great adult books if we can’t do a Mock Alex?

A: What about a Post Alex, having a group read a few of the previous year’s winners? Also, the nominated list is a great tool for collection development for teens - and another great source is RUSA’s Reading List, which has great genre fiction suggestions. Both tend to shy away from the really literary works, but they include really great stuff!

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

• Benefits of Board Membership – Maybe you are thinking, “what do I gain from being a Board member?” A lot actually. Read through this list for a good idea of exactly what you’ll get from being a member of YALSA’s Board of Directors.
• Duties and Responsibilities of Board Members – Check out this list of all of the tasks and activities Board members are involved in. Reading through will give you a good idea about the work required of any YALSA Board member.
• FAQ – If you are wondering about timelines, the election process, and topics like those the FAQ on governance and the Board will be just what you need.

These are just a few of the resources available. You can find more on the YALSA website in the Governance section.

If you are interested in running for a YALSA Board of Directors position you’ll want to chat with a member of the Governance Nominating Committee. Feel free to contact Sarah Flowers the Chair of the current Committee.

And, if you aren’t quite ready to run for the YALSA Board, but would like to learn more about what it’s like to serve as a Board member, consider applying for the association’s Board Fellow position.

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

• Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
• Best Fiction for Young Adults
• Fabulous Films for Young Adults
• Great Graphic Novels for Young Adults
• Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
• Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

Of course you’ll want to read all of the articles in the spring issue and visit this site every week for content that connects to what’s in the print version of the publication.

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

The article includes a very useful list of resources for keeping up and learning more about the world of e-books, libraries, and publishing. The list below is a one-stop-shop for accessing the resources mentioned. Keep in mind that the world of e-books and e-book publishing is moving and changing quickly. The best way to keep up is to keep reading and learning via blogs and other regularly updated resources.

• American Libraries E-Content Blog
• American Library Association. Ebooks and Copyright Issues. State of America’s Library Report 2013.
• Digital Content Working Group. Tip Sheet on DRM.
• E-Book Business Models: A Scorecard for Public Libraries.
• J. Hoffman. et al.  Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2011-2012. Digital supplement of American Libraries magazine, June 2012.
• Kathryn Zickhur, et al. Younger Americans’ Reading and Library Habits
  Pew Internet & American Life Project, April 5, 2012.
• Lee Rainie, et al. The Rise of E-reading.
• Michael Kelly. Librarians Feel Sticker Shock as Price for Random House E-Books Rises as Much as 300 Percent.
• Michael Lovett. Hachette Book Group’s New Library e-book Pricing.

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

• The winners of the 2013 YALSA Awards and titles selected for all of YALSA’s lists. You can read about the selections in the journal and then right here, on this site, you’ll be able to download (starting next week) reproducible copies of the awards and lists so you can give those out in your community to teens, teachers, parents, etc.
• The Hub Reading Challenge where anyone, anyone, can sign-up to read 25 titles from YALSA’s selected lists over the next couple of months. Those that complete the challenge will have the chance to win fabulous prizes.
• YALSA’s Teen Book Finder app, a great way for anyone, yes anyone, in the community to find good books no matter where they are – in school, at home, at the mall, at the movies, or hanging out at a friend’s house.
• The Odyssey Award, what it takes to read with your ears and how audiobooks have an important place in the reading lives of teens.
• What the YALSA member and non-member survey tells the association about the needs of those working with teens in libraries and what the Public Library Data Statistics tell the entire library community about teen services in the United States and Canada – and what the statistics say about what still needs to be researched.
• What’s up with e-books, what’s going on with publishers and libraries and e-books, and how ALA’s Digital Content Working Group is getting involved.

That’s just a brief overview of the spring issue of YALS. Look for it in your mailbox very soon, and check this site every Tuesday for content that compliments what’s in the print pages of the journal.

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

Our Teen Tech Squad has gone through some changes since the YALS article was published. In 2010, Hennepin County Library received a grant from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Funds from this grant allowed the Teen Tech Squad to explore new tools for art and media creation. Since the beginning Teen Tech Squad workshops attracted many aspiring musicians, and while there were many free and open source applications available for the teens to use, none quite met attendee needs. The new grant funds enabled us to purchase MAC laptops, a cart of 10 iPads, midi controllers, studio monitors, and music and video production software and apps.

With these new tools, Teen Tech Squad began MVStudio workshops. In these workshops, teens worked individually or in small groups to make music with the GarageBand iPad app. Members of the Teen Tech Squad also led collaborative music making workshops, inviting all participants to contribute to a group music project using the professional-grade music production program, Logic Studio. The Teen Tech Squad based at Minneapolis Central Library led these workshops through the summer of 2012. A newly-formed Teen Tech Squad at the Franklin Library continues to offer MVStudio workshops, using iPads, the GarageBand app and MyCreate, an iPad app used for creating stop-motion animation films.

Our Teen Tech Squad continues to evolve. In January 2013, the Best Buy Teen Tech Center opened at the Minneapolis Central Library. The Best Buy Teen Tech Center was made possible by the Friends of the Hennepin County Library through a grant from Best Buy. The Teen Tech Center is part of the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, an international network of after school programs. The Best Buy Teen Tech Center’s computers are equipped with graphic design, music and video production software. It offers new platforms for art and media production, and will also be the new workspace for the Teen Tech Squad program.

Minneapolis Central Library is in the process of hiring a new cohort of Teen Tech Squad members, and library staff is excited about new opportunities for engagement that this new space makes possible. Though the tools have changed, and Tech Squad Members graduate and move on to lives as young adults, the Teen Tech Squad program continues, offering leadership opportunities and an environment in which teens can explore their creative interests.

In the original article a list of tools was included. Here’s an update to that list:

What’s no longer available – SAM Animation, Comic Life, and ArtRage no longer provide free demo or trial versions. But, the following programs, described above are worth checking out.

• GarageBand for the iPad – 
Apple adapted this popular Mac application for the iPad. The app version enables users to create multi-track recordings, record vocal tracks, and construct beats using built-in sounds and music loops. 

• MyCreate – An iPad app version of the stop-motion animation program, SAM Animation, that works on an iPad2. It allows users to easily capture frames using the iPad’s built-in camera and combine them into a film.

• Logic Studio
 - Logic Studio has been described as “GarageBand on steroids.” It can be used to record and edit music and contains many built-in instruments. Projects from GarageBand can be imported into Logic Studio and edited.


If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

(or Why You Want to Be a Part of Your Tech Department)

Note from YALS: The winter 2013 issue of YALS focuses on technology and teens. Read this article to learn about more ways that libraries are integrating technology in programs and services for adolescents.

Being a librarian in a new school offers numerous challenges. It also presents opportunities. One opportunity arose for me last year with the creation of vertical departments that bring together our lower (pre-K-4)and upper schools (5-12).  There were numerous reasons for this: cohesion between divisions, creating departmental direction and goals, curriculum mapping for grades K through 12 and more continuity in curriculum.  Naturally, the librarians were slightly apprehensive. We were concerned that our role as information specialists and purveyors of literature would be subsumed by technology initiatives We thought that we would be “swallowed up”.

Compounding this fear is the current trend of technologizing school libraries to the point that school librarians are being tossed out with the books in favor of iPads and “Technologists,” “Technology Coaches,” or “Technology Teachers.” Whatever the title, it seemed to us that administrators, more and more, fail to understand that the work we do as librarians is actually more vital than ever as our society moves forward.  Also, what would being part of a blended department mean for the work we do teaching research skills and fostering literature appreciation? Would it mean we would spend less time involved with these important projects and tasks and be expected to solely teach tech skills out of the context of information gathering and knowledge building?

Our first task: finding a name for our department. As it happened, this was no easy task: we wanted a label that described the various components of our department. It was an interesting conversation where we learned s lot about each other or, more accurately, the tech coaches certainly learned a lot about what we librarians do and how it dovetails with their work as tech teachers. We librarians wanted our department’s name to reflect both the literary and research sides of our work. We eventually settled on Library InfoTech-I quite like it.

I like to say that our departments were “married” last year. Recently, when a teacher at another private school asked how this union was going, I joked that we were still in the “honeymoon phase”.  Joking aside, I do not think this is merely a phase: my technology colleagues are, in short, absolutely wonderful to work with. It could be that this is simply the dynamic of our personalities or it could be that through creating something together, we all feel a kinship and shared investment in what we develop for future generations of students. It could also be a result of our many vertical team meetings where we adopted a shared set of standards and openly shared our individual priorities and visions for ideal student services; while developing departmental goals and objectives. We built a strong sense of solidarity.

It saddens me when I hear stories of librarians in other schools who either do not work well or at all with their school’s technology department or tech teachers. I cannot think of anyone more valuable to my mission and responsibilities as a school librarian. Aside from the tech support when the inevitable glitches or tech hiccups that arise, they are incredibly valuable resources and curriculum allies.

I am fairly tech savvy, but I do sometimes experience tech challenges–sometimes quite steep ones–when learning new tech applications. Most programs or apps are simply not intuitive for me, but I am persistent and so, eventually, I work it out. Here’s where my tech team comes in handy. Since I have the sort of relationship where I can brainstorm ideas for projects I have with them, I obtain their advice and assistance with what they feel are the optimal technological vehicles for the end product — it may appear to me that one method of information delivery is suitable, but they may suggest another method that is more appropriate to the task at hand. Depending on the students’ needs and the scope of the project, tech staff may or may not be right alongside me in the classroom co-teaching or providing on site coaching to students engaged with a new application.

Tech staff ideas and feedback have helped me to initiate a number of class projects with technology products that include:  online PSA’s, book trailers, QR codes to publicize class activities, snazzier Summer Reading Lists, Animoto and Prezi presentations, a digital citizenship unit for the entire middle school and the creation of screencast “how-to’s” for our web-based library portal.

My departmental affiliation also means that potential teacher collaborations are not lost-on numerous occasions this year, teachers have approached the tech coaches for assistance with what were actually information retrieval projects. Thanks to our excellent communication and rapport, the tech coaches come to me right away to discuss how best to meet both teacher and student needs. I don’t see this as a lack of outreach and advocacy on my part! I teach regular classes and collaborate regularly with many teachers. I do see it as the result of confusion about what constitutes technology skills versus information literacy skills and a perceived pressure to incorporate technology into lessons without being taught what that could and should actually look like.

All of the close work and collaboration is now culminating in a “Learning Commons” proposal I recently drafted and submitted to our administration  because I am interested in the library as a “gateway to learning” (<http://infomotions.com/musings/trends-and-opportunities/”>Eric Lease Morgan, 2009,) placing myself squarely at the epicenter of technological resources and creation at my school. The proposal calls for a number of modifications and additions to our library space–many of them technology related–and I could not have done this without the creative conversations with the technology members of our department. Because of our department’s structure, everyone on the team knows enough about the work I do and is attuned to the gray areas and blurring boundaries that can divide our roles. The tech staff standing beside me as our school interprets 21st Century Learning adds credibility to my place within the evolving landscape.

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

Note from YALS: The winter 2013 issue of YALS focuses on technology and teens. Read this article to learn about more ways that libraries are integrating technology in programs and services for adolescents.

Michigan Makers is a collaboration between several graduate students at the School of Information at the University of Michigan, a faculty member at that school (Kristin Fontichiaro), and me (a School of Information somewhat-recent alum). During the 2011-2012 school year, I started an after-school computer club at the request of several students who enjoyed coming to the library to play on computers. These students had once taken an ed tech class with me in which I introduced them to Alice. From Alice, I showed them Scratch, and from there, I started teaching them Python. That year, I also taught them about computing basics, like binary code and what it means to “debug.” In order to plan for each week’s computer club, I relied on books and online tutorials (thanks to Dr. Chuck Severance, who made his Python course freely available).

But my students wanted to program and I am not a programmer. I am, however, approximately twenty miles away from the School of Information. I reached out to graduate students interested in community informatics and eventually found a core group of future librarians who were curious about new, inexpensive technologies designed with budding computer programmers in mind. The graduate students and I began to talk about the possibilities that tools like the Raspberry Pi or the Arduino had the potential to afford my curious middle school students and, in short, Michigan Makers was born.

Now, almost one year later, we’re at a place where we can look back, thoughtfully, and see what worked, what didn’t work, and what we can do differently as we move forward.

First of all, in order to run a successful middle school makerspace in a school library with 40 students, you need mentors. One teacher/librarian can facilitate a computer club in which all members of the club work on computers together, but if you really want to turn your library into a makerspace in which participants’ interests drive their activities, then you need mentors to lead these activities. In my case, these are enthusiastic, brilliant, committed graduate students who are all on their way to being outstanding librarians. However, you do not need to have a partnership with your local ALA-accredited information school in order to start a makerspace. Instead, take advantage of existing groups and spaces, such as high school robotics teams or crafting guilds. Partnering with enthusiasts and giving them a space to share their craft with young people is an excellent way to build community relationships and develop lasting partnerships.

When it comes to working within the confines of a library in a public school, we are fortunate to run this program in a district that supports the kinds of hands-on learning opportunities that we aim to create. For example, when I asked our building technician if he would help make it possible for us to program Arduinos, he immediately downloaded the necessary software and stored it in a place where students could access it. Of course, we’ve run into some small obstacles with filters and software that prevents downloads, but all of these experiences have provided us with opportunities to have meaningful conversations with students about Internet filters, responsible online behavior, and, in some cases, the mechanics of hardware, software, and the way that downloads or websites are actually blocked.

That being said, this kind of on-your-feet teaching and learning does not come without its share of challenges, too. We have approximately forty middle school students and ten adults. All of us come to the program with unique skills, needs, strengths, and visions for our makerspace. Compromise, frequent dialogue, and immense trust in one another are all essential if you are going to run a makerspace collaboratively.

You must also have a budget. It can be a small budget, but you must have some money to spend on equipment because makerspaces must have “stuff” from which makers can make. For us, this budget came in the form of a grant we received from the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL). Financial support from outside organizations also helps to build your maker community and gives you a forum in which to share what you learn.

In short, for Michigan Makers, community, support, and tools are the essential elements of our middle school library makerspace. If would like more information about supplies, specific lessons, or other ideas, please contact me or visit the Michigan Makers website.

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

The first virtual town hall is just a week away and will take place on March 19, from 2 to 3 PM eastern. The theme is partnerships and the conversation will focus on the following questions:

• Why are partnerships are important to library teen services
• What are the opportunities for library staff and stakeholders to support teens through partnerships?
• What do successful partnerships look like?
• What is required of libraries and stakeholders to move forward in partnerships in order to serve teens into the future?

Any library staff member with an interest in helping determine the future of library services to teens is welcome to attend the virtual town hall. Community stakeholders are also invited and library staff should feel free to invite others in their community to attend. This might include educators, staff of youth organizations, community leaders, business leaders, and so on. Bringing more voices into the conversation will help YALSA to determine what is needed for the future of teen services.

The virtual town halls will take place in YALSA’s Adobe Connect space. And those interested in attending the first event might want to prepare by reading a couple of articles on partnerships.

• Collective Impact
• How to Strike Effective Alliances and Partnerships

If you have questions about the virtual town halls, contact Linda W. Braun. You can contact YALSA’s Executive Director, Beth Yoke, with questions about the National Forum.

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.

You can contact The Hub Member Manager, Gretchen Kolderup, or the YALSAblog Member Manager, Wendy Stephens, to learn more about each publication.

If you are a YALSA member YALS is a perk of your membership dues. If not a member learn how to join, or learn how to subscribe.