I’ve been blogging for YALSA for almost year. Crazy to think I’m starting my second year of graduate school. Those job descriptions that come into my email box seem a little more real, and a little more attainable.
What makes me so excited about heading into the professional world of librarianship is when I get the chance to interact with other librarians, librarians that have experience and insight, insight that I hope to one day have. While I know they, technically, are my colleagues, I still feel a little out of their league. However, that doesn’t stop me from soaking up as much knowledge from them as I can.
I got an opportunity to meet a handful of other librarians (and YALSA) bloggers last week. Crystle, our blog manager, had arranged some Google Hangouts as a way for us bloggers to meet each other. I logged on Monday night, not quite sure what to expect.
Our hangout also had another purpose than simply seeing each other on our screens — we were discussing The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action. It was a report that resonated with me; many of the ideas proposed are ones that are in line with the readings I had done for my community engagement class this spring, along with the work I did with elementary students last year. I have found that if you let the interests and passion of the people you’re working with guide action, then we are setting ourselves up for success.
As we walked through the first few sections of the report, I was content to just listen to the librarians, who spoke about previous experiences with teens. I felt lucky to be a part of a conversation where I heard about the reality of things in library land; while we want to always think that reports and theory are accurate, we know that at the end of the day, real life isn’t as set in stone or black and white. It felt like I was getting a peak into what my job might be like in a year and frankly, it was incredibly inspiring and exciting. I wished we were all sitting around a table at a coffeeshop, where we had more time to share experiences and talk through new ideas.
This hangout reminded me the power of networking. While I didn’t speak much, I was still a part of this conversation. I was learning and processing and thinking about the ways in which these ideas could be put into place in my own practice as a librarian. I look forward to another year of YALSA blogging and navigating my way through teen librarianship.
Yesterday the blogosphere and Twitterverse were abuzz with the news that Amazon was possibly going to start a book service that would work similarly to how NetFlix works for video. Articles appeared that mentioned libraries and even suggested that this move by Amazon was a nail in the library coffin. But, why would that be? It’s not really the end of libraries, it’s another example of how we are now at the beginning of lots of new opportunities. It’s another indication that we get to tell the library story that’s a story not about library as warehouse for materials but library as:
- An organization in which adults support teen developmental assets through a variety of initiatives from book groups to candy sushi making workshops to content creation with multimedia tools to traditional book lending.
- A connection point for teens in which teens get to talk with each other, talk with librarians, talk with experts, talk with authors, talk with a variety of people who have information and content of interest to the age group.
- A place where teens can hang-out and be a part of community.
- An environment that promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and idea generation.
- A resource that supports teen needs both face-to-face and virtually, through a variety of methods including programs, readers’ advisory, collections, and so on.
- Where teens can find out about topics of interest and books they might want to read, even if they don’t check out the books from the physical or virtual library space.
If Amazon and other services start providing even more opportunities for teens to access materials, librarians working with the age group can say, “great, lets think about all the ways we can connect with teens even if they don’t ‘use’ us for books.” Actually don’t librarians working with teens already do that? And maybe with the advent of an Amazon service of this type it will be possible to do even more and perhaps provide even better service. If teens are checking out books from somewhere else will that give the librarian more time to talk about books with teens, more space in the library for teen youth participation activities, more dollars to spend on technology that teens might be interested in, more opportunities to connect teens with others in the community (or the world) that have something to offer, more…..?
I’m thinking this isn’t even about the size of the collection that Amazon offers through this service (what types of materials are available, for example) or whether or not libraries can offer a similar kind of service. Instead this is a chance to think about what libraries are all about and what their role in a community and with teens is. What do you think? Is an Amazon service of this kind the end, the beginning, or something else?
Remember that tomorrow is Virtual Lobby Day, an opportunity to send a fax to the members of the NYS Legislature. Library Lobby Day is March 10 in Albany. If you cannot get to Albany in person, you can be there electronically on March 9.
On Monday, March 9, go to the NYLA Homepage to send a fax to your NY State Legislators in support of libraries!
Here is how you can participate:
1.Go to NYLA's Homepage. http://www.nyla.org
2.Click on Contact Your Elected Official.
3. Click on Take Action under Contact Legislators to restore $5 million.
4.Enter your zip code and fill in other information if necessary.
5.Click Send Message
You can also add your own message.
Some points to emphasize:How the budget cuts to education and libraries are affecting you.
How is the school library system important to the job you do and how do they impact students?Let your voice be heard with hundreds of school librarians across the state!!!
Restore the state aid that has been cut to Libraries!!!
Encourage your students to do the same and to write their own letters!!
To celebrate the holidays we asked some of our favorite people in publishing what their favorite book was. Let us know in the comments what your favorite book is and be sure to check back throughout the week for more “favorites”.
Randall Klein is an Associate Foreign Rights Agent at Trident Media Group
I found my favorite book early. My sister forced me to read The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, when I was six and I have read it once every other year or so since. As I get older, the book ages with me, revealing new ideas on what it means to be clever, to be a hero, to have an adventure. Milo’s journey to bring peace to the warring kingdoms of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis are woven brilliantly into a tale about making the most of one’s time. Juster’s wordplay shines, and there is no foe more fierce than the Terrible Trivium, no friend more loyal than Tock the Watchdog. It’s my favorite book because I cannot pick my favorite part.
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