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We’ve passed August’s halfway mark. That means school is just around the corner and we’re in the middle of District Days! Your state’s representatives are home for a short recess from their Washington business. They’re taking this time to learn about what’s happening in their communities, and what issues their constituents have on their minds.

It’s our chance to advocate for libraries! For teens! For the valuable work libraries do in communities across the nation! Not sure how to proceed? Check out YALSA’s Advocacy page for ideas ranging from short and simple to more complex (http://www.ala.org/yalsa/advocacy). Find your representative’s  office information at ALA’s Legislative Action Center (http://cqrcengage.com/ala/).

Since August is a quiet month in our library, instead of inviting our elected officials to come to us, we’re going to them. Members of our Teen Advisory Group will create a “highlights packet” to send to Senator Jon Tester, Senator Steve Daines, and Representative Ryan Zinke at their Helena offices. Packets will feature teens’ favorite library activities and personal statements about why the library is important in their community. I’ll include YALSA’s great infographic “What Public Libraries Do For Teens,” an infographic about teen services at our library, and an open invitation to attend teen programs. One event we’ll feature is from January 2015, when, I took five teens to demonstrate MakerSpace gear –robotics, MakeyMakeys, and button making – at the Montana Library Association’s Legislative event. The Governor and state representatives enjoyed interacting with our teens, going so far as to offer engineering advice!

This is me, standing on the street corner of the internet, inviting you to get the word out. Call, email, or visit your elected official’s office to share the super cool things teens are doing at your library.

The Journal of Research on Libraries & Young Adults is pleased to announce the recent publication of two new papers discussing research related to teens and libraries.

In “Adolescent Females and the Graphic Novel: A Content Analysis,” Emily Simmons analyzes 70 books from several of YALSA’s recent “Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens” lists to examine the gender distribution of the main characters and the racial/ethnic diversity of the female main characters. She finds that about a quarter of the 70 titles feature exclusively female main characters, whereas nearly half feature exclusively male main characters. In addition, nearly three-quarters of the female main characters are white, and as a group the female main characters include just four of the fourteen disability characteristics identified by the Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. To encourage greater diversity of representation in the materials that teens read, the author suggests that librarians, teachers, parents, and other adults who recommend graphic novels to teens should consider the gender, racial/ethnic, and disability representation of the main characters in titles they recommend.

With the goal of learning how public libraries can make their websites more appealing to teens, Robin Naughton presents a study entitled “Teen Library Website Models: Identifying Design Models of Public Library Websites for Teens.” For the paper, she analyzed the teen sections of 60 U.S. public library websites in 2012 and again in 2015 to identify recurring design patterns and to look for design changes over time. She identifies four common models: the Reading Model, the Media-Oriented Model, the Portal Model, and the Information Discovery Model. Unfortunately, the Reading Model, which past user studies have shown to be largely unappealing and boring to teen users, was by far the most common design model in both 2012 and 2015. The author suggests that libraries using the Reading Model modify their websites to increase interactivity and visual content. The paper concludes with a useful list of questions that public library staff can use to assess the design and appeal of their own library websites to teens.

Denise Agosto, Editor

A brief look at 'grams of interest to engage teens and librarians navigating this social media platform.

As libraries continue to evaluate the needs of their communities, the physical space of libraries may evolve in an effort to meet those needs. Space may be repurposed for a teen area, new tables and chairs might arrive so patrons can create their own collaborative spaces, and group study rooms may be constructed. For patrons that rely on digital devices, additional outlets or charging stations could be in demand, desktop stations may move to make room for laptop bars, and mounted televisions for gaming, video conferencing, and collaborative projects may be needed. Below are some examples of libraries that underwent renovations, purchased new furniture, or reorganized bookshelves to make room for more open spaces and meet the changing technology needs of their patrons. Has your library undergone a similar change? We want to hear from you! Share with us in the comments section below.

For more information about teen spaces and the envisioned future of library spaces, please see The Need for Teen Spaces in Public Libraries and The Future of Library Services for and with Teens report.

Happy End of Summer and Back-to-School!

I’m so excited to be sharing my first YALSA President’s Report!

It’s been a whirlwind since ALA Annual, and here’s what I’ve been working on since then:

Done & Done!

• Appointments to Edwards, Printz & Nonfiction Committees
• Assigning Board liaisons to Strategic, Selection & Award Committees
• Assign Board Members to Standing Board Committees
• Column for Fall 2015 issue of YALS
• Virtual training for New YALSA Board members
• YALSA blog post on Presidential Initiative: 3-2-1 Impact! Inclusive & Impactful Teen Services
• Worked with YALSA Board to appoint Renee McGrath to fill Krista McKenzie’s vacancy on the YALSA Board
• Had first call with the Whole Mind Group, who YALSA is working with on Strategic Planning
• With Chris Shoemaker, hosted first monthly chat with the YALSA Board, where we discussed YALSA’s Standing Board Committees
• Interviewed candidates for Member Managers for the Hub blog and Teen Programming HQ; appointed Molly Wetta as new Hub Member Manager and Jessi Snow as new Teen Programming HQ Member Manager

Works in Progress

• Filling Strategic Committee vacancies
• Filling Rachel McDonald’s Board vacancy
• Appointing YALSA representatives to ALA groups
• Strategic Planning
• Preparing for YALSA’s YA Services Symposium & Fall Executive Committee meetings
• Seeking content experts for Teen Programming HQ
• Seeking out partnerships with ALA ethnic caucuses, ALA LGBT Round Table, ASCLA, Wattpad, National Writing Project, Connected Learning Alliance, DeviantArt and more

Media & Outreach

• Expressed YALSA’s support of the establishment of the Joint Caucus of Librarians of Color, Inc. in Library Journal
• Interviewed by the Chicago Tribune for an article on Summer Learning programs
• Interviewed by School Library Journal for an upcoming article on tweens and tween library services

Stats & Data

• Friends of YALSA raised $1,155 in June 2015
• Friends of YALSA raised $436 in July 2015
• Membership: 5,113 (down -0.3% over this time last year)

Important Deadlines

• Oct. 1 - Deadline to submit a volunteer form to be on YALSA's upcoming award, selection and strategic committees! More information here

Last, but certainly not least -

THANK YOU

• All of our members for all that you do to support teens and teen library services in your communities, every day!
• Chris Shoemaker, YALSA’s immediate Past President, for passing the torch and mentoring current President-Elect Sarah Hill
• YALSA’s ALA Annual 2015 Local Arrangements Committee, for a terrific job coordinating travel tips & info and local YALSA events in San Francisco
• YALSA Board, for your hard work, leadership and enthusiasm - I know it's going to be a great year!
• YALSA Staff, especially Beth Yoke, Letitia Smith & Nichole O'Connor, for your assistance and support with association logistics

Until next time!

Respectfully submitted,

Candice Mack, YALSA President

A brief look at 'grams of interest to engage teens and librarians navigating this social media platform.

This week we're looking at ways to reach teens by venturing out into the community. Teens are a diverse population and their interests and circumstances may not always bring them into our library buildings. What can we do to reach out and meet them where they are around town? Which outreach programs should we offer? How can we establish ourselves as a partner in the community, bringing the materials and services to those that need it? Below are some examples of libraries that have partnered with local organizations and sports teams and, through book mobiles or book bikes, have brought library services out into the community.

Does your library have a book mobile or book bike? Have you partnered with local schools, organizations or sports teams? Set up a booth at a community market or sporting event? We want to hear from you! Share your outreach services with us in the comments section below.
For more information about serving diverse teens, please visit the Serving Diverse Teens @ Your Library wiki page.

Over the month of August, posts will be up each day to share ideas on different ways to reach your teens through programming, outreach, college/technical/vocational school readiness and more in getting ready for school. This post highlights some free online resources to learn and incorporate with technology programming for and with teens.  These are all free online resources.

Learn 3D Design

Autodesk 123D Design  is a powerful 3D design modelling tool.  Projects are shared on the site and can be downloaded or changed.

Sculptris  is a free digital sculpting software.  The workspace gives you a big ball of clay that you can digitally manipulate using tools to create anything.

Sketchup 3D  modeling software.  Where Tinkercad gives you a workplane and geometric shapes to connect Sketchup gives you the ability to create free flow designs.  Think architecture, geography, set design and more.

Tinkercad  if you have a 3D printer or want to teach 3D concept designs, Tinkercad is a free resource  is an easy-to-use 3D CAD design tool. Quickly turn your idea into a CAD model for a 3D printer with Tinkercad

Program examples-If you have a 3D printer and want to introduce teens to it, Tinkercad is the perfect introduction.  There are tutorials that can introduce teens (or anybody) to the product and things you can do.  You could do a 3D house design program, fashion-design earrings, bracelets, necklaces, shoes!

Program examples-create game pieces that can then be used for checkers, chess, etc.  This  could be a series program, introduce the site, brainstorm gaming ideas with the teens and then create on Autodesk 123D Design, if you have a 3D printer then print out the pieces and play the game!

Create “Star Wars” like creatures in 123D Design to coincide with the release of the first film in December 2015

Teen Read Week is October 18-24 (or Banned Book Week September 27-October 3) what about brainstorming with your teens some characters they loved from books and then designing them in 123D Design and printing out on your 3D printer

If you don’t have a 3D printer using 3D free sites can still be fun.  All of these sites have online communities (and outlets to share on social media) where you can share the projects you have made, receive comments as well as alter/borrow/download projects of others on the sites.

Coding Sites and Programs

Codeavenger   build apps, websites and games. Code Avengers walks you through tutorials and tests your skills to make sure you are learning as you go.

Code Club World  A worldwide network of coding clubs for children (teens can access this site as well, there are good resources here) You can register your site as a coding club.  You have access to lots of curriculum to get you started with your code club.

Code.org has tutorials like an hour of code plus lots of curriculum for children and teens to teach coding.  The format is very accessible.

MIT App Developer   MIT App Inventor is a blocks-based programming tool (similar to Scratch)that allows everyone, even novices, to start programming and build fully functional apps for Android devices.

Scratch  Learn the basics of programming code through shareable animation, storytelling, and gaming projects using the programming language Scratch. Scratch teaches fundamental coding skills, laying a foundation for exploring and expanding to other types of programming languages.

Animation

Animatron  no coding is required! Animatron is a powerful and user friendly website that allows you to animate right in your browser and collaborate with your friends in real time.

Drawing/Illustration

Inkscape draw freely, Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format.

Drawing SVG  draw freely, no downloads, no registration

Serif  Create drawings, animations, graphic designs and more

Storytelling

Adobe Slate  high impact visual storytelling, only available to download on iPads

Adobe Voice  video storytelling app for iPads

A short list of tweets from the past week of interest to teens and the library staff that work with them.

Do you have a favorite Tweet from the past week? If so add it in the comments for this post. Or, if you read a Twitter post between August 21 and August 27 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the Week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.

YALSA is seeking teen programming Content Experts for its upcoming web resource, Teen Programming HQ. The mission of the new site is to provide a one-stop-shop for finding and sharing information about programs of all kinds designed for and with teens. The site will promote best practices in programming by featuring user-submitted programs that align with YALSA’s Teen Programming Guidelines and Futures Report. The site will also enable dissemination of timely information about emerging and new practices for teen programming; raise awareness about appropriate YALSA tools to facilitate innovation in teen programming; and provide a means for members and others interested in teen programs to connect with one another to support and share their efforts to continuously improve their teen programs. The site is in beta testing now and will fully launch October 1st.

The Content Experts will work with the site’s Member Manager to vet all incoming program submissions and determine which meet the necessary criteria for being featured on the site. As part of this effort, Content Experts will be expected to give timely, constructive feedback to individuals regarding their program submissions. Please note that the Content Experts will not be submitting the content; rather, they will be reviewing content that is submitted by others.

List of Qualifications for Content Experts:

• Thorough knowledge of best practices in teen programming, especially as outlined in YALSA’s Teen Programming Guidelines and report, “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: a Call to Action”
• Strong background in engaging teens and community partners to plan, implement and evaluate innovative and impactful programs for and with teens that meet their developmental, educational and recreational interests
• Ability to devote a minimum of 1-2 hours per week for 12 continuous months to the HQ
• Excellent written communications skills and good netiquette
• Successful experience in coaching, mentoring and/or teaching other adults
• Ability to work well in a team environment
• Ability to work well in a virtual setting, including using tools such as Google Drive, Google Calendar, Skype, etc. to coordinate work and communicate with others
• Membership in YALSA and a passion for YALSA’s mission
• High ethical standards and no real or perceived conflict of interest with YALSA or its portfolio of print and web publications
• Dynamic and self-motivated

Up to seven Content Experts will be selected by Sept. 21, 2015. The term of the appointment is one year beginning Oct. 1, 2015, with an option to renew for a second year, based on performance. Candidates must complete the online application form by no later than Sept. 15. Please note that this is not a salaried staff position, but a member volunteer opportunity. Please direct questions to YALSA's Communications Specialist, Anna Lam at [email protected]

A brief look at 'grams of interest to engage teens and librarians navigating this social media platform.

While the most popular of public library summer programs, Summer Reading/Learning is only one of many activities that benefits and serves teen communities. Tapping into the various motivations within your own teen community are crucial to creating and implementing a well-received passive or active teen program. Are there other creative and publicly available spaces in your community, or does your library provide the only opportunity for free creative exploration? Does your library serve teens who seek to advance themselves academically during the summer months? Is there an independent maker space in your town or city, or is the library the sole source of maker activities? Do the teens in your community attend magnet schools or schools with advanced tech programs? Do those schools offer opportunities for summer tech projects, or does the library have a unique opportunity to provide the space and tools for coding, movie-making, and more? Exploring what teens already have free access to (and use!) and identifying what service and material/supply vacuums exist in your wider community will teen services librarians create and implement effective programming.

What research do you do before implementing a new program or innovating an existing program? Do you research other offerings in your town/city to prevent overlap or identify potential collaborative opportunities? How does the summer closure of schools affect programming opportunities in your pulic library? Please discuss in the comments below!

For more information, please see the Summer Reading/Learning section of the YALSA wiki, as well as the YALSA Teen Programming Guidelines.

All of us know the following scenario very well: A teen walks in needing ten hours of community service by the end of the month and they want to volunteer. As much as I want to say “yes,” reality sets in and I can’t always accommodate those requests. Teens should be proactive when it comes to community service, but what if they have no idea who to contact? Well, this is where our super library powers come in and, with a little research, and a few phone calls, we can definitely refer our teen patrons to organizations that need their help.

The best way to point our teens to local organizations is to create a list of local nonprofits for ready reference. When I started researching organizations in my community, I was blown away with the number of organizations that need help other than the library! In fact, there is such a variety of organizations in my community that teens should not have any problems finding a suitable volunteer position. One excellent example is for teens to volunteer at their local humane society and animal shelter.

According to Animal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) “approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats.¹” There are many, many animals that need homes and, if they are unable to be placed in a loving home, they face the threat of being euthanized. For teens, this is the type of issue that will not only ignite a passion in them, but, as a volunteer for the humane society or shelter, they will put that passion to good use. The goals for these programs are to give teens the tools and knowledge to not only help communicate with the public about homeless pets, but promote the humane societies’ or shelters’ mission and objectives. When I was a teen, I thought that if I worked at an animal shelter, I would be cleaning kennels the entire time, which is why I ended up volunteering with the library. I was so wrong and, as much as I loved volunteering in the library, I really wished I worked at the local humane society.

After researching a variety of teen volunteer programs in various shelters and humane societies, I learned that teens are involved in a variety of tasks that include outreach, animal care, event organizing, hosting fundraisers, leading tours of the shelter, and, if their parents agree, volunteering to be a foster family. When I looked in my own city, the Pasadena Humane Society offers teens the opportunity to become “Junior Ambassadors” where their duties include: giving presentations about animal welfare at day camps, providing tours to shelter guests, attending a seminar about the inner workings of the shelter, and attending behavior trainings that will allow them to walk shelter dogs). Other shelters have similar programs and, believe it or not, some shelters have programs for younger children as well AND other educational opportunities to teach families about pet adoption and other topics.

What makes this opportunity unique is that teens can benefit greatly from the animals because caring, and working with these animals helps teens cultivate empathy, compassion, and respect for these creatures. As a momma of three rescued cats, animals have this uncanny ability to give unconditional love and loyalty, which is amazing. In fact, animal therapy has proven to help young people with emotional, physical, and intellectual problems to not only help them express themselves, but help them process their current situation; therefore, by advocating and working with animals, teens from all backgrounds will gain an amazing set of interpersonal skills. Furthermore, this particular opportunity will also teach teens about responsibility and ethics that will help teens develop their own sense of morality; by becoming a spokesperson for homeless pets, they become an active voice in their community. It’s crazy enough to think about all the possibilities that come of volunteer work, but, as a volunteer for homeless pets, it can bring out the most amazing traits in teens. For example, Amber Nelson, a teen from Florida, started her own nonprofit to rescue homeless pets and has managed to home quite a few animals already. What was compelling about why she created her own organization is that when she rescued a badly-burned pit bull (who was scheduled to be euthanized) she saw how grateful and loving the pit bull was for being saved ². Teens are very capable of doing the right thing and that is why I am so happy that great nonprofit organizations are willing to give them a chance.

Although we want to encourage teens to volunteer at the library, we can also help them use their passion for public service by helping them reach into other pockets of our community to help as well. In fact, we can actually take it a step further by inviting the local humane society, or shelter, to the library to talk about the various volunteer opportunities. We have these community partnerships for a reason so let’s bring everyone together to help out teens develop into well-rounded members of our community.

Resources:

1. http://www.aspca.org/about-us/faq/pet-statistics

2. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/wellington/fl-cn-hero-0405-20150402-story.html

It is August and the school bells are beginning to signal the end-of-summer break.  As a high school librarian, I always want to make sure that the new freshmen students have a thorough understanding of everything our school library and digital learning lab offer.  I have also realized that our school's faculty and staff, new and old, need a refresher of our services since our school has seen tremendous growth and changes in the past three years.  Our student orientation has shifted focus from "Where in the library can you find?" to "What can our school library do for you both at school and at home?"  I run our school's digital learning lab called the LiNK.  I use Prezi to inform our students about what the LiNK is and what is available for them there.  Since I work in conjunction with our school library, I include information on our physical and digital collections as well.  The current orientation can be found here.

The faculty orientation happens in two parts.  New teachers are not aware of the amount of the media and technology resources our school has, so I created the Basics Orientation.  It details the data (ie. how many we have of this and that) and what to do if they need assistance.   I usually do the Basics Orientation during our pre-planning days with all teachers.  The Tech Tools Orientation is what I find most useful as it generates "business" for our media services.  Many high school teachers still have the mindset that the school library is for English classes to use for research.  I want to make sure that all faculty understands that we have worked and will work with all departments.  This orientation is updated as needed with the latest projects that students have created and also updated with new tools that we discover and implement throughout the year.  I present this orientation during the year on Tech Tuesdays or in Lunch Learn sessions, and I love the immediate response from teachers wanting to try out new things with their classes.

As common place as back to school orientations can be, they are very beneficial as they provide students AND faculty the necessary information to get the most out of your school library.  Get creative and have fun with your orientations and your school library services are sure to reap the benefits!

A brief look at 'grams of interest to engage teens and librarians navigating this social media platform.

What makes library programs a success? Is it the statistics, the approval of your manager, or is it the smiles and laughter you hear coming from the room? Take a glimpse at the 'grams below to see how we show our success. How do you measure success at your library? What programs or ideas can you share that you think might be a success at other libraries? Comment below with your story.

For other articles on measuring success: ALA Success

September is traditionally back to school time, so get ready because it's coming soon.  With some teens in their senior year of high school many may be thinking about what they will be doing when they finish with things like; jobs, vocational/technical/college.  How can you in your libraries help teens get ready?  Here are some links that provide resources and some possible program ideas you may incorporate to help your teens to make some decisions.

College/technical/vocational School Resources:

Accrediting Commission of Careers Schools and Colleges

Campus Pride Campus Pride represents the only national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization for student leaders and campus groups working to create a safer college environment for LGBT students.

Casey Family Services – Information on financial aid and scholarships and much more for youth in foster care

College Board and Khan Academy free practice tests and other resources to help prepare for college.

Developing the Next Generation of Latino Leaders  internships, fellowships, scholarships, financial aid information and more for Latino students.

Federal Student Aid information through the U. S. Department of Education  lays out all of the steps in order to think about colleges, identifying colleges and applying to colleges.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEARUP) through the U.S. Department of Education a grant program to increase the number of low-income students to succeed in postsecondary education.

Homework Help Programs (webinar) learn how you can offer free or fee based homework help programs in your library.

List of Community Colleges in the United States 

NAACP Youth and College Division

Orphan Foundation of America – Scholarship opportunities and Educational and Training Vouchers for foster youth.

Real Work Matters vocational school database

Trade Schools Guide 

U.S. Department of Education Database of Accredited Postsecordary Institutions and Programs

U.S. Department of Education Career Colleges and Technical Schools

YALSA College and Career Readiness site

Career Readiness Resources

City of Boston Teen Resume Guide 

National Career  Development Association includes a number of links to many resources, services and tools which assist users in exploring careers, planning for the future and searching for employment.

Teens4Hire.org The U.S. Department of Labor, (DOL) is the sole federal agency that monitors youth labor and enforces youth labor laws. The DOL web site contains a comprehensive section that you should visit on Youth & Labor.

Teen Ink list of career resources  the premiere resource written for teens and by teens.

Ideas for Caeer Readiness Programs

Start with a needs assessment.  Talk to your teen councils, TABS and of course your teens that use the library and ask them what their questions and their needs are about beyond high school as well as job/workforce readiness.

The YALSA Teen Programming Guidelines can help you identify and organize areas you would focus on for programming with and for teens.

Plan a series of career readiness workshops.

Start with a career information workshop-reach out to library staff, community organizations/partners, barbers, physical therapists, teachers, musicians, farmers, lawyers, mechanics, and more (think about your own network) and have some of them talk about what their careers consist of, what schooling went into their degree, what things they are working on and do in their positions.

Mock interviews-reach out to some of the staff in your library, community organizations and partners and ask them to serve as mock interviewers with teens.  They can “interview” the teens for a “job” and provide feedback for the teens on things they may need to work on.

Resume workshop-provide a resume workshop for teens to learn how to put together a professional resume.  If they haven’t had jobs, have the teens talk about volunteer jobs, babysitting, working in their church, what classes have they taken that could be helpful in a job.

End the series with a job and internship fair-reach out grocery stores, retail stores, coffee shops, museums, schools, guidance counselors, libraries, does your city/town have a Mayor’s job program, nonprofits.  Vet the organizations to ensure they want to hire teens and have potential  positions.

Ideas for College/Technical school/Vocational school Readiness Programs-

Start with a needs assessment, talk with your teens and ask them what their questions and needs are in relation to school readiness. This can help guide the type of organizations and programs you offer with and for your teens.

Work with Princeton Review or Kaplan and see if they can offer free SAT, ACT prep programs.

Work with an outside organization to provide a college essay workshop to talk about the common application or you lead one.

Identify an organization to provide a FAFSA workshop, identify organizations in your city/town that provides community college waiver forms and invite them to your library to meet and talk with teens about the process or have that information available in your library.

Are there organizations or you that can offer a common application workshop to help your teens with this process?

Based on the input and questions your teens have provided, could you then put together lists of resources (like the above links) on your library’s website/blog or on paper to have available for your teens?

Reach out to some colleges, universities, community colleges, vocational and technical schools in your city/town and ask if they would provide an information session in your library.

Best Practices

City of Seattle website illustrates the number of resources for teens for career information

Oakland Public Library resources for teens looking for career planning, jobs and school help
Take a look at the San Francisco Public Library list of career resources for teens

Ever wish you had a chance to show off your skills to your current employer or a potential one?  Now you do!  YALSA’s Badges for Learning virtual badge program is now live!  Earning these badges can help you ‘show what you know’ to the world, because they can be posted to social media and online resumes.

Librarians, library workers, and library students with an interest in staying up to date on trends in teen services can complete learning-based tasks and develop skills tied directly to the seven (7) competency areas covered in YALSA’s Competencies for Serving Youth in Libraries. Participants will develop projects in one of seven areas to show proficiency in that area. Once proficiency is proven, participants will earn digital badges that can be displayed in virtual spaces, such as social media or online resumes. An expansion of YALSA’s professional development offerings, the program is free, completely virtual, and asynchronous.

Funding for this project was generously provided by HASTAC, the Mozilla Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.

For questions about these badges, contact Nicole Gibby Munguia at, (800) 545-2433, ext. 5293, or email [email protected]. For information about our other e-learning opportunities, don’t forget to visit http://www.ala.org/yalsa/onlinelearning.

Which young people in your community could be most positively impacted by services that your institution currently provides or could provide?

Are there foster youth, homeless teens, teen parents, teens from military families, incarcerated youth, disabled teens, LGBTQ teens, immigrant teens, teen English Language Learners, or teens from various cultural, ethnic, racial or socioeconomic backgrounds in your communities who could really use the library’s help to succeed?

What would that assistance or those services look like?

My YALSA presidential initiative, “3-2-1 IMPACT! Inclusive and Impactful Teen Library Services,”
focuses on building the capacity of libraries to plan, deliver and evaluate programs and services for and with underserved teen populations. It is a call to action to all of our members to take a close look at our communities, identify service gaps and address needs by using or contributing to YALSA resources like the Future of Library Services for and with Teens report, Teen Programming Guidelines, our new Teen Programming HQ and more.

Visit YALSA's wiki to find and share information about serving diverse teens and building cultural competence. For a list of selected resources relating to building inclusive services for and with teens, check out this flyer (.pdf).

Other activities that we hope to work on this year include collecting stories from members who are reaching out to underserved teen populations and sharing best practices and/or advocacy messages, creating spaces or pathways for members who are focusing on the same teen population to connect with one another, providing continuing education to help members reach out to specific populations and also gain leadership and cultural competence skills/knowledge, and compile existing and/or create new resources to help members serve various underserved teen populations.

As YALSA President, I’m excited about harnessing the passion, energy and activism among all of our members to help create positive, inclusive, impactful change for and with the teens that we serve in our communities. I’m looking forward to working with all of you and to the amazing work that we are all going to do together this year.

The American Library Association (ALA) defines outreach as providing library services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented populations, populations like new and non-readers, LBGT teens, teens of color, poor and homeless teens, teens who are incarcerated.  As these populations are often marginalized and underserved it is crucial for libraries to recognize these populations and provide services and programs to them where they are.

The President of YALSA, Candice Mack, is focusing her year as President with an initiative, "3-2-1 Impact: Inclusive and Impactful Teen Services," which will focus on building the capacity of libraries to plan, deliver and evaluate programs and services for and with underserved teen populations.  Visit YALSA's wiki to find and share information about serving diverse teens and building cultural competence.

Each month I will profile a teen librarian providing outreach services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented teens.  The purpose is for us to learn, connect, network and share with each other the crucial work we are doing in this area.

Rekha Kuver,Teen and Children’s Services for the Central Library Seattle Public Library

J:  What kind of outreach services do you provide for teens?

Rekha Kuver-I manage Teen and Children’s Services for the Central Library location of the Seattle Public Library, located in downtown.  One part of what I do is work with two full time Teen Librarians in the Teen Center.  I began in this position in 2011 and at the time I observed how the teen space was being used. Although we were seeing teens in the space, it wasn’t being used heavily, especially throughout all open hours.  I did some data gathering and analysis to get a snapshot of the Teen Center, including the number of teens using the space, what times of day were busiest, and what activities in the space were most in demand.  At the same time, since we are located in the heart of downtown Seattle, I knew that we were close to numerous organizations that work directly with youth, many of whom work with underrepresented youth communities. I wanted teen staff to have more time to find out the answers to questions like: what work are those organizations doing with teens, what needs are they identifying via their relationships to those teens, and how can the Library assist and partner to meet those needs? With the data that we gathered about what was happening (and not happening) inside the building and our growing knowledge of communities in our neighborhood, I gained approval from my manager for the Teen Center reference desk to be staffed only during the hours when teens were using the space most, which for us was between 2:00 and 6:00, 7 days a week. The remaining hours of the work day (morning and evening) would be dedicated to outreach in the downtown neighborhood, collaborating with youth-serving organizations to provide library services to teens wherever they are. Although it seems counter-intuitive, we did not start out this work with clear goals and outcomes that assumed we knew what teens needed. Rather, I encouraged teen staff to spend several months meeting with organizations, making contacts, building relationships, and gathering data (demographic and otherwise). We didn’t put pressure on ourselves to produce a lot of programs and services for these audiences at first. Rather, we asked a lot of questions, made ourselves as available as possible, and listened.  After some months of this, priorities emerged organically from what we were hearing across our community. For most youth-serving agencies that are embedded in traditionally underrepresented teen communities in our area, we found that they talked about three things: supporting teens in their identities; college and career readiness support; and life skills support. Upon learning this, we adopted these as our current departmental priorities as well.

J:  Describe a day in the life of you providing outreach

Rekha Kuver-We have documented relationships with over 70 organizations so far this year, although this does include organizations that work with children as well, since our overall department includes Children’s services. Each relationship looks different- we collaborate with some on longer term projects, others we collaborate with sporadically as needs arise, and still others we are building relationships with and don’t have an active project going with them. We work with many different types of organizations, including teen and family shelters, transitional housing complexes, food banks, health organizations, educational organizations, digital literacy organizations, arts organizations, and more.  Because of this, my day and the other teen librarians’ days are never the same, although we do spend a considerable amount of time meeting/communicating with partners, delivering services off-site and in-house, coordinating amongst ourselves for staffing needs, and debriefing on what has occurred to improve for next time.  One example of an organization we work with is New Horizons.  They are a homeless shelter that provides services for teens and young adults through a drop in center, case management and job training.  Currently, we collaborate on doing a weekly drop in for youth at the Teen Center as well as visits to their facility to bring library services, do library card signups, provide library materials, and provide programming. This is a good example of our philosophy around serving underrepresented audiences: understanding the needs and being responsive to those needs can happen in the library or outside of the library (and oftentimes both). Getting library services to teens is what we provide, but the location of where this happens can be fluid. Often librarians think of programs (in the library) and outreach (outside of the library) as two separate things, but I have come to think of it as completely integrated together.

J:  What resources would you recommend for someone new to outreach to look for ideas for inspiration as well as best practices?

Rekha Kuver-The first thing I would recommend is to look to other librarians who are doing a great job at this work. For instance, my colleague Hayden Bass did a great series for YALSA Blog called Adventures in Outreach that is very informative and motivating. The second thing I would recommend is learning from youth-serving organizations that are not libraries. Although their missions may be different than ours, there is likely some alignment to be found because those organizations, like us, want to understand teen needs in order to meet them. Sometimes they are embedded in underrepresented teen audiences in a way that you may not be. Our work with the leaders of organizations that serve unstably housed youth has provided us a wealth of “insider” information about that audience. Although we know homeless teens and serve them in the library, those organizations have data, statistics, experiences, and best practices that we may not and seeing youth serving organizations as our colleagues and collaborators has helped us a lot. (Building these relationships is, of course, always a two-way street and so they are learning from our expertise as well, which just strengthens the support that our shared teen audiences receive from all sides).

J:  What are some of your favorite things you have heard from teens while providing outreach services?

Rekha Kuver-One of the things we have been working on as we do projects is to make the collaboration with teens and organizations that serve them be true collaborations in every aspect, including evaluation. As we develop a collaborative project, like the youth drop in at the Library, we ask the teens: what do you want to get out of this program? At the end of three months (or 6 months, or one year), what do you want this relationship with the library to have provided for you? Sometimes they say they want a complete resume and cover letter, sometimes they say they want a safe place to hang out with their friends, sometimes they say they want to express themselves with art, sometimes they say they want snacks (ok, they always say that last one). My favorite things I hear from teens happen as we check in with them over the course of the project regarding how we are doing on those outcomes they said they wanted from us. Building those relationships with us, the cumulative listening and responding to what we have heard from them garners thoughtful, sometimes critical, but always insightful and helpful feedback from teens about how we are doing. Building up relationships and trust over time is what gets our patrons the services that they need, because it’s that trust that enables them to tell us honestly what that is. So, everything teens tell us about what they need and how we are doing with that is my favorite thing.

A brief look at 'grams of interest to engage teens and librarians navigating this social media platform.

Summer is the season of fun! As July came to a close, many libraries continued to rock out this summer with awesome programming, displays, and good humor. How are you beating the heat and maxing out on fun this summer? Take a peek at these libraries and how they are enjoying their summer under the hashtag #libraryfun.

Title: Specimen: A Game About Color
Cost:  Free
Platform:  iOS

If, like me, you've always loved the paint chip aisle at your big box hardware store of choice -- the orderly color squares and rectangles, the fun color names, the act of comparing a Bubblegum Pink and a Primrose Blush until you can see their subtle differences plainly -- you, too, might think you'd be a whiz at a game that's only objective is the matching of colors. If so, I wish you better luck than I've had.

Specimen: A Game About Color is a color-matching game that puts your eye for color to the test. Instead of gazing at rows of orderly paint chip samples, players are called to match jellybean-like blobs of color floating in an inner circle to the color that fills the screen outside the circle, all while a timer ticks away the seconds.

The game gets tough pretty quickly, though you can earn extra lives by showing exceptional skill, and the addition of special blobs in the higher levels allow you to do things like detonate two color blobs at once (or so I hear.) Lives and special blobs can also be purchased through the app to further gameplay.

At first glance, a color-matching game might not seem to lend itself to library programming, but for those libraries with Apple devices, Specimen could be an unexpected addition to an art-based STEAM program. And much more fun than staring at paint samples.

Have a suggestion for App of the Week? Let us know.  And find more great Apps in the YALSA Blog's App of the Week Archive.

A short list of tweets from the past week of interest to teens and the library staff that work with them.

Do you have a favorite Tweet from the past week? If so add it in the comments for this post. Or, if you read a Twitter post between July 24 and July 31 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the Week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.

Another good day at the Teen Design Lab. We had a pretty free form day, complete with some inspiration, project time, and stickers.

What we did:

• Watched some library related humor videos (such as Check It Out made by the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library — what a great job they did incorporating Taylor Swift into EVERYTHING). These videos served as inspiration and a potential design project. We wanted to give teens the option of making a video parody to promote the library.
• Then it was design time. This is the neat part of the camp. We just let the teens be, serving really only as sounding boards and offering words of encouragement. We provide laptops, paper, pens, and other design supplies (such as clay, building blocks, felt, etc) so they can create a prototype of some sort. It was neat to see the teens find their element — some needed to make something with their hands while others made detailed dream plans and steps to success charts. The design process also the teens to showcase their talents and strengths, which is awesome. At the same time, we are aligning with library and community priorities — giving suggestions on how to make the teens feel welcome or participate in their community and or library.
• The day ended with a sticker workshop. Again, this pulls from Makerspace and Fab Lab ideas and equipment (check out the Maker & DIY Programs YALSA Wiki page for more information about this sort of programming). It was an easy setup — laptops running Silhouette software, Silhouette vinyl cutters, and vinyl for the stickers. It’s another workshop where the teens really have free reign over what they want to do. Our only suggestion was using a silhouette image for the cleanest cut. The teens really took off on this project, most printing multiple sets of vinyl. They picked up on it pretty quickly (and a few had done this before). It was a nice way to end the workshop.

The teens will be back tomorrow, continuing to work on their designs and then give a brief presentation to their peers and community members we’ve invited to come so the teens’ opinions can be heard!

Back for day two reflection! We added one more teen to the group, bringing our total up to five. Today was a heavy work day, although we were taking into consideration the request from the teen for more projects.

The afternoon began with working on something for the internet. We gave the teens three options: make a Facebook post for the Peoria Heights Public Library page (since our camp takes place at this library), make a blurb that could go up on the Richwoods Township website (since Roger came from the township to talk to us yesterday), or create a Google Map with pins at places they had visited on the community tour on Monday. More on that in what went well and what could be improved. 

Then, the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab made an appearance (and they are team members in this larger grant helping to pay me and my co-teachers to develop and run this camp). They brought along a friend, aka a portable laser. Holly, one of the Fab Lab instructors, led the five teens though designing a notebook cover to be lasered on a small Moleskine notebook. It was a great workshop and the teens had to find a quote they liked. We can definitely think of this workshop as a way to develop interest-based, developmentally appropriate programs that support connected learning. The teens had full say in what their notebooks looked like and this design process exposed them not only to design tools, but file management, USB procedures (like eject USB before physically removing it), and exposure to technology they might not have seen or used before.

With the notebooks begin lasered, the teens then did Hack Your Library. Essentially, they each had a clipboard, pencil, and a bunch of post-it notes. They were to carefully and thoughtfully go through the library, writing down on the post-it notes what they liked about the library, what they didn’t like, and things that surprised them (very similar to what they did the day before in downtown Peoria Heights). The afternoon ended with the teens presenting their findings to the group. The director of the library who we’ve been working closely with couldn’t sneak away to hear the presentation but was looking at the feedback on our way out after camp was over.

What went well

• The teens really seemed to enjoy the notebook design workshop. It was great to see each other being lasered because they really showed off each teen’s unique personality. I think it’s a great strength to be able to have programming and activities that allow teens to be themselves in that sort of creative process. I feel I learned even more about them from those simple notebook covers.
• Hack the Library activity ended up with so many interesting notes. Very few teens noticed the same things, which again helps to show how each teen is unique and brings a new perspective to the table.

What could be improved on

• They seemed a little lackluster about creating website/Facebook/Google map content. I’m not sure if it was how we explain the activities or if that is something they just weren’t interested in. This gets me thinking about how can we encourage them to be creators of material on the internet in a way that’s engaging and fun to them.

Resources to check out

• Interested in Makerspace and Fab Lab workshops? YALSA has some great resources to check out such as Making in the Library Toolkit or Maker & DIY Programs YALSA Wiki page.
• Also, places like the Fab Lab (and their have labs worldwide) are big into outreach and education. If your library can’t get a mini, permanent Makerspace or Fab Lab set up, see if you can collaborate with your local community Fab Lab!

Photos coming soon! Check back tomorrow night for day three reflections!

Hi everyone! So I wrote a post on Friday about an upcoming camp I was helping to plan. During the afternoons this week, we are leading a Teen Design Lab camp. Our general objectives for the camp are:

• Help youth learn about the community through exploration
• Engage youth in contributing to community problem-solving
• Learn about digital media and technology

I’ll be leading a week long reflection series about how the camp goes with the teens each day and how what we are doing fits in while YALSA’s programming guide. I’ll try to have the reflection post every evening, although this first post is the morning after (since the first day is full of craziness, debriefing, and figuring out where to get dinner).

Day One 

What we did:

• Spent some time on designing a roadmap for the week (see photo). Ann had written this roadmap for the week in terms of the themes of the projects we would be working on and then what skills and outcomes we were hoping for. This roadmap was partially empty and in the picture, you can see we asked questions and got answers from the teens to fill in the roadmap.
• Community tour. We had the teens go out into the Peoria Heights downtown area and observe what they liked about the area (and what teens might like about this area), what they thought was problematic or what they didn’t like about the area, and then what questions they had or what surprised them about something they saw. We also sent them out with iPad Minis to take photographs with. We encouraged them to talk to store owners and ask questions. The facilitators wandered around the downtown area as well, but we really let the teens do their own thing. We will use this feedback for future design projects this week.
• Spoke with the township administrator, Roger, (we had met him previously and he gave us input in how he hoped the camp would run). He talked about his beliefs in doing community engagement and some of the neat projects the Richwoods Township had done recently.

What went well:

• The teens were great. They were engaged and actually interested in the camp and the design projects we are going to be working on. They enjoyed how we didn’t teach at them, but instead involved them in the conversation. They also asked a lot of questions, which allowed us to see where we were doing well in explanation and when we weren’t communicating well.
• While we had less teens than expected, the group wasn’t phased. They rolled well with our flexible and always changing schedule.

What we want to improve on:

• We did a quick evaluation at the end of the day to see what the teens thought went well and what didn’t go so well. This is a great way to remind the teens they do have a voice in this program. [Note: it also is YALSA’s #10 in their programming guide]. We found out on Monday that one teen wished we did more stuff, more project time, and less chatting. We have a schedule that is flexible enough to truly listen to this request and altered our agenda for today (Tuesday) accordingly.

A brief look at 'grams of interest to engage teens and librarians navigating this social media platform.

During the summer months, some librarians and library workers experience a lull or even an entire "break" (I use the word loosely, fellow school librarians); however, many teen services librarians are in the middle of a whirlwind of programming. It would be appropriate to save the summer reading wrap-up for the end of the summer, but this is a great time to check-in with programs and other services. If you work with teens during the summer months, how do you maintain your enthusiasm for programming? How have teens responded to non-summer reading programs and events? Please share tales of your own programs - successes and failures, highlights and lowlights - in the comments below!

A short list of tweets from the past week of interest to teens and the library staff that work with them.

Do you have a favorite Tweet from the past week? If so add it in the comments for this post. Or, if you read a Twitter post between July 18 and July 23 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the Week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.