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Wow...can't believe we are already sixteen (nearly seventeen) years into the 21st century!  Do you remember saying something in high school like, "When it's 2015 I'll be (fill in the blank) years old!" Education is changing to adapt, and so is the pedagogy.  And it's all because society and culture impact teens today so much more differently than every before.  With that in mind, I came up with a some things I believe a 21st century library should be aware of.

1. Teens are connected, and so are adults

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Walk down any hall of a high school and you'll see cell phones, laptops, tablets, headphones galore! Make sure libraries are connected as well.  This is now the standard norm, so libraries should not only be book drive, but device and peripheral driven too. 



2. Learning is done more through video than ever before

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Youtube, TedTalks, MOOCs...watching and learning are more accepted than ever before.  When most new web tools have intro videos, take advantage of it.  Create screencasts to "teach" students.  Being visible is now down in front a camera and libraries should put themselves in the spotlight.



3. Reading preferences guide people and libraries.

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Some like e-books, some like hardcopy.  Paperbacks, hard copy, newspapers, magazines.  Kindle, Nook, Overdrive, Follett, Netgalley, Edelweiss, and sites for fan fiction are diverse, but they have one thing in common - people who read use them for pleasure, and academic pursuits.  And make libraries re-think the concept of shelf space.




4. The virtual world is a lot larger than the physical one.

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 We don't live in a world where teens get home, eat a snack and do their homework.  Its now more like get home, eat something, binge watch Neflix, check Snapchat or Twitter, then do homework...at midnight.  Make sure the library can meet them there.  Create an online presence ASAP!




5. Handwriting is old school.  Keep that in mind when you're creating signage

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There are actually teens out there who only know how to write their name in cursive because of documents.  Sigh.... And if that's the case, you know they can't read it.  So make sure that if the library has displays, signage, or posters, that they use a font that isn't in cursive to reach all users.




6. Social media is the new telephone.  Texting more than talking. Emojis
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Personal landlines are passe.  Teens today may not understand how a pay phone works, much less a party line.  They communicate en masse with social media.  And when they "talk" to each other it's through text.  Calling someone? That's ancient! Leverage these for the library so teens can communicate their way, which will make it easier for them. 



7. There is significant relationship building happening online.


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 Just when you thought you knew it all, catfishing for teens has taken on a completely new meaning.  Relationships of all kinds begin online and then can become face-to-face.  From using Remind for classes or Groupme for people with similar interests, there are ways libraries can create an academic
relationship with students.




8. Teens have an entrepreneurial spirit.

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 Interesting fact: the founders of Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat's average age is TWENTY-TWO.  Don't underestimate the genius of teens.  They are changing our future.  Heck they even created a new language adults had to learn - emoji, which began in the late 1990's and now has over 800 characters used in countless devices.




9. Teaching is not about lecture, but a participatory culture

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It's one thing to talk to teens, but it completely morphs when teen talk, create, and group together to learn.  Make the library that place where teens are learning in all sorts of ways.  If we are worried about their interaction with people because of their obsession with devices, participatory culture MUST happen. 




10. Libraries should not just have books....they should have a whole lot more

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And I'm not talking about computers (although that would be nice!) Think about things that could be checked out to patrons that are out of the norm.  How about gardening tools?  Anyone love to bake? Crafters could always use knitting needs and crochet hooks.  Sports equipment doesn't always have to belong in the gym and budding artists can save money by checking out brushes. JACKPOT!

This past November, I saw a post on our
North Carolina State Library blog about the new Competencies for Librarians Serving Children in Public Libraries.  After reading, I was curious to see how they compared to our North Carolina School Library Media Coordinator Standards.  Similar to other states, our NC SLMC standards are based on guidelines from AASL, ISTE, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, ALA/AASL Standards for Initial Preparation of School Librarians and other state standards.  After reading this document and noticing that it is geared towards those serving ages birth to 14, I decided to also check out YALSA’s Competencies for Librarians Serving Youth* since I am in a high school setting.

I wanted to see if there were areas where we overlapped that might be used to promote more collaboration between school and public librarians.  I noticed that we had similar standards although some of our elements may come under different standard headings.  Some key places for collaboration are education, resources and digital access, professional development and advocacy.  Below, I have listed standards from ALSC and YALSA that I felt correlated with our NC school librarian standards.   You can match up your own state’s school librarian standards where mine are listed.

Educational Practices
ALSC Standard I.5. Understands current educational practices, especially those related to literacy and inquiry.

ALSC Standard II.2. Instructs and supports children in the physical and digital use of library tools and resources, information gathering and research skills, and empowers children to choose materials and services on their own.

YALSA Standard II.1. Become familiar with the developmental needs of young adults in order to provide the most appropriate resources and services.

YALSA Standard VII.5. Instruct young adults in basic information gathering, research skills and information literacy skills – including those necessary to evaluate and use electronic information sources – to develop life-long learning habits.

NC SLMC Standard 1.a. School library media coordinators lead in the school library media center and media program to support student success.

NC SLMC Standard 4.a. School library media coordinators use effective pedagogy to infuse content-area curricula with 21^st Century skills.

In order to facilitate your local public librarians’ ability to keep up with educational practices, make a point of sharing any new state educational guidelines that are issued and also any school improvement initiatives that your particular school is implementing.  They may be able to facilitate your school meeting some of your initiatives.  Each semester I have the public librarians and the college librarians come in to do a session with our seniors before they start their Graduation Projects.  We instruct them on accessing the resources at the school library and also at the public and college libraries and review proper citation guidelines for using resources.  We are discussing also having them come in next year to do sessions with our juniors.

Resources and Digital Access
ALSC Standard II. 1. Creates and maintains a physical and digital library environment that provides the best possible access to materials and resources for children of all cultures and abilities and their caregivers.

YALSA Standard VI. 5. Be an active partner in the development and implementation of technology and electronic resources to ensure young adults’ access to knowledge and information.

NC SLMC Standard 3.a. School library media coordinators develop a library collection that supports 21^st Century teaching and learning.

There are a number of public librarians from different states that are creating student access policies with school librarians so students can have easier access to digital and print resources.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg in NC has successfully been running their One Access collaboration format for a year now.  Our county is looking into developing a similar program.  Currently our high school librarians have worked with the public library to provide digital access for our students.  If there is a resource that you think would benefit your students and it is something that your library cannot afford, see if it is available at the public library and if there is a way that your students may be able to access it.

Programming
ALSC Standard III.7. Delivers programs outside or inside the library to meet users where they are, addressing community and educational needs, including those of unserved and underserved populations.

YALSA Standard VII.3. Provide a variety of informational and recreational services to meet the diverse needs and interests of young adults and to direct their own personal growth and development.

NC SLMC Standard 4.c. School library media coordinators promote reading as a foundational skill for learning.

Who doesn’t want help with running a special program or author visit to your school.  Public librarians are also good sources for book talks, helping with Battle of the Books events or collaborating on a makerspace activity, especially if you haven’t created one of your own yet. If your public library is located where your students live, see if you can help with afterschool programs or a weekend program, that way your students can see you in a variety of libraries and become aware that both librarians are there to support them.

Professional Development
ALSC Standard VII.9. Participates in local, state, and national professional organizations to strengthen skills, interact with fellow professionals, promote professional association scholarships and contribute to the library profession.

YALSA Standard III2. Develop relationships and partnerships with young adults, administrators and other youth-serving professionals in the community be establishing regular communication and by taking advantage of opportunities to meet in person.

NC SLMC Standard 5.b. School library media coordinators link professional growth to their professional goals.

We all enjoy going to conferences, in part to exchange ideas with fellow librarians. But there is often the issue of lack of time and funds.  Why not set up a local one-day conference and invite local school, public and academic librarians?  I am a member of the Azalea Coast Library Association which covers several area counties; we are about to have our first one-day conference with participants from all types of libraries including librarians from our local hospital.  No one has very far to travel and the very low registration fee includes lunch.  Another idea is to set up an after-school or workday coffee break with your public librarians to share information about what is taking place in your libraries.

Advocacy
ALSC Standard V.6. Communicates and collaborates in partnership with other agencies, institutions and organizations serving children in the community, to achieve common goals and overcome barriers created by socioeconomic circumstances, culture, privilege, language, gender, ability, and other diversities.

YALSA Standard III.3. Be an advocate for young adults and effectively promote the role of the library in serving young adults, demonstrating that the provision of services to this group can help young adults build assets, achieve success, and in turn, create a stronger community.

NC SLMC Standard 1.c. School library media coordinators advocate for effective media programs.

Working by yourself to advocate for a strong library program may be difficult at times but working with all local librarians together could provide opportunities to showcase the benefits to the community of not only the school library program but also the public library program.  By collaborating on joint ventures, you will be better able to make the community aware of how library use from toddlers through young adulthood creates life-long learners, which benefits the community as a whole.

If you are the only librarian in your school you may sometimes feel (with budget and time constraints) that you have a difficult time meeting your own standards for evaluation.  Remember that there are also public librarians you can collaborate with to make it easier for both of you to meet your own individual goals.  Look through ALSC’s and YALSA’s competencies to find areas that you both share and that would benefit your program.  There are many more standards that overlap with our own school librarian standards. Comment with any ideas that you have for connecting one of your school librarian standards with ALSC’s and YALSA’s standards. Or, if you are a public librarian point out a standard that you feel you would be able to collaborate on with a school librarian easily.

*YALSA’s revised standards are due to be published in the summer of 2016. Visit this link to see a draft of the updated competencies.

Joann Absi is the media coordinator at Eugene Ashley High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is a member of of the AASL/ALSC/YALSA Interdivisional Committee on School-Public Library Cooperation and currently blogs for Knowledge Quest. 

The post Gimme a C (for Collaboration!): How Our Standards Relate and Interconnect appeared first on ALSC Blog.

It’s a busy time of year for library advocates, with National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) right around the corner on May 2–3. Even if you don’t have the time or the resources to head to Washington for the day itself, you can participate in Virtual Library Legislative Day (VLLD) activities during the week of May 2–6 (for details, check out the Everyday Advocacy website).

Advocacy Begins at Home

Advocacy stories write themselves every day as school librarians do their jobs

As the excitement over NLLD and VLLD build, however, it’s important to remember that big, visible campaigns like these are only one small piece of advocacy, and that much, much more is being done on the ground everyday by librarians simply doing their jobs. Ultimately, advocacy means convincing others of the value of library services to children, and we can all do that just by providing great service—and by ensuring that our bosses, administrators, boards, etc. know about it.

As a solo school librarian with no support staff in a school where only 20% of the student body is reading at or above grade level, the last thing on my mind on a day-to-day basis is advocacy. My number-one, almost obsessive mission is getting my students to read. One way I do this is by keeping the library open after school so parents can drop in with their children to have a little quiet reading time together. This hasn’t been a hugely popular program, but it doesn’t really cost me much effort (I stay late to shelve anyway), and the unintended rewards have been huge.

My most regular after-school customer last year was a fourth-grade girl I’ll call Jane. Her mother brought her by one afternoon and asked if it would be OK if Jane used my after-school hours to sit and do homework and read quietly. It was too chaotic at home, she explained. As a single mom, she found it hard to keep Jane’s two much younger siblings quiet enough for Jane to focus on her reading or her work. I said, “No problem” (this being the abracadabra phrase of micro advocacy), and thus, Jane became my companion every afternoon for the rest of the school year. This didn’t require much effort on my part. She would sit and do her homework, and then dip into the collection, reading everything from picture books to graphic novels to nonfiction on just about every subject. Occasionally, I would suggest a book, but mainly, we worked in companionable silence. It was nice to have company during what is frequently a fairly lonely time of the day.

How Our Daily Tasks Become Advocacy

Where this becomes an advocacy success story is in my conversations with my principal. Obviously, I asked her for permission before taking Jane on for what was essentially free child care, and every so often, I would share anecdotes with her, mostly about how voraciously and broadly Jane was reading. Lo and behold, Jane came through with top marks across the board in the state exams, which the principal attributed to her time in the library. I personally think it had more to do with Jane’s native intelligence, natural curiosity, and strong work ethic, but I was happy to let my principal make assumptions. I am blessed with a very supportive principal, but in my world, keeping her happy is advocacy-goal number one. As with all New York City elementary schools, the decision to have a library rests entirely with the principal.

I’m sure that school librarians around the country all have their Janes—students they’ve helped in some, small way that in turn created ripples throughout their schools. We would love to hear these stories. As Matt McLain wrote in an earlier Advocacy and Legislation blog, “Did You Know This Is Advocacy”, these stories are crucial not just to your own, local advocacy efforts, but also on a much broader scale, as these stories are passed along to policy makers. Please take a moment to submit your school-library advocacy story to the Everyday Advocacy website.

Eileen Makoff is the School Library Media Specialist at P.S. 90 Edna Cohen School in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and a member of the ALSC Advocacy and Legislation Committee. 

The post Did You Know this Is Advocacy: In the Schools appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Aside from checking out great new titles, sitting in on book discussions, and listening to speakers, I had the opportunity to meet with the members of my virtual committee who were attending ALAMW too.  Bonus!

The ALSC Advocacy & Valuation Task Force is a two year task force focused on advocacy and valuation using outcome/output measurement.

One of our most shocking take-aways so far is that many members don’t know about or use the Everyday Advocacy website and newsletters, created specifically to help YOU with advocating for youth services.  Take a few minutes today to check out the important work Jenna Nemec-Loise is doing and participate in her January 5 challenge to set a 2016 advocacy goal for yourself.

The post ALSC helps YOU with advocacy #alamw16 appeared first on ALSC Blog.

While browsing the exhibits at ALA Midwinter, I came upon the Harry Potter Alliance and its work on organizing youth to participate in National Library Legislative Day – mainly by creating local chapters in schools, libraries, youth centers, etc.. to enlist passionate readers in youth advocacy.  Of course, I also had to buy this wicked awesome (note my attempt at Boston lingo!) t-shirt:

These local chapters “serve as an access point for young people who are passionate about stories to become civically engaged and lead projects that improve their communities.” (thehpalliance.org)  The HPA envisions librarians being “most heavily involved in creating their chapters, planning the first few meetings, and identifying potential leaders among the young people in attendance.”

Are you as intrigued as I am? You can send questions via a virtual owl (HPA brilliant lingo!) to their Chapters Staff at [email protected] to learn more.

The post Harry Potter Alliance and Youth Advocacy appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Use the resources on the Everyday Advocacy site to help make your voice heard! Photo courtesy of ALSC.

Thanks, in no small part, to all of your calls and emails, the House of Representatives passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which will reauthorize the ESEA if approved. As mentioned in his blog post about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) last month, ALSC President Andrew Medlar gave us the heads-up that this second call to action would be critical to ensure that a reauthorization includes these hard-fought school library provisions.

Now is the time for the final push! The Senate is expected to vote early next week and it is critical that both of your US Senators hear from you. Ask them to, “vote YES on the ESSA Conference Report” and take a moment to let them know how librarians and school libraries positively impact children’s lives and communities.

Visit ALA’s Action Center to locate your Senators and stay up to date on this historic vote. While you’re at it, head over to ALSC’s Everyday Advocacy page to find out more ways to make your voice heard on issues that matter.

Matt McLain is the Co-chair of the ALSC Advocacy and Legislation Committee.

The post Time to Contact Your Senators #ESEA appeared first on ALSC Blog.

ALA Washington Office shares:

1. Contact your Senators to let them know how essential this bill is to our children’s education and futures.  
2. Contact absolutely everyone you know and ask them to do the same thing.

• Vote Yes on the Every Student Succeeds Act Conference Report.
• School libraries are critical to our children’s future and the Conference Report includes critical language to support effective school library programs.
• This language is historic: For the first time in half a century Congress has underscored the importance of effective school library programs by expressly including them in multiple parts of this watershed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

In this podcast (click through to download or connect to online player), LeeAnna Mills, Former Legislative Chair and Past President of the Alabama School Library Association, librarian at Northside Middle School and District Library Media Coordinator for Tuscaloosa County Schools, discusses how you can use data to reach administrators, school board members, and legislators in support of library services for young people.

Wendy Stephens is a member of the YALSA Advocacy Resources Taskforce.

According to the 2013-2014 Core Values for the Teen Services Profession, developed by the Young Adult Library Services Association’s (YALSA) Professional Values Task Force, there are “nine core values that define professionalism for those who work for and with teens through libraries. ¹” One of the nine core values is “Compassion,” where librarians who work with teens “strive to identify with others’ experiences. Shows concern, empathy, and consideration for the needs and values of others.^” Within this value, librarians will demonstrate the following:

• Communicates effectively, both verbally and non-verbally, with others, taking into consideration individual differences in learning styles, language, and cognitive abilities, etc.
• Builds and maintains knowledge of teens’ social, emotional, mental, and physical development and how they shape the teen experience
• Strives to understand teens' lives from their perspective in order to create genuine connections
• Places the needs of teens above one’s own
• Provides services for and with underserved and underrepresented teen populations

After reading through this report, the one core value that speaks the loudest to me is compassion. If we, as teen librarians, were to prioritize these values, compassion needs to be the number one value that we need to act upon; not only is compassion the key to solidifying honest relationships with teen patrons, these connections provide us with the information and insight to support many facets of teen services including connected learning. According to The Future of Library Services For and With Teens: A Call to Action: “To support their learning—personal, work-related, and academic—library staff must connect with teens as individuals. As one participant noted: “Many teens don’t have relationships with non-supervisory adults…teens need more adults who are not “in charge of charge” of them” (2014, p.10). By showing compassion, we are conveying to teens that we are genuinely interested in their opinions and thoughts, which is why we develop teen advisory boards and similar programs. These programs allow us to build rapport with teen patrons because we are providing a dedicated forum for teens that tell them that we do value their input. If we are unable to create these kinds of avenues, we need to get up from behind the reference desk and actually talk to teens when they walk into the library. What exactly do we talk about? Talk about anything and everything! If you have a question about the latest trends, or don’t understand what’s going on Twitter, they are going to be your best resources. More importantly, if we want to know about the school curriculum, teens will tell us all about their assignments, which help us purchase materials they will need. In fact, about six years ago, I remember working with one teen who was so painfully shy that he couldn’t look at me when I said “Hello.” After a few weeks of trying to have a conversation with him, he opened up and was literally my go-to for everything anime and technology. In fact, he ended up joining the Teen Advisory Board, which was super awesome because he brought a ton of his friends to our events and some of them joined as well! It is amazing how word of mouth spreads and, if you can influence one teen, they will tell their friends, which means great turnouts for events and a whole army of minions as my colleagues once said.

As we build working relationships with teens, we also need to understand that teens want to relate and confide in us. Along with wanting to be seen as individual, teens need an adult to seek advice and to listen to them. In other words, they are searching for a neutral third party that isn’t exactly a parent, but not a stranger. When teens confide in us, they trust and value our opinion because they know that we have compassion and we are mentors who genuinely care about them. At the same time, we also need to draw clear boundaries. In other words, if teens can’t behave, they will suffer the consequences; if teens need help, we will do everything we can in our power to make sure they get what they need. It’s not always easy dealing with goofy teenagers, but, with a little love, patience, respect, and kindness, teens will see that they have someone in the library that will help them succeed and win at life.

References:

1. http://www.ala.org/yalsa/sites/ala.org.yalsa/files/content/YALSA_CoreProfessionalValues.pdf
2. http://www.ala.org/yaforum/sites/ala.org.yaforum/files/content/YALSA_nationalforum_Final_web_0.pdf

Over the next several weeks, Congress is working on a new federal education bill. Now is the time to activate your library friends and supporters and get them to speak up for school libraries! The last education bill, No Child Left Behind, did not specifically include school libraries, and as a result students suffered because schools closed libraries, cut library budgets, or eliminated staff positions. Right now we have a window of opportunity to right that wrong and help America’s youth. Congress needs to hear from as many people as possible about the importance of school libraries in supporting youth success. Provided below are two ready-to-use messages you can share out with your library supporters. Please do so today!

SAMPLE EMAIL, NEWSLETTER ITEM OR FACEBOOK POST

Studies show that strong school libraries drive student achievement. They help young people succeed in school and prepare for college, careers and life. Congress is currently working on a new education bill that would provide federal funding for the nation’s schools. They need to hear from you that it’s vital to include school libraries in this new bill.  Your calls, emails and Tweets will be the evidence Congress needs to take action for America’s youth and ensure school libraries adequately funded in the ESEA reauthorization.

Here’s how you can ensure that happens:

1. Go here: http://cqrcengage.com/ala/home
2. In the blue bar in the upper half of the page, choose how you want to contact your member of Congress: letter, Tweet, or phone call
3. Click on the option(s) you want, provide the required contact info, & submit.  The letter and Tweet are pre-written for you, so it’s super easy! (but you do have the option to customize them if you want)
4. Forward this message to library advocates in your community & encourage them to do take action, too
5. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

For more information, read this blog post from ALA. Thank you for speaking up for youth and libraries!

SAMPLE TWEET

kids need #SchoolLibraries! ow.ly/Sf4lT -contact Congress 2 ask 4 support 4 school libs via this easy site ow.ly/S0kdw

Thank you,

Beth Yoke

Last week we called on library staff and advocates to contact Congress to support school libraries, and many of you responded (yay!)!  So far, there have been 2,971 emails, 446 Tweets and 39 phone calls.  That’s great, but with over 98,000 school libraries and 17,000 public libraries in the U.S. we can do better!  ALA staff are meeting with key Congressional staff later this week to ask for support for school libraries.  Right now we need one final push from library staff and advocates so that when ALA meets with Congressional staff your grassroots support will be the evidence Congress needs to take action for school libraries and ensure they’re adequately funded in the ESEA reauthorization.

Here’s how you can make sure that happens:

1. Go here: http://cqrcengage.com/ala/home
2. In the blue bar in the upper half of the page, choose how you want to contact your members of Congress: letter, Tweet, or phone call
3. Click on the option(s) you want, provide the required contact info, & submit.  The letter and Tweet are pre-written for you, so it’s super easy! (but you do have the option to customize them if you want)
4. Forward this message to library advocates in your community & encourage them to do take action, too
5. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

For more information, read this blog post from ALA.

Thank you,

Beth Yoke

YALSA identifies nine Core Professional Values in the Teen Services Profession;  accountability, collaboration, compassion, excellence, inclusion, innovation, integrity, professional duty and social responsibility.  

These core values were developed in 2013-2014 by the Professional Values Task Force of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Members of the task force were Sarah Debraski, Meg Finney, Gretchen Kolderup, Amanda Murphy, Lalitha Nataraj (chair) and Vivian Wynn. YALSA’s Board of Directors adopted the guidelines on June 27, 2015.

What does collaboration look like?

COLLABORATION Fosters relationships within the library and within the community in order to best serve teens.

A person practicing this value;

• Works with other departments within the organization to create a holistic approach to serving teens

Do other departments in your library understand the developmental difference of working with teens versus children and or adults?  Are you able to share with your colleagues information about ways to work with and for teens?  Serving teens is our mission and we can help our colleagues learn skills to help them better serve teens too.  Linda Braun’s paper The Importance of a Whole Library Approach Public Library Young Adult Services: A YALSA Issue Paper points out ways to work with your colleagues by identifying possible trainings, modeling, providing professional development and more.  The practical things the paper points out are easy ways in which you can work with your staffs to better serve teens.   The same can be said for collaborating with outside organizations, by sharing your knowledge, offering training and professional development.

• Fosters partnerships with schools and other community organizations that serve youth

The partnerships you form outside of your library is just as important as the partnerships you form and foster inside the library.  This means they see the library as a resource, understand the role of the library and use the library (in person, online or through outreach).  Are you fully aware of all kinds of the schools (public, private, alternative, technical and vocational) in your community and working with them?  Are you aware of organizations in your community that work with and for teens?  Go to these schools and these organizations and if they don't know about the library tell them about the all of the great resources you have for teens, invite them to come to the library regularly and you go visit those organizations and schools regularly.  

• Leverages the talent, expertise, and resources available in the community

Having a comprehensive knowledge of the organizations, schools and community members is a  resource for your teens as well as your library.  How? Think of the community members you could reach out to/connect/network with, to partner with and how they may be able to informational sessions/programs for your teens in their areas of knowledge.  Our community members are incredible resources and more often than we may think are very accessible and interested in partnering with the library, all we need to do is ask.

The core values are a powerful tool for you to use to help strengthen your existing values and develop others you may want to bolster.  Share the core values with your colleagues as well as administration and your community.

The Senate is working on a new education bill (aka ESEA reauthorization) right now, and it’s vital that they include school libraries!  You can help ensure that happens:

1. Go to this web page
2. In the blue bar in the upper half of the page, choose how you want to contact your members of Congress: letter, Tweet, or phone call
3. Click on the option(s) you want, provide the required contact info, & submit.  The letter and Tweet are pre-written for you, so it’s super easy! (but you do have the option to customize them if you want)
4. Forward this message to library advocates in your community & encourage them to do take action, too
5. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

For more information, read this blog post from ALA.  Thank you for supporting libraries!

-Beth Yoke

Pixabay image

• An early literacy librarian who inevitably found her way to each new parent she saw (whether at the library or outside in her civilian life), cooed over their baby and personally invited them to baby storytime. She always carried a business card with the days and times of our storytimes to leave with the family. Our storytimes never lacked for attendees.

• Desk assistants who, while checking people out, always mentioned upcoming programs of interest to their various children. They relayed excitement and a hint of the fun to come. Our programs were always full of eager kids.

• Storytime presenters who, when interest in 1000 Books initiative started to falter, promoted the program in their sessions. Sign-ups and participation perked up again.

• Librarians attending community meetings chatting about our programs and services with tablemates and putting our literacy efforts out front for people to discover. Amazing opportunities resulted.

What do accountability, excellence, innovation, and social responsibility have to do with the teen services profession? The quick and easy answer is a lot. However, a more specific answer is that these 4 ideas are a few of the Core Values listed in YALSA's new Core Professional Values for the Teen Services Profession. This Professional Values document was published by YALSA last month after a year-long development process by the association's Professional Values Task Force. The Task Force began their work after discussions by the YALSA Board of Directors during their 2013 Annual Conference meetings The Board wanted to develop and support the professional development of library staff serving teens and to help others in the library profession understand the value of what library staff working with and for teens work towards every single day of the year.

The document, a one of its kind in the area of library teen services, is an excellent framework for the values that all those working with teens in libraries should embrace. Not only does it list the Core Values but it includes ways of demonstrating those values. For example, if you demonstrate Innovation, which is defined in the document as:

Approaches projects and challenges with a creative, innovative mindset

Then you demonstrate that by:

• Recognizes that learning comes from failure and experimentation
• Demonstrates a willingness to take calculated risks to improve teen services

It is important for all staff working with and for teens in libraries to go through the Core Values and assess strengths and weaknesses in demonstrating each value. Weaknesses aren't a bad thing as knowing where you are weak gives you the chance to find out what to improve on in order to serve teens even more successfully. Actually, the Excellence Core Value includes continuous learning as an area to focus on:

"Engages in acquisition of new knowledge throughout one’s career" as a demonstration of that value.

Along with assessing your own personal strengths and weaknesses related to the YALSA Core Professional Values, it can also be really useful to use the document as a way to help colleagues, administrators, trustees, principals, superintendents, community members, funders, and more understand what you do and why you do it. You can go over the document with them or make it a point to highlight different sections of the document for them over several months. You can talk with them about how you already achieve the values and what you are working on in order to do an even better job to support the needs of teens in the community. You can give those you talk with ideas about how they can support the Core Values by demonstrating at least some of the practices outlined in their own interactions with and for teens.

The Core Values are a core tool for you to use as you continue to work with and for teens in your community. Use it professionally as a way to make sure you are doing what you need to do and as a way to inform and advocate for the value of teen services in the library and the community at-large.

Now that District Days are in full swing and you have hopefully reached out to your representative, we wanted to provide some resources for you that will hopefully help you in your planning! And if you haven’t reached out yet, there’s still time. Hopefully these resources will provide some inspiration.

These handouts from YALSA are a great starting point when talk to your representative about libraries and teen services for libraries are not only important but necessary.

What public libraries do for teens..

Why teens need libraries…

YALSA’s Legislative Advocacy Guide

LSTA fact sheets from ALA

Then take a look at YALSA’s wiki page on advocating for more links and resources.

Don’t forget to use one of your best resources that you have, your teens! If you have a Teen Advisory Board then talk to them and see if they have ideas.  

And just remember, you don’t have to do something big for District Days. The most important thing is that you reach out to your representative and #act4teens!

Staci Terrell is the Children's Services Manager at Anderson Public Library in Anderson, Indiana and is the current chair of the YALSA Legislation Committee.

It’s time for District Days once again, which are when congressional representatives return home to their districts on recess. The recess this year is from August 1-September 6. This is the time representatives will have office hours at their local offices, attend town hall meetings, and meet with constituents to speak with and listen to them.

As an advocate for libraries and teens, this is an opportunity to show your representatives why libraries are a valuable asset to their constituents and districts. District Days provide you the ability to let your voice as a librarian or library worker be heard before the representatives head back to Washington, D.C.

Need help getting started? Check out the great resources on the District Days wiki and look for posts on the YALSAblog throughout August for information on how to participate by the Legislation Committee. One simple way is to make sure you use this  #act4teens hashtag when you promote your District Days activities.

Need to find out who your congressional representative is for your district? Or their local district offices? There's a website and an app for that!

Some things to keep in mind, as you start to prepare for District Days.

1. Keep it simple. You don't have to create an event just for your congressional representative to attend. Invite them to a teen program, such as a summer learning wrap up party or Back to School night.
2. Include the event details. Date, time, location, whether or not press will be invited, a description of the event, plus estimated attendance and who will be attending the event.
3. Provide information about your library. Key statistics, demographics, etc. but keep it concise.
4. Make sure to publicize the event! Send information to local news outlets along with using social media.
5. Follow up after the invitation is sent. Call them a week after it's sent, if you haven't heard back from them.
6. If they can't make it, then try going to them. Contact their local office to schedule an appointment, while they are at home in their district.
7. Send a thank you note. Once the event is over, don't forget to thank your representative for taking the time to visit your library!

For additional advocacy resources, visit www.ala.org/yalsa/advocacy

Staci Terrell is the Children's Services Manager at Anderson Public Library in Anderson, Indiana and is the current chair of the YALSA Legislation Committee.

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.