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The first time I read The Future of Library Services for and with Teens, I was inspired. The second time I read the report, I was overwhelmed. The third time I read the report, I was determined. As I looked at the findings in the report, and the steps YALSA calls out to ready our libraries to serve teens into the future, I felt like I was drowning. How could I implement all of these changes? And then I remembered that I was not alone, I was surrounded by amazing library staff who could, actually they should, come on this journey with me. So I started a discussion centered on the findings in the report and it has been one of the most professionally satisfying experiences of my career. If you feel a little overwhelmed, or want to build support for the actions outlined in the support with your colleagues, I highly suggest starting a discussion group.
First, the report looks deceptively long, don’t let that scare you or your colleagues from diving in. The real meat of the report, that provides the best fodder for discussion is only 33 pages long, that is achievably short, even for the time poor. We broke our discussion up, planning to cover the whole report in three discussions of 30 minutes each (about 10 pages per meeting).
We started small, with a look at the executive summary and the introduction to the report. This generated more discussion than we could cover in 30 minutes (I might recommend at least an hour) but I would rather get the conversation started and have it continue in the staff room, at the desk, and over coffee breaks. I knew we should allow for thoughts of dissent, one of the things I love about my colleagues is our ability to challenge assumptions. We want to really break things down so we can understand them better. You will notice a lot of questions that allow for the voice of dissent.
Introduction
- How do recent cuts in school librarian jobs change our role as public librarians serving teens?
- Does the Library play a role in closing the achievement gap? Are we succeeded at that? What could we be doing better? Is that what our community needs? Is our community defined merely by our serving district, or does it expand beyond city/county/state borders?
- What are the negative influences on our teens that we can help alleviate or solve?
- Do you feel prepared to deliver culturally competent library service?
- What is our role in preparing teens for the workforce and making sure they have 21st century skills and technological literacy?
Executive Summary
- The report states that libraries are grappling with diminishing resources. How are we facing diminishing resources to serve teens? What resources are diminishing?
- The report also states that we are serving a changing teen population. How is the teen population of our community changing? What have you noticed?
- If the diversity of teens is grown everywhere, how are we welcoming to all users? Have we changed anything to meet our new users where they are? What do these demographic changes mean for how we serve teens?
- How do you see rapid technology adoption impacting our services to teens?
- Do you feel it is the library’s role to help prepare teens for the workforce with critical skills? What skills do they need? How are we already meeting those needs? Where and how do we need to grow capacity?
- How do you feel about this statement, “…[The library] needs to evolve into a place, physical and virtual, where individuals can learn how to connect and use all types of resources, from physical books to apps to experts in a local, regional, or national community. Libraries must leverage new technologies and become kitchens for ‘mixing resources’ in order to empower teens to build skills, develop understanding, create and share, and overcome adversity.” How do we already do this? What challenges do we face?
- YALSA highlights the library’s critical role of providing an education system outside of formal schools. Are we leveraging that opportunity? How so? What would it mean for us to become the center for community education?
- Who is our audience? How do we balance outreach and serving those who come through the door?
- YALSA calls for skilled staff to act as mentors, coaches and connectors. How are we primed to do that? What challenges do we face?
- What do you think about Outreach as a tool to measure need in the community? Is that how we use it?
- What kind of policies do we have around serving teens? Are they flexible and easy to update as YALSA calls for? How can we impact change?
- Do we take a whole Library approach to planning, delivering and evaluating teen services?
- What does “literacy as a social act” mean? Are we serving our community in this way? Are our teens literate by this definition? What can we do to influence that?
With the care of passionate librarians, my colleagues created such a thoughtful and meaningful discussion around the report and these questions. We really came to focus on the ideas of being culturally competent and the changing demographics of our teen community. After our first discussion, several staff dove into Department of Education statistics about the schools nearest their location, and municipal statistics on poverty and race. They prepared reports for our next discussion over pages 4-12 (which will be summarized in part 2 of this series!).
As I continue these blog series about The Future of Library Services for and with Teens, I am curious what conversations you are having around the report? Which one of these discussion questions really piques your interest?
A big thank you to my colleagues who have participated in the discussion. I have the advantage of working for a library system. We have over 300 employees, staffing 13 libraries, serving an county of over 500,000 residents. I get to work with almost 40 passionate youth services staff members who have really embraced our discussions around the support. We have a wide variety of voices and perspectives in our department, which is one of my favorite things about our staff. Their insights have challenged me to look deeper into the report, think differently about it and notice things I had skimmed over on previous reading.
It’s time to start schedule planning for Midwinter, marking off the chunks of time in your calendar or conference planner, factoring in coat buttoning, hunting for scarves and gloves, and all those other winter weather factors!
While YALSA’s Board of Directors will be meeting at the ALA Midwinter Meeting Jan. 30 – Feb. 2, we’ll be using some of our sessions a bit differently this year. Instead of three separate sessions to meet to discuss association business, the first board session on Saturday will be a facilitated strategic planning session for board members. This session is part of a months’ long effort to develop a new strategic plan for YALSA. There will also be a strategic planning session for YALSA members at Midwinter from 1:00 – 2:30 on Sunday in room W192b of the convention center. During the spring we’ll also host virtual feedback sessions for members, and we hope to have a new plan finalized by no later than June.
The board will meet on Sunday and Monday at Midwinter to address current governance matters. All board sessions are open, and any registered conference attendee is welcome to sit in.
For the Sunday and Monday meetings, the board will be addressing a wide variety of topics, including: adopting best practices in change management, bringing more diversity to the YALSA leadership, year two of rolling out activities that support the recommendations in the report “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: a Call to Action,” prioritizing use of YALSA endowments funds for 2015, and more.
Right now, YALSA’s Board members are working hard to finalize the agenda and develop the related documents. Our goal is to post them online in the Governance section of the web site on January 16th.
To learn more about what YALSA and the Board have going on at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, visit http://tinyurl.com/YALSAmw15.
If you’re not attending the Midwinter Meeting, be sure to follow YALSA on Twitter, as Board members will be Tweeting news and board actions.
Have questions? Feel free to contact me: @doseofsnark or [email protected]. I’m excited about the work that has been done since Annual and Fall exec, and look forward to working with the board and members to keep moving YALSA forward!
Get ready to vote! The YALSA election runs from March 19 through April 25, and to help you be an informed voter, we’re sharing interviews with each of the 2014 YALSA Governance candidates.
We will start with the candidates for Board Director-at-large. YALSA Board members serve three-year terms, during which they jointly determine YALSA’s policies, programs, and strategic direction, in accordance with YALSA’s bylaws. They attend both virtual and in-person meetings and serve as liaisons to YALSA’s committee chairs and members. A full description of Board duties and responsibilities can be found here.
Candidates, who will be presented in alphabetical order, were asked to craft “Twitter-length” responses (i.e. around 140 characters). Full biographical information on all of the candidates can be found on the sample ballot.
Today we have an interview with Rachel McDonald.
Name and current position: Rachel McDonald Teen Librarian, King County Library System.
Why did you decide to run for a YALSA office? What excites you about serving on YALSA Board?
After getting to know YALSA by serving on task forces & selection committees, serving on the board is the logical & exciting next chapter.
What areas of YALSA’s Strategic Plan do you think you can best contribute to? Why?
Having served on the YA Advocacy Benchmarks Task Force, I’m excited to educate and empower our members to do more advocacy.
What is the most pressing issue facing YALSA today?
Advocating for our members whose positions, whether in school or public libraries, are often in jeopardy. Let’s show everyone how much we’re needed!
What priority activities should YALSA take on to address the “paradigm shift” as described in The Future of Library Services for and with Teens report?
We need to encourage librarians to facilitate connected learning with teens and provide opportunities for them to connect with mentors.
What attributes have helped you succeed professionally?
I welcome the opportunity to collaborate and learn from others, but still do my research so I can back up the positions I hold.
What do you see as the primary role of the Board?
Using the strategic plan as a guide, the primary role of the board is to help our members better serve teens in their communities.
If elected, how will you help YALSA members (in their daily work, in their careers, other)?
I look forward to helping library staff & teen advocates connect by sharing research, best practices, & advocacy tools.
What else would you like voters to know about you?
I believe my collaborative skills & vision will help move YALSA forward as we continue to look for ways to engage & support our members.
Get ready to vote! The YALSA election runs from March 19 through April 25, and to help you be an informed voter, we’re sharing interviews with each of the 2014 YALSA Governance candidates.
We will start with the candidates for Board Director-at-large. YALSA Board members serve three-year terms, during which they jointly determine YALSA’s policies, programs, and strategic direction, in accordance with YALSA’s bylaws. They attend both virtual and in-person meetings and serve as liaisons to YALSA’s committee chairs and members. A full description of Board duties and responsibilities can be found here.
Candidates, who will be presented in alphabetical order, were asked to craft “Twitter-length” responses (i.e. around 140 characters). Full biographical information on all of the candidates can be found on the sample ballot.
Today we have an interview with Jennifer Korn.
Name and current position: Jennifer Korn, TeenSpot Manager, The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
Why did you decide to run for a YALSA office? What excites you about serving on YALSA Board?
Serving on Board will allow me to give back to YALSA and to lead the organization in a way that supports my fellow teen serving professionals to reach their potential.
What areas of YALSA’s Strategic Plan do you think you can best contribute to? Why?
Advocacy and continuous education because of my past and present involvement in both of these activities within my library system, regional organizations, and YALSA.
What is the most pressing issue facing YALSA today?
The decrease in support for teen-focused, school and public library services as illustrated by a reduction of allocated resources and dedicated professionals.
What priority activities should YALSA take on to address the “paradigm shift” as described in The Future of Library Services for and with Teens report?
Advocating for the necessity of teen library services needs to be a top priority – advocacy to legislators, library and school administrators, potential partners.
What attributes have helped you succeed professionally?
I welcome challenge and growth. I perform best with a team and prefer collaborative work. I am thorough and focused with all of my work.
What do you see as the primary role of the Board?
Creating high-level initiatives that support the organization’s strategic plan, and then arming members so they can translate these initiatives into objectives that address immediate organizational needs and encourage member growth.
If elected, how will you help YALSA members (in their daily work, in their careers, other)?
I will make decisions guided by member needs and concerns, and emphasize the importance of engaging more members in YALSA’s activities.
What else would you like voters to know about you?
My involvement in YALSA has helped me move from librarian to a manager with recognized leadership ability. I want all of YALSA’s members to experience the same benefits to their professional growth.
Get ready to vote! The YALSA election runs from March 19 through April 25, and to help you be an informed voter, we’re sharing interviews with each of the 2014 YALSA Governance candidates.
We will start with the candidates for Board Director-at-large. YALSA Board members serve three-year terms, during which they jointly determine YALSA’s policies, programs, and strategic direction, in accordance with YALSA’s bylaws. They attend both virtual and in-person meetings and serve as liaisons to YALSA’s committee chairs and members. A full description of Board duties and responsibilities can be found here.
Candidates, who will be presented in alphabetical order, were asked to craft “Twitter-length” responses (i.e. around 140 characters). Full biographical information on all of the candidates can be found on the sample ballot.
Today we have an interview with Gretchen Kolderup.
Name and current position: Gretchen Kolderup,Manager for YA Education & Engagement @ New York Public Library.
Why did you decide to run for a YALSA office? What excites you about serving on YALSA Board?
I’m jazzed about the opportunity to to dig into the work of our association with others who care deeply about library services for teens!
What areas of YALSA’s Strategic Plan do you think you can best contribute to? Why?
Member recruitment/engagement. My YALSA experience has been so meaningful; I love sharing that & helping others hook in to the association!
What is the most pressing issue facing YALSA today?
Remaining relevant and effective to its members as well as financially stable as our profession continues to change.
What priority activities should YALSA take on to address the “paradigm shift” as described in The Future of Library Services for and with Teens report?
Sounds silly, but: help ppl feel comfortable getting out of comfort zones. Report shows evolution’s necessary & good, but change can be scary.
What attributes have helped you succeed professionally?
Determination, creativity, collaborative leadership style. Learned from building YA svcs from scratch in my first job & leading The Hub!
What do you see as the primary role of the Board?
Board fulfills YALSA’s mission to expand & strengthen teen services. Should help members in the now & advocate for members’ futures.
If elected, how will you help YALSA members (in their daily work, in their careers, other)?
Provide practical tools (like YALSA’s Pub Lib Eval Tool), create opps to recognize & share best ideas, advocate for teen services nationwide.
What else would you like voters to know about you?
Whether I’m elected or not, I’m interested in helping us all become even more stellar librarians for teens. Always up to collaborate or chat!
Get ready to vote! The YALSA election runs from March 19 through April 25, and to help you be an informed voter, we’re sharing interviews with each of the 2014 YALSA Governance candidates.
We will start with the candidates for Board Director-at-large. YALSA Board members serve three-year terms, during which they jointly determine YALSA’s policies, programs, and strategic direction, in accordance with YALSA’s bylaws. They attend both virtual and in-person meetings and serve as liaisons to YALSA’s committee chairs and members. A full description of Board duties and responsibilities can be found here.
Candidates, who will be presented in alphabetical order, were asked to craft “Twitter-length” responses (i.e. around 140 characters). Full biographical information on all of the candidates can be found on the sample ballot.
Today we have an interview with Betsy Fraser.
Name and current position: Betsy Fraser,Selector, Calgary Public Library
Why did you decide to run for a YALSA office? What excites you about serving on YALSA Board?
I was inspired to run by the Board liaison I had while chairing the Summer Reading Taskforce and I am excited about the opportunity to do the same thing for someone else.
What areas of YALSA’s Strategic Plan do you think you can best contribute to? Why?
Advocacy and member recruitment, as I am a staunch believer in YALSA and what it offers.
What is the most pressing issue facing YALSA today?
The need to attract and retain members, which offers possibilities for partnerships and advocacy.
What priority activities should YALSA take on to address the “paradigm shift” as described in The Future of Library Services for and with Teens report?
Promote digital and media literacy and capitalize on the know-how and innovative programming done by members.
What attributes have helped you succeed professionally?
Enthusiasm, determination, and a sense of humor.
What do you see as the primary role of the Board?
To look to the best possible future for the Division.
If elected, how will you help YALSA members (in their daily work, in their careers, other)?
Be available as a sounding board, as others have consistently been for me.
What else would you like voters to know about you?
I’ve served on Council, ALSC committees, & YALSA award, selection & process committees & have a solid understanding of where we fit.
Although the YALSA Board of Directors does a lot of work online and on the telephone throughout the year, our face-to-face meetings at ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual are big occasions for us to have some weighty discussions and make some major decisions. The agenda and board documents for Annual are now available online at www.ala.org/yalsa/workingwithyalsa/governance/board/annual2012. All members are welcome to attend any Board meeting.
The YALSA Board meeting at Annual is actually three separate meetings:
- Saturday, from 2:30-5:30, in the Convention Center, Room 211A
- Sunday, from 4-5:30, in the Convention Center, Room 211B
- Monday, from 1:30-3:30, in the Convention Center, Room 212 B
The Board allots 10 minutes at the beginning of each session for visitors or Board members to share information. This is just to keep us all up to date on any information that affects YALSA or our members. In addition, there is always time allotted to hear from our ALA Executive Board rep (Steve Matthews) and our ALA BARC (Budget Analysis and Review Committee) rep (Alex Villagran). In addition, we will receive a report from our Emerging Leaders group. Other than that, we take agenda items in roughly the order they appear on the agenda, but we may move things around in order to finish a topic before the end of a session, or accommodate a member who is making a report to the Board.
The first session usually begins with the adoption of the “consent agenda.” These are items such as reports that do not require discussion or action, or items that the board has already discussed and voted on in ALA Connect. Any item may be pulled from the consent agenda for full discussion and separate vote if a Board member requests it.
The rest of the agenda is divided into action items (which require action), discussion items (which may generate action, but don’t have to), and information items. This meeting’s action items include:
- Approving an Odyssey Award Committee manual
- Establishing a “365 Days of YA” task force to crowdsource a list of 365 tried and true, easy to implement teen services activities and create an online calendar to promote them.
- Establishing a State Association outreach task force, to strengthen ties with like-minded organizations, such as YA sections of state library associations.
- Piloting a virtual selection committee so that members who cannot come to conferences will have an opportunity to serve on a selection or award committee.
- Forming a Youth Engagement Committee that would identify and implement projects in conjunction with teen advisory groups, as a way to get teen involvement in YALSA governance.
- Approving sponsor and partner guidelines
Discussion items include:
- Looking at the latest draft of a new manual for the Nonfiction Award Committee
- Discussing strategies for boosting YALSA’s revenue streams
- Discussing the Board member self-assessment process—what were the results, and what should change in the future
- Discussing how to go forward in evaluating the success of the Strategic Plan
- Looking at a report on the evaluation of the interest groups and discussion groups and deciding where to go from here
- Discussing a report from the Division and Membership Promotion committee about how best to achieve local presence for YALSA
The Monday afternoon meeting will include finishing up any discussion or action items that weren’t completed on Saturday or Sunday, adopting and presenting resolutions in honor of retiring board members, and installing new board members.
The YALSA Board has a lot of items to cover in a relatively short amount of time, so if you do attend a meeting, it may seem like things are moving at a rapid pace. Fortunately, the Board members take their responsibilities seriously, and h
Monthly President’s Report – April 2012
April was a very interesting month for me on the YALSA front. I’m just back from a week in Washington, D.C. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of last week, YALSA Executive Director Beth Yoke and I, along with several hundred other library supporters, attended National Library Legislative Day. Beth and I had eight separate meetings over two days, with legislators’ staff members, and with representatives from other organizations that have similar interests to YALSA, such as the Afterschool Alliance, the Center for Excellent Education, and the International Reading Association. We talked about how we could support one another’s missions.
Then on Friday and Saturday of the same week, I staffed the YALSA booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival at the Washington Convention Center. Along with DC-area YALSA members, I handed out bookmarks and flyers, showed the demo of the YALSA Teen Book Finder App (available in May—we hope—from Apple’s App Store), chatted with teens, parents, teachers, and librarians, and did some on-the-fly readers’ advisory. We encouraged teens to participate in this year’s Teens’ Top Ten, and there was a lot of interest and enthusiasm.
Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on.
Committees
- Committee Chairs:
- I had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the work of their committees.
- Committee/Jury/Taskforce Appointments:
- I appointed members to fill vacancies on several committees.
- I continued appointing members to fill new task forces created by Board action at Midwinter
Board Activities
- I participated, with other Board members, in an online chat about recruiting and engaging members.
- I worked with Board members on their self-assessments.
- I worked with Executive Committee members to create an agenda for the Spring Executive Conference Call, to be held on Thursday, May 3.
- Board members, for National Volunteer Week, wrote thank-you notes to YALSA committee members.
Partnerships.
- Mary Fellows, ALSC President, and I, along with our Presidents’ Program co-chairs, have been making final arrangements for our combined Presidents’ Program at ALA Annual. I hope many of you will be able to join us bright and early Monday morning to hear Dr. Michelle Poris of SmartyPants and Stephen Abram of GaleCengage share their insights on the Digital Lives of Tweens and Young Teens.
- I continue to participate in the School Libraries Task Force with members of other ALA divisions.
Writing.
Media & Outreach.
- Spoke with Jeff Rivera, for Entertainment Weekly, about trends in YA literature.
- Spoke with Carlie Geisinger, of the Gilroy (CA) Dispatch about teen spaces and the value of having teen rooms in libraries. The occasion of the article was the opening of a new library building in a community that had never had a separate teen room.
- For National Volunteer Week,
Monthly President’s Report – February 2012
March kind of sneaked up on me, I guess because February is a short month. Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on. Happy Teen Tech Week!
Completed Tasks
- Committee Chairs: I had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the work of their committees.
- Board Activities:
- The Board had an online chat on February 1. Board members offered suggestions for the content of the selection and award committee chair and member webinars.
- The Board met by telephone on February 29 to discuss chair quarterly reports and to take action on two requests for Board action that came from committees.
- The Board voted to accept a proposal from the Morris Award committee to amend the eligibility rules to exclude self-published and e-book only books from consideration. The new rule will be re-evaluated after the 2013 award.
- The Board voted to change the publication schedule of the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults (JRLYA) from quarterly to a rolling schedule, pending receipt of a new ISSN.
- Committee/Jury/Taskforce Appointments:
- I appointed members to fill vacancies on several committees.
- I continued appointing members to fill new task forces created by Board action at Midwinter
- I presented a webinar for new selection and award committee chairs on February 1.
- Committees:
- I presented a webinar for new selection and award committee members on February 8.
Partnerships. I am participating in an ALA-wide School Library task force. Members include AASL, ALSC, and PLA members, as well as people from the ALA Washington Office and others. I participated in a conference call on February 27. The task force is working on ways to bring the plight of school libraries to the attention of legislators and other decision-makers.
Writing:
- Submitted the president’s column for the Spring issue of YALS.
- Wrote a post on the YALSA blog to explain changes in YALSA’s website.
- Wrote a post on the YALSA blog to encourage members to have their libraries fill out the young adult services portion of the PLDS survey.
Media & Outreach
- Along with YALSA Membership Coordinator Letitia Smith, staffed the YALSA booth at the Beyond School Hours conference in Burlingame, CA, February 16-17.
- Spoke with Jennifer Fink, a freelance writer doing a piece for Scholastic Instructor, about ways teachers and parents can use new media to encourage reading and writing.
- Spoke with Rocco Staino, from School Library Journal about YALSA’s Booze for Books initiative.
- With help from YALSA’s Web Services Manager, Stevie Kuenn, submitted a letter to Chris Dodd, Chairman of the MPAA, to encourage a PG-13 rating for the upcoming film version of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Important YALSA News & Reminders
- Don’t forget to vote! ALA (and YALSA) elections are from March 19-April 27. You will be receiving an email from ALA with a lin
As you know, the ALA/YALSA election season has started. Polls are open March 19 through April 27 and YALSA has candidates on the association’s slate running for governance positions and candidates running for awards positions. In this post I’ll talk about the governance positions and provide information on resources you can access to learn more about the positions. The information should also help you think about what you want to consider when you cast your ballot. (Next week 2012 YALSA Nominating Committee member Dawn Rutherford will post on the awards slate with information on those positions.)
This year the positions open on the YALSA governance slate are (the full slate is available on the YALSAblog):
- President-elect/President
- Board of Directors
- YALSA Councilor
You may have heard of all of these positions but aren’t really sure what the people in them actually do. Here’s a brief run-down:
- President-elect/President: The person serving as YALSA President-elect and then President is as a member of YALSA’s Executive Committee as well as a member of YALSA’s Board. As President-Elect this YALSA leader participates fully in all Board meetings and Executive Committee meetings. She is responsible, during the President-Elect year, for appointing members to YALSA member groups including process and selection committees. And, during this elect year she works closely with the President and Past President on association planning. During the Presidential year the elected candidate runs all YALSA meetings including Board and Executive Committee meetings. She is responsible for representing YALSA at official events at Midwinter Meeting and Conference. She works closely with the Executive Director, President-Elect, and Past President on planning leadership and governance activities including drafting agendas and Board documents.
- YALSA Councilor: The YALSA Councilor is a full member of the YALSA Executive Committee and the YALSA Board. He or she is required to attend all Executive Committee meetings, all association Board meetings, and all ALA Council meetings. As YALSA’s representative to ALA Council, the Councilor is expected to speak up for issues that have an impact on teens at Council meetings. He or she is expected to bring topics of concern from Council to the YALSA Board as well as bring similar topics from the YALSA Board to Council. He or she is also expected to actively participate in the Youth Council Caucus, which is made up of all of those on ALA Council that are involved in serving youth. You can read more about the Councilor position on the YALSA website.
- Board of Directors: Each person elected to a YALSA Board of Director position is expected to participate fullly in the governance activities of the association 12 months a year. These members are required to attend face-to-face meetings at Annual Conference and Midwinter as well as a series of virtual and phone meetings held throughout the year. Board members serve as liaisons to all YALSA member groups including process and selection committees, task forces, and juries. Often Board members are asked to take on work as a part of an ad hoc committee that is investigating a particular activity in which YALSA is or might be involved. More information on the duties and responsibilities of YALSA Board members is available on the YALSA website.
For each of these positions strong leadership skills are required. These includ
Like 20,000 other people, I attended Annual this year. It was only the second time I’ve been, so before I left, I sat down to think about how I wanted this experience to be similar to and different from my last/first time (Chicago 2009). I knew I wanted to be bolder in approaching people I didn’t know so that I could meet and talk with more people, and I definitely feel like I succeeded in that! Another one of my goals for my Annual experience this year was to learn more about YALSA as an organization and to find out more about what YALSA does beyond what I’ve experienced so far.
And what better way to do that, I thought, than to sit in on a Board meeting? ALA has an open meeting policy, which means that almost all of the business ALA and its divisions conduct are open to members with the exception of “matters affecting the privacy of individuals or institutions.” Thus, while you can’t sit in on the Printz committee’s deliberations, you can attend Board meetings and hear what issues YALSA’s governing body discusses and the decisions that they come to.
I’m not going to lie: that Sunday afternoon, I was nervous walking into the room where the Board was meeting, especially since I was the only observer there. I wrote my name on the sign-in sheet (keeping a record of who was at the meeting is part of taking minutes), took an agenda, and sat in a chair along the perimeter of the room.
Board meetings open with a ten-minute open information forum, which allows visitors and Board members to share information that isn’t tied to the agenda. I didn’t have anything in particular I wanted to say, but I liked that things started off with a chance for anyone to bring something to the Board.
After that, the Board started addressing items on the agenda. The first item up for discussion was actually really interesting: should publishers be allowed to put ALA award seals on the same story in a different format? Specifically, should they be able to put a Printz seal on an ebook? It’s a little more complicated than just that, because “different formats” could include audiobooks, too, but listening to an audiobook production of a story is a much different experience than reading the print book. And even though ebooks seem like the same book, what if the ebook has additional content like an author interview video or even enhanced text with hyperlinks to author notes or short essays on particular passages? Is that the same work as the original novel? The Board decided to form an ad-hoc committee to explore the issue further and then moved on to the next agenda item.
Over the rest of the hour-and-a-half meeting, the Board talked about how to support Interest and Discussion Groups and about establishing a social media policy for Board members and heard reports from the executive committee, the fiscal officer, and the ALA liaison. I left the meeting feeling like I had a much better idea of what kinds of issues and administrative tasks YALSA handles. I feel like I know my professional organization a little better now, and attending the Board meeting has made me interested in getting more involved, maybe through applying to be on a process committee next.<
Just under two weeks and I’ll be in D. C. for ALA Annual. I know I feel this way before every Annual, but I have to say it, “OMG, Annual is only two weeks away, how can it be so soon?”
That said, I’ve got a lot on my schedule for Annual Conference and as YALSA President there are a few things I want to make sure to highlight related to the meetings of the YALSA Board.
The agenda and supporting documents for YALSA’s Board meetings is now available on the YALSA website in the Governance section. When you take a look at the documents you’ll see that the Board is ready to have some interesting and important discussions related to the Association, projects in the works, and projects in planning and early implementation phases.
The Board plans to take action on:
- A proposal related to spending of Morris Endowment funds.
- The implementation of the Reader’s Choice list.
- The creation of a new interest group that will focus on managing teen services.
- An addition to the Association’s strategic plan which focuses on the member engagement and recruitment portion of plan.
Several topics are listed in the discussion portion of the agenda. These discussion items can have an action, but often when the Board discusses these items these discussions lead to a next step that may result in their appearance as an action item on a future Board agenda. Topics that will be discussed by the Board this Annual include:
- An evaluation tool under development that when completed will help librarians analyze how well their programs, services, staffing, and space meet the standards set-out by YALSA’s recently revised Competencies for Librarians Serving Youth.
- How to support chairs and members of the Association’s member groups in order to provide what’s needed to get the work of the Association accomplished.
- The role that YALSA can, and should, play in helping the profession succeed and move forward.
The agenda also includes informational items of which Board members and membership need to be aware. These items aren’t specifically discussed, they do however provide useful background and supplementary information for Board and Association members. These informational items cover:
- A report from YALSA’s Web Advisory Committee on the Association’s For Members Only section of its website. The report includes recommendations on what the section should include and how it should be revised.
- An update on the BBYA/BFYA transition that includes an overview of the work that’s been accomplished following the vote by the YALSA Board to transition BBYA to BFYA.
- A report from the Association’s Division and Membership Promotion Committee with information on the results of a membership survey which was made available to members after Midwinter 2010.
- Reports from YALSA staff on membership, communications, continuing education, and more.
The above is just a sampling of the topics, actions, and discussions the YALSA Board will focus on at Annual Conference. YALSA members are encouraged to read through the documents the Board will be working with at their meetings.
All Association Board meetings are open and members should feel
