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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 October 30 and November 5 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the Week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.

A recent report from America’s Promise Alliance looks at four communities who strove to expand opportunities for their underserved students. With support from the Ford Foundation, these communities leveraged local resources to expand opportunities in a variety of ways.

America’s Promise Alliance is an organization, founded in 1997 with the support from former Secretary of State Colin Powell and previous presidents: Nancy Reagan (standing in for her husband Ronald Reagan), Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The organization strives to create places and situations for students to succeed.

Their report, Expanded Learning, Expanded Opportunities, highlighted the community efforts and the six critical lessons gained from the project as a whole. The four communities that were the focus included:

• Grand Rapids, Michigan – they created a new network of community collaborations that worked in their school districts to tutor and mentor students.
• Louisville, Kentucky – where they sought to expand capacity and participation in their community. Through this expansion, they hoped to raise awareness about programs and resources available.
• Memphis, Tennessee – where they used innovation from the outside to help their schools on the inside. They called it the “Memphis Model” and had programs such as Peer Power.
• Rochester, New York – schools redesigned the learning day, incorporating community organizations into the normal school day for expanded opportunities for their students.

From these case studies, I think the biggest lesson they learned was about community collaboration and support. Their first critical lesson is that collaboration is key, but it’s a lot of hard work. However, when you leverage the resources you have and work towards a greater goal, there is a better chance of making a sustaining impact.

That’s where libraries can come in. I’ve written a bit on studies about after-school programs during my year blogging for YALSA. I kept asking questions to libraries in the field about how their libraries could play a role in after-school programming. However, after reading this report, I want to flip that question: how does the library become a key collaborator and partner? How do we engage actively with our community, especially our schools, and find ways to work within a district? How can we help raise and expand capacity within our libraries which will hopefully spread throughout the community? That might mean we need to “turn outward” (the buzzword right now) and do engagement outside the walls of our physical library space.

And YALSA has lots to say on community collaboration. From our Wiki section devoted to partnerships, to simply searching the YALSA blog with the tag of “collaboration” brings up great articles and examples from the past. The idea of collaboration even ties into the national campaign ALA is devoting time and energy to, Libraries Transform. (And even more specifically with ALA’s collaboration with the Harwood Institute, Libraries Transforming Communities).

My experience so-far in graduate school and my work experiences show that engagement works best when you are actively present and willing to listen. It seems in these case studies that community involvement was constant and this will hopefully lead to a sustained effort. What is important is that once connections are made, they still require work to keep those relationships vibrant. Every day we can have the choice to strengthen relationships and that takes time and effort. But as we can see from these case studies, it’s worth it.

America’s Promise Alliance also released a study this October looking at mentorships with high school students. There’s an interesting article from Huffington Post about one of the students who took part in the mentorship and I think this study is a nice compliment to their expanded learning report.

What do others think of these studies and how do you see your library engaging with the community as a whole?

In 2000, the world’s leaders joined together to establish the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. They selected 8 issues that impacted the world, and set a deadline of 2015 to address. In 15 years humanity joined together to reach most of the goals.

Now they have set new goals  for us to reach by 2030. They may seem huge, but humanity can be amazing! Everyone will need to reach beyond themselves to help reach these goals, but as providers of service to young adults we can help inspire and encourage everyone to think about these issues that impact the whole world.

To help promote awareness of these issues Global Goals has created resources and lesson plans  for educators to use to engage youth in discussions about these issues and inspire them to become active in helping to reach these goals.

At the heart of libraries we already work hard to address several of these issues every day, but like the video said, let us not stop halfway.

For example Good Jobs and Economic Growth is an area I see libraries all over addressing. Some are partnering to offer technology and other workforce training to the public. Others are out in the community helping to support small businesses. Lastly libraries have resources and materials like Test Prep books, Wifi, and computer printing will help support job seekers.

I recently met Elaine Harger, a middle school librarian, who was incorporating the life cycle of technology into her digital literacy lessons with students. She showed images of children mining for the minerals in cellphones, and computer recycling centers in India. This helps teens understand the true cost of throwing away outdated technology and meets the goal of Responsible Consumption.

Libraries are open welcoming places for everyone. We help reduce inequalities by exposing people to new ideas, solutions, and experiences. In some communities the library can be the only place that minorities feel welcomed and accepted. We encourage people to read, watch, and do things just outside of their comfort level, especially teens. At the heart that is why we fight for intellectual freedom and Banned Books Week.

So we know that libraries are already doing great things, but we need to be more deliberate about making the things we do more visible. Even if you focus on one goal, you can help make a difference in the lives of everyone on the planet by being a role model and advocate for global citizenry.

So as you think about your school year, displays, collection development, or the future libraries, try to incorporate the global goals into your libraries’ services or your vocabulary.

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.

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 May 1 and 7 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the Week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.

YALSA wants to support you as you implement "The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: a Call to Action," and is currently considering publishing books focused on major topics in the report.

The YALSA Publications Advisory Board has identified some of the topics from the Futures report that are the most under-represented in professional literature, and we want your input. Fill out this brief poll to let us know which subjects and formats you would find the most useful in future publications from YALSA.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Do you have a great idea for a book? Knowledge you want to share? A desire to give back to your professional community? Consider publishing with YALSA! Find more information about submitting publication proposals or writing queries for Young Adult Library Services (YALS) here.

Back in October 2014, I wrote about a report entitled: “America After 3 PM.” The Afterschool Alliance was writing about how students spend their time after school. In it, I raised the point of libraries as hubs for after-school activities, a free spot for teens to come if they don’t have the resources or access to other after-school programs. At the end of January, Alia Wong from Atlantic wrote an article called “The Activity Gap,” which discusses the access issues students from various socio-economic classes face with participating in after-school and extracurricular programs.

Wong begins the article by comparing two different students, Ethan and Nicole, whose family backgrounds contribute to two different lifestyles and life paths. While their names have been changed, these two students do exist and were case studies in a study published in Voices of Urban Education. This national study was conducted by Brown University’s Annenberg Institute of School Reform.

Their results are nothing we didn’t already know. The article states the researchers were “alarmed” at the results, but we’ve been seeing and hearing about this growing income achievement gap for a while. I come back to the same question I raised in my October 2014 blog post: how can libraries help?

I can offer an example of a space happening in my community at the Urbana Free Library. Our library is able to offer a Teen Open Lab a couple days a week. The auditorium in the library is opened up and staff and teens set up essentially a mini-Fab Lab/makerspace/hangout area. It’s a spot where teens can come after school, hang out, or create anything from stickers on a Silhouette cutting machine, to using a 3D printer, video and audio production, or simply playing Minecraft or video games. The library has been able to provide another space for teens to go who might not have other after-school options.

Is this a great space? I think so. I visited there a few weeks back (my assistantship has a graduate student helping out at the Teen Open Lab so I went for a visit). The atmosphere was exciting. The teens seemed to be happy. They’ve reached a point in the Teen Open Lab where things are going well and they can keep thinking about where does this space go next. But, we can’t forget the process and time it took to get from point A (the teens had little space) to the idea of the lab, to the creation (and funding), and now the maintaining and sustaining. Perhaps what the Urbana Library Teen Open Lab teaches us is that we need to start having those conversations. If we look out at our community and see that our teens need a free space, we can start having those conversations about what a space for them might look like. I think it’s fine to say, “Look we have this income achievement gap and need to do something about it” but we need to do more than just say it. And maybe libraries aren’t the spot, maybe this conversation is meant for a broader audience, pulling in our education system and college admission process (which places value in extra-curricular activities and involvement outside of the classroom). What I’ve been thinking about in my community engagement class this semester is that libraries are the hub to have those frank conversations. We can open up a space to bring a community together to talk. We’ve been doing it since we first began as public institutions.

The Atlantic article does not offer many solutions and I am not sure I have many to offer either. I still think this is an important conversation to have, but we need to continue to think about the broader context and how we can help or at least provide resources to help. For additional resources on this topic, make sure to check out YALSA’s Professional Tool page on their website. Additionally, you can look at, Cool Teen Programs for Under $100, resources on YALSA’s Wiki page about Maker and DIY Programs, Making in the Library Toolkit, or A Librarian’s Guide to Makerspaces.

Do you have any ideas about how we can bridge this activity gap? I would love to hear your thoughts (or great articles to read and resources to use) in the comments below!

As you’ve dug into the report, you may have felt like it’s too big of a leap for you and your library to tackle all at once. Highlighted below are five small ways you can begin to #act4teens that can snowball into big impact.

1. Begin to share appealing aspects of the report with other library or school staff. This is a great way to do a temperature check to see how people feel about different aspects of the report. It’s also a way to get people thinking about existing services and how they can be improved. You can do this by:
   • Sending weekly emails about teen or school library services and creating a section for report information. Ask staff for comments and feedback.
   • Sharing parts of the report at regular staff meetings.
   • Hosting brown bag discussions about school library or teen services that are framed around the report.
   • Creating engaging polls to see what parts of the report staff are most comfortable with and to solicit their ideas and feedback.
2. If you’re interested in trying out new program ideas and models, try co-learning with your teens. Have conversations with them about things they’d like to try out and learn together. An alternative would be to let teens teach you about something of interest to them and lead a program while you facilitate.
3. Dive into learning…about connected learning! Here are some good places to start:
   • http://clalliance.org/
   • http://connectedlearning.tv/
   • http://educatorinnovator.org/
   • As you learn more, reflect on the learning principles and how you can apply them to your programs and services. Tweak existing programs to tap into teen interests and leadership capabilities. Ensure that programs and services are full of opportunities for collaboration. Connect what teens learn at your library to school and postsecondary planning and connect to the schools.
4. Look for new partners or volunteer mentors that can serve as experts in an area of particular interest to your teens. Create a list of existing and potential partners. Challenge yourself to connect with an old or new partner monthly to see what might evolve.
5. Level up your leadership. Take a free leadership or management course. Consider serving on a local community board. Join a local toastmasters group. Talk to potential funders, elected officials, or the library board about teen services at your library. Volunteer to lead a library committee. Begin reading leadership and management books and blogs. Do something to stretch beyond of your existing leadership comfort zone.

Adrienne L. Strock is the Teen Library Manager at the Nashville Public Library’s Main Library and Chair of the Future of Teens and Libraries Taskforce.

From Open Clip Art

The Afterschool Alliance just published a study regarding after school programs in the United States. This is the third study of its kind, following in the results from the 2004 and 2009 studies. The group wants to document where and how children spend their time between 3 and 6 PM. The previous studies, along with this one, show that there is a demand for after school programs.  However, more programming is needed to help reach the approximately 11.3 million children who are unsupervised after school.

The study is full of facts and figures. Such as: 18 percent (10.2 million) children participate in some after school program. This is an increase by nearly 2 million children when the study was conducted five years ago. We can only hope that number will continue to rise. Parents enroll their students in after school programs because it allows them to feel that their children are safe and also in an nurturing and creative environment. Parents that were polled were satisfied with their after school programs when the organization provided a snack, opportunity for physical activity, an environment to complete homework, and also a space for enrichment activities, such as STEM programs.

Income and ethnicity also played a role in the study; students from low-income families make up 45 percent of the students enrolled in after school programs and the most demand for after school programs is highest among African American families. This study confirmed that yes, we as a country are beginning to provide the after school programs our communities need, but a gap still exists.

So what does this mean for libraries and us as librarians? This is an opportunity to us to help out our community and potentially reach the population of people who feel underserved by after school programs. Of those 11.3 million children who are unsupervised, the majority are teens in middle and high school. For libraries, it can mean two things. The first is that we can either create some sort of informal (or formal) after school program or space for our teens to come to. If we foster an environment of learning and fun, we can help create a space the teens will flock to (at least, that’s what we hope). Our other option is reach out to after school programs in the area. We should ask ourselves, Where could the library fit in to their programming? Perhaps we could visit the program, or even just give them information about the library and events you offer. Regardless, establish some connection that says, “Hey, we’re the library and we are here for you.” If we can make our presence known, through establishing a place in our library or through outreach, we have the potential to make connections, ones that will last a long time. The study cited that students were more likely to continue the program into the summer. Hey, we do summer programming and wouldn’t it be great to get more kids involved? After school programs are our “in.” And in the process, we have the potential to do a lot of good.

So let’s get the conversation going. Are your libraries an after-school spot? What has worked for you? What has not? Since the study does not explicitly cite libraries as a spot for after-school program or programming, I’m curious to know what our librarians are already doing from that 3-6 PM time zone.

Public libraries are, as ALA President Courtney Young said in a July 2014 Comcast Newsmaker interview, “digital learning centers.”  We are able to provide access to computers, wireless capabilities, and also a space to learn. Access to technology becomes even more important to our “at-risk” teens; the library becomes a safe spot to use these resources. The question becomes how do we help them use this technology and learn from it? Earlier this month, the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) published a report titled “Using Technology to Support At-Risk Students’ Learning.” This brief defines “at-risk” students as high schoolers with personal and academic factors that would could cause them to fail classes or drop out of school all together. They give three variables for success, real-life examples to why these variables work, and then recommend policies to help achieve these variables. While the article was geared towards schools, these variables are important to keep in mind as we work with the teens in our libraries.

When learning new digital skills, youth must be engaged in interactive projects, must do more discovery and creation than the standard “drill and kill,” and must have a blend of both teacher and technology (6). These variables are part of the larger, digital learning ecosystem which places the learner at the center. This ecosystem relies on the constant bi-directional dialogue as the learner engages with learning outcomes, technology, and the context of the situation (which includes the activity, the goals of the activity, and the community the learning is taking place in). As we use technology and support our teens, we should be in constant reflection mode, altering our future programs to best fit the needs of our teens. Feedback we receive can help us discover what we are doing well and what needs to still be worked on. How we shape our digital literacy programs are up to us; we know our community of teens better than anyone else in the library. If we highlight and support their interests, they are most likely to be engaged with the program and more likely to return the library and use our resources.

These variables overlap and are more powerful when used together. The authors cite that interactive learning allows “students to see and explore concepts from different angles using a variety of representations” (7). As the teen engage, they are likely to discuss their findings with the people around them, which in turn strengthens both the learning and the existing community. As we work with our teens, we should push for creation versus just going through the steps, because this form of interactive learning this strengthens retention of skills and again, creates conversation. As we implement this programming, we can also be resources and a support team for our teens. It is important to stress that we don’t have to be the experts, and there might be times where we are all learning together. The moments of collective learning enhances our community and creates shared memories the teens won’t forget. Looking at the big picture, by keeping these variables in mind, we can empower our teens through access to technology they might not have regular access to.

To me, these variables seem obvious and are important to keep in mind as we think about creating programming that target digital literacy skills. This might also be because of the assistantship I am a part of at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Our nine month grant from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity focuses on eliminating the digital divide across the Urbana-Champaign community. I am working with two after-school programs and am developing curriculum to support digital literacy. As we think about this article and our own libraries, this can be our framing question: How can we support teens’ digital literacy with the resources our library has? These variables also push us to provide more than just access to our teens. While access is important, this article reminds us that thoughtful programming can engage our teens, help them become a stronger part of our library community, and grow as an informed global citizen. We can help them create content they can share with the world and empower them to use technology as a tool to better themselves. Over the following months, I’ll be creating digital literacy programs and will be keeping these variables from the SCOPE article in mind. I cannot wait to share my discoveries with you and hope some of what I learn and create can be used with the teens you serve.

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 September 12 – September 18 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the Week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.

Today, the Pew Research Center released a new report titled “Younger Americans and Public Libraries: How those under 30 engage with libraries and think about libraries’ role in their lived and communities.” This report surveys younger Americans ages 16-29, which they found were three different generations, according to reading habits, library usage patterns, and attitudes about libraries. The youngest of the three generations is comprised of high schoolers (ages 16-17), the next generation is college-aged (18-24), and the third generation is 25-29. Library usage among these groups together is significantly higher than those of older generations with 50% reporting having used a library of bookmobile and 36% reporting having used a library website (this is up from 28% in 2012) within the previous 12 months.

Despite being more likely to use a library or its resources they were less likely to say that closing a library would have a major impact on their family or their community. Of those under 30 only 19% say that closing a library would have a major impact on their family and 51% say it would have a major impact on their community, compared to older adults responding 32% and 67% respectively. From the report: “Deeper connections with public libraries are also often associated with key life moments such as having a child, seeking a job, being a student, and going through a situation in which research and data can help inform a decision.” They found that socioeconomic status played a roll  in whether younger Americans and adults found the library to be important. Potentially another aspect fueling this perceived lack of impact of libraries could be that 36% of Millennials say they know “not much” or “nothing” about what the local library offers.

Younger Americas do describe libraries as warm, welcoming places. Younger patrons are more likely than older adults to say they have had a negative experience at a library but this is only 11% vs. 8%, the vast majority of both groups have not. 52% of those 16-29 disagreed that “public libraries have not done a good job keeping up with newer technologies”, while 43% agreed.

One point on which younger Americans do see libraries playing an important roll is giving everyone a chance to succeed, with job searching help and young adult programming being important to them.

This post just scratches the surface of the report. Don’t forget to check out the full report!

A new survey from the Games and Learning Publishing Council sheds light on just how commonplace games have become in today’s classrooms. Among the findings:

• Among K-8 teachers surveyed who use digital games in teaching, 55% have students play games at least weekly
• 72% typically use a desktop or laptop computer for gaming
• Nearly half believe that low-performing students benefit the most from digital games
• Word of mouth is the biggest influence when selecting games

So what can librarians take away from this data?

First, it’s important to think about what’s not in the report. The survey only included K-8 teachers, but gaming is a huge part of many teens’ lives. As the YALSABlog reported in 2008, a Pew Research Internet Project report found that fully 97% of teens ages 12-17 play digital games. Those teens were using computers, but nearly half were also using a mobile device.

As schools relax restrictions on mobile devices in classrooms and laptops and tablets become as common as calculators and pencils, how can librarians support the gaming needs of teachers and students? Whether we’re in school libraries or programming for teens at public libraries, where does gaming fit into library services?

The Games and Learning report reveals that many teachers let their own gaming experiences and preferences guide them when it comes to using digital games with students. I can certainly attest to that; when I first introduced gaming nights at my high school, I brought my own consoles and games, then joined forces with another teacher to expand our selections. If you’re new to gaming with teens, you may be more comfortable starting with a familiar game or selection of games.

Erin Daly, Youth Services Coordinator at Chicopee Public Library, puts it this way: “We probably need to spend some time playing games ourselves and thinking about how to incorporate games into our classrooms and libraries. We really don’t know what works until we play.”

“Gaming, like everything, requires curation: we need to pick the best, most interesting things to share. Good thing that’s pretty much what librarians do best. (Gamers’ advisory, if you will). In a classroom, ‘the best’ includes the way in which the game is relevant to the curriculum standards. In the public library ‘the best’ is the game that engages the player’s interest and makes them think.”

The Information Policy & Access Center has released their findings from a 2013 Survey about Digital Inclusion.

You can read the full report online.

Digital Inclusion is more than Digital Literacy, focusing on not just access but supporting users to engage in digital communities. The report explored the roles of public libraries in four main areas:

• Quality access to digital technology
• Access to a range of digital content
• Services and programs that promote digital literacy
• Programs that address key community needs, such as health and wellness and education, and that promote workforce development and civic engagement.

Overwhelmingly what we discovered is that libraries have increased access to computer workstations and faster internet and technology infrastructure like outlets and wireless printing.

• All libraries offer access to online databases.
• Almost all libraries offer homework assistance.
• Most libraries offer access to e-books,
• While over a quarter of libraries provide patrons with e-readers to check out.

The survey has also documented the innovations that are happening in libraries like Mobile Technology and 3D Printers which have been adopted in 1.5% of libraries.

What the survey highlighted is that while we are providing access to technology and content we are creating a different type of digital divide.

City Libraries are able to

• make more upgrades to technology infrastructure like workstations and outlets,
• offer an Average Internet Download Speed that is 5X faster than Rural Libraries.

Only 32.5 percent of rural libraries can support formal technology classes,

• while 77.6 of city libraries offer formal computer skills training
• 100% of city libraries surveyed reported that they offer either formal or informal technology training.

We know that rural communities have less access to resources, but as we work to support STEM in schools these gaps can put communities even further behind.

In addition to being an information center, many libraries serve as a central location where members can gather to foster community.

Over half of Suburban and City Libraries host community engagement events

while less than half of town libraries and less than one-third of rural libraries are able to engage and support the community in this way.

As more and more people connect online, the library can be one of the few places where the public can engage with members of the community, be exposed to diversity, and gain a better appreciation for and connect to their neighbors in a comfortable and relaxed environment. While hosting a book club, candidate forum, or gaming seems small, these can be one of the few places in the community outside of school where everyone has a chance to interact and participate.

Lastly Health and Wellness is an area we can all improve. With the move to National Health Care, and the confusion of much of the public I expected to see many libraries offering programs and support, but a mere 37% of surveyed libraries offered programs that assisted patrons in finding and accessing health insurance information.

The one area of Health and Wellness that libraries are addressing is promotion of a healthy lifestyle, but only 55% of libraries offer these types of programs and it drops to 44% for Rural Libraries.

We have made many strides since the last study was conducted in 1994, but we still have a long way to go. With so many free online courses available libraries have even more access to resources than they did before. We can partner with organizations like  Workforce Career and Job Training, CoderDojo, Code.org, Healthcare.gov, local health providers, and other community organizations to help serve patrons and create a more informed citizenry.

This is the first survey to provide detailed data about how libraries are serving the public. As we apply for grants to support the needs of our communities, I hope this survey helps frame the needs of our library users.

Ipac has framed the survey results in the context of the communities libraries serve. You can access a mapping tool online at http://digitalinclusion.umd.edu to explore the services available in your community.

All images from http://digitalinclusion.umd.edu/infographics

A new report from America’s Promise Alliance finds that students who leave high school without graduating are often overwhelmed by a cluster of negative impacts of poverty. You can read the full 72 page report (pdf) online, but here are some highlights (if that’s even the right word) to note:

• Approximately 20 percent of young people (that’s about 800,000 per year) don’t graduate from high school
• Toxic home, school, or neighborhood environments–sources of violence, disrespect and adverse health–lead young people to stop going to school
• Connectedness to others can lead young people both toward and away from school
• Even young people who are able to “bounce back” from an interrupted education are often unable to re-engage in the longer-term

So what does all this mean for libraries?

Libraries are uniquely poised to be an ideal space for young people looking to continue or re-engage with their education. We offer materials, programs and services regardless of income or whether a patron’s parent is incarcerated. Public libraries can be an island of consistency for young people who experience homelessness or move often, leaving little connection with the multiple schools in which they enroll.

Library policies, however, don’t always support young people whose educational path varies from the four year high school model. Here are three ways you can help teens at risk of dropping out or trying to re-engage with their education:

1. Reconsider “truancy.” Some public libraries immediately report or kick out teens who try to access books and services during the school day, but where does that leave a young person who may be trying to find out how to earn a GED, how to qualify for food stamps, or even how to enroll in a neighborhood school? In school libraries, students with unique medical situations or other tutoring needs may find themselves with alternative schedules and need a place to go for part of the day. Does your library support these teens?

2. Revisit your post-secondary resources. If your local school community is largely focused on getting students into four-year colleges, you may be missing students with other plans. Does your test prep collection include GED prep or materials for students interested in joining the military, like ASVAB for Dummies? Does your college section include information on local community or technical colleges? Also remember that older teens may be struggling to complete high school after their peers have already graduated; they still need your help!

3. Work with community partners. The America’s Promise Alliance report includes information on the 16 partner groups from each interview city, but there are many, many more–including groups that want to work with libraries. Some libraries now have relationships with hospitals and have social workers on staff. Which groups in your community could help address the unique needs of teens struggling to stay engaged or re-engage with their education?

Looking for help starting the conversation with a teen at your library? Check out Answering Teens’ Tough Questions, part of YALSA’s Teens at the Library series. 

The YALSA Board met three times at ALA Annual in Anaheim. Over those three meetings, the Board had some substantial discussions, set up some new task forces and ad hoc Board committees, approved two new committee manuals, and moved forward on several other items. For more details on these items, see the official Board documents at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/workingwithyalsa/governance/board/annual2012. The official minutes will also be posted in the Governance section of the website in the near future. The summary is below:

New Task Forces

• A president-elect advisory task force to work with president-elect Shannon Peterson on defining her presidential theme and setting her goals.
• An appointments task force to work with president-elect Shannon Peterson to help her make committee appointments during the coming year.
• A 365 Days of YA task force to create and disseminate a calendar of easy to implement teen services resources aimed at new teens services librarians, library generalists, and paraprofessionals.
• A state library association outreach task force to reach out to YA sections and roundtables of state library associations and school library associations to strengthen ties with these like-minded organizations.
• A youth engagement task force to find ways to involve teens in the work of the YALSA Board by identifying and implementing projects in conjunction with Teen Advisory Groups.
• A capacity-building task force to focus on the capacity-building goal of YALSA’s strategic plan.
• A task force to create a manual for virtual selection committees.
• A YALSA/ALSC/AASL task force to look at issues around the Common Core Standards.

New Ad-hoc Board committees

• The previously-approved e-content task force will now be an ad hoc committee of the Board.
• An ad hoc committee of the Board will look at the recommendations on the future of Interest and Discussion Groups from both the previous task force and from the Board members and prioritize the recommendations.

Committee Manuals

• The Board approved a new manual for the Odyssey Committee. ALSC also approved the manual at this conference.
• The Board approved a new manual for the Excellence in Nonfiction Award Committee. This includes some changes in policies and procedures, including the way the vetted nomination list is created.

Other major motions and discussions

• The Board approved guidelines for strategic partnerships with other organizations.
• The Board approved a two-year pilot project for virtual selection and award committees. The Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Committee and Edwards Award Committee that begin their work in February 2013 will be virtual committees, which means that members will not be required to attend conferences to be on the committees. The Board will establish a task force to evaluate the process at the end of the first year to decide whether it should continue and if the appropriate committees were chosen.
• The Board discussed member engagement, what it means to different members, and what YALSA wants “engagement” to look like.
• The YALSA Board voted to endorse the School Library resolution in ALA Council, and the YALSA Councilor later reported that the resolution had been approved.
• The Board had a discussion and exercise on YALSA’s major revenue streams (events, dues, and sales of products) and what could be done to build those sources of income.
• The Board discussed the past year’s Board member self-assessment process and agreed to continue with it for the coming year.
• The Board discussed how best to evaluate the success of the Strategic Plan, and directed the Strategic Planning Committee to develop an evaluation pl
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Monthly President’s Report – May 2012

May is all about getting ready for ALA Annual. Also, I’m very excited that YALSA’s free Teen Book Finder iPhone/iPad app is now available in Apple’s App Store. (An Android version will be coming later this year.) If you have an iPhone or iPad, download it and check it out!

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 YALSA’s relationship with “Big ALA.”
• I worked with Board members on their self-assessments.
• I worked with Executive Committee members to create an agenda for the ALA Annual and for the Board Meeting by Conference call on June 1.

Partnerships.  

• Mary Fellows, ALSC President, and I, along with our Presidents’ Program co-chairs, Sarah Couri and Tessa Michaelson, had a conference call to make the 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. If you can’t be there, follow us on Twitter by following the hashtag #tweentech.
• I continue to participate in the School Libraries Task Force with members of other ALA divisions.
• I am working with Carl Harvey, AASL President, and Mary Fellows, ALSC President, to plan for the joint AASL/ALSC/YALSA Executive Committee meeting to be held at ALA Annual.

Writing.

• I wrote a post for the YALSA Blog on access to YALSA’s selected lists and awards.
• I wrote my final President’s Column for YALS, which will appear in the Summer issue.

 Media & Outreach.

• I spoke with Linda Jacobsen, a freelance writer who is working on a piece for the Greatschools.org about boys and reading.
• I contributed statements for YALSA press releases.

Important YALSA News & Reminders

• If you are going to Anaheim for ALA Annual, don’t forget to register for special events. If you did “bundled registration” last fall, you will need to go back in to your registration for to add special events, such as:
• Two great half-day preconferences: Books We’ll Still Talk about 45 Years from Now and Source Code: Digital Youth Participation.
• The Margaret Edwards Award luncheon, featuring author Susan Cooper.
• The YA Author Coffee Klatch—your chance to get up close and personal with 35 YA authors, including Printz award and honor authors Corey Whaley, Maggie Stiefvater, Craig Silvey, Daniel Handler, Christine Hinwood, and more!
• The Printz Award Program and Reception, with speeches from all of the honored authors.
• To add these events if you’ve
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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
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Monthly President’s Report – November 2011

November was a somewhat quieter month for me—the lull before the storm of preparing for Midwinter, perhaps!

Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on.

Completed Tasks

• Committee Chairs: Had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the work of their committees.
• Board Activities:
  • Participated in Board Chat on the Strategic Plan (see below for details).
  • The Board voted to spend the $10,000 BoardSource Innovation Prize money as follows: $1,000 to support the 2012 Board Fellowship and $9,000 to be added to the Leadership Endowment.
• Writing: Wrote and submitted President’s column for the Winter issue of YALS.
• Committee/Jury/Taskforce Appointments:
  • Appointed members to fill vacancies on several committees.
  • Appointed members to several new task forces.
• Continuing Education 
  • Attended Social Media for Nonprofits conference in San Francisco
  • Attended California Library Association Conference in Pasadena

Works in Progress

• Continuing to appoint members to new committees and task forces
• Continuing to work with Board members on their self-assessments and learning plans.

 Strategic Planning. The Board held an online chat to work on creating tactics to go with the approved goal items for the strategic plan. The Executive Committee also met by phone to work on tactics for the plan, and are now working online to prioritize the tactics.

 Media & Outreach

• Interviewed by NPR about teen literature for upcoming online piece
• Hosted YALSA Happy Hour at California Library Association Conference

 Important YALSA News & Reminders

• Apply for a 2012 summer reading mini grant ($1,000) now through Jan. 1, 2012. Twenty libraries will receive these grants, sponsored by YALSA and the Dollar General Foundation.
• Apply now for a Teen Summer Intern Grant from YALSA and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. Forty libraries will receive $1,000 to support internships for teens to assist in 2012 summer reading programs. Deadline January 1, 2012.

• Buy your 2012 Printz Calendar at the ALA Store. Proceeds support the Friends of YALSA. Buy them for friends and family who love YA literature. Committee chairs—buy one for each of your committee members! Or if you are looking for other gift ideas, check out YALSA’s Café Press Store.
• In early 2012, look for several new YALSA initiatives, including the YALSA Academy on YouTube, and a new YALSA book award iPhone app!
• If you’re looking for continuing education, check out YALSA’s Webinars-on-demand, free to YALSA members.
• Sign up for YALSA’s December 15 webinar, “Graphic Novels for Tween Readers” presented by Robin Brenner. Group rates available.
• Sign up for YALSA’s new self-paced online course, “
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Monthly President’s Report – October 2011

October was a busy month for me and for all YALSA members, as we celebrated Teen Read Week™ October 16-22. It was great to see all the creative projects that members did with their teens to celebrate TRW. Over 9000 teens voted in the Teens’ Top Ten.

Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on.

Completed Tasks

• Fall Executive Committee meeting
• Chaired YALSA’s Fall Executive Committee meeting. The EC had a “mega issue” discussion about advocacy. We considered roadblocks members may face in doing advocacy and what YALSA could do to assist members in this area. The major work of the meeting was to begin creating an action plan from the strategic plan objectives that had previously been approved. As we began to work on the objectives, we realized that many of them were already strategies, so we drafted changes and added strategies that will go back to the Board for approval. There were a number of other items that the EC discussed that will go to the Board for consideration at Midwinter or before, including a proposal for a Junior Board, a proposal for piloting a virtual award or selection committee, a proposal to create curriculum and instructional kits, and a proposal to create a YALSA Academy on YouTube.
• The YALSA Executive Committee had a two-hour meeting with the ALSC Executive Committee to discuss service to middle-schoolers (12-, 13-, and 14-year-olds). We talked about the services both associations already provide for that age group, and we brainstormed some things that we could collaborate on in the future. Our next step will be to look over the transcript from the meeting and decide on some areas to move forward on jointly.
•  Committee Chairs: Had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the work of their committees.
• Board Activities: Along with YALSA Secretary Sarajo Wentling, facilitated a Board chat on the Board’s role in using social media to advance the activities of the Board and YALSA.
• Writing: Worked with YALSA Web Services Manager Stevie Kuenn to prepare an article on Teen Read Week™ for parenting.com, and an article on digital badging.
• Committee/Jury/Taskforce Appointments:
  • Appointed members to fill vacancies on several committees.
  • Appointed members to several new task forces.

 Works in Progress

• Continuing to appoint members to new committees and task forces
• Continuing to work with Board members on their self-assessments and learning plans.

Strategic Planning. The Strategic Planning committee incorporated member comments into the draft plan, and the Board approved it. However, at the Fall Executive Committee meeting, the Executive Committee made some changes, in an attempt to distinguish objectives from strategies. The Board has begun to work on specific action items (tactics) that go with each of the strategies.

Media & Outreach

• Interviewed for CommonSenseNews on Teen Read Week.
• Interviewed by Heidi Stevens of the Chicago Tribune for her article “You’re Reading WHAT?”
• Worked with YALSA’s Web Services Manager to write news releases about YALSA’s new Research Agenda
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Monthly President’s Report – July 2011

My first month as YALSA President has been a busy one. Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on.

Completed Tasks

• Presented two webinars for new chairs of  process committees, task forces, and juries about their roles and responsibilities.
• Presented (with Beth Yoke) a webinar for new board members about the relationship of YALSA and ALA.
• Had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the upcoming work of their committees.
• Had phone conversation with Lesley Farmer, YALSA’s IFLA representative, about the upcoming IFLA Conference and about what information about YALSA she should share there.
• Set up the @yalsapresident Twitter account, and began tweeting information about YALSA activities and linking to articles on teens and libraries.
• Filled a vacancy on the Best Fiction for Young Adults committee.
• Appointed members to a task force charged to write a manual for the Odyssey Award Committee.

Works in Progress

• Had a phone conversation with Mary Fellows, ALSC President, about the joint ALSC/YALSA Presidents’ Program for Annual 2012.
• The YALSA Board approved some new committees and task forces at the Annual Conference. I am currently appointing members for:
  • A committee to oversee and market YALSA’s portfolio of national guidelines.
  • A task force to evaluate the effectiveness of YALSA’s interest and discussion groups.
• In August, the Strategic Planning Committee, our consultant, Beth Yoke, and I will be meeting by phone to discuss the strategic planning input that we received at Annual, and start creating goals for the revised plan.

 Media & Outreach

• Spoke with Libby Goldman from Good Housekeeping about the impact of the Harry Potter books (http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/books/harry-potter)

 Important YALSA News & Reminders

• The deadline for submitting comments on YALSA’s draft research agenda is Friday, August 15.
• YALSA’s Board of Directors will meet via conference call on Fri. Aug. 26th from 3:00pm to 4:30pm, eastern, to review and discuss Quarterly Chair Reports.  Any YALSA member who would like to sit in on the call may do so.  Please contact Letitia Smith, YALSA’s Membership Coordinator, for the phone number and access code.
• Submit volunteer forms by September 30 for YALSA Selection and Award Committees; President-Elect Jack Martin will be appointing those committees in October.
• Vote now through August 15 for which programs YALSA will offer at the 2012 Annual Conference.

This month we’ve seen a lot of interesting talk about different technologies and how they affect teens here at the YALSA blog. Now that we’re wrapping things up, I thought it might be interesting to pull back a little and look at the larger social effect of the Internet on society. There are two reports by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in particular that can tell us how the Internet has changed our social lives.

A 2006 study published in the American Sociological Review contented that over the previous 20 years, Americans had become more socially isolated as the number of people with whom they discussed things declined and the diversity of those groups of people decreased.

While a 2009 Pew Research Center report corroborated some of the findings of the 2006 study, it also cast some of the findings of that study in doubt. Here are some of their findings:

• It was true that “an increasing number of Americans have no one with whom they can discuss important matters, but that “compared to 1985, there has been a small-to-modest change, rather than a large drop in the number of people who report that they have no one with whom they can discuss important matters.” In fact, 12% of subjects said they didn’t have such a person, but only 6% of adults said they had no one “especially significant” in their lives.
• Again, it’s true that the size of core discussion networks has declined–by about 1/3, or about one person. And diversity had declined as well, with discussion networks now mostly centered around family members.
• However! The Pew study determined that these shrinking, homogenizing social networks weren’t due to mobile phone use. Having a mobile phone–as well as using the Internet for sharing digital photos and for IMing–was correlated with having a large discussion network, and Internet users were more likely to discuss things with non-family and were less likely to rely exclusively on spouses or partners for discussion. Additionally, blogging was linked with a 95% higher likelihood of having a discussion partner of a different race.
• Face-to-face communication is still the most common means of having contact with people in our discussion networks. Mobile phones come in second; texting and landline phones tied for third; email, IM, and social networking websites came next (in that order); and sending cards and letters was the least frequent method of communication.
• Owners of a mobile phone, people who used the Internet frequently at work, and bloggers were more likely to belong to some sort of “local voluntary group,” which includes things like neighborhood associations, sports leagues, youth groups, and church or social clubs.
• And lest you think Internet users are just holed up at home, the report also found that Internet users were 42% more likely to visit a public park or plaza than non-users, and were 45% more likely to visit a coffee shop or cafe. Being a blogger made you even more likely to visit a public park.
• Those who use the Internet and use a social networking website had social networks that were about 20% more diverse than non-Internet users.

So in short, the average American does have fewer peop

The U.S. Department of Education is currently seeking peer reviewers for the 2011 Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grant program. The Department has set February 4, 2011 as the deadline for receiving resumes of potential reviewers.  The announcement is available here:

• http://www2.ed.gov/programs/lsl/lslpeers2011.doc , or at the LSL Web site:
• http://www2.ed.gov/programs/lsl/applicant.html

The DOE is interested in broadening their pool of reviewers to include individuals with experience in tying new media to effective instruction. For questions, please contact:

David Moore Miller

Education Program Specialist
US Department of Education
202-453-5621
[email protected]