Youth Source

Summer Reading Program Kickoff at RPLS

RPLS 2011 Summer Reading Program Kickoff  

Friday, March 4, 2011
9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Location:  Decatur Public Library Elizabeth Madden Auditorium in Decatur, IL

Hark now! All Ye Summer Reading Program Planners are hereby invited to attend the Rolling Prairie Library System Summer Reading Program Kickoff!

I bid you join this opportunity to get ideas, tips, and hints for summer reading 2011.

• Presentations of crafts, games, decorations and more
• Displays and examples
• Around the table sharing - bring your thoughts, ideas, and questions.
• Networking opportunities with other youth services staff members

There is no cost to attend the event but a box lunch is available for $10. Details and choices are included in the L2 description.
  
Please register in L2.

Teen Tech Week - March 7-13, 2010

Teen Tech Week is a national initiative for teens, librarians, educators, parents, and other concerned adults that highlights the many types of technology available to teens at libraries. The 2010 theme — Learn Create Share @ your library — encourages creativity and positions the library as a place to safely explore technology at libraries, including DVDs, music, gaming, video production, online homework help, social networking, tech workshops, and more.

See the Teen Tech Week website for free registration information, links to program ideas, wiki, and more. Get Teen Tech Week stuff from the ALA Store.

ALA Great Stories Club

The Great Stories CLUB is organized by the American Library Association Public Programs Office (PPO), in cooperation with the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Major funding for the Great Stories CLUB has been provided by Oprah’s Angel Network.

The Great Stories CLUB is a reading and discussion program that targets underserved, troubled teen populations. The program reaches teens through books that are relevant to their lives, inviting them to read and keep the books, and encourages them to consider and discuss each title with a group of their peers.

YALSA Risky Business Theme

New YALSA President Linda Braun has announced that the new theme for the coming year will be "Risky Business".  Linda states, "YALSA knows librarians take risks every day of the year when they purchase materials that might be controversial, when they have conversations with teens which might lead to topics that are sometimes difficult to discuss, when they advocate for the programs and services teens need.".  The focus will be on collecting stories and helping YA librarians have successful interactions on sensitive topics with their young patrons.  Visit the YALSA blog to learn more about the Risky Business Theme.

Wild Ideas

If you are looking for some ideas for "Read on the Wild Side!", Mister Anderson has some suggestions.  Their PuppetTales Newsletter  for June 21, 2009 is titled "Where the Wild Things Are".  It features Maurice Sendak's classic story as well as activities that would go along with any monster theme.  

 

Phase Two of ALSC’s Kids! Campaign targets tweens

Phase two of the Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Kids! @ your library® public awareness campaign, which officially launches in July, focuses on tools to help librarians promote library services to kids in grades five through eight.

National Financial Literacy Challenge

The National Financial Literacy Challenge is sponsored by the US Treasury Department and Charles Schwab Foundation to promote learning among high school youth about financial matters.  Teachers register their school and students take a 35 question test online.  Students getting a perfect score can win a $1000 scholarship prize.  Schools with a perfect-scoring student receive $1000 for the school. 

Teaching 9-11

Newbery Honor-winning author Joan Bauer has created "Teaching 9-11" a web site designed to guide teachers and librarians in discussions of the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks.  Resource lists and recommended books are included.

Beyond Gaming Tournaments @ ALA

Beyond Gaming Tournaments

Being a gamer myself, I thought it would be interesting to see what different libraries were doing with gaming, and beyond gaming. I have heard a lot about gaming tournaments, but wondered how to get teens in the library using other services and programs. There is a very interesting school for children from 3rd grade to high school to learn video gaming programming and other creative works involving video games. The Youth Digital Art Cyber School allows kids and teens to create music, graphics, and multiple other video game related projects as well as video games. It takes the interests of video games and allows teens and kids to be creative and learn valuable skills. Libraries can learn more about this at www.ydacs.com.

In this session, it was also stressed that to engage teens you must allow them to express themselves, provide a social atmosphere, engage them and have the materials that they want. To find out what they want, a teen advisory board can be very useful. Although Facebook, MySpace and poster can be used to promote your teen programs, the best way is always word of mouth from friends. One of the libraries started an anime club and from that grew a cosplay club, a sewing club, anime prom, and many other programs. Once you find what your teens are interested in and get them into the library, they start planning the rest.

Recommended Reading

Both the online version of School Library Journal and the June 2008 print copy (page 61+) include a useful article by Marilyn Taniguchi. “Going the Distance” focuses on recommended resources about the Summer Olympics. Get in the Game, Read activities and current events this summer make this recommended reading.