CLASY - Canadian Libraries Are Serving Youth

Nonfiction

librarysteph — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:15:52 +0000

High schools hadn’t previously been approached in my system, class visits by my branch usually stopped at gr. 3. Now that I’m starting teen programming and there will be an actual teen space in the new branch I want to reach out to the teens and let them know they are welcome at the library. I’ve scheduled a couple of presentations at the high school and I wanted to book-talk a bit of nonfiction before speaking about the events and our online resources.

Even though my position doesn’t specifically include collection development (that’s at HQ not the branches) they usually take my suggestions for specific titles or areas I identify gaps. Nonfiction for teens has definitely been a gap. We have your typical books about puberty and dating, some study guides, and the odd bit of awesomeness like Ductigami, the Marvel and DC Encyclopedias, graphic novel versions of classic mythology, and Green Careers. But I wanted more.

I started off looking at YALSA’s recommended nonfiction, but found that many of the books were very American and not suited to our collection. I also browsed through the YA nonfiction or highlighted new nonfiction of several large library systems in Canada and found some good books for the collection but not really anything I was excited about booktalking.

I came across Zest Books and while I haven’t read their books yet they have some really cool looking titles. They also have a library resource center where they give suggestions for booktalks.

As I continue to work on improving our nonfiction suggestion I’ll post what titles are well received by the teens. Does anyone have a good collection development resource for YA nonfiction?

Tagged: nonfiction

Hooray for children’s services!

Amy Dawley — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:59:09 +0000

Checking my e-mail this Monday morning I was pleasantly greeted with a message letting us folks in BC know about a new CLA network that also just got started, Canadian Libraries Are Serving Children (CLASC). So exciting! For those of you who are interested in finding out more, here’s the blurb:

As you may know, the Canadian Library Association is generating virtual networks to act as avenues for engagement in professional development and in furthering their mandate. At the suggestion of Judith Saltman, professor at the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia, my colleague Kay Weisman and I have decided to fill in the gap for children’s services, and created CLASC—Canadian Librarians Are Serving Children. Alongside CLASY (Canadian Librarians Are Serving Youth), we wish to provide virtual support for Canadian children’s librarians. Free to join for both CLA and non-CLA members, we are just getting off the ground. Our mission is to:

connect all professional and non-professional public and school library staff serving children, as well as those in children’s publishing, or children’s literature studies

provide a virtual forum and platform for ideas and resources relating to children and libraries

invite members to initiate and contribute to online discussions and provide resources for the CLASC website

promote the mandates of CLA, with the goal of having CLASC convene our first meeting at next year’s annual CLA conference in Ottawa

We invite you to participate in CLASC and invite you to subscribe to our listserv. Please do so by emailing canlibareservchild@gmail.com. Please learn more about us from our website as well. We look forward to connecting with you

YA job postings

Amy Dawley — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:22:02 +0000

For those of you on the job hunt:

Teen Librarian – Oshawa Public Libraries

Temporary Adult & Youth Services Librarian (Maternity Leave) – Milton Public Libraries

Librarian – Children’s French Selector / Bibliothécaire – Sélectionneur de matériel francophone pour enfants et adolescents – Ottawa Public Library

Good luck

A Summer of Experiments

Amy Dawley — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:35:02 +0000

Wow, summer’s gone and here we are with Fall (and winter… ugh) right on our doorstep. The summer here in Prince George was busier than ever as we rolled out a brand new summer reading program that was our very own.

In a nutshell: we bought nothing, wasted nothing, recycled everything, and oh, raised over $2500 to build a well in Uganda through the Northern Uganda Development Foundation. I wrote an article in the Fall 2011 issue of YAACING, distributed by the Young Adult And Children’s Services section of BCLA. Go check it out.

Did you do anything this summer that was new and experimental? I’d love to hear about it.

YS Jobs

librarysteph — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:01:27 +0000

If you’re looking for work in libraries relating to youth:

Egads what a busy summer!!

Vivien Hogg — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:26:05 +0000

Hey guys! Well I don’t know about you, but if your summer was anything like mine, I’m thinking we’re all starting (haha! Who’m I kidding – totally gone already!) to go crazy!

I’m curious….once more I’m going to assume that we all offer some form or aother of that much loved (and surprisingly old!) Summer Reading Club, but I’m wondering what kind of programing you offer your kids, and do you do outreach to local camps as well??
Let me know.

At my location, in addition to the SRC fun, we create a bunch of programs that revolve around the SRC theme (though they’re entirely separate programs and I think a TON of people get really confused when they’ve signed up for hte cluba dn then think that they’ve signed up for our programs….le sigh).
At my branch there are 2 YSLs including myself, and we offer(in addition to our core programming and outreaches) 2 summer programs a week as well as about 4-6 camp outreaches over the 2 summer months.

Personally – I’m going to sound a bit bitter now – I’m thinking that we don’t have nearly enough staff to help cover all the times that we need to be off-desk in order to get these programs running, not to mention, I don’t really get the whole going to camps thing. Seriously, if I was a parent I don’t think I’d be too impressed that the camp I’m paying my child to go to then turns around and gets free programming out of the library – we can’t even really promote the library during these outreaches and they’re usually rather insane groups to begin with. Again, that’s my opinion…feel free to disagree!!

Actaully, please do disagree! I feel so cooped up after this summer that I’d love to dig my teeth in it!! =D

Oh – and did you guys see this article about that oh-so-hilarious book “Go the F**k to Sleep“??? For those of you who have sensitive ears, do NOT watch this.

So, what do you think?? An odd predicament, huh? Personally I’m completely against all forms of cencorship within library systems because as soon as you start bringing it in, I find it compicates things unnecessarily…..

Anywho, school starts soon which means a bit of a breather before jumping back into school outreaches. Yay!

Humans vs. Zombies

nsyalibrarian — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:07:09 +0000

This summer, zombies are coming to Nova Scotia. A few months ago, I read about a cool game of tag being played on college campuses, called Humans vs. Zombies. Check out their official website to see a documentary about the game and how to create your own here: HvZ. So, once I was hooked on the idea, I called up our county rec department, and had myself a partner for a great summer program. We are also partnering with Parks Canada, as we are holding the program at a National Park site.

So– the basics — you need people, nerf guns, and socks. And a place to play, and a set of rules, and you are off. If you want to see what we are planning, here’s our website: HvZ Annapolis. There will be more details to come, as we are still working on the story line and the missions for the humans, but I’ve already started to buy cheap socks on sale…..

Tagged: programs, tag, zombies

Becoming a CLA network

librarysteph — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:35:24 +0000

Below is a draft of my proposal for CLASY to become and official CLA Network. We need 5 more people with CLA memberships to sign up as backers (e-mail me if you want to be one), and I’d like input from everyone who reads this blog. This is an opportunity to grow and offer more, speak up for what you see as a need.

Network Proposal

Proposed Network: Canadian Libraries Are Serving Youth (CLASY)

Terms of Reference:

CLASY is a long-term network
CLASY is a hub that connects young adult services librarians across Canada
CLASY provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and resources relating to teen programs, teen collections or teen spaces in libraries. Library related tween topics also fall under CLASY’s area of interest.
CLASY offers occasional professional development lectures or workshops
The resources on the CLASY blog will remain free, and accessible
A moderator and provincial reps will stimulate communication and action but all members will have the right to and will be encouraged to contribute content.
Both public and school library topics are relevant to this group
CLASY advocates for teen rights in the library, YA literature and teen rights to access information

Network Leaders:

Moderator: Stephanie Vollick

Provincial Reps

BC:

Amy Dawley from Prince George Public Library
Stephanie Vollick from Okanagan Regional Library

Alberta

Jen Waters from Edmonton Public Library
Open

Saskatchewan

Laura Shtern from Moose Jaw Public Library
Open

Manitoba

Open
Open

Ontario

Tiffany Pahman from Oshawa Public Library
Open

Quebec

Open
Open

New Brunswick

Open
Open

Nova Scotia

Angela J. Reynolds from Annapolis Valley Regional Library
Open

Newfoundland & Labrador

Open
Open

Prince Edward Island

Open
Open

Northern Territories

Open
Open

Bloggers:

Cecilia Vespa from Burlington Public Library
Vivien Hogg from Vaughan Public Libraries
Kat Drennan-Scace from Hamilton Public Library
Lindsay Shaw from Collingwood Public Library
Erin Walker from Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library

Get involved by e-mailing clasy.for.ya@gmail.com

Northern BC Library Conference – Beyond Hope a success!

Amy Dawley — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:58:34 +0000

I had a fantastic time on Monday and Tuesday at the Beyond Hope 2011 library conference, which is held every two years in Prince George and brings together library professionals from around northern British Columbia. This year our theme was Library GaGa: I Want Your Everything As Long As It’s Free.

I presented a total of three sessions at the conference with two sessions speficially on teen services: Teen Programs That Work and Teen Advisory Councils. Downloadable materials from these presentations can be found at the conference web site.

Our lovely tech folks also recorded my session on teen programming! I was a little nervous about being recorded but after a while I just forgot about it. I’m glad I did because it’s helpful to be able to watch my presentation after the fact. Hooray! What I actually said really DID make sense

Here it is for your viewing pleasure: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15211558

Continued need to advocate

librarysteph — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:17:23 +0000

Librarians are champions for intellectual freedom. The area where many libraries receive the most challenges is the YA collection, so this is an important topic for librarians who work with teens. Recently there was an article in the Wall Street Journal speaking out against darkness in YA.

Book bloggers and authors began a campaign in response to this article with the Twitter hashtag #YAsaves. The idea is to spread the word about why serious subject matter in teen books is a positive thing. I added my voice to the discussion, and I encourage YA librarians across Canada to advocate for YA books and for teen rights to read about anything.

Here are some responses:

If you have posted about this or if you know of a great post please comment with a link. I have mostly been finding writers and bloggers but would love more librarian links.

Tagged: advocacy, books save lives, censorship, yasaves