2015 Teen Read Week™ website now live

For Immediate Release
Wed, 04/15/2015

Contact:

Anna Lam

Communications Specialist

Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

alam@ala.org

CHICAGO – The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has launched its 2015 Teen Read Week website, www.ala.org/teenread.  Teen Read Week is an opportunity for libraries to showcase to their communities all of the great literacy related resources and services that are available to teens and their families.

Anyone who joins the free site will have full access to a variety of resources to help them plan their Teen Read Week (TRW) activities.

Resources and incentives include:

  • Forums: Discuss and share TRW related resources and experiences;
  • Grants: Teen Read Week Activity Grant and Teens’ Top Ten Book Giveaway;
  • Planning and publicity tools;
  • Products: Posters, bookmarks, manuals and more;
  • Showcase: Share your planned events;
  • Themed logo (site members only): Downloadable low-resolution theme logo;
  • Webinars (site members only): Free access to a live webinar to help you prepare for TRW, as well as archived webinars;
  • and more resources and perks to come.

The theme this year is Get Away @ your library and will be celebrated Oct. 18-24, 2015. The theme encourages teens to escape to the library to enjoy novels from genres such as fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, travelogues and many more.

As libraries shift into full gear to plan for Teen Read Week, authors and publishers are reminded that they can also be involved in Teen Read Week as well. Publishers and other corporate groups can become sponsors to help YALSA build the capacity of libraries to meet the literacy needs of teens. Current supporters include Blink and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. For more information on how to become a sponsor, please contact YALSA’s Executive Director, Beth Yoke at byoke@ala.org.  Authors can visit the Teen Read Week site for a list of ideas on how they can participate.

Teen Read Week™ is a national adolescent literacy initiative created by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). It began in 1998 and is held annually during the third week of October. Its purpose is to encourage teens to be regular readers and library users.  Join the online discussion with the hashtag #TRW15.

For more than 50 years, YALSA has worked to build the capacity of libraries and library staff to engage, serve and empower teens.  For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources go to www.ala.org/yalsa, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or e-mail, yalsa@ala.org.