Join YALSA in its 100 Days till Summer Countdown

CHICAGO – The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), will be counting down to the first day of summer through a slew of online activities.

The drive behind the implementation of these activities and the summer countdown is to help libraries gear up for their summer reading and learning programs. The discussion forums will be hosted online through YALSA’s official Summer Reading & Learning website with the first one starting on the 100th day till summer – March 14. A new forum will take place every 25 days till the official day of summer – June 21.



On each scheduled date, a forum will be created on the Summer Reading & Learning website with a topic related to summer reading and learning. Educators, out-of-school time providers and library workers are encouraged to log on to the website that day and participate in the discussion to share ideas and resources relating to programming, school outreach, marketing and more.

The calendar of discussion topics are as follows:

• March 14 – Programming strategies for success
• April 8 – Effective school outreach
• May 2 – Building summer learning into existing reading programs
• May 27 – Tips for marketing to teens

All interested individuals are encouraged to participate and become an online community member of the Summer Reading & Learning site to stay up to date with the latest summer reading and learning news, as well as resources. Additionally, YALSA will be giving away prizes on each of the four dates via the forums.

For more information about the above activities, as well as summer reading and learning, please visit YALSA’s Summer Reading & Learning website. YALSA’s summer reading and learning efforts are supported by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

For years, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has provided Youth Literacy Grants to schools, public libraries, and nonprofit organizations in hopes to provide assistance in implementing and expanding literacy programs for youth. For more information about Dollar General and its Youth Literacy Grants, visit www.dollargeneral.com

For more than 50 years, YALSA has worked to build the capacity of libraries and librarians 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.