A provocative call to transform YA services

CHICAGO — A vigorous call to action that encourages LIS students, researchers and practitioners to question some of the underlying assumptions of their discipline, “Transforming Young Adult Services” initiates an open discussion about how YA professionals perceive young adults.

Editor Anthony Bernier and contributors Denise E. Agosto, John M. Budd, Michael Cart, Karen Coats, Cherie Givens, Kafi D. Kumasi, Wendy Schaetzel Lesko, Mike Males, Paulette Rothbauer and Lucia Cedeira Serantes explore the question of what an LIS-specific vision of young adults should be. This book offers a wide array of provocative positions with implications for libraries in literacy initiatives, YA space, intergenerational interactions and civic life. Research-based articles and essays examine young adults in historical and conceptual contexts, such as the ways in which social theory is rapidly changing the essence of YA librarianship. The variety of perspectives and analyses offered will launch a vigorous new debate on how libraries and those in the field think of and serve young adults.

Bernier is associate professor at California’s San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science. As a critical youth studies scholar, his primary field of research explores the administration of library services with young people. He served as a professional librarian for nearly 15 years as a young adult specialist librarian and administrator, during which time he designed nationally recognized youth outreach and programming models, including the first purpose-built library space for teenaged youth: the Los Angeles Public Library acclaimed TeenS’cape. In 2010 he received a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to advance research on public library spaces designed for young people. He is former chair of several national professional and academic associations and currently serves on two editorial boards. In 2011 he was appointed to a four-year term on the American Library Association’s Committee on Accreditation. His doctoral dissertation at the University of California examined changing notions of public space in twentieth-century America.

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