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Contact: Stephanie Kuenn
Communications Specialist, YALSA
(312)280-2128
skuenn@ala.org
For Immediate Release,
April 29, 2008
Thousands celebrate Teen Tech Week™
YALSA honors teen contest winners, chooses 2009 theme
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CHICAGO — Teen Tech Week, an initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), will celebrate its 2009 edition March 8-14 with the theme Press Play @ your library®.
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More than 1,500 libraries across the country celebrated their nonprint and technological resources for teens during this year’s Teen Tech Week, March 2-8, which used the theme Tune In @ your library®.
As part of the celebration, four teams of teens entered the Teen Tech Week Promotional Song Contest. Michelle Visent, a student at Felix Verela Senior High School in Miami, won for her song, “The Library.” Visent won a $50 bookstore certificate, while her sponsoring librarian, Mary Joffre, received $100 in materials for her library. Visent’s song, along with the songs of the three finalists, can be heard by visiting www.ala.org/teentechweek and clicking on “Contests.” Teens were also invited to take YALSA’s Teen Tech survey, with more than 600 teens giving feedback on their online habits. YALSA plans to announce the survey results in June and will use them to craft resources, activities, programs and events to respond to teens’ online needs.
YALSA celebrated in other ways as well. First, YALSA held an event at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va., with the Federal Trade Commission and the National Education Association, highlighting each organization’s work helping teens connect safely and smartly with the technologies available to them. Due to the generosity of Teen Tech Week Corporate Sponsor Dungeons & Dragons, a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, YALSA offered 20 grants of $450 cash and $50 in official Teen Tech Week products to needy libraries across the country.
“With events like Teen Tech Week, we bring attention to these excellent programs and their great benefits for teens,” said YALSA President Paula Brehm-Heeger. “We also inspire other YA librarians to find fun, engaging ways to educate teens about how to be effective and efficient users of technology.”
Teen Tech Week is a national initiative aimed at teens, their parents, educators and other concerned adults with a general theme of Get Connected @ your library®. The initiative ensures that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries’ nonprint resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology. Promotional Partners include ALA Graphics, e*vanced solutions, Rosen Publishing and Tutor.com. To learn more about Teen Tech Week, visit www.ala.org/teentechweek.
For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos, and audio books for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or by e-mail at yalsa@ala.org.
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