Continuing Education Opportunities

CE Opportunities  I  CE Projects  I  CE Resources

YALSA is the authority for offering high-quality teen services related professional learning opportunities.

Questions about YALSA's Online Learning? Contact please contact YALSA Projects, yalsaprojects@ala.org. Have an idea for a course or webinar? Use our online form to let us know!

Ongoing Continuing Education Opportunities

E-Courses
YALSA provides online classes to enhance the skills and knowledge of library staff who work for and with teens. These classes are taught by specialists in teen services and are offered on a rotating basis during the summer, autumn and winter sessions.

In-person Institutes:
YALSA offers face-to-face training! You provide the attendees and the space; we'll provide training materials and a content expert. Learn more about in-person training.

Self-Paced Professional Learning
Self-paced e-Learning bundles are a collection of YALSA's most popular webinars and selected YALS articles organized into a mini-curriculum on topics that library staff can learn about in manageable pieces of time. Included are questions to think about while working with the material and context for each topic to help library staff frame their learning.

Snack Breaks
This collection of short videos, all available for free, cover a range of topics from coding and libraries, to developing outcomes, to designing teen space. All available on our Snack Break YouTube playlist.

Webinars
Keep up-to-date on the latest developments in the field with these interactive learning sessions, presented by an expert YALSA trainer. Webinars are 60 minutes in length and include time for a question and answer period.  Since Jan. 1, 2014, all live webinars are free to YALSA members.  Not a member? Join! YALSA/ALA membership $60 per year.

YELL (YALSA E-Learning Library)
This is a collection of  over 40 of YALSA's Webinars-on-Demand, available 24/7! In these previously recorded webinars, experts from the field will guide you through hour-long sessions that you can put into practice at your library immediately.  All on-demand webinars are free to members.

Twitter Chats
Occasionally YALSA hosts a Twitter chat on a particular topic such as program ideas for summer learning or recommended programs for Teen Tech Week.  Join in with the #yalsaCE hashtag.  Check YALSA's Google calendar or follow YALSA on Twitter @yalsa for details.

CE Projects

Future Ready with the Library
YALSA has grant funding to train 80 small, rural and tribal library staff from 2016 - 2018 around providing college and career readiness services for and with middle schoolers

National Forum
From June 1, 2017 through May 31, 2018 YALSA partnered with COSLA to host a National Forum on Transforming Teen Services Through Continuing Education.  The result of this project  was a report with recommendations for how to improve CE for all library staff  so that teens are better served.  State library agencies, graduate schools, trainers and others can use to recommendations to plan and deliver effective learning opportunities for and with library staff.

Train the Trainer Program
As a follow-up to the National Forum, YALSA and COSLA will implement a three-year train the trainer effort beginning in July 2018.

CE Resources