Call for Comments on YALSA’s Draft National Teen Space Guidelines for Public Libraries

Deadline: Nov. 21, 2011

In early 2011 YALSA’s President was directed by the Board of Directors to appoint a taskforce that would create national guidelines for teen spaces in public libraries. The goal was to create a document that would assist the public library community in creating and maintaining physical and virtual spaces that are appropriate and welcoming for teens. The taskforce submitted a draft agenda to the Board in June 2011 and the Board asked for revisions. In the fall of 2011, the taskforce submitted a revised draft to the Board, which the Board approved for use in collecting feedback from YALSA members and from the library community at large. A revised draft (PDF) is now available for public comment.

The taskforce is soliciting specific comments from now through Nov. 21 on this revised draft for discussion and potential adoption by YALSA’s Board of Directors. This solicitation is specifically limited to comments addressing the following:

  • Accuracy: does the content accurately reflect the current best practices in the field today and provide appropriate direction for public libraries? If not, what is inaccurate or incomplete?
  • Clarity: is the document clear and succinct? Is it free of jargon? If not, what specific improvements can be made?
  • Completeness: do the ten areas encompass what is critical for meeting the needs of today’s teens? If not, what is missing?
  • Ease of use: how successfully do you think the guidelines overall could be used by the primary target audiences – public library workers – in order to establish, maintain and evaluate teen spaces? If not easily, what could be changed to make it more successful as a set of guidelines?

Comments that do not fall within these categories may be declared out of scope and left unaddressed. It is desired that, by the end of the year, the document will have been finalized and approved by the YALSA Board.

The taskforce welcomes comments from interested individuals or parties, YALSA members and the library community at large. The draft document is available from YALSA’s homepage at www.ala.org/yalsa. Please review the document (PDF) and submit your comments at www.surveymonkey.com/s/YALSAteenspaces by the deadline of Nov. 21, 2011.

Please note that this is not a ballot, so please do not "approve" or "disapprove" the document. This is a call for comments to improve the document and prepare it for presentation to YALSA’s Board. The comments will be weighed by the taskforce and taken into consideration where they will enhance the quality or understanding of the document. Comments will be compiled and posted online the first week of December.

For further information, please contact:

Additional Resources

See YALSA's other national guidelines.