YALSA's Webinars

Check out YALSA's webinars, held the third Thursday of each month at 2 p.m. Eastern! YALSA's webinars provide high-impact, free professional development with real-time discussion on advocacy, collection development, taking risks and more. These 60-minute sessions feature YALSA leaders who are experts in the field.

Registration | Upcoming Live Webinars | Free Competencies Webinars | Webinars-on-Demand | YALSA Member Exclusive Webinars | Snack and Chat

YALSA Members enjoy FREE Monthly webinars!

Become a YALSA member and gain access to all YALSA live webinars and all webinar archives. (YALSA members will continue to have full access to live webinar sessions and all recordings. as a part of association membership.) Non-members can access a live monthly webinar for $79.

Institution Pricing

For more information on pricing for state library agencies, as well as general subscription pricing, contact ce@ala.org .

Join YALSA Now!

Present a Webinar

If you are interested in presenting a YALSA webinar or have an idea for a Snack & Chat please complete this form.

Registration

YALSA Members

YALSA members can access registration details below for current webinars as well as in the weekly YALSA e-news or by signing into their ALA account and visiting the "Members Only" section of the YALSA website.

Non-Members

Non-YALSA members who want access to YALSA's webinars can register for individual webinars at a cost of $79/per webinar.

Contact yalsa@ala.org

If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, contact us at ce@ala.org or at 312-280-5100.

Upcoming Webinars

Activating Communities: "A Panel with Teen Activists across the U.S."

Start Date: November 18, 2024 5:30 pm CDT

End Date: November 18, 2024 7:00 pm CDT

Duration: 90 minutes

In this webinar, learn how teens have successfully engaged with and activated their communities around the freedom to read. This moderated panel discussion will feature teen advocates and address book banning, censorship, and how they engaged in civic leadership and built coalitions in the face of challenges. This webinar will help library staff working with teens, and maybe even teens themselves, learn from those who activated their communities around challenges and censorship. It will also include strategies, program ideas, and projects that helped the teen panelists build their communities.

Learning Outcomes:

  • About the panel of teens and the challenges they faced in their communities.
  • Strategies the teens used to build up their communities and how they started small and were able to grow.
  • The different ways that teens acted in response to challenges or censorship and how they were also able to continue the work with projects and programs. These examples could be used by other teens and their library communities

Panelists:

Teen Activist: Nationally Recognized: Da’Taeveyon Daniels

Teen Activist: Midwest: Meghana Nakkanti

Teen Activist Group: California, Golden State Readers: Anais Lee

Teen Activist Group: California, Golden State Readers: Mirabelle Lee

Teen Activist Group: California, Golden State Readers: Elizabeth Goldman

This event will be hosted in Zoom. Automatic captions will be enabled for this event. This event will be recorded, and registrants will receive access to the recording.

If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, contact us at ce@ala.org or at 312-280-5100.

Register

Hands-On AI Literacy Programs for Youth and Teens

Start Date: November 30, 2023 1:00 pm CDT

End Date: November 30, 2023 2:00 pm CDT

Duration: 60 minutes

In this YALSA webinar, Hee Rin Lee and Kahyun Choi will present an open-source AI literacy program that they developed through a grant from IMLS. The program provides youth with core knowledge about AI and its social consequences. It also encourages them to use their own unique strengths and resources to make a positive impact on their communities. Through participatory design methodologies, youth co-create AI solutions that address community challenges and envision how to use AI for their future jobs and local industries.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Learn how to teach core concepts of AI and its social implications to youth using open-source materials.
  • Gain familiarity with strategies for engaging youth in co-creating AI solutions to address community challenges.
  • Identify and address potential challenges in implementing the AI literacy program in your libraries.
  • Get to know the insights and experiences of how our AI literacy program was implemented in three public libraries.

Speakers:

Hee Rin Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to design and evaluate robots for social good.

Kahyun Choi is an Assistant Professor in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington. Her research explores public library-based AI education programs, ethical AI for Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMs), music information retrieval, and computational analysis of lyrics and poetry

This event will be hosted in Zoom.

If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, contact us at ce@ala.org or at 312-280-5100.

Register

Using Tiktok to Reach Teens

Start Date: October 25, 2023 1:30 pm CDT End Date: October 25, 2023 3:00 pm CDT Duration: 90 minutes

ALA Member Price: $71.10 | Non-Member Price: $79.00

TikTok is a phenomenon, and given its tremendous popularity with teens, it creates another unique vehicle for engaging with an important library audience. If you’re struggling to understand what TIkTok is, let alone how to use it in library services, this webinar has you covered!

You’ll learn the basics of how TikTok operates and explore different ways you can use this tool to engage, program, and market your library’s services. This webinar will also discuss Instagram Reels and its potential for connecting with teens.

At the end of this webinar, participants will:

  • Understand how TikTok works.
  • Be able to edit and film basic TikToks.
  • Have a basic understanding of how to use the platform to market their library.
  • Be able to address privacy concerns from administration, patrons, and other members of the community.
  • Understand different methods of ongoing communication to keep administration on board.

Sara Day is the Teen Services Librarian at the Woodland Public Library. This native Michigander has been working in California for 5 years, with her previous position as the Educational Services Librarian at Shasta Public Libraries. Sara's favorite parts of her current job are being the advisor to the Teen Advisory Board, running teen programs, and having Henrietta the Library Cat sit on her keyboard while she's working.

Sylvia Moreno is the Circulation Supervisor at Woodland Public Library. She has been working in libraries for over 10 years and has helped on grants to help provide services to rural communities. Sylvia loves creating videos of the Henrietta the Library cat.

Sara Vickers is the Children’s Librarian at Woodland Public Library in Northern California since 2019. She graduated with her MLIS degree in 2017 and had worked in various library systems throughout the Bay Area before settling down at Woodland. She is an avid reader of middle grade graphic novels, enjoys binge-watching TV, and is a lover of the outdoors. Her favorite library programs include Girls Who Code, Tween Library Club, and anything to do with kids' crafts.

This event will be hosted in Zoom. Automatic captions will be enabled for this event. This event will be recorded, and registrants will receive access to the recording within a day after the event ends.

If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, contact us at ce@ala.org or at 312-280-5100.

Register

Teen Volunteering for Everyone and Every Library

Format: Live Webinar and Snack and Chat

Non Member: $79

Description: Your teen volunteer program should be as flexible, equitable, and intersectional as possible in order to allow for as many participants as possible. We will discuss new ideas of how to make the most of your summer volunteers to attract new participants and to ensure success for both the teens and your library.

Presenter: Becca Boland

Start Date: October 5th, 2023 1:00 PM CT

Duration: 60 minutes

Learning Outcomes:

  • The tools to look at teen volunteering through a new lens.
  • Ideas for ways to expand existing teen volunteer programs.

CALA/YALSA Joint Taskforce

CALA Webinar: Stories Beyond Borders: Championing Chinese American Stories for Youth

Start Date: Aug 17, 2023 02:00 PM CST

FREE

Register

Hear from creators of literature for children and young adults about how they use their voice and stories to advocate for a better world. Bringing diverse issues to light, they share their experiences and connect with youth to inspire them to act to ensure the world is a more just and inclusive one.

Download the Stories Beyond Borders Reading List at bit.ly/calastoriesbeyond

C.B. Lee is a queer author of young adult and middle grade fiction. Their works include the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selected A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix (Feiwel and Friends), the Lambda Literary Award nominated Sidekick Squad series (Duet Books), Ben 10 graphic novels (Boom! Studios), Out Now: Queer We Go Again (HarperTeen), Minecraft: The Shipwreck (Del Rey Books), From A Certain Point Of View: The Empire Strikes Back (Del Rey Books). Lee’s work has been featured in NPR, Teen Vogue, Wired Magazine, Hypable, Tor’s Best of Fantasy and Sci Fi and the American Library Association’s Rainbow List.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” and the Theodor Geisel Honor for “Ling and Ting.” Her novel “When the Sea Turned to Silver” was a National Book Award Finalist and her picture book, “A Big Mooncake for Little Star” was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is also an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio, a reviewer for the NY Times, a video essayist for PBS NewsHour, and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, “The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf,” as well as hosting the two podcasts: kidlitwomen* and Kids Ask Authors. In 2016, Grace’s art was displayed at the White House where Grace, herself, was recognized by President Obama’s office as a Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art and Storytelling. In 2022, Grace was awarded the Children’s Literature Legacy Award from the American Library Association.

Supporting Teens with Organization and Stress Management Skills

Start Date: August 9, 2023, 1:30 pm CDT End Date: August 9, 2023, 3:00 pm CDT Duration: 90 minutes

ALA Member Price: $71.10 Non-Member Price: $79.00

Description: Today’s teens face a stressful world, and many find refuge in their local library. Whether you serve teens in a public library or a school, your patrons can benefit from personal organization and stress management skills. In this webinar, high school media specialist Grace Hammond will teach you the principles she developed in her work smarter approach, as well as how to achieve student, patron, and staff buy-in for empathy-based, whole-learner library services.

With a focus on teaching students and patrons executive skills and stress management, you’ll learn to help teens gain confidence as learners through proven methods of personal organization, delivered in a safe and trauma-informed learning environment.

After participating in this event, you will:

  • Understand how to easily adapt a library environment to one that supports stress management and organizational skills
  • Gain a basic understanding of trauma-informed principles that will help inform your first steps in supporting these skills in your library
  • Understand how to assess the unique needs of your community and how to personalize these principles to help your patrons become empowered learners

Grace Hammond is a high school Library Media Specialist focused on supporting students as whole learners. She has redefined her school library media program since the start of the pandemic to support students’ executive functioning skills and confidence as learners with a new curriculum called the Work Smarter Boot Camp. This 8-week program on personal efficiency and organization teaches students organizational skills using nuts and bolts skills combined with empathy-based teaching principles and integrates weekly exercises to disarm and support students who are feeling overwhelmed. This trauma-informed program helps students increase personal efficiency while lowering stress. Grace is a lifelong learner and holds an MLIS from the University of Alabama, a BA from Oberlin College, and certifications in Teacher Leadership, Instructional Design, Trauma-Informed Care, Digital Health and Wellness Coaching, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, K-12 Yoga, Childhood Grief and Bereavement, and Psychological First Aid.

Register

A Place to Belong: Neurodiversity & Mental Health in the Library

Format: Live Webinars Start Date: July 26, 2023, 1:30 pm CDT End Date: July 27, 2023, 3:00 pm CDT Duration: Two sessions each lasting 90 minutes

ALA Member Price: $116.10 Non Member Price: $129.00 Division Member Price: $103.20 Credit Type: Certificate Available upon Completion

Description:

A two-part webinar series taking place Wednesday, July 26 and Thursday, July 27, 2023 at 11:30am Pacific/12:30pm Mountain/1:30pm Central/2:30pm Eastern each session.

Today’s teens face major life changes and a tremendous amount of social and emotional pressure. We are now seeing some of the emotional fallout from the isolation and trauma that came from the pandemic. For those on the autism spectrum, these effects are even more pronounced.

Libraries are an incredible resource for teens and can serve as critically important safe spaces for those suffering from mental health crises.

In this webinar, the presenters will explore techniques for updating our collections and adapting our services to ensure we are both representing the experiences of these teens and serving them day-to-day. They will show how our programming can promote empathy and compassion among all library users. Using examples from their own library, the presenters will share different ideas for programs and services and insights on how you can develop your own.

This webinar will be split into two sessions, with one session focusing on mental health and one focusing on neurodiversity.

After participating in this event, attendees will:

  • Gain a better understanding of the fundamentals of neurodiversity and mental health
  • Understand how representation in stories can improve teens' mental health
  • Have specific strategies for creating and implementing mental health and neurodiversity-oriented programs in their libraries
  • Understand how to assess the specific mental health and neurodiversity needs of their community and tailor programs and services accordingly

Adriana White is an autistic librarian, writer, and public speaker. She is a staff editor for the website "A Novel Mind" and a 2021 recipient of the Walter Grant from We Need Diverse Books. She holds a Master's in Education and an MLIS with a certificate in Storytelling. Adriana is currently the Lead Librarian for the South San Antonio Independent School District in Texas. You can find more information on her website, adrianalwhite.com.

Ashleigh Torres is a librarian who is passionate about mental health advocacy in libraries. She is currently the branch supervisor of the Winters Community Library in Yolo County, California. She is the chair of the Youth Services Interest Group for the California Library Association. Find more mental health resources and topics for libraries on her social media @ashbrarian.

This event will be hosted in Zoom. Automatic captions will be enabled for this event. This event will be recorded, and registrants will receive access to the recording within a day after the event ends.

If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, contact us at ce@ala.org or at 312-280-5100.

Register

YALSA Member-Exclusive Webinars:

Start Where You Are to Cultivate the Relationship-Driven Library

Description: We all know that teamwork makes the dream work, but sometimes it can be hard to figure out how to start working collaboratively with others in our community. This webinar, featuring three public librarians who all started their careers working with tweens and teens, features the information and inspiration you need both to start where you are and to create pathways in your libraries to start where they are. You’ll leave ready to accelerate your community collaborations.

Presenters: Noah Lenstra, Stacy Lane, Celeste Bleu, Kelly Sense

Start Date: August 10, 2023 1:00 PM CT

Duration: 60 Minutes

Register Here

YALSA Snack and Chat

July 13 at 2pm EST / 1pm CST / 12pm MST / 11am PST

Summer Check-In with Teen Think Tank - Sarah Amazing

Join YALSA and Teen Think Tank members for a mid-summer networking discussion. Share your wins, ask for help, or simply connect with other staff for support.

Register here

Webinars-on-Demand

Looking for a past webinar? YALSA members visit our webinars-on-demand web page.

2018 Free YALSA Webinars on the Teen Services Competencies for Library Staff

Looking for more past webinars related to the above topics? Check out the respective pages below:

About the webinars:

  • Webinars are 60 minutes long, including time for questions and answers
  • Webinars take place at 2 p.m. Eastern.
  • All participants in the live program receive:
    • a certificate of participation
    • access to the recording and PowerPoint slides
  • They are commercial-free
  • Webinars are delivered by experts on the topic covered
  • All YALSA members get free access to YALSA's webinars within 24 hours after they're originally recorded, in the Members' Only section of this web site

Questions? Contact Linda W Braun at lbraun@leonline.com or 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4390.

Group Registration Information

  • Group registrations for live webinars are available for $195. YALSA’s group rate gives an institution ten logins for the webinar and non-members then have an opportunity to sit in on a live webinar.
  • Group registration is available by completing this form (PDF) and then faxing or mailing it in.

Other Information

  • YALSA does not distribute contact information to webinar sponsors.
  • YALSA's webinars are led by professional experts, selected by YALSA, and are not employees of paid sponsors.
  • YALSA webinars are certified for one Library Education Unit in the state of Indiana.
  • Certificates of attendance are availabe to those who attend live webinar sessions.
  • Interested in sponsoring a YALSA webinar? Find out more in our media kit.
  • Interested in a past YALSA webinar? Read descriptions and buy recordings at the Webinars-on-Demand page.
  • Interested in presenting a webinar? Fill out this brief form to let us know.

-->Free Webinars

Interested in YALSA’s webinars, but want to see if they're right for you? Check out one of our free webinars-on-demand:

On-the-Job Reference

Teens and the Future of Libraries

Teen Read Week & Summer Reading/Learning

Teens & Tech

-->