YALSA April President’s Report
Paula Brehm-Heeger
“YALSA: Leading the Way”
During April I have been working on several writing projects, including the YALSA President’s annual report that will be submitted to ALA in May and a paper to support my upcoming presentation at a meeting for the Oeiras Public Libraries in Portugal. It was also a month spent preparing for the annual spring YALSA Executive Board meeting which was held, via conference call, on April 25th. Thanks to all of the Executive Board members for their hard work on this meeting!
Accomplishments
- Continued using YALSA’s Twitter (
http://twitter.com/yalsa), providing brief updates to members about my activities - Participated in YALSA’s Executive Committee 2 ÃÂÃÂÃÂý hour conference call on April 25th. The Executive Committee includes the President, President-Elect, Past-President, Fiscal Officer, ALA Councilor and Executive Director and meets via phone each spring to check on the progress of current projects and discuss new opportunities
- Completed final Presidential column for YALS
- Sent several welcome notes to new YALSA members as part of a Board of Directors initiative intended to welcome new members to our Association. All Board members are participating in welcoming new members
- Developed a letter inviting leaders and innovators in the field of library service to teens who may not be YALSA members to join YALSA
- Filled an unexpected vacancy on the Michael L Printz Committee, along with two unexpected vacancies on the Best Books for Young Adults Committee (one a result of a member moving to the Printz Committee, as per YALSA policies and procedures.) Continued to fill other committee vacancies as necessary.
- Completed PowerPoint and paper for upcoming presentation in Portugal highlighting YALSA’s programs
- Finalized plans for my President’s Program which will take place at the annual conference in June and focus on Teen Spaces. Thanks to the members of this task force who have planned what I’m sure will be a great event!
- Thanked everyone involved in Support Teen Literature Day and Operation Teen Book Drop for their involvement and support for this important national initiative
In Progress
- Preparing for the upcoming National Library Legislative Days on May 13-14.
- Working on the annual YALSA President’s report to submit to ALA. This report is an overview of all that YALSA has accomplished in the last year
- Preparing for the upcoming annual conference in June
- Working with the YALSA YA Diversity Campaign Task Force to finalize plans for a presentation at the upcoming REFORMA conference in September
Media
- Provided quotes for YALSA Communications Specialists Stephanie (Stevie) Kuenn for a two press releases; one was an announcement for Teen Read Week and the other a wrap-up of Teen Tech Week
- Spoke with Alex Pham, a reporter from the Los Angeles Times focused on the rise of programming for teens at libraries, specifically gaming in libraries
- Spoke with a reporter from Southern California about the change in attitudes of public libraries when it comes to teens eating and drinking in the library
- YALSA received significant coverage our Support Teen Literature Day initiative, Operation Teen Book Drop, including articles in School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf, the Seattle Post-Intellingencer, and Seattle television station KING 5. Special thanks to both Past-President Judy Nelson for representing YALSA for Support Teen Literature Day in Seattle and YALSA's Intern, Aliyah Levi, for coordinating the major job of book delivery for Operation Book Drop.
Additional Important News
Registration and housing for the 2008 Annual conference in Anaheim, CA is now open. Advance registration closes May 16th. More information about the Annual conference is available at
http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2008a/home.htm
Housing and Registration are now open for YALSA's first-ever Young Adult Literature Symposium. You can find more information about the Literature Symposium at: http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/yalitsymposium/symposium.cfm
National Library Legislative Day is coming up on May 13-14. There are resources up on the wiki and those who can not attend in person can still make an impact by participating virtually.
The 2008 Teen Read Week web site has been launched and registration is now open at
www.ala.org/teenread