THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE YOUNG ADULT LIBRARY SERVICES ASSOCIATION
young adult 2012 library library services services
VOLUME 13 | NUMBER 2 WINTER 2015 ISSN 1541-4302 $17.50
INSIDE:
VOICES OF HOMELESS YOUTH: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS IN LIBRARY TRAINING HAND IN HAND: TEENS, TECH, AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT LIBRARIES ARE FOR ISSUE MAKING: ROBOTS TEENS & TECH AND MORE.... Their legacy is A Calling. An Honor. A Lie. “Secrets, danger, and romance meet in this unforgettable epic fantasy.”
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VOLUME 13 | NUMBER 2 Winter 2015 ISSN 1541-4302
YALSA Perspectives Plus: 4 In the Know: 2 From the Editor YALSA’s National Guidelines Oversight Committee Linda W. Braun By Katherine Trouern-Trend 3 From the President Chris Shoemaker 6 The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: 29 Guidelines for Authors A Call to Action 29 Index to Advertisers 9 YALSA Tune-up 30 The YALSA Update
#act4teens 10 Voices of Homeless Youth: Community Partnerships in Library Training By Rekha Kuver
Best Practices 13 An Interview with Jonathan Friesen About This Cover By Kris Hickey This Teen Tech Week™ (March 8–14, 2014), YALSA 15 Not as Crazy as It Seems: invites you to celebrate Libraries are for Making.... The Discussing the New YA Literature of Mental theme encourages libraries to promote themselves as Illness in Your Classroom or Library a place for teens to pursue their interests via hands-on By Diane Scrofano activities and where learning can take place beyond the classroom. YALSA encourages school and public Hot Spot: Libraries are for Making... library staff across the country to use Teen Tech Week as an opportunity to raise awareness in their local 21 Hand in Hand: Teens, Tech, community about the digital resources and services the and Community Engagement library off ers to help teens succeed in school and prepare By Rachel Stout for college and careers. Learn more about Teen Tech Week at http://teentechweek.ning.com/ 25 Libraries are for Making: Robots By Jaina Lewis
27 Libraries are for Making: Making Connections That Is By Christie Gibrich 2014–2015 YALSA Editorial Advisory Board (providing advisory input for the journal) Linda W. Braun, Chair, Seattle, Wash.; Jan Chapman, Strongville, Oh.; from the Dr. Alpha Selene DeLap, Medina, Wash.; Dr. Crystle Martin, Orange, Calif.; TheNicola View McDonald, from Brooklyn, ALA N.Y.; Renee McGrath, Uniondale, N.Y
YALSA Executive Director Beth Yoke Editor Editor Linda W. Braun Linda W. Braun Circulation Young Adult Library Services (ISSN 1541-4302) is published four times a year by the American Library Association (ALA), 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, ou’ve probably read about libraries integrating makerspaces IL 60611. It is the offi cial publication of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of ALA. Subscription price: memb ers of into their facilities, and even how these spaces are popping YALSA, $25 per year, included in membership dues; nonmembers, $70 per up elsewhere within communities as centers for learning year in the U.S.; $80 in Canada, Mexico, and other countries. Back issues Y within one year of current issue, $17.50 each. Periodicals class postage paid and creating. Whether in the library or at a separate location in at Chicago, Illinois and additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Send your community, makerspaces and the idea of making should be address changes to Young Adult Library Services, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Members: Address changes and inquiries should be sent to an important part of what your library staff working with teens Membership Department, Changes to Young Adult Library Services, 50 E. provides and supports. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Nonmember subscribers: Subscriptions, orders, changes of address, and inquiries should be sent to Changes to Young Adult I know that some of you consider the idea of making and Library Services, Subscriptions, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; 1-800- makerspaces a fad. But making and makerspaces are not really 545-2433, press 5; fax: (312) 944-2641; [email protected]. about the spaces or the accoutrements of the space. They are about Statement of Purpose the learning that takes place and how library staff can work with Young Adult Library Services is the offi cial journal of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library teens, their families, and other members of the community to help Association. YALS primarily serves as a vehicle for continuing education youth gain the skills they need to succeed in academics and other for librarians serving young adults, ages twelve through eighteen. It will include articles of current interest to the profession, act as a showcase for best parts of their lives. That’s hardly a fad. practices, provide news from related fi elds, publish recent research related to The 2015 YALSA Teen Tech WeekTM (March 8–14, 2015) YA librarianship, and will spotlight signifi cant events of the organization and off er in-depth reviews of professional literature. YALS will also serve as the theme of Libraries are for Making… is something that library staff offi cial record of the organization. working with teens need to grab on to. With this theme, library Production staff have the opportunity to highlight how and why making is Cadmus Communications so crucial to teens in the community. The articles in this issue Advertising of YALS will help you to do just that. For example, Jaina Lewis’ Bill Spilman, Innovative Media Solutions; 1-877-878-3260; fax (309) 483- article articulates how learning to build and program robots 2371; e-mail [email protected]. View our media kit at www.ala.org/yalsa/mediakit. YALS accepts advertising for goods or services at the Westport, Connecticut Library helps teens gain critical of interest to the library profession and librarians in service to youth in thinking, troubleshooting, and digital literacy skills. Rachel Stout’s particular. It encourages advertising that informs readers and provides clear communication between vendor and buyer. YALS adheres to ethical and article presents the ways in which the Houston Public Library’s commonly accepted advertising practices and reserves the right to reject any Community Engagement Team highlights making in their outreach. advertisement not suited to the above purposes or not consistent with the aims and policies of ALA. Acceptance of advertising in YALS does not imply This helps demonstrate to the community how libraries provide offi cial endorsement by ALA of the products or services advertised. learning opportunities for teens. And Christie Gibrich’s article on Manuscripts making connections with teen interests through technology shows a Manuscripts and letters pertaining to editorial content should be sent to surprising variety of ways that libraries can support teens. YALSA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; e-mail: yalseditor@gmail. com. Manuscripts will be sent out for review according to YALS’s established referee Along with this Teen Tech Week issue of YALS, YALSA has procedures. Visit www.ala.org/yalsa for further information. an array of materials to help you get ready for Teen Tech Week Indexing, Abstracting, and Microfilm 2015. These include the Teen Tech Week website at http:// Young Adult Library Services is indexed in Library Literature, Library teentechweek.ning.com; the Making at the Library Toolkit available &Information Science Abstracts, and Current Index to Journals in Education. Microfi lm copies of Journal of Youth Services in Libraries and its predecessor, in pdf at http://bit.ly/yalsa_making_toolkit; and YALSA’s STEM Top of the News, are available from ProQuest/Bell & Howell, 300 N. Zeeb Programming Toolkit available at http://bit.ly/yalsa_stem_toolkit. Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106. In this issue of YALS we are launching a new section titled The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of #act4teens. In this, and future issues of the journal, #act4teens will American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. ∞ highlight the ways in which libraries are making concrete the ideas ©2014 American Library Association put forward in the YALSA report the Future of Libraries for and with All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be photocopied for the noncommercial purpose of scientifi c Teens: A Call to Action. (The executive summary of the report is also or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright included in this issue.) Rekha Kuver’s launch article focuses on how Revision Act of 1976. For other photocopying, reprinting, or translating, address requests to the ALA Offi ce of Rights and Permissions. libraries and community partners can work together to help homeless teens have a voice in their communities. The article highlights a key part of the YALSA report that centers on partnerships and training as a way for libraries to move into the future successfully. Don’t forget that the YALS website, http://yalsa.ala.org/yals, includes information and materials that support every issue of the journal. YALS
2 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 from the President Chris Shoemaker
o, you’ve opened the shrink- for adolescents to succeed in academics, divides we, wrapped box of your new device, the workforce, and even life. and they, Sand broken the seal on the end- Of course many libraries are already now face. user license agreement, plugged it in, working to bridge these divides for When library gone through the setup and any necessary teens. However, there does seem to be staff bring in installation, and . . . now what? That’s a disconnect in what libraries can make experts that actually the same thing that many library possible for and with teens and the are skilled in staff , teachers, parents, and even teens do number of teens that take advantage of areas that the staff is not, it’s a time to help and ask themselves every day. the technology programs and services teens and to help library staff learn about Even though many teens have available at the library. This might be in what teens are interested in. For example, easy and regular access to technology, part because while teens think of libraries as teens learn how to produce videos on there are still signifi cant divides that as a place to use computers for research digital devices, library staff can learn right impact meaningful use of devices and purposes, they don’t necessarily think alongside them. Librarians don’t need to be information resources. Libraries are of our institutions as spaces for using the experts but they can always be learning critical in bridging the technology divides technology for creating, collaborating, and updating their own skills. that teens face. Libraries do this by giving connecting, and so on. Teens might not This Teen Tech Week why not work teens who don’t have regular access realize that not only do libraries make with teens to fi nd mentors in the community to technology that access, providing technology available, but the library is a that can support adolescent digital passions high-speed capabilities for teens without place to learn about technology. It’s also a and interests? Give teens and the mentors internet at home or even at school, and place to fi nd mentors and coaches who can a chance to work and learn together. Teens providing the programs and training that help teens gain life skills and pursue their will have a chance to improve their digital help teens to learn to use technology technological, and personal, interests. literacy skills, library staff will learn new successfully. It’s essential that libraries Of course technology mentors and things, and community members will fi nd provide these services for teens because coaches are a fairly new idea in libraries. out how awesome teens are and how the without the access and the opportunity to But, it’s an important aspect of supporting library supports the needs of youth. Now gain digital literacy skills, it will be harder teens and helping to bridge the digital that’s a win-win-win situation. YALS
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 3 feature YALSA Perspectives
YALSA Teen Services Evaluation Tool In the Know: and the association’s National Teen Space Guidelines. Both of these are comprehensive documents that help libraries fashion engaging and best practice programs of service YALSA’s National and space design for teen customers.
Guidelines Oversight YALSA Teen Service Evaluation Tool The Committee appreciates that staff with Committee diverse roles and responsibilities serve teens in libraries. These include youth services managers, teen librarians, youth librarians, By Katherine Trouern-Trend library assistants, adult services librarians, library directors, or CEOs. All of these staff are often engaged with teen work. Whatever a staff member’s role, it is important to know e all want the best for youth. ala.org/yalsa/guidelines) are researched the teen customer and how to best serve Today’s teens are part of and developed to aid librarians, library them. The YALSA Teen Services Evaluation W a globally competitive society workers, and libraries to better understand Tool helps with this by breaking down teen and need support and guidance to help the components of an excellent teen services into seven categories: Leadership and them thrive as individuals and engaged services program and as a way to help Professionalism, Knowledge of Client Group, citizens. Teens require new competencies library staff support teens in the way that’s Communication, Marketing and Outreach, and expanded literacies to eff ectively required in the 21st century. Administration, Knowledge of Materials, navigate new media and information I am the chair of the Committee and and Access to Information and Services. Not technologies. The purpose of YALSA’s we are focusing on YALSA’s Future of only can library staff use the full evaluation National Guidelines Oversight Committee Library Services for and with Teens : A Call to tool, there is also a set of Evaluation Tool is to provide structure and oversight Action report, YALSA’s array of National Fact Sheets available for specifi c audiences. for YALSA’s portfolio of national Guidelines, and the YALSA Strategic Plan as For example, there is the Evaluation Tool guidelines, competencies, position papers, guiding documents in planning activities. For Fact Sheet for Library Administrators, the and benchmarks. These materials (all example, we plan to facilitate conversations Evaluation Tool Fact Sheet for LIS Faculty, available on the YALSA website at www. and collaborative initiatives related to the and the Evaluation Tool Fact Sheet for Teen Librarians. These fact sheets provide relevant resources and recommended practices that KATHERINE TROUERN-TREND is a Youth Services Librarian at will best support excellent teen library service. Hartford Public Library in Hartford, Connecticut, and a Consultant One example of what is included in for Libraries and Makerspaces at Designing Minds Consulting the YALSA Teen Service Evaluation Tool www.designingmindsconsulting.com. Katherine’s areas of is a recommendation that libraries develop interest are equity, access, connected learning, media literacy, written policies and mission statements that and information literacy. She is the chair of the YALSA National support the rights of teens to equitable library Guidelines Oversight Committee, chair of the ALA Ethnic and service. It is further recommended that these Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT), and policies are designed collaboratively with YA staff and reviewed annually to ensure that a founding member and leader at MakeHartford, Hartford’s first resources and services are available to all teens makerspace. Katherine considers her library youth to be her that support adolescent learning and growth greatest source of inspiration and motivation in helping to shape and a library’s commitment to youth access the future of libraries. Follow Katherine on twitter @kttrend. and engagement.
4 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 Trouern-Trend
In order to help library staff achieve this, of key elements to consider for physical about another crowdsourced project on one project that the National Guidelines and virtual 21st century teen spaces. Instagram, which will give library staff the Committee is currently discussing is On Many of the same factors that defi ne chance to upload pictures of current teen a Mission. The idea of this project is to best practice teen services also inform spaces and get feedback from YALSA provide opportunities for library staff to best practice teen spaces. These elements colleagues and ideas on how to improve or collaboratively create mission statements. include teen input, diverse resources, re-imagine. We see these as sample mission statements new and emerging technology, fl exible As with a designated physical space and even example strategic plans that and multipurpose features, social media, for teens, it is imperative that libraries have can be remixed and/or reused in a public media literacy, and information literacy. virtual spaces where teens can connect with library. Part of the brainstorming that the YALSA’s Guidelines off er a sample staff and peers and experience collaborative Committee is doing related to this project of best practice teen spaces, including learning and sharing to support 21st includes inviting library staff from a range YOUmedia at Chicago Public Library, century learning standards and skills. One of library environments and diff erent sized Story Lab at Tacoma Public Library, way the National Guidelines Committee systems to join our “mission” to share diverse H.Y.P.E. (Helping Young People Excel) is thinking about supporting the ideas in perspectives and support the varying needs of at Detroit Public Library, and Best Cellar the YALSA space guidelines is through teens in diff erent library environments. This at Waupaca Area Public Library. a series of twitter chats and tutorials activity as co-makers will illustrate the kind of The National Guidelines Committee focused on understanding and using new activities that support 21st century learners is brainstorming ways to expand on the and emerging technologies with teens and and the skills necessary to perform and thrive samples and ideas of the Teen Space creating pathways that support teen digital in a connected community-focused future. Guidelines. One way we are talking about literacy needs. achieving this is through Pinterest where it Look for updates on our plans in the is possible to share visuals of best practice YALSA e-news and on YALSA social National Teen Space spaces with specifi c boards focused on key media. And don’t forget you can access all Guidelines elements to consider when envisioning the of YALSA’s National Guidelines on the The National Teen Space Guidelines give perfect space for a specifi c context and set association website at www.ala.org/yalsa/ library staff a comprehensive overview of teen demographics. We are also talking guidelines. YALS
Become a Friend of YALSA Friends of YALSA (FOY) was created to ensure Emerging Leader. Funds also support areas such as excellence in the Association’s traditional programs advocacy, continuous learning, research, planning for and services to library workers serving teens and to the future and teen literacy & young adult literature. support growth in new directions as our profession meets the exciting challenges of the 21st century. Become a friend in any giving category by making your tax-deductible donation via credit card or Each year, FOY funds are used to support over sending a contribution by mail. $16,000 in member scholarships, grants and stipends, including a Spectrum Scholar and Visit www.ala.org/yalsa/givetoyalsa/give today. feature YALSA Perspectives
18 in the United States; 46 percent of The Future of them are children of color. Additionally, more than one-fi fth of America’s children are immigrants or children of immigrants. Now is the time for the fi eld Library Services of librarianship, the population of which is overwhelmingly Caucasian, to consider what these demographic changes mean to school and public library services and for and with Teens: programs for and with teens. Technology Continues to Impact Communication A Call to Action Methods, Teaching, and Learning Teens’ use of technology (smartphones, Executive Summary collectively ensure that the nation’s 40 plus tablets, laptops, the Internet, etc.) is pervasive. ibraries provide a lifeline for teens, million teens develop the skills they need However, ownership of technology devices their families, and communities across to be productive citizens. continues to vary across socioeconomic and Lthe nation by providing a safe and racial demographics. Now is the time for supervised space for adolescents to engage The Issues public and school libraries to systematically in creative, educational activities with determine how technology will aff ect the caring adults and mentors. But a variety of Teens Make Up a Significant future of library services for and with teens, signifi cant developments point to a need for Portion of Library Users with special attention to the access gaps that libraries to change in order to successfully There are over 40 million adolescents, ages continue to exist. meet the needs of today’s teens. 12 to 17, living in the United States today, Th e Future of Library Services for and and they use libraries. A 2013 Pew survey Teens Are Entering the with Teens: A Call to Action is the result found that 72 percent of 16 to 17 year olds Workforce without of a yearlong national forum conducted had used a public library in 2012. Critical Skills by the Young Adult Library Services In the last three decades, the skills Association (YALSA) in 2013, with Library Services and Resources required for young adults to succeed in the funding provided by the Institute of for Teens Are in Jeopardy workforce have changed drastically, but Museum and Library Services. The Call Library closures, reduced hours, lack of staff , the skills emphasized in schools have not to Action lays out a new path for serving and insuffi cient resources mean that teens in kept up with these changes. Libraries need 21st century teens through libraries. many communities no longer have access to to create the kind of spaces, services, and This 2014 report shows that many the resources, knowledge, and services they opportunities that today’s teens need in libraries are continuing to grapple with need to support their academic, emotional, order to succeed in school and in life. diminishing resources while at the same and social development, to master 21st- time struggling to meet the needs of a century skills, and to ensure that they The Paradigm Shift changing teen population. Additionally, become productive citizens. and Libraries signifi cant developments in technology Several important factors have come have led to the need to rethink how There Has Been a Significant together in such a way that libraries services for and with teens are best created Shift in the Demographics are experiencing a seismic shift. Ever and delivered. The Call to Action provides of Teens since computers entered library spaces, recommendations on how libraries must According to an analysis of the 2010 public and school libraries have been on address challenges and re-envision their census data completed by the Annie E. a precipice of change. The library can no teen services in order to meet the needs Casey Foundation, there are currently longer be viewed as a quiet place to connect of their individual communities and to 74.2 million children under the age of to physical content. Instead it needs to
6 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 The Future of Library Services for and with Teens
evolve into a place, physical and virtual, enable teens to learn in relevant, real-world and skilled volunteers who act as mentors, where individuals can learn how to connect 21st century contexts. coaches, and connectors. and use all types of resources, from Serve as the Connector between Youth Participation: Is integrated physical books to apps to experts in a local, Teens and Other Community throughout the teen services program and regional, or national community. Libraries Agencies: Libraries are only one of many enables teens to provide both on-the-fl y must leverage new technologies and organizations with a vision to build better and structured feedback for the library become kitchens for “mixing resources” futures for teens. Too often, however, staff . Teen participation is not limited to in order to empower teens to build skills, teens are unaware of the services off ered formally organized groups. develop understanding, create and share, in their communities. As many of today’s Outreach: Is ongoing and occurs in and overcome adversity. In addition teens are faced with serious social and order to identify the needs of teens in the to the impact of new technologies, the economic challenges, libraries must community and then work with partners defi nition of literacy has expanded beyond provide teens the assistance they need. to alleviate those needs. the cognitive ability to read and write, to Policy: Focuses on serving teens no a recognition that literacy is a social act Implications for Libraries matter where they are. The policies are that involves basic modes of participating In order to meet the needs of today’s teens fl exible and easy to update in order to in the world. New research also points to and to continue to provide value to their refl ect changing needs. a concept of connected learning, in which communities, libraries need to revisit their Professional Development: Takes studies show that young people learn best fundamental structure, including these a whole library or whole school approach when that learning is connected to their components: to planning, delivering, and evaluating passions, desires, and interests. Audience: The focus is on serving teen services. Investigates attributes and all teens in the community, not just those resources unique to libraries and identifi es What Teens Need who are regular users of the physical means for leveraging those to achieve from Libraries library space. library goals. Bridge the Growing Digital and Collections: Are tailored to meet the Today’s 40-plus million adolescents Knowledge Divide: School and public unique needs of the teens in the particular face an increasing array of social issues, libraries must ensure that in addition community they serve, and are expanded barriers, and challenges that many are to providing access to digital tools, that to include digital resources as well as unable to overcome on their own. With they also provide formal and informal experts and mentors. nearly 7000 teens dropping out of high opportunities for teens to learn to use Space: A fl exible physical library space school per day, and approximately 40 them in meaningful and authentic ways. that allows for teens to work on a variety of percent of high school graduates not Leverage Teens’ Motivation to projects with each other and adult mentors profi cient in traditional literacy skills, Learn: Too often teens’ desire to learn to create and share content. Virtual spaces the nation is in danger of losing an entire is thwarted by an educational system also allow for teens to connect with each generation, which in turn will lead to a too focused on testing, unwilling to other and with experts. Libraries recognize shortage of skilled workers and engaged adopt culturally relevant pedagogy, or that teens need and want to make use of citizens. Now is the time for public and so strapped for funding that only basic the entire library space or site, not just a school libraries to join with other key resources are available. Libraries live designated teen area. stakeholders and take action to help solve outside of a school’s formal academic Programming: Programs occur the issues and problems that negatively achievement sphere and off er a space year-round, leverage the unique attributes impact teens, and ultimately the future where interest-based learning can occur in of libraries, allow for teens to gain skills of the nation. These challenges are not a risk-free environment. Public and school through exploration of their interests, and insurmountable. It is a moral imperative libraries, therefore, need to embrace their measure outcomes in terms of knowledge for libraries to leverage their skills and role as both formal and informal learning gained or skills learned. resources to eff ect positive change and spaces. Staffi ng: Degreed library better the lives of millions of teens. Provide Workforce Development professionals focus on developing In turn, libraries will be providing an Training: In order to address the growing and managing teen services at the invaluable service to their community and need for a skilled workforce, school and programmatic level, while face-to-face position themselves as an indispensable public libraries have the responsibility to encounters are made up of a hybrid of staff community resource. YALS
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 7
feature YALSA Perspectives
heck your knowledge of what YALSA has to off er and ways for YALSA Tune-up C you to get involved by using this brief survey. Answer yes or no to the following:
_____ YES ____ NO I Receive How to receive YALSA’s How to vote in the ALA/ YALSA’s Quarterly Journal, YALS quarterly journal, YALS YALSA election _____ YES ____ NO I know whether or Make sure ALA/YALSA has your current The election runs from mid-March through not I qualify for a discounted dues rate postal mail address by going to www.ala. April each year. In mid-March, ALA e-mails _____ YES ____ NO I know how to org and clicking on “Login” in the upper you a link to a web page to go to vote online. be involved in YALSA in my hometown right corner. Log in, and confi rm your Members are only eligible to vote if their or state address is correct. You can also contact membership is current as of January 31 of _____ YES ____ NO If I want to get Letitia Smith at [email protected] and that year. Follow up with Letitia Smith at involved in the work of YALSA, I know confi rm your address with her. [email protected] if you have any questions. what opportunities there are and how to volunteer How to find out if you qualify How to access YALSA’s live _____ YES ____ NO I know which for a discounted dues rate and archived webinars YALSA grants and scholarships I’m Check the discounted rates at www.ala. Live webinars are advertised in YALSA’s eligible for and how to apply for them org/yalsa/ join or contact Letitia Smith at weekly e-news, where a link is provided _____ YES ____ NO I know how to [email protected]. for members to sign up to participate. All vote in the ALA/YALSA election archived webinars are accessible from the _____ YES ____ NO I know that I How to be involved in YALSA For Members Only section of the website. have free access to all of YALSA’s live in your hometown or state Follow up with Nicole Munguia at and archived webinars, and how to access Visit http://ow.ly/DWHT5 for information [email protected] if you have questions. them and follow up with Letitia Smith at lsmith@ _____ YES ____ NO I know who to ala.org if you have any questions. How to contact someone contact and how to reach them if I have a with a question about question about my membership How to get involved in the your membership _____ YES ____ NO I can fi nd what I work of YALSA, and how to Letitia Smith is YALSA’s Membership need on the YALSA website volunteer Coordinator and she can be reached at _____ YES ____ NO I know how to Visit www.ala.org/yalsa/getinvolved to [email protected] or 312.280.4390. fi nd out about upcoming YALSA activities learn how to participate in YALSA, check and events out the infographic and watch the free How to find what you need webinars. Follow up with Letitia Smith at on the YALSA website If you answered NO to any of [email protected] if you have any questions. If you have trouble locating anything these questions, keep reading for more on the site, please contact Anna Lam, information about YALSA resources and Find out which YALSA YALSA’s Communications Specialist, at ways to get involved. Or, contact Letitia grants and awards you are [email protected] or 312.280.5849. Smith at [email protected] or 312.280.4390. eligible for and how to apply for them How to find out about How to receive YALSA’s weekly Visit www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/ upcoming YALSA activities e-newsletter via e-mail yalsaawardsgrants to read about the and events Check your email account to make sure various opportunities and eligibility The weekly e-news lists events for the current messages from [email protected] are not going requirements. Follow up with Letitia month, and all events are accessible from into your spam folder. If that is not the Smith at [email protected] if you have any YALSA’s Google calendar, http://ow.ly/ issue, please contact Anna Lam at alam@ questions. Applications are online and DWIzl. Follow up with Letitia Smith at ala.org for assistance. most deadlines are December 1. [email protected] if you have any questions. YALS
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 9 feature #act4teens
was given a notecard that had a “1” printed Voices of Homeless on one side and a “2” printed on the other side. As a question was asked, participants held up a card with either a 1 or 2 showing, depending on how participants imagined Youth: Community they would feel if faced with the situations mentioned. As library staff looked around the room at each other’s answers, everyone quickly realized that there was never a Partnerships in unanimous response. Some in the audience were surprised by colleagues’ answers and sometimes Library Training were surprised by their own. The activity had three key outcomes. Librarians were asked to: By Rekha Kuver · look at specifi c, concrete issues around homelessness, · personalize this experience even if just in a small, imagined way If you didn’t have a place to sleep tonight, youth, and families aff ected by the foster · think about what types of practical would you sleep in an abandoned building or care system. YAEH’s specifi c mission is options, or lack thereof, youth with would you rather sleep outside? to give youth and young adults who have unstable housing issues face on a daily If you felt unsafe, would you report this experienced homelessness a chance to tell basis. to a police offi cer, or would you try to handle their stories and advocate for programs the situation yourself? and services that they think will improve This style of questioning and response If you lived in a rural area and became the lives of young people living on the led to many ideas about how libraries can homeless, would you try to stay in your town streets in King County, Washington. more successfully support the needs of where things were familiar to you or would All of the young adults asking homeless youth. Even though most librarians you try to take a bus to an urban area like the questions above have experienced in the room had a range of experiences Seattle in the hopes of more social services homelessness and were presenting to a serving homeless teens and young adults, this support? joint meeting of teen services librarians exercise, as well as the training in its entirety, from adjacent library systems: the King was an eye-opening experience for me and for hese questions and others like County Library system and the Seattle many of my colleagues. them were asked of teen librarians Public Library. The young people T by three young adults in their presented a training session called “Stories late teens to early 20s who represent of Youth Homelessness” in order to raise The Training Youth Advocates Ending Homelessness awareness of their experiences and to The three-hour training had three (YAEH). YAEH is a program for youth provide suggestions of the ways in which modules run by The Mockingbird Society, an libraries and library staff can serve this organization in the state of Washington patron group. · The fi rst module was led by YAEH that advocates for systems reform based For the part of the training in which Network Representatives: Lamar on the personal experiences of children, the questions were asked, each librarian Campbell, Trai Williams, and Mandy Urwiler. The young adult facilitators had support from the Mockingbird REKHA KUVER works for the Seattle Public Library, where she Society Engagement Specialist manages staff who serve children, teens, and families in the Coordinator, Courtney Millan. Central Library location. The training consisted of a mix of
10 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 Kuver
personal stories, interactive audience participation, and practical suggestions Learn More About Community Partners Serving for library staff and services. Homeless Youth · The second module was led by Megan Gibbard from the King County YAEH and The Mockingbird Society – www.mockingbirdsociety.org Committee to End Homelessness. King County Count Us In project – http://bit.ly/kccui She talked about the Count Us In project, King County’s annual eff ort King County Commi ttee to End Homelessness – www.cehkc.org/ to count unstably housed or homeless Safe Place – http://nationalsafeplace.org/ youth and young adults ages 12–25. This part of the presentation included important and informative data that showed not only numbers of vital role to play in becoming a Safe the Seattle Public Library) extended homeless youth but also demographic Place for teens, training library staff this focus on community partnerships information, descriptions of to promote the network wherever it into the realm of staff training. When vulnerability factors, as well as needs exists, and to advocate for more sites thinking about training for staff , libraries assessments for service providers. in communities. often rely on internal resources or look · The fi nal module of the day was at gaining training from other library an overview of the National Safe After the training was over, I heard so professionals through professional library Place program, given by Courtney many positive, enthusiastic responses from networks. While I am not suggesting Warren from Friends of Youth and my colleagues from both library systems. that this focus diminish, turning up the Julian Kaplan from Auburn Youth “That was one of the best trainings I’ve volume on community partnerships for Resources. This program provides ever been to,” said one. “This was more training purposes was a powerful move access to immediate help and than worth the time and eff ort to bring in this case and was a large reason for the supportive resources for all young this together,” said another. “How can we rich learning that occurred. By reaching people in crisis through a network of have more training that is as successful as out to organizations that serve homeless sites sustained by qualifi ed agencies, this one?” was a common comment, and youth, co-planning the training with them, trained volunteers, and businesses. one that I thought about both in the weeks and then having those partners and the Libraries can elect to be designated as leading up to the training as it was being youth that they serve deliver much of the offi cial Safe Places and have library planned as well as in the weeks following. training, the learning environment for staff trained on how to connect My conclusion is that there were four library staff was made deeper overall. youth with Safe Place resources major elements that came together to make and services, or if they elect not to this a rich experience for library staff that be designated as such, they may participated and that could be used to Making the Library also refer youth in crisis to another shape future learning opportunities. Connection Safe Place in the network. Warren While the community partners were and Kaplan explained that teens in able to provide valuable content for crisis need quick, safe intervention Partnering with Community the training, it was also vital that the and are much more likely to seek Organizations presented information would connect help in places that are familiar and Libraries, especially in recent years, back to libraries. In the planning stages, easily identifi able, like libraries. have been increasing their attention to Battisti, Braun, and I discussed with our They also explained that Safe Places partnering with community organizations community partners the ways that library only work if teens understand what for programming, marketing, and shaping staff already serve homeless youth, what the designation means and how to library services. In this case, training services and programs currently occur, and identify offi cial Safe Places (the main organizers Jerene Battisti (Teen Services what gaps or challenges exist in serving way for libraries to help with this is Coordinator for the King County Library this patron group better. This set the stage through active promotion and posted System) and Linda Braun (Youth and for all of the community presenters to Safe Place logos). Libraries have a Family Learning Services Manager for better prepare their material. In addition,
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 11 Voices of Homeless Youth: Community Partnerships in Library Training
during the training itself, the teen services were able to speak about the ways in work together. And, as I looked around librarian participants actively engaged in which holding down a job or trying to the room I saw other such connections in dialogue with the presenters by asking keep up in school were integrated into the works. Many librarians were interested questions, raising awareness of library their experience of being unstably housed, in advocating for more Safe Places in services, as well as having conversations and how these factors interact with each their communities. Others were thinking with their colleagues at their tables. This other to create challenges that libraries about enhancing or starting youth drop-in mix of conversation between community may be able to help youths conquer. The programs. At one point toward the end members and librarians ensured that we eloquence of the youth presenters coupled of the training, we went around the room were not only learning about homeless with the enlightening evidence presented and were asked to sum up in one word youth (although that would be a valuable through data painted a clear but complex what we were thinking. Many librarians goal in itself), but that we were asking and picture for all. said “planning” or “plotting.” All of the re-asking our patrons, each other, and information that had been taken in was ourselves how libraries are responding and already taking shape for future action. how we can respond even better. Ready, Set, Action Library staff have long sought to serve Lastly, the training not only laid out data, youth who are homeless, and so keeping stories, and learning. In addition, the format ourselves current and connected is always Numbers and Narratives and the content of the training were also one of our overarching needs. Training Each presenter from YAEH, the shaped with opportunity for dialogue that that incorporates community partners in Committee to End Homelessness, and led to action items for future library work. this way helps us to meet this need on a National Safe Place provided a robust mix Having librarians who serve teens from neighborhood level, a countywide level, of two things in particular: they presented adjacent library systems, whose service and an overall systemic level. The youth current, relevant, compelling data, and areas often overlap, all in the same room that spoke to us in our meeting expressed they shared powerful stories of experiences led to cross-pollination of ideas and laid the sincere gratitude for library staff and that brought the data to life. For example, foundation for future collaborative work. libraries, and we, in turn, were honored to data presented by the Committee to End The same was also true of the librarian be trained through what they had to say. Homelessness showed that at least one- group and the community organizations in Connecting with patrons to serve them third to one-half of youth who are seeking attendance. During the interactions that I stems from listening and learning directly housing are either employed or in school had personally, I was able to connect with from them, and community-led training at the time that they are experiencing two local youth homeless organizers that is a powerful strategy we should use more homelessness. The YAEH representatives I had not met before and plan for future often to accomplish this. YALS
12 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 feature Best Practices
onathan Friesen is the 2009 recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award An Interview with Jfor Jerk, California. The award recognizes authors and illustrators who artistically capture a disability experience for young readers. His novel, Jerk, California, Jonathan Friesen features a character named Sam who lives with Tourette Syndrome. In Friesen’s new novel, Both of Me, he explores multiple By Kris Hickey personalities and autism spectrum disorder. YALSA Hub blogger, Kris Hickey, interviewed Friesen about his experience writing about special needs characters. research on identity disorders. I frequently is good. Evil is evil. There are no shades of speak at mental health conferences, and I’ve gray. Moreover, everything has meaning. Kris Hickey: How Did Your Childhood met people living with these conditions and Every event matters and every sight is Illness Help You to Become a Writer? the physicians trying to help them. They signifi cant. All it takes to live there is the Jonathan Friesen: It is incredible became my medical source. Elias, however, ability to suspend belief, something I enjoy how the hurtful chapters of our lives often sprang from a place deep in my own heart. doing. But I fi nd great joy in the muck and end up serving a magnifi cent purpose. As He’s a boy trying to escape a mental reality confusion of this life. This is where the a teen, I tried to hide both my Tourette he doesn’t understand. That was the story love is. This is where I fi nd hope. Syndrome and my seizure disorder from of my own childhood. the world. I turned in on myself and spent KH: In Both of Me, what does Clara long days locked in my room. Days turned KH: What do you want readers to take mean by POE? to months, and months to years. In that away from this quote from Juan in Both JF: Ah, yes. POE. Possibility of lonely place, I wondered why I had been of Me: “If the world in Elias’s mind is a entanglement. Clara’s life has taught her cursed. All this introspection was, of kinder safer one, why not enjoy it? I mean, the dangers of entanglements, specifi cally course, unhealthy, but soon I was writing we are all running from something.” those she experiences with young men; they out my thoughts, my emotions. These JF: We have knee-jerk negative tend to slow down her travels. In an eff ort pained writings helped me understand my reactions to people labeled mentally ill. This to self-protect, Clara assigns the handsome own internal world, and, I think, taught stigma is resistant to change, in part, due to blokes she meets a POE score. The higher me how to peek inside my characters. perspective. The “normal” among us often the score, the more she needs to guard her view the “world” of a mentally ill individual as heart. For the record, Elias scores a 12, the KH: What kind of research did you do irrational at best. Yet, we all slip into periods highest rating on her scale! before writing the characters with special of cloudy thinking, times when I reckon needs? How did you prepare to write each one of us views the world irrationally. KH: Mayday is fi lled with fantastic Sam from Jerk, California and Elias from I wanted to capture the tension between quotes. How did the quotes inspire the Both of Me? normalcy and abnormality and the whisker story? Or how did the story inspire the JF: When writing Sam, I just needed of a diff erence that often separates the two. quotes you chose for the book? to find a mirror. Tourette’s is a disorder JF: It worked both ways. I was that I, and many in my family, know KH: If you had to choose between Elias’s taken by the idea of a young woman who well. While the events of Jerk, California real world or Salem, where would you simultaneously felt both abandoned by are fictitious, I had lived out every rather reside? her dad and uniquely connected to the emotion and so research was minimal. JF: I would choose the real. Salem is man, in Crow’s case by a shared love of When I fi rst developed the concept alluring. It’s clear, defi ned … simple. Good philosophy. Crow’s dad kept a journal of for Both of Me, I thought Elias would be a complete unknown. I was wrong. In many ways, I knew him on a deeper level than I KRIS HICKEY is a Youth Services Supervisor at the Columbus had known Sam. However, I did need to do Metropolitan Library Columbus, Oh.
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 13 An Interview with Jonathan Friesen
his favorite quotes over the years—and JF: I never intended to write a JF: I would list fi ve. All have given me this journal becomes the one piece of him dystopian novel. I was pondering the world rather profound cases of goose bumps. that Crow can’t let go. As I wondered “normal” after speaking at a conference A. A. A. Milne what quotes might infl uence a young for parents of children with Asperger’s B. Kate DiCamillo man during the various stages of life, I Syndrome. I listened to the struggles their C. Jerry Spinelli thought it would be fascinating to take kids were having in social settings, and I D. Leif Enger that list and build a story that followed wondered what if our world was fl ipped; E. Henri Nouwen that sequence. Those quotes form the what if Asperger’s was the norm, and only breadcrumb trail Crow is following to one young man remained who we would KH: What are you working on now? rediscover her dad, but they also seem to label “normal” in his relational style? I JF: The book is entitled Unfolding. I fi nd chart the course of her own story. It was a knew I wanted to explore that kind of myself drawn toward unlikely couples, and fascinating process. earth, and a dystopian one was the best this story is no exception—an epileptic with way to do that. severe scoliosis and a young lady with the gift of KH: What inspired you in your world “knowing” work to uncover the terrible secret building in Aquifer? KH: Who are your favorite writers? their town has kept for generations. YALS
® Día! Diversity in Action Día is a nationally recognized initiative that
emphasizes the importance of literacy for Learn more about Día, find programs near you, all children from all backgrounds. and download FREE resources for your own program at dia.ala.org.
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is the national home of the |Día celebration. To learn more about ALSC please visit www.ala.org/alsc. The Día celebration is supported in large part through funding from the Everyone Reads @ your library grant; awarded to ALSC by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.
14 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 feature Best Practices
here’s an exciting new body of work developing in the world of Not as Crazy as It T young adult literature. Since the late 1990s, a growing number of novels focus on teens’ experiences with mental illness, and this is great news for those Seems: of us who work with young people and books. I know that when I worked as a high school English teacher, and then later as a high school librarian, I saw the occasional Discussing the New YA student “disappear” for two weeks as the result of a psychiatric hospitalization. Then as the years went by, and I began teaching Literature of Mental community college English, I read students’ essays about how mental illness had aff ected them or their loved ones. Illness in Your Classroom I became even more aware of just how big a concern mental illness can or Library be for teens and 20 somethings when I taught a book featuring a musician with schizophrenia. It was Th e Soloist, by Steve Lopez—you may know it or the movie By Diane Scrofano adaptation with Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. While teaching the book I asked a volunteer from the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) to was much available that young people with oppression, a la Th e Madwoman in the speak to my class, and it was then that diverse mental health experiences could Attic, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s I learned that the age of onset for most relate to. We need stories of mental illness groundbreaking work of feminist literary mental illnesses is the age of the people I’ve that focus on the illness as a biological theory. While these are very valuable dedicated my career to! In fact, according brain disorder, a chemical imbalance in the points of view, we also need books that to NAMI, “one-half of all lifetime cases brain. What’s exciting about the recent YA mirror teens’ experiences of clinical illness, of mental illness begin by age 14, three- literature of mental illness is that it treats including visiting the psychologist’s or quarters by age 24.”1 mental illness as a medical problem while psychiatrist’s offi ce, trying out diff erent Anyone who works in schools and a lot of older literature has treated mental medications, dealing with side eff ects, libraries with this age range can play an illness only symbolically, as “madness.” In having confl icts with family members, and important role in getting stories of mental Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s all the rest that a modern-day diagnosis of illness out there, and letting students Nest, for example, “crazy” is a label given mental illness entails. and patrons know they are not alone. It’s to the creative or subversive members Mental illness isn’t just a symbol or important to help get the word out that of society. Or, “madness” is the result of trope for today’s teens; it’s a real medical there is help available for those suff ering from mental illness or those watching a DIANE SCROFANO teaches English at Moorpark College in family member or friend suff er. I wish I southern California. She holds an MA in English and an MLIS as had known that in the eighth grade when well as teaching credentials in English and Library Media Services. I began to experience the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Prior to her current position, she worked as a high school English As a librarian and English teacher, teacher and a high school librarian. This article is drawn from a I was well acquainted with literature of recently completed sabbatical project on mental illness in young ethnic diversity, but I wondered if there adult fiction and memoir.
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 15 Not as Crazy as It Seems
experience that ought to be, and now, Julie Halpern’s Get Well Soon, George in free verse and contain complete helpfully, is being represented in literature. Harrar’s Not as Crazy as I Seem, Terry sentences, albeit with line breaks within I hope to build awareness of the literature Spencer Hesser’s Kissing Doorknobs, the sentences, so I didn’t feel that the of mental illness, just as others have John Green and David Levithan’s Will experience of reading these works diff ered increased awareness in recent years of the Grayson, Will Grayson, Terry Trueman’s very much from reading a traditional literature of physical disability experiences Inside Out, and Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind prose novel. or developmental disorder experiences of a Funny Story are narrated by teen (autism, for instance). I’d also like to say protagonists suff ering from mental illness. that, while some mental illness results Sonya Sones’s Stop Pretending is narrated Other Nontraditional from trauma, such as post-traumatic stress by a teen reacting to the onset of her older Narration disorder (PTSD), and while trauma and sister’s bipolar disorder. Han Nolan’s As is common in lots of present-day biological predisposition to mental illness Crazy and Holly Schindler’s A Blue So literature for adults, the YA authors are often intertwined, my focus here is Dark feature male and female teens, of the literature of mental illness are mainly on diseases primarily linked to respectively, trying to keep the household likewise experimenting with narrative brain structure and chemical problems, under control while their single parents’ formats. For instance, in Inside Out, by such as depression, obsessive-compulsive psychological conditions deteriorate due to Terry Trueman, the margins of some disorder (OCD), bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. In Julie Ann Peters’s Defi ne of the pages are sprinkled with phrases schizophrenia. These diseases are largely “Normal,” a young high achiever tries to that protagonist Zach’s voices tell him. biological and inherited, and the literature take care of her siblings as her mother sinks This marginalia provides for the reader a that I cover displays the current attitude further into depression. In C. J. Omololu’s microcosm of what Zach, who suff ers from of the medical community that mental Dirty Little Secrets, the narrator’s mother schizophrenia, must be going through illness is not a character fl aw, a personal has a severe hoarding problem. as he tries to focus on tasks despite the weakness, or anyone’s fault. voices’ presence as persistent background What follows is a discussion of noise. The reader is trying to follow the stylistic and thematic trends that have Setting (Time Period) narrative, but the distractions in the emerged in books that discuss mental While most recently written YA novels margins interfere. Inside Out also includes illness, and how these issues might raise of mental illness are set in the present correspondence between Zach’s mother discussion questions in book group or time, I did fi nd two pieces of historical and his doctor, to provide additional classroom settings. Also, while it focuses fi ction: Tomato Girl, by Jayne Pupek, and perspectives. And the book concludes with more on physical and developmental Memories of Summer, by Ruth White. Both a newspaper article explaining the outcome disabilities than mental illness, teachers are set in the era of the 1950s and 1960s, of the story for Zach and the two other and librarians may also want to consult and while Tomato Girl realistically depicts prominent teen characters. the American Library Association’s the attitudes of the time toward mental In Crazy, Han Nolan provides (ALA) Schneider Family Book Award illness (confusion, powerlessness, stigma), Greek-American protagonist, Jason, with & Bibliography website, www.ala.org/ characters in Memories of Summer provide a cast of characters in his mind, including awardsgrants/schneider-family-book- a genetic and biomedical explanation of a modern take on the Greek chorus, who award, to keep an eye on new books the narrator’s sibling’s schizophrenia, and voice the confl icting thoughts he has as coming out about health diversity. her treatment in the psychiatric hospital is he deals with his father’s schizophrenia. depicted as humane. Both of these parts of As situations arise, maternal Aunt Bee Style and Media Trends the story are more refl ective of the attitudes (from Th e Andy Griffi th Show), a cynical of the modern medical world than of the guy, a movie critic, a “Sexy Lady,” and a Point of View time during which the novel is set. group called the “laugh track” all react with Teens reading about mental illness have their opinions (really, Jason’s opinions diff erent relationships to it, so it is good and mixed feelings). The novel makes that diff erent stories of mental illness are Novels in Verse clear that Jason’s voices are a product of told from diff erent points of view. The Two notable titles in this style are his creativity and that they are not the story might be narrated from the point of Sonya Sones’s Stop Pretending and Ellen same kinds of voices that result from his view of the ill person, a sibling, or a child. Hopkins’s Impulse. Both are written father’s illness. Jason envisions his life
16 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 Scrofano
as a movie that he’s watching in order Alexie, creates a vivid and informative discuss the controversies surrounding the to get some perspective on his thoughts; account of her struggle with bipolar question of medication versus or combined the movie metaphor is used in a couple disorder in Marbles: Mania, Depression, with psychotherapy. of other novels I’ve come across as the Michelangelo, and Me. Allie Brosh, whose While otherwise excellently written, characters try to make sense of mental work originated as a blog, has written Ellen Hopkins’s Impulse has a few illness’s progression (see A Scary Scene in the bestselling graphic autobiography, troubling references to medication. The a Scary Movie, by Matt Blackstone, or the Hyperbole and a Half. In it, she covers her references throughout the novel to Prozac adult title Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to childhood through her 20s, including her as having immediately sedative eff ects See, by Juliann Garey). Nolan also includes depression and other adventures. Neither are problematic, as that’s not consistent many references to Greek mythology, as book was written specifi cally for teens with what I’ve learned about the drug’s Jason and his father shared those stories or marketed as YA literature, though, so use. Treating a common antidepressant during Jason’s childhood. At times, Jason some mature topics arise, and the books as a tranquilizer could further the comforts his confused father by telling him should be recommended with caution, misconception that all psychotropic that Jason’s friends, who come to visit the with the maturity level of the reader in medication turns the people who take it into house, are the Argonauts. These teens, like mind. dull, numbed creatures. This misconception their mythical counterparts, really are like can lead people to resist taking medication a band of heroes; they take charge, helping Thematic Issues that could help them. The title also seems the family. misleading because as we see once we read Other interesting experiments in Stigma of Mental Illness the text, suicide isn’t, for the characters, the narrative technique include Will Grayson, and Medication result of a one-time impulse but rather of Will Grayson, which is narrated alternately These are good topics for teens to long periods of abuse and suff ering. by two diff erent characters of the same discuss as they read YA books on mental A Blue So Dark broaches questions name; Get Well Soon, which begins as illness. The characters often hide or about the link between creativity and a letter from the psychiatric hospital overcompensate for a parent’s or sibling’s mental illness. There is a popular from the protagonist to her best friend; mental illness out of fear, as we see in perception as well as evidence that many and A Blue So Dark, which opens many Defi ne “Normal,” Dirty Little Secrets, and creative people suff er mental illness. Aura, chapters with the teen protagonist’s Stop Pretending. The fear goes further the narrator of A Blue So Dark, worries snarky rewritings of encyclopedia-like when a character worries that an ill parent that her mother’s artistic nature caused entries about mental illness. Finally, see will be forcibly taken away and the teen her mental illness. Therefore, Aura, an also Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls, placed in foster care. Teen readers can artist herself, stops creating art, in fear about eating disorders, in which chapter discuss stereotypes of the mentally ill, how that it will make her sick, until she can be numbers are given with decimal points to to combat the stigma, why the characters disabused of this notion. look like a digital scale readout, and as the feel compelled to hide their loved one’s character considers foods to eat, calorie illness, and what other solutions might be counts are provided parenthetically. The possible. Financial Worries narrative, like the narrator’s life, is literally In A Blue So Dark, the narrator’s Many novels of mental illness discuss punctuated by the kinds of numbers mother, who suff ers from schizophrenia, the very real risk that mental health care (weights, calories) she is obsessed with. refuses to take medication; medication costs will be too much for the families to compliance is a common problem among bear. In Julie Halpern’s Get Well Soon, the mentally ill who deny their illness. protagonist Anna will be discharged from a Graphic Novels or Memoirs This denial occurs because a symptom of psychiatric ward after 21 days. While we get Just as comics and graphic novels are mental illness itself is the failure to realize the sense that Anna will be able to cope, the becoming more and more prevalent in that you are sick, a problem commonly novel raises the question of what happens writing on other subjects, so too are they referred to as “lack of insight.” Will to people for whom the arbitrary and becoming prevalent in the literature of Grayson, Will Grayson; Kissing Doorknobs; short periods covered by many insurance mental illness. Ellen Forney, the illustrator Inside Out; It’s Kind of a Funny Story; and companies are not suffi cient. Many of the acclaimed Absolutely True Diary Not as Crazy as I Seem also mention the psychotropic medications do not even take of A Part-Time Indian, by Sherman use of medication. Teens may want to eff ect until several weeks have passed.
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 17 Not as Crazy as It Seems
In Crazy, Jason must deal with the enviably progressive, and they are nothing I hesitate to recommend these because holes in a complicated mental health care but encouraging to their son. some contain ideas that are now outmoded system. The insurance company demands in the medical community. For example, his father’s release from an acute-care I Never Promised You a Rose Garden facility where he was placed during his Ethnic Diversity (1964), by Joanne Greenberg, suggests crisis, but the father cannot be placed One important observation that I made that severe mental illness can be overcome into a long-term care facility for another when doing my reading was that, among through psychotherapeutic resolution month. Jason wonders who will care for his the YA novels of mental illness that I of childhood issues. Mental illness is not severely ill father during this unaccounted- read, none addressed the experiences of presented as having a genetic or biological for month. non-white protagonists. A trend I hope to component that could be treated with see soon is the publication of more novels medication; instead, it is the protagonist’s of mental illness that feature characters of responsibility to cure herself of mental Emotional Responses toward diverse ethnic backgrounds. In the course illness, in essence. John Neufeld’s Ill Family Member of my research, Bebe Moore Campbell’s Lisa, Bright and Dark (1969) confl ates Stop Pretending eloquently expresses novel 72 Hour Hold, an adult title narrated schizophrenia with multiple personality the feelings narrator Cookie has toward by the mother of a college-age daughter disorder, a misconception that persists her sister, who is experiencing bipolar suff ering from bipolar disorder, is the only even to this day. disorder. Cookie worries what her friends book I could fi nd that portrayed mental will think when they fi nd out. Cookie illness in an African-American family. Looking Forward contemplates what if it were she who had An interesting case to consider, gotten the illness instead of her sister. Will though, is that of Ball Don’t Lie, by Matt The Narrative Arc Cookie, too, get sick in the coming years? de la Peña. In this YA title, the main Many stories of mental illness, both Cookie resents the shift in her parents’ character is a severely disadvantaged white fi ction and nonfi ction, follow a similar attention from her to her sister and misses teen who spends most of his basketball pattern: First, there is the hiding of the the happy times they all shared as a family. practice time at a recreational center mental illness, the denial that help is Cookie feels sorry for her sister, but also frequented by African Americans in a needed, the fear of what will happen if wishes she would just snap out of it, “stop tough Los Angeles neighborhood. Though others fi nd out. Then, there is a climax pretending,” and return to the way she protagonist Sticky stands out because of or crisis point where the illness can no used to be. Characters with mentally ill his skin color and his undiagnosed OCD- longer be hidden or ignored. Finally, parents, such as those in Defi ne “Normal” related behaviors, he is warmly accepted by the story is resolved with a diagnosis or and Crazy vacillate between wanting to the men at the recreation center, and has care prescribed; this might be seen as care for their families and resenting the fully adopted their language and culture. a sort of happily ever after. However, parent who leaves them with so much Though OCD plays a pivotal role in two in an interview printed at the back responsibility. Teen readers will likely be key moments in his life, Sticky’s OCD is of the paperback version of the novel able to empathize with all of the mixed never treated. A lack of diagnosis of, or he coauthored with John Green, Will feelings that accompany loving someone treatment for, mental illness is a common Grayson, Will Grayson, YA author David with mental illness and may wish to problem experienced by members of low Levithan wonders, “what happens next, discuss how they deal with these feelings. socio-economic groups and/or ethnic when you have to live the rest of your In Kissing Doorknobs, we see the minority groups. Throughout the book, life?” While the novel of confusion, parental frustrations of having a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder is never crisis, and it’s-ok-to-get-help is still mental illness. The mom tries a range of even referred to by name because none of very necessary because even today many responses, from comforting her child to the characters would know what to call it. people are not educated about mental avoiding her to yelling to even violence. illness and so much stigma prevails, on Both parents feel helpless and aren’t sure the other hand, as awareness builds, a what to do. This confused picture may be Older Books: Beware future direction for the literature to take slightly more realistic than that of the very While exploring the young adult literature may be to focus on, as Levithan puts it, savvy parents in It’s Kind of a Funny Story; of mental illness, you may come across “what happens next,” that is, life after their attitudes about mental illness are some older well-known titles on the topic. diagnosis and treatment. How do the
18 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 Scrofano
families and the patients adjust? After Are These Books “Problem against the illness itself, combating all, when talking about mental illness, the Novels”? misinformation and ignorance, demanding medical community focuses on “recovery” One adult reaction to Dirty Little Secrets resources, and challenging the dominant rather than “cure”; a mental illness is a might fi rst be panic; does the portrayal cultural discourse of stigma? chronic condition that you have to live of Lucy’s fi re-setting, which successfully I think a good balance, a book in with, not one that will completely go fools the authorities, condone doing which neither all teens nor all adults are away. dangerous deeds, hiding mental illness, seen as wholly good or wholly evil, can Some novels that break out of the and furthering stigma? Lucy’s story be found in Crazy, by Han Nolan. Nolan denial-crisis-stability pattern are Will certainly doesn’t follow the usual narrative shows the fl aws in both trying to care for Grayson, Will Grayson; Inside Out; arc of child at fi rst hiding and struggling a schizophrenic father on your own and in and Dirty Little Secrets. Will Grayson, with parent’s illness but then fi nally relying solely on the foster care and mental for instance, begins his story already confi ding to the authorities and getting health care systems. Justin receives great on medication and with an uneasy help through socially acceptable channels. help and relief when he confi des not only acceptance of his depression. One of his Is that a good or a bad thing? In an in adults (a counselor and a social worker) challenges is to resist using his depression article about how cutting is portrayed in but also in other teens (his friends). They as an excuse to sabotage relationships. YA literature, authors Jennifer Miskec work together as a teen-and-adult support The novel reads like a relationship story, and Chris McGee, drawing on the work system for Justin; it’s not an us-versus- not a depression story. Depression is not of Roberta Seelinger Trites, suggest them (teens-versus-adults) confl ict. Or, the focus of the entire novel; it is just that novels that follow the pattern of perhaps we can see the us-versus-them one of the many challenges faced by a confusion, crisis, get-help-from-adults not as teens-versus-adults but rather as complex character. In Inside Out, Terry are merely “problem novels,” the now supportive people versus people, ideas, Trueman takes a stabilized character scoff ed-at format of YA literature from and institutions that are not helpful and plunks him down into an unstable the 1970s that lacks complexity of enough to patients and their families situation; protagonist Zach, whose character and thematic insight and instead dealing with mental illness. Finally, once illness is schizophrenia, has a pretty functions more as a self-help guide for Justin’s father is taken to the hospital and stable routine of school and medication adolescents struggling with stereotypically Justin enters foster care, it’s not a simple established. Every day, he waits for his adolescent social issues (drugs, abortion, happily-ever-after, in which Justin can mother to pick him up after school at a abuse, etc.)2 Miskec and McGee worry relinquish his control of the situation to coff ee shop, but one day that coff ee shop that the literature of self-mutilation the adults and live a carefree life. First, a is held up by two burglars. How will suggests that adults are right and must be fellow foster kid stabs Justin. Then, Justin Zach cope? Finally, in Dirty Little Secrets, followed, a sentiment that goes against must go to court and advocate for the one of the fi rst things that happens is the principles of the great tradition of right to take care of his father during the that the mother, whose mental illness is subversive YA literature (and children’s one-month gap that, due to bureaucracy, hoarding, dies. Right off the bat, then, literature) in which the young person will occur between his father’s hospital we can see that this is not going to be a has special insights that are lost on the stay and his placement in a long-term care successful quest-for-help novel. Lucy, convention-following, uncritical adults. facility. Justin and the judge negotiate and the daughter, decides that she must hide Similar concerns might be extended to come to a mutually agreeable solution; if her mother’s death so that she will be the literature of mental illness as a whole. Justin agrees to not neglect his academic able to continue living on her own and Is Lucy, then, who burns down the house work, the judge will grant him permission maintaining her relationships with her and manipulates the situation to end in to serve as his father’s caregiver for the best friend and her boyfriend, the fi rst her favor without relying on adults to month in question. “normal” relationships she’s been able rescue her, a true YA heroine and not to have in years. When it appears that just the helpless kid to be rescued by Lucy will no longer be able to prevent grown-ups in a problem novel? Or, should Conclusion others from discovering her mother’s we see the adults who help teens not as I’ve tried to provide an overview of the corpse, Lucy burns the house down! This rescuers or as convention-followers but as issues that you can look for and discuss surprising turn of events leads to the next the teens’ collaborators in rebellion, both as you and teens begin reading the issue I’d like to consider.… groups (teens and helpful adults) fi ghting young adult literature of mental illness.
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 19 Not as Crazy as It Seems
We’re living in a good time, when many versus psychotherapy, the potential for diagnoses or once the crisis is over? What realistic works that treat mental illness conversation is rich. I hope we will also kinds of stories of mental illness should be as a biological brain disorder can provide see more representations of diff erent told in the future? YALS support to adolescents and inspire them cultural experiences of mental illness. to think critically as well. Stylistically, Finally, as we look forward, we References there’s a lot to talk about in this new can ask the teens we work with what 1. “Mental Illness Facts and Numbers,” body of literature, from setting and direction the literature should go to National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2013, point of view to nontraditional narrative better represent them and address the www.nami.org/factsheets/mentalillness_ techniques to visual art. Hopefully, challenges they face. What do the teens factsheet.pdf. too, you now know what big issues will think of the current literature of mental 2. Jennifer Miskec and Chris McGee, “My come up in discussions and you can illness? Are the endings of the books Scars Tell a Story: Self-Mutilation in be prepared with insightful questions. too tidy? Are the adults given too much Young Adult Literature,” Children’s Whether it’s mixed emotions, fi nancial power? Do the novels leave us wondering Literature Association Quarterly 32, no. 2 concerns, or debates about medication about characters’ lives beyond their initial (2007): 163–78.
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20 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 feature Hot Spot: Libraries are for Making...
he Houston Public Library’s Community Engagement Team Hand in Hand: T (CET) is changing the way the library does outreach. Setting up tables with library brochures at community events is only a small part of what the team Teens, Tech, does. Their mission is to bring Houston Public Library’s (HPL) services to every part of the Houston, Texas, community, even those parts that do not have one of and Community HPL’s 44 locations nearby. The team does this by providing classes, after- school programs, and yes, tables full of Engagement library information to Houston citizens of all ages. CET’s largest and most iconic tool is the HPL Mobile Express, which is a By Rachel Stout mobile technology lab with 13 computers, a SmartBoard, and a built-in Internet connection. Purchased with federal Community Development Block Grant How Tech Fits into Math) experts when they started working funding in 2008, the HPL Mobile Community Engagement for HPL. But, it did not take long for all Express and its staff became the backbone The Community Engagement Team also that to change. CET provides extensive of the Community Engagement Team owns a large collection of technology and training for their staff members, and when that division was formed in 2011. equipment, but it was not acquired all at new staff frequently go on an outreach CET uses the HPL Mobile Express once. Where most libraries have extensive or instructional event with a more senior to provide classes such as technology stashes of craft supplies, story time big member of the staff on their fi rst day. training, ESL, workforce development, books, and other supplies acquired over These staff members continue to shadow LEGO Education and robotics, video decades of service to their communities, other staff members for about a month game design, and outreach services CET collects laptops, LEGO® thereafter, attending three to fi ve events in low-to-moderate income areas of MINDSTORMS® kits, video cameras, every week. Through this method staff ers Houston. model rockets, Raspberry Pi computers, get a taste of all the programs that CET When the HPL Mobile Express is and other high-tech accoutrements, and off ers and become comfortable teaching unavailable, CET has four other, smaller only recently began a small collection of those programs themselves. Since vehicles that it uses to bring equipment craft supplies. CET’s overriding priority is outreach and staff to community partners that have Many of CET’s staff members did and provision of services outside the requested services. In these cases, the not know anything about programming, library, staff members are not assigned partnering organizations provide space or LEGOs or robotics, or video making, to service desks, though upon request for library staff to conduct classes. These and did not consider themselves STEM they provide program support to HPL’s organizations include public and private (Science, Technology, Engineering, and neighborhood library locations. In fact, schools, day care programs, community centers, after-school centers, government RACHEL STOUT is a staff member with the Houston Public departments, churches, apartment Library’s Community Engagement Team. She began her library complexes, and others. CET has partnered with over 250 organizations in the past career at the age of 16 as a children’s page and has been working year; each community partner requests the at HPL since 2008. She enjoys working with teens and technology, library’s services for anywhere from one to reading sci-fi and fantasy novels, and playing video games. She is six visits at a time. convinced that she has the best job ever.
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 21 Hand in Hand: Teens, Tech, and Community Engagement
CET is not currently located at a library As part of this arrangement, as with and editing. By the end of the project, building at all but shares offi ce space (and any of their projects, CET provides all staff teens will have their own videos to share. more importantly, parking lot space!) and equipment, which are transported The video making tends to be a with the Houston Parks and Recreation to the partner locations using one of popular request from schools wishing Department (HPARD). Most of CET’s the vehicles from CET’s fl eet. For the to have their students create a video for 11 staff members have a particular section MINDSTORMS project, this includes some particular project. One such project of the community that they feel especially LEGO kits and laptop computers. CET was created by Booker T. Washington passionate about serving. This has led to staff members teach the students about High School in Houston, where CET many of CET’s most popular programs, how robots are used in the real world, and assisted the students with creating videos as staff members will take the initiative to help them construct and program their for the White House Student Film design and implement new programs in own robots in teams of three or four who Festival competition. Many other teens the areas of their expertise or passion. For then present their work to their parents create videos for school projects or other many staff members past and present, this and peers at the end of the semester. student fi lm festivals, though CET always area of interest has been teen services. Together with a Citizen Schools staff encourages them to enter their work in the member, they make college to career Reel Teen Film Festival as well. connections for middle school students as Reaching Teens After School part of their outreach eff orts. The fi rst program specifi cally geared This is not to say that schools are the Video Games Too toward teens actually predated the only place that CET has engaged teens Many kids, teens, and adults in Houston formation of CET. A request was with LEGO Education classes. Many are video game fans, and CET staff made to staff for suggestions for new other community organizations frequently members are no exception. They bring this teen programs, and two staff members request LEGO Education classes for love of video games to teens by teaching suggested LEGO MINDSTORMS. their teen groups, and the Community video game design. The video game design As no one else had heard of LEGO Engagement Team is happy to oblige. class has two sections, one designed for a MINDSTORMS, the staff members CET has LEGO Education kits for a single one-off class and one designed as a provided an enthusiastic description of variety of audiences and class periods. multiweek course. The single-class section how fun LEGO MINDSTORMS were, One of their most popular small projects is based around the video game Portal 2, and were thrilled to come into the library is a LEGO alligator that can be built and which was not originally designed as an one day and fi nd stacks upon stacks of programmed to bite fi ngers in a little less educational game but features physics LEGO Education kits of all kinds. These than an hour, which is ideal for a class puzzles as its main game mechanic. Using kits form the basis for some of CET’s most period in most schools. CET also uses this game, CET teaches a single-session wildly popular programs. TETRIX® kits, which combine LEGO class on video game level design. Teens The original suggestion of LEGO MINDSTORMS kits, metal parts, and discuss what makes a video game level fun MINDSTORMS as a teen program the ROBOTC programming language to play and then create their own levels has had its greatest success in HPL’s for a very complex and lengthy project that the entire class will get to play. Some partnership with the Citizen Schools after- especially for high school students. of the teens have played Portal 2 before, school program. In this program, Citizen Another popular program that CET and may have even previously designed a Schools invites members of the community off ers for teens is video making. Born of level, and so will create sprawling levels into middle schools to teach after-school HPL’s long-standing Reel Teen Film in a very short amount of time. Some apprenticeships to sixth graders in their Festival contest, the video making project teens have never played the game before, areas of expertise. This has been an started as a way to help students from and so will create smaller levels with extremely valuable partnership as almost a single school that lacked access to the fewer elements to the puzzle, but almost every course that CET off ers for teens necessary equipment to create videos to everyone has a good time. “Just a few has been the subject of an apprenticeship, enter in the fi lm festival. Since then, it has minutes longer!” is a frequent request and the 10-week format of this program become a popular project in its own right. when CET teaches this class. has allowed CET to spend more time This program is almost always a multiweek The longer course uses Kodu and with students than would otherwise be event, with sessions devoted to learning takes several weeks to complete. It was available. about storyboarding, scriptwriting, fi lming, fi rst presented at the Texas Library
22 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 Stout
Association Conference in 2012 as part The fi rst step was creating curriculum logistically speaking. The foremost of the conference’s hands-on labs hosted for a fi ve-day-long summer camp. After challenge was fi nding the money to pay on board the HPL Mobile Express. some thought, it was determined that for it all! Therefore, CET reached out In this course, middle and high school splitting the campers into groups of to area businesses requesting their help students learn how to create their own roughly three grades apiece would provide to make Camp STREAM a reality. As video game from scratch. In the fi rst week the best experience overall. Each senior a direct result of these sponsorships, of the classes, teens are asked to come up CET staff member was responsible for CET was able to fund the entirety of with a concept for their game. Recreating developing a curriculum for all ages in a Camp STREAM, including supplies, Minecraft or Call of Duty using Kodu single subject. Some staff members chose prizes, camp T-shirts, and a pizza party is a frequent suggestion, but staff try to to combine their curriculum with another on the last day of camp. To feed nearly encourage them to think of their own staff member’s, such as Technology and 100 campers, CET partnered again original ideas instead. After nailing down a Engineering, and Reading and Arts. Each with HPARD, using their Summer concept, the teens work together as teams group would focus on one or two subjects Lunch Program to feed every child. to design their level and program each per day, with a diff erent activity for each. The Community Engagement Team object in it. Lest you think that HPL just During their Technology and Engineering also partnered with a large number of hired a software development fi rm and days, middle and high school teens volunteers to help wrangle kids, serve called it their Community Engagement would both create and program LEGO lunches, check in campers, help with Team, Kodu is a very easy program to MINDSTORMS robots. CET used a bathroom breaks, and so much more. learn and use. It utilizes icons representing modifi ed LEGO MINDSTORMS model After the success of Camp STREAM instructions that can be given to objects in that could be built quickly, leaving plenty at the Central Library, it was requested the game, rather than written lines of code; of time in the afternoon to program robots. that CET take their show on the road. this makes it easy for students that have They created robots that were able to Calling this new project Camp STREAM never had any experience writing code to drive around on their own, avoid obstacles, Reloaded, CET ran the camp four more program their video game. and follow lines. During the other days, times at HPL’s large Regional Libraries: technology was hardly absent. On their Collier, Scenic Woods, Henington- Reading and Arts days, teens created Alief, and Park Place. These camps were Camp STREAM book trailers based on Th e Hunger Games smaller, with younger teens participating The Community Engagement Team’s and Holes, using Windows Movie Maker as campers and older teens participating as most ambitious program to date is and the expertise of CET staff to create Offi cial Camper Wranglers. Without their their “Camp STREAM” project. This short trailers that were later shown at the invaluable assistance with instruction and project came about as part of a discussion end-of-camp ceremony, all in a single day. projects, the success of Camp STREAM regarding how CET could best promote During the Science and Math days, teens Reloaded would have been impossible to HPL’s John P. McGovern Foundation did things like make slime out of borax and achieve. Summer Reading Program (SRP). The glue to take home, and also origami of all Switching gears from CET’s more focus for SRP at HPL for summer 2014 kinds. CET staff suspected that parents typical outreach eff orts, during the summer was “STREAM” (Science, Technology, were probably happier about the origami they were also able to off er employment Reading, Engineering, Arts, and Math). than the slime! At the end of the day, opportunities to fi ve teens through the City Over the course of a single phone call, each camper also received a badge to take of Houston’s Grow Your Own Workforce a vague idea that CET would provide home representing that day’s subject(s). A program. CET’s summer interns were STEM programs at various locations camper that attended all fi ve days would students, but they got to do practically blossomed into a grand plan to run a free receive six badges as well as a prize on the everything CET’s permanent employees day camp for kindergarten through twelfth last day. do, including staff events, maintain CET’s grade at the HPL’s Central Library in For the Community Engagement extensive electronics inventory, speak to downtown Houston. Since this all took Team, Camp STREAM was very contacts, help with Camp STREAM, and place roughly two months before the exciting, as it was the fi rst time that the the infamous “other duties as assigned.” beginning of summer, CET knew that public was invited to their program, They were treated just like regular creating a successful program would be a rather than CET going out to the public. employees and got a great opportunity challenge. However, it was also very challenging, to participate in a professional work
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 23 Hand in Hand: Teens, Tech, and Community Engagement
environment. But the benefi ts were not all as at Tweens Read and TeenBookCon, than to off er to let them drive the library one sided. The Community Engagement two Houston area conventions robot! Team’s teens were a great addition to the highlighting tween and teen authors, As veteran library conference team, and they brought many good ideas where CET brings out a button maker and attendees will know, one of the very best to the table. By having a ready source of discarded comic books to allow attendees ways to get people to stop at your table teenage opinions so close at hand, CET to make their own buttons. Having done is to give out swag. CET has all sorts of staff were able to bring many improvements this project for so long at these two cons, HPL-branded goodies, including tote to the way they work with teens. teens will now seek out the HPL table bags, Frisbees, T-shirts, and umbrellas to in particular to get a button or two and give away in conjunction with library card geek out with staff about their shared sign-ups, or just as a random giveaway. CET and Outreach love of YA fi ction. Sometimes it is a CET also created promotional videos for After all the classes CET off ers for combination outreach and class, such as each class they off er and posted them on teens, one might think that there is no at Comicpalooza, a Houston comic book their website and YouTube. By playing time left for classes for kids and adults, convention where CET taught robotics these videos on a tablet at outreaches, it let alone outreaches, but outreaches as a panel and staff ed an HPL table in the is easy to show off both instructional and form a signifi cant fraction of CET’s dealers’ room. technology off erings at the same time. activities. The Community Engagement For events where less mess is called In conclusion, the Houston Public Team attends many events geared to for, the Community Engagement Team Library’s Community Engagement Team attract families, as well as outreaches will bring out some demonstration LEGO is continually changing the way HPL specifi cally for teens. HPL off ers many MINDSTORMS models, most of which does outreach. New classes are always in services that are enticing to teens, such move or can be programmed in some way the works: “Raspberry Pi Programming,” as online comics, e-books, and tutoring, to lure in visitors. Many kids and teens “Librarycraft: Minecraft for Everyone,” which makes it so much easier to pitch are attracted by something that looks cool and “3D Printing Basics” are poised to roll everything the library can off er to teens standing out in a forest of paper and are out. They feel that reaching out to teens successfully. HPL prides itself on eager to come over and take a look, just as in particular is very important, especially having programming for all areas of the staff members are eager to demonstrate as they are beginning to make their own community, so even if teens cannot make the shiny toy they brought out. A frequent decisions about what they want to do it to a CET class, they can still visit their attendee of CET’s outreaches is “Number and be. CET wants to make the library local library for things like crafts, video 5,” a LEGO MINDSTORMS robot and learning to be something that teens games, and homework help. built by staff as a demonstration for the associate with fun and not drudgery. Obviously, a table fi lled with library corresponding classes. He is programmed With every new class, the Community literature is not going to be the most to avoid obstacles and can also be Engagement Team changes the way the attractive thing to a teen, so CET lures controlled by the Bluetooth radio on a staff community interacts with the public them in with something fun to do. At member’s phone. There is no easier way to library and makes it relevant in a brand some events it is a big messy project, such get the attention of anyone, young or old, new way. YALS
24 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 feature Hot Spot: Libraries are for Making...
ate in the summer of 2014, a representative from a company Libraries are for Lcalled Aldebaran visited our library with a robot named Nancy. Nancy was a “Nao” model robot, and it was immediately clear she was diff erent from other robots. Making: Robots While you wouldn’t ever mistake her for being human, she could carry on a basic conversation (“What day is it?” “Do you By Jaina Lewis like animals?”). Her movements were more fl uid than most robots and standing at two feet tall, she was almost childlike. Nancy could walk, talk, dance, perform tai chi, and recognize faces. More importantly: creative uses to pursue, including robot- for a month. Level 1 classes will meet Nancy could teach people how to code. based contests and dance parties. for an hour and will be for ages 8 and up Our Development Department put Due to the popularity of our library’s (younger children will be welcome if they together some proposals and before we MakerSpace, we have a group of tech-savvy are accompanied by a parent). Patrons knew it, we had grants to purchase two teens at our disposal whenever we want will download Choregraphe software robots. to try out a new tool. Our MakerSpace (the software required to program the A small group of staff members spent functions almost entirely through the robots) to their computers and two staff two full days with a company representative volunteer work of teenagers. A variety of members will team up to teach a few basic in which we learned how to operate and students are 3D printer coaches who train commands, such as getting the robot to program the robots. Nao robots are people of all ages in how to use the machines. speak and wave hello. 15 minutes of class programmed through a software called Since our library’s teen space consists of time will be instruction, and 45 minutes Choregraphe, which is a visual coding bookshelves and a table, many teens have will be an open lab. language, much like Scratch. Users can string taken to hanging out in our MakerSpace to Level 2 Programming Classes: Level together basic commands in order to get the socialize and tinker. When we introduced 1 class will be a prerequisite to Level 2. robot to speak or perform basic movements. the robots to these volunteers, many We expect these to be popular with our The software also has a function for deeper expressed initial frustration. They shouted more tech-savvy teens. We will teach basic programming using Python. commands at the robots and were upset Python coding so that users can do more The Westport Library became the when they didn’t obey. However, when they advanced functions with the robots, such fi rst public library in the country to have found out that they were the ones who were as games of “Simon Says” based around humanoid robots. Before we even had time going to be programming the robots, they vocal commands and facial recognition. to fi gure out how we were going to use got really excited. We’ve had limited success with teaching our new robots, we were entrenched in a teens coding, and we think that this set of media blitz. Th e Wall Street Journal wrote classes will help to get the tech-oriented a story about us, followed by local media, What We Want to Achieve teens excited about the possibilities in NPR, the BBC, and more. We offi cially with the Robots learning to code. premiered the robots at Star Wars Reads We have identifi ed the following goals: Open Labs: After users have taken Day to a room of 150 people. While the Level 1 Programming Classes: both Level 1 and Level 2 classes, we need robots have piqued the interest of the entire To meet demand, we are planning on to schedule regular meeting times. If community, the most notable reactions having a Level 1 training class every day people have Choregraphe installed on their have come from children and teens. While most adults seem to be hesitant about the idea of robots (we have seen Terminator), teens are enchanted. Teens JAINA LEWIS is a Teen Librarian at the Westport Library in have been excited to interact with the Connecticut and the Chair of the YALSA Teen Tech Week robots, which means there are a number of Committee.
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 25 Libraries are for Making: Robots
personal computers, they can write robot library to get a glimpse of Nancy and · We are going to train a high school coding at home, then bring it to the library Vincent (we named our robots after the robotics team to help us teach classes. to try out on the robots. The software has family foundations who supplied the They will gain community service, a “virtual robot” function to test code, but funding). While the robots are indeed Python coding experience, and will it is hard to see if it actually works until impressive, they are not advanced have regular access to our robots you have access to a physical robot. For enough to simply walk around the library (which they are obviously excited example, your virtual robot may move with without supervision. A trained staff about). the grace of a ballet dancer, but you may member needs to be present to give basic · Our robots will visit middle schools fi nd that the movements cause the physical commands, make sure they are handled and high schools in the area so that robot to lose balance (luckily the robots gently, and also to make sure that they after-school robotics and technology have sensors which cause them to fall aren’t stolen. While many people are clubs can see how they work. safely). Also, the virtual robot is incapable interested in learning how to use the · We will teach a series of Choregraphe of speaking or playing sound, so you robots, a large number simply want to workshops in our weekly Maker won’t know how the robot will pronounce see them. We are having a basic viewing Mondays program for grades 6 certain words until you hear it come out of every weekend. through 9 and will challenge students the physical robot. Teen Tech Week will become Teen to write Python code for our robots. Basic Robot Viewing: After Tech Year for our library. While our premiering our robots, the most robots will be used for all ages, we plan We are hoping that our robots popular question became “Where are to do the following exclusively with will jump-start a love of coding in our they?” Patrons came fl ocking to the teens: community, especially with teens. YALS
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All archived webinars are free for members. They’re posted after the live presentation in the For Members Only section of the website and nonmembers can buy access for $19 at www.ala.org/yalsa/webinarsondemand.
26 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 feature Hot Spot: Libraries are for Making...
ne of the most important roles that libraries play for teens is to be a Libraries are for O space for making connections: a space to meet friends, a space to hang out after school, a space to call their own, or a space where someone welcomes them. Making: Making Every teen is diff erent, but all teens need connections, whether they admit it or not. While we try to serve every teen equally, it can be hard to do so with time and money Connections That Is spread thinly across systems, branches, and library departments especially when teens are so often seen as an “outside” and By Christie Gibrich “unwanted” demographic. That is where teen specialists come in to advocate for our patrons, who need programs just as much, if not more, than the cute three-year-olds These are programs that you can doesn’t say anything turns into one of learning to read, or the older folks learning leave out on a table or a bookshelf for a your most ardent participants—I have. to mulch. few hours and let the tweens and teens Another way to make connections is The theme for Teen Tech Week work through the activities themselves. through structured programs, especially 2015 is Libraries Are for Making, and While these programs do require those that involve teamwork, which is while makerspaces are the current fl ash, preparation ahead of time, and support in itself a way of making connections. libraries have been centers for “making” to assist tweens and teens as needed, Teens split into groups with others they and “creation” for as long as we have they are not as labor-intensive as full- might have never met before, and learn been having crafts, programs, and classes! out programs. These types of programs new things about others and themselves, Everyone seems to think that a makerspace can include scavenger hunts (plan one and form bonds—which last outside the needs to be high-tech and technology around a theme like Alice in Wonderland library, and can grow if nurtured— driven, but all it really needs to be is or robots or QR codes), craft creations via the goals and challenges through a program or a space that enables and (clean out the craft closet and have tens which a structured activity guides them. encourages teens to explore, create, and create monsters or robots), or interactive Games naturally provide such structure share. Take what is already successful in displays (all you need is Post-its, writing and challenges; many teens love gaming your library and run with it, or try a new utensils, and an empty space). These programs and there are tons of ways you idea. Expand and explore to show the types of programs encourage tweens can make them interesting. Do you have world what your teens are Making this and teens to make connections by gaming console systems? Hook them Teen Tech Week! sharing experiences, forming teams, up and have free play. Games like Super creating bonds, and sharing information, Smash Brothers Brawl, Mario Kart 8, whether they are sharing their favorite FIFA 14, and Just Dance 2014 are perfect Libraries are for books, creating crafts with each other, for tournaments, and prizes can be as Making Connections participating in scavenger hunts in teams, simple as additional computer time or Lots of teen specialists are pressed for or reading what others recommend. fi nes waived, or as complex as gift cards to money and time, and Teen Tech Week You may even fi nd that the shy teen that a local store, all depending on your budget often falls during spring break, when it seems every teen is at the library and every CHRISTIE GIBRICH is a Senior Librarian in the Grand Prairie staff member has asked for time off . If this is the case for you, and you are trying Library System in Grand Prairie Texas, in Youth/Teen Materials to fi gure out what to do for Teen Tech and Services. She is currently serving on the Teen Tech Week Week, then think about off ering some self- Committee, blogs at a Geek in Librarian’s Clothing, and is directed programs. co-blogging on Genre(Queer)y on Tumblr.
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 27 Libraries are for Making: Making Connections That Is
and donations. Want to go lower tech? example, and gearing a program towards See if your Friends of the Library or Have a retro night and bring out board the right media will set you up for success. other partners will spring for LEGO games like Monopoly, Sorry, Clue, Trivial Teen Tech Week is a perfect time MINDSTORMS kits, so your teens can Pursuit, and others and have teens break to start a series of programs on digital build robots from scratch with mechanics up into teams, or assign the teams if you life lessons, or life hacks. Some teens do and bricks. Give teens the chance to want to scatter the cliques completely. not realize what they publish on social command their robots via laptop or You’ll be amazed at how competitive media (such as Twitter) can aff ect their smart device. You could also take your teens can get, and how involved they will opportunities for college or future job already existing LEGOS and match them be after the fi rst moans of “OH MISS, prospects. Start a class on the do’s and up with robotic kits, and see what teens what is THIS?!?!?!” Or, set up space and don’ts of social media, using real-life can come up with on their own. have a Yu-Gi-Oh! or Magic night, with examples of teens whose social media Do you have some really talented yourself as the monitor and the teens as usage made a positive diff erence, and staff or volunteers you can tap to help the players. You don’t have to know how those whose social media content has been out? Create a coding club! Platforms to play, just make sure everything is on detrimental to their futures. Add in classes like Scratch and Alice are web-based the level. on how to create a website, how to turn and visual, so they are perfect for Want card games? Games like the site into a personal online portfolio tweens and teens who might have no Munchkin, Killer Bunnies, Hack, Uno, to showcase classwork, and how to add clue where to start, need the absolute and Fluxx can be wonderful fun, and to the site they create for future use when basics of programming, and want results incorporate cooperation, reading, and applying for a job. immediately. For those who can wait for learning all in one. If you get bored of Highlight creative apps that work results, Codecademy is a resource where traditional Uno, take it for a spin and add on both iPhone and Android platforms, anyone can learn languages such as Ruby, math to it (teens have to add, subtract, such as Animoto, MixBit, Procreate, and Python, HTML, and JavaScript. These multiply, or divide to get the previous Evernote. This is a perfect time to feature are all languages that teens can mention number). Fluxx comes in a host of diff erent library apps which teens might not know on applications for college or for a job. varieties, and each has diff erent themes about, like your ILS hook-up, Overdrive You will be amazed at how quickly many and cards to play. connection, or YALSA’s Teen Book teens understand these languages, and how Finder. amazed and proud they in turn are at their own prowess. Libraries are for Making Content Libraries are for Many teens love to make things, physical Making Strides Libraries are for or digital. The connection they feel when Teen Tech Week falls right at the Making a Future creating something is often unique. It is beginning of March, when spring is just Teen Tech Week is the perfect time to Teen Tech Week, so get your geek on, starting. What better time to launch a focus teens on their future, whether they delve into the world of digital creation, new series of programs? Revamp your are fi guring out what they want to do in and make content with your teens! tech savviness by off ering some tech- college, what colleges they want to try Explore sites that allow you to create heavy programs. Reach out to the local for, or what they want to do after high GIFs (computer image fi les that can be science teachers, technical colleges, school graduation. By now older teens static or dynamic) from videos—there science and industry museums, or have applied to college or for a job, or are are a number of free resources that can robotics clubs in your area, and bring thinking about summer. Help get them be mastered with a little investment of in speakers and workshops to teach started in their life after high school with time on your end. Hold a create-a-meme how robots and computer coding some specifi c tips and information. contest on social media such as Tumblr actually work—and how teens can do it A lot of teens do not know the basic or a best picture contest, with or without themselves. Search around on Make.com life skills so what about hosting a lifehack fi lters, on Instagram. Take some time and and fi nd ideas on how to create simple workshop? Invite a local banking agent or poll your teens ahead of time to fi nd out robots like brushbots and others that fi nancial advisor to go over not only how to what social media they’re using; while mine need few parts, and let the teens loose open a checking and savings account, but are on Keek, yours may be on Vine, for with the robot kits and their imagination. also what happens when teens sign up for
28 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 Gibrich
those oh-so-tempting credit card off ers that Show teens how to rethread a teens gain leadership and work experience will start to come in, as well as how to handle bicycle chain, how to sew buttons and that they can use their entire lives. the student loans that they are off ered. hem a pair of pants, how actually to DO Bring in a nutritionist from a laundry instead of spraying themselves community college to show how to create with Febreze. Bring in a health expert to Libraries are for easy, cheap, tasty, yet nutritious meals in discuss when it is OK to self-treat (and Making a Difference the dorm or apartment so that teens can with what), and when it is time to call a Library staff members working with teens stay healthy and active, and not subsist doctor. have always been uniquely positioned to on ramen noodles like some of us did If you have a lot of diff erent make a diff erence in the lives of the tweens in college. Bring in a mechanic or other companies in your area contact them to and teens with whom they work. Teens expert to show teens how to change a see if they are hiring paid interns or have know who has their interests at heart, and tire, how to check the oil, and other basic summer jobs for teens, if so put together their attention and time will refl ect that. maintenance on a vehicle as well as when a summer job fair for teens. A lot of times Delve into the world of making with teens to take a car in for inspection or repair, teens think they can only work in fast food and show them that you care. Help teens and when to call a purchase off . (This is a because that is the only option they see. make the connections they need to succeed great program to invite parents to as well.) Getting a job during the summer helps in life. YALS
Guidelines for Authors
Young Adult Library Services is the offi cial publication of the Young relating to teen services and spotlights signifi cant activities and Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American programs of the division. Library Association. Young Adult Library Services is a vehicle for For submission and author guidelines, please visit http:// continuing education of librarians working with young adults (ages yalsa.ala.org/yals and click on “Submissions.” twelve through eighteen) that showcases current research and practice
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Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 29 the YALSA update ASSOCIATION NEWS
2014 Teens’ Top Ten groups in 16 school and public libraries Detailed information on all YALSA has Titles Announced around the country. Nominations are to off er at Annual 2015, can be found at ALSA announced the offi cial titles posted on Celebrate Teen Literature Day, http://tinyurlcom/YALSAan15. of the 2014 Teens’ Top Ten. the Thursday of National Library Week, Find more details about registration Y Teens all over the world voted and teens across the country vote on their and housing at the ALA Annual Web site, starting Aug. 15, with voting lasting favorite titles each year. Learn more at www.alaannual.org. For the latest details through Teen Read Week™ (Oct. 12–18, www.ala.org/yalsa/teenstopten on YALSA’s Annual schedule, visit the 2014). Altogether, over 12,000 votes were YALSA http://tinyurlcom/YALSAan15. cast for the 25 nominees. The offi cial 2014 Teens’ Top Ten 2015 YA Services titles are as follows: Symposium in Portland Teen Tech Week™ Join YALSA for the Young Adult 2015: Libraries are 1. “Eleanor & Park” by Rainbow Rowell Services Symposium! The Symposium, for Making… (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffi n) previously titled the Young Adult Literature Teen Tech Week 2015 features the theme 2. “Splintered” by A.G. Howard Symposium, and held every other year, will “Libraries are for Making…” and takes (ABRAMS/Amulet Books) now be held annually and cover the entire place March 8–14, 2015. The theme 3. “The Rithmatist” by Brandon spectrum of topics related to providing encourages libraries to promote themselves Sanderson (Tor Teen) services for and with young adults. The 2015 as places for teens to pursue their interests 4. “The 5th Wave” by Rick Yancey Symposium will take place November 6–8, via hands-on activities and where learning (Penguin/Putnam Juvenile) 2015 in Portland, Oregon at the Hilton can extend beyond the classroom. YALSA 5. “Monument 14: Sky on Fire” by Portland. The theme of the 2015 event calls on school and public library staff Emmy Laybourne (Macmillan/Feiwel is: Bringing it All Together: Connecting across the country to use Teen Tech Week & Friends) Libraries, Teens & Communities. as an opportunity to raise awareness in 6. “Earth Girl” by Janet Edwards Registration opens April 2015. Learn more their local community about the digital (Prometheus Books /Pyr) at www.ala.org/yalsa/yasymposium resources and services the library off ers to 7. “The Testing” by Joelle Charbonneau help teens succeed in school and prepare (Houghton Miffl in Harcourt) for college and careers. 8. “Steelheart” by Brandon Sanderson Join YALSA at ALA New this year, individuals who join (Random House/Delacorte Press) Annual Conference! the Teen Tech Week site will have access 9. “Siege and Storm” by Leigh Bardugo YALSA has big plans for Annual 2015 – to free, themed digital downloads of (Macmillan/Henry Holt Books for be part of the action in San Francisco, mini-posters, bookmarks and more. The Young Readers) June 26–30. themed posters and bookmarks feature 10. “The Eye of Minds” by James There are plenty of interesting four diff erent interpretations of the Dashner (Random House/Delacorte programs and ticketed events to attend such theme. The main artwork features a blank Press) as the Margaret A. Edwards Brunch, Geek space after the tagline “Libraries are for Out!: The Importance of Pop Culture Making…” that allows library staff to write The Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” in Libraries, YA Author Coff ee Klatch, in a word or phrase that describes their list, where teens nominate and choose Odyssey Award Presentation and Program, library’s making activities. their favorite books of the previous year. Diversity Dynamism: Mixing Resources Designs of the remaining three Nominators are members of teen book and Making Connections, and many more. posters and bookmarks feature artwork
30 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015 that corresponds to the taglines “Libraries moving YALSA forward and have a Teens’ Top Ten Committee are for Making Connections,” “Libraries great time by joining one of our strategic Mentoring Taskforce are for Making Futures” and “Libraries are committees! President-Elect Candice National Guidelines Oversight Committee for Making Innovations.” Mack will be appointing committee Summer Reading & Learning Taskforce Library staff are encouraged to utilize members to 2015–2017 strategic any or all of the themed art to suit their committees that help the association library’s needs, as well as share images advance its mission and the profession. What to Know and their own interpretation of the Interested in being more involved? Read Before You Volunteer theme by tweeting @yalsa and using the on to fi nd out how. Before you volunteer to serve on a hashtag #TTW15 or by sharing photos committee, advisory board or jury, you’ll on the Teen Tech Week site. For more want to learn what the group does and information about Teen Tech Week, visit A Guide to Strategic what your responsibilities will be. Check www.ala.org/teentechweek. Committees out the Committee FAQ at www.ala.org/ YALSA has two types of committees: yalsa/committee-faq selection committees, which select specifi c On the YALSA website you’ll Promote the Best of library materials or choose YALSA’s also fi nd information about each of the the Best @ Your Library awards and strategic committees, which group’s functions, size, and more. Start Just after this issue of YALS mails, YALSA help carry out the work of the association. your research at www.ala.org/yalsa/ will announce its award winners at the Strategic committees include: workingwithyalsa/yalsacommittee. Youth Media Awards. The announcement Lastly, be sure to read through YALSA’s takes place Feb. 2, 2015. In addition, JURIES Handbook, especially the sections YALSA will announce its selected book Books for Teens Jury that list responsibilities for committee and media lists for 2015 the week of Feb. BWI/YALSA Collection members. It’s online at www.ala.org/yalsa/ 1st, as selection committees submit their Development Grant Jury aboutyalsa/yalsahandbook. fi nal lists to the YALSA offi ce. Conference Travel Scholarships Jury Beginning in mid-February, Frances Henne/VOYA/YALSA visit www.ala.org/yalsa/best to fi nd Research Grant Jury Complete the downloadable tools to promote winners Great Books Giveaway Jury Volunteer Form at your library, part of YALSA’s Best of MAE Award for Best Literature To be considered for any committee or the Best set of resources. You’ll be able Program for Teens Jury jury, you need to fi ll out a volunteer form. to download customizable bookmarks Volunteers of the Year Award Jury It is available online (go to www.ala.org/ featuring the winners of the 2015 Alex, Writing Award Jury yalsa/aboutyalsa/yalsahandbook and Edwards, Morris, Nonfi ction, Odyssey, choose” Committee Volunteer Form”). and Printz Awards. We’ll also off er press BOARDS When you fi ll out a form, please be sure releases, which you can customize and Continuing Education Advisory Board to include the name of the groups on send to local publications to let teens JRLYA Advisory Board which you’d most like to serve. If you know that award winners are available Publications Advisory Board don’t indicate a few that you’re particularly at your library. You can download logos The Hub Advisory Board interested in, it is very diffi cult for the to use on your website or in marketing Website Advisory Board President-Elect to fi nd the best fi t for materials in your library, spine labels to YALS Editorial Advisory Board you. Forms are only kept on fi le for one apply to titles that appear in the Best of YALSAblog Advisory Board year, so it’s important that you fi ll one out the Best, and other tools to promote the each year that you would like to serve on a awards, as well as YALSA’s annual lists: COMMITTEES & TASKFORCES committee or jury. Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults, Division and Membership Promotion Best Fiction for Young Adults, Fabulous Committee Films for Young Adults, Great Graphic Financial Advancement Committee Timeline Novels for Teens, Popular Paperbacks Joint School/Public Library Applications will be accepted through for Young Adults, and Quick Picks for Cooperation Committee March 1st, and once submitted you should Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Legislation Committee look for an email confi rmation from Annual Conference Marketing & YALSA. Appointments will be made by Local Arrangements Taskforce (seeking the President-Elect in March and April Have Fun While members in the San Francisco area) 2015. Please do not expect to hear from Building Your Organization and Bylaws Committee Candice before March. For updates on Professional Skills! Research Committee the appointments process, check the Update your skills, get leadership and Teen Read Week Committee YALSAblog. If appointed, your term networking opportunities, be a part of Teen Tech Week Committee begins July 1, 2015.
Winter 2015 Young Adult Library Services YALS 31 The Fine Print YALSA announces workers to participate in project planning All of YALSA’s strategic committees are Johana Orellana as its workgroups; network with peers; gain an virtual appointments, meaning you do not 2015 Emerging Leader inside look into ALA structure and have need to attend the Annual Conference YALSA has chosen Johana Orellana as its an opportunity to serve the profession in a or Midwinter Meeting to serve on a 2015 Emerging Leader. Orellana will receive leadership capacity early in their careers. committee. Appointments are two-year funding to attend the American Library terms for advisory boards and committees, Association’s Midwinter Meeting and Annual and one year terms for juries. Some groups Conference in 2015. YALSA’s participation in Giving Tuesday Raises are very popular and may receive dozens the Emerging Leaders program is through the Funds to Send YALSA of volunteer forms for just two or three Friends of YALSA (FOY), which since 2005 Members to National available spots. Your membership in has funded more than $100,000 in member Library Legislative Day YALSA must be current in order for awards, grants, stipends and scholarships. December 2, 2014 was Giving Tuesday. you to be eligible to serve on a committee Orellana is a community services YALSA’s Financial Advancement or jury. librarian at the San Mateo County Library Committee raised a total of $2,566, which Questions? Please contact Candice in California. She is an ALA Spectrum will be used to send two members to Mack, YALSA’s President-Elect, at Scholar and a Pew Research Library Series National Library Legislative Day in May. [email protected] or YALSA’s Advisory Board Member. In addition to Members can apply online through Feb. 1st Membership Coordinator, Letitia Smith, YALSA/ALA, Orellana is also a member at www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/ at [email protected]. ALSC, CLA, and APALA. yalsaawardsgrants. Thanks to committee For other ways to build your The ALA has selected 50 individuals members Franklin Escobedo, Dora Ho, professional skills and/or get more to participate in its 2015 class of Emerging Gretchen Kolderup, Amanda Margis, involved in YALSA, please visit www.ala. Leaders. The program is designed to Jack Martin (chair), Melissa McBride, and org/yalsa/getinvolved/getinvolved. enable library staff and information Lynda Salem-Poling. YALS
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32 YALS Young Adult Library Services Winter 2015
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