THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE YOUNG ADULT LIBRARY SERVICES ASSOCIATION A DIVISON OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION young adult library services VOLUME 8 | NUMBER 2 WINTER 2010 ISSN 1541-4302 $12.50 INSIDE: TEEN TECH WEEKTM ISSUE! TEEN TECH WEEK IN A SCHOOL LIBRARY CIRCUIT BENDING TEEN TECH SQUAD ...AND MORE! The official journal of The Young adulT librarY ServiceS aSSociaTion young adult library services VOLUME 8 | NUMBER 2 WINTER 2010 ISSN 1541-4302 The View from ALA 29 Teens Talk Tech By Mari Hardacre 4 Connect With What’s Important to You on ALA Connect By Aaron Dobbs Literature Surveys and Research 34 Peer Influences on Young Teen Readers An Emerging Taxonomy YALSA Perspectives By Vivian Howard 7 Spectrum Scholar Advocate, Mentor, Change Agent By Cristina E. Mitra School Library Perspective 9 Now Is the Time! Teen Tech Week in a School Library Plus: By Kim Herrington 2 From the Editor Sarah Flowers Best Practices 3 From the President 11 Marketing the Homework Center Digitally Linda W. Braun By Suellen S. Adams 31 Professional Resources 13 Hennepin County Library’s Teen Tech 33 Guidelines for Authors Squad Youth Leadership and Technology Free-for-all 33 Index to Advertisers By Cynthia Matthias and Christy Mulligan 42 The YALSA Update 17 A Year in Volunteering at the Library By Erminia M. Gallo Hot Spot: Teen Tech Week About This Cover 20 Bending Circuits and Making Music TM Teen Tech Week in Downtown Minneapolis Poster art for Teen Tech Week , March 3–7, By Camden Tadhg 2010. Teen Tech Week is an annual initiative 23 Free Online Tools for Serving Teens sponsored by YALSA to ensure teens are Four Verbs to Live By and Great Technologies competent and ethical users of technology, to Try particularly those available at libraries. To purchase By Mary Fran Daley the poster or other Teen Tech Week materials, visit 26 Where Are All the Teens? www.alastore.ala.org. Poster by Distillery Engaging and Empowering Them Online Design Studio. By Laura Peowski 2009–2010 YALSA Editorial Advisory Committee (performing referee duties and providing advisory input for the journal) Michael Cart, chair, Columbus, Ind.; Kimberly Bolan Cullin, Indianapolis, from the Ind.; Melissa Dease, Dallas, Tex.; Sarah English, Omaha, Neb.; Sarah Ludwig, New Haven, Conn.; April Witteveen, Bend, Ore. 2009–2010 YALSA Publications Committee Sasha Matthews, chair, Chesapeake, Va.; Laura Amos, Yorktown, Va.; Editor Heather Booth, Westmont, Ill.; Jeremy Czerw, New York; Jessica Moyer, Menomonie, Wisc.; Krista King, Lexington, Ky. YALSA Executive Director Sarah Flowers Beth Yoke Editor-in-Chief â Sarah Flowers Learn, Create, Share @ your library Managing Editor Stephanie Kuenn Circulation Young Adult Library Services (ISSN 1541-4302) is published four times a year eens and technology are a natural. Today’s teens were born by the American Library Association (ALA), 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. It is the official publication of the Young Adult Library Services Asso- between 1992 and 1998. That means there has never been a ciation (YALSA), a division of ALA. Subscription price: members of YALSA, day in their lives that did not include personal computers, $25 per year, included in membership dues; nonmembers, $50 per year in the T U.S.; $60 in Canada, Mexico, and other countries. Back issues within one year the Internet, and cell phones. So clearly, for those of us who work of current issue, $15 each. Periodicals class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois with teens, it is way past time to get over thinking about technology and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Young Adult Library Services, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Members: as “all that new stuff.” Of course, new types of hardware emerge all Address changes and inquiries should be sent to Membership Department, the time, and new applications crop up daily. However, we owe it to Changes to Young Adult Library Services, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Nonmember subscribers: Subscriptions, orders, changes of address, ourselves and our teens to keep up, to know what’s out there, and to and inquiries should be sent to Changes to Young Adult Library Services, think constantly about how these technology applications can be Subscriptions, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; 1-800-545-2433, press 5; fax: (312) 944-2641; [email protected]. used in libraries. This year’s Teen Tech Week theme, “Learn, Statement of Purpose Create, Share @ your library,” applies as much to librarians and Young Adult Library Services is the official journal of the Young Adult library workers as it does to the teens we serve. Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. YALS primarily serves as a vehicle for continuing education for I am very excited about this issue of YALS, which offers some librarians serving young adults, ages twelve through eighteen. It will include very practical suggestions for working with technology and teens in articles of current interest to the profession, act as a showcase for best prac- tices, provide news from related fields, publish recent research related to YA both school and public libraries. Many thanks to YALSA’s Teen librarianship, and will spotlight significant events of the organization and Tech Week committee, chaired first by Heidi Dolamore and then offer in-depth reviews of professional literature. YALS will also serve as the official record of the organization. by Kelly Czarnecki, for coming up with lots of great ideas to share with YALSA members. Camden Tadhg, one of YALSA’s past Production Cadmus Communications Teen Tech Week mini-grant winners, tells us about how she used the grant to learn how to make music by bending circuits and then Advertising Bill Spilman, Innovative Media Solutions; 1-877-878-3260; fax (309) shared that knowledge with her teens. Mary Fran Daley shares 483-2371; e-mail [email protected]. YALS accepts advertis- some free online tools, Laura Peowski offers some tips for engaging ing for goods or services of interest to the library profession and librarians in service to youth in particular. It encourages advertising that informs readers teens online, Mari Hardacre talks to teens about technology, and and provides clear communication between vendor and buyer. YALS adheres Kim Herrington focuses on how school librarians can tap into to ethical and commonly accepted advertising practices and reserves the right to reject any advertisement not suited to the above purposes or not TTW. Christy Mulligan and Cynthia Matthias describe Hennepin consistent with the aims and policies of ALA. Acceptance of advertising in County Library’s Teen Tech Squad, a model for teen leadership, YALS does not imply official endorsement by ALA of the products or services advertised. Suellen Adams talks about how to use digital tools to market the Manuscripts homework center, and Aaron Dobbs explores some of the Manuscripts and letters pertaining to editorial content should be sent to possibilities of ALA Connect. YALSA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; e-mail: yalseditor@gmail. It is not only about tech. Mina Gallo offers suggestions for a com. Manuscripts will be sent out for review according to YALS’s established referee procedures. Visit www.ala.org/yalsa for further information. year’s worth of teen volunteer projects and Vivian Howard explores Indexing, Abstracting, and Microfilm the influence that peers have on teen reading. Add all that to Young Adult Library Services is indexed in Library Literature, Library & reviews of professional resources and the YALSA update and you Information Science Abstracts, and Current Index to Journals in Education. Microfilm copies of Journal of Youth Services in Libraries and its predecessor, have a jam-packed issue. Top of the News, are available from ProQuest/Bell & Howell, 300 N. Zeeb In all of these pages, you are sure to find something to learn, Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106. something you can create, and lots of things you will want to The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of share—@ your library. Meanwhile, do not forget to register for American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. 1 Teen Tech Week. Registration is free and gives you access to the Ó2010 American Library Association 2010 logo, which you can use to promote Teen Tech Week by All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be photocopied for the noncommercial purpose of scien- adding it to your library’s web site, blog, Facebook page, or other tific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the resources. Check out Teen Tech Week products, including decals, Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other photocopying, reprinting, or trans- lating, address requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. posters, bookmarks, digital downloads, and more by going to www.ala.org/teentechweek. YALS 2 YALS | Young Adult Library Services | Winter 2010 from the YALSA Rocks President Technology Linda W. Braun on’t stop me if you’ve already heard l The YALSA blog covers a wide range networking this: when I was in library school of topics from news about YALSA and tools D and computers were just beginning its activities to trends in programming themselves. to show up in libraries, a professor predicted and services for adolescents. Each YALSA that within ten years all libraries would be month, the blog receives about fourteen maintains filled with computers. My response: “Not in thousand hits. It’s a resource for finding both a library where I work; I love books.” out what’s going on and conversing MySpace Once I had my first professional library with others about libraries and teens.