ALA Annual - Best Fiction for Young Adults

In attending ALA 2019, I was lucky enough to sit in on a panel discussion of YALSA's best fiction for young adult lists led by students from the DC area. It was a rare treat to actually hear reactions from teens who thoughtfully read and reviewed the list, taking into account literary quality, plot, inclusiveness and #ownvoices. 

This filled in my knowledge gap around what teens and precocious tweens are reading, as well as providing actual feedback in real time around important texts with which to be familiar. Because my teen literature knowledge is limited, this was a condensed opportunity to hear from the actual demographic what they like to read. I can't wait to pick up a copy of A.S. King's Dig!

This was also a networking opportunity, as several members of the local literary committee, Capital Choices team, were there to provide feedback about  programming in the greater Maryland area. 

http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/about/selected-lists-the-hub/best-fiction-young-adults-nominees/

Cornelia Beckett

Programs and Outreach

ALA Annual - Teaching Teens Readers’ Advisory

Are you looking for a creative way to engage your teens with the library and books? Does your YA collection need a boost to get it off the shelves and into the hands of readers? Do you need some ideas for how to put your CYC intern to work this summer? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, read on to hear about BookMatch Teen, a session from this year’s ALA Annual Conference. 

 During this session, two librarians from Brooklyn Public Library talked about the teen internship they started about two years ago that centers around training teens in readers’ advisory. Teens had to apply for the internship, go through an interview process, and then commit to completing the 9-week internship. During those 9 weeks, interns were trained in readers’ advisory (librarians showed them how to use the OPAC, Goodreads, Novelist, etc and taught them how to do a reference interview), met authors and other professionals from the publishing world, learned about marketing techniques like #bookstagram, went behind-the-scenes of the collection development department, learned how to write book reviews, and made book lists as a final project. The teens also made a “Match Box” where people could submit readers’ advisory requests and the teens would make a personalized list for them.

 This internship had some really great results for both the teens and the library. Teens got to experience the interview process and were exposed to careers not only in librarianship but also in publishing and marketing. They learned valuable customer service skills as they tackled the reference interview process, and also realized that everyone, including teens, deserve great customer service. They became confident, comfortable library users and had great success getting teens to check out books. My favorite result was that many teens mentioned the program helped them improve their social skills, and many made new and lasting friendships with other interns.

 BookMatch Teen was obviously a large-scale program. The coordinators advised offering a stipend or another incentive like volunteers hours since it was a big commitment and teens’ time is valuable. It would be great if we could incorporate something like this into our CYC program here at Pratt, but I think there are ways to do aspects of this on a smaller scale, too. You could start a “Readers’ Advisory Club” with teens you notice already have an interest in reading and introduce them to basic library skills. You could show your CYC intern how to use Goodreads or other RA tools and ask them to make booklists around specific themes. Maybe you could set up a table for them in the teen section so kids could go to them for recommendations once you’ve given them some training. You could even make this into passive programming by creating a “Match Box” and recruiting a few enthusiastic readers to answer the requests. The possibilities are endless! For more information on the BookMatch Teen program, visit their website: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/incubator-submissions/bookmatch-teen . 

Meaghan McKeron

Collection Management

Manga Classics at ALA 2019

As an ALA first timer, I wasn’t sure where to start. So it was a very good thing I went to a seminar surrounding burnout prevention. If it wasn’t for that first talk about making sure I took breaks and ate, I don’t think I would have survived very well. Because I listened to that advice, I remembered that ‘I’ come before everything else, which can be hard sometimes to remember. One of the signs of burnout is total exhaustion and that constantly treating yourself is constantly coping, not consistent self-care. This is something I need to work on and I know I am not alone.

Afterwards, most of my sessions were about a mix of collection development, program ideas, and staff relationships. One vendor I was really excited about turned classic books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Emma into manga. They used the same language and said they even tested how well readers of the manga would do on a literature test when pitted against someone who read the printed text (they tended to do better). I have the link below to the books on Amazon if you want to peruse the collection.

I also listened to this great presentation by the Brooklyn Public Library about how they trained their teens as Readers’ Advisory, which gave them confidence, critical thinking skills, research skills, and more ownership of their library. The kids actively answered RA questions, participated in outreach programs, and (at the end of the multi-month paid program) the kids submitted a book requisition list, which became a special part of the Brooklyn Public Library collection. I don’t think I have stopped talking about this program since I heard about it, it sounded so beautiful.

Kelsey Riggs

Forest Park Branch

Manga Classics on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-Manga-Classics/dp/1947808109

Reader's Advisory and Tattoos

There is an interesting article on readers's advisory based on a customer's tattoos in the March 9 issue of American Libraries Direct (ALA):

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/03/01/inked-readers-advisory/