Just Doing a Job

With American Library Association coming to town this summer for its annual conference, I was anxious to volunteer when asked. I agreed to work as youth coordinator for the local arrangements committee for YALSA, the division of ALA for librarians who work with young adults. I knew that I could do whatever was needed in New Orleans. When Kim Patton, the president of YALSA, called me up to explain that I was also the youth coordinator for Midwinter I was flummoxed. How was I going to get 50 kids to the San Diego Convention Center on a Sunday in January. I didn't know anyone in San Diego.

After my initial anxiety, I asked YALSA for some help. I posted on a YALSA list serv, and I had a few California librarians contact me because they heard I was youth coordinator. I found five librarians to bring their teens to ALA Midwinter on Sunday the January 9th. I have heard from two of these librarians who said the event was awesome. The teens got to spend the morning at the exhibits picking up freebies and talking to authors. Penguin USA took them to lunch. Then they spent two hours presenting their opinions on books to the Best Fiction for Young Adults Committee. This same committee meets at Annual. I will be bringing some of my Taylor students with me in June to give thier opinions.

Here is a link to the BFYA Committee meeting with tweets and some video of the teens: http://bit.ly/hEJioV.

Joanna Axelrod from the Escondido Public Library shared this pic with me.
BFYA Committee, YALSA
January 9, 2011
San Diego, CA


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