Meeting new faces

Hello all!

This is Jake. It know I have thus far been somewhat of a stranger to the blog. My sincerest apologies. I was finishing Comps and my final class for Grad school. Now that all of those other obligations are done I can be here much more often.

We're starting a new segment here on the blog in hopes of accomplishing two goals. The first: introduce the members of YART from all across this great state to one another. The second: begin to challenge librarians who work in the same city, or school district, or metro area to think about how they are collaborating with each other for programs and how they could better collaborate with each other on programs. Our first month will feature Cathy McMahon, Youth Services Librarian and Keene Memorial library in Fremont Nebraska and Kristine Woods, Library Media Specialist at Fremont Middle School in Fremont Nebraska.

If any librarians would like to volunteer to be a part of this segment, please send an email to the YART email address. nlayart@gmail.com. You can also post a comment to the blog and we'll get it that way too. Without further ado, I give you November's featured librarians.

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Name: Cathy McMahon

City and Library Position: Fremont Ne, Youth Services Librarian

What is a favorite program for Young Adults you’ve run: Speed Rating- students rate books by viewing trailers and book talks

What is one thing you’d like to do with the school/public librarian: Offer more after school programming.

What’s one project in which you think school/public librarians can work together: I think it would be fun to offer a nontraditional book club- what that is and what that means would be determined by the teens…

What’s your favorite book to suggest to YA’s right now: I loved Shiver and Linger by Stiefvater and TBR- Life of Glass by Cantor, Tell Me A Secret by Cupala and Beautiful Malice by James… on my Nook I read I Know A Girl- great read but lousy ending!

Have you joined YART? If no, why not: Yes I belong to YART.

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Name: Kristine Woods

City and Library Position: Fremont, Fremont Middle School, Library
Media Specialist

Favorite program for Young Adults you’ve run: “Dewey Decathlon”
- a reading challenge for students to read 25 books from the Dewey
Classifications, including fiction, biography, state award books, and
designated number of selections from 000-900. Students self-select the
books within the framework of the program. The purpose is to broaden
reading selections to increase vocabulary and background knowledge while
exposing students to genres and topics they might not otherwise pick up
and read.

What is one thing you’d like to do with the school/public librarian:

Coordinate resources and promotions to provide a saturation level in the
community for targeted programming.

What’s one project in which you think school/public librarians can

work together: Among others, Internet safety programming. We could
coordinate a program to provide learning at the school with the students
while the public library could provide seminars for parents and other
adults in the community.

What’s your favorite book to suggest to YA’s right now: Right now,
I think the publishers are flooding the market with post-apocalyptic or
global climate change plot lines. My current favorites are The Maze
Runner and the sequel, The Scorch Trials by James Dashner.

Have you joined YART? If no, why not: No. I am new to Nebraska and
just learning about the local opportunities. I am a member of ALA/AASL,
ASCD, NMSA, and ISTE.

Hello and an introduction to a new year

Good afternoon (-morning, -evening . . . whichever you prefer), fellow YARTers! This NLA saw the appointment of new leadership for the Young Adult Round Table. Gordon Wyant has been appointed to the position of Chair, Jake Rundle has accepted the role of Chair Elect, and Cathy McMahon has stepped up to take on the duties of Secretary/Treasurer. We would like to heartily thank Stacy Lickteig, Anna Bley, and Bridget Kratt for their efforts and leadership. They pulled this group through its initial growing pains and did a thoroughly commendable job. It is our sincere hope that they continue to add their knowledge and expertise to this group.

As the attendance at the YART business meeting showed, we are at a crossroads with this group. The initial fervor of being the "new kid" has died down and now we really need to step up. Given the wealth of experience and knowledge each member brings to this group, we have the potential to become a great resource for youth advocates across Nebraska. We have survived the initial growing pains, it is now time to reinforce ourselves as a presence in NLA, the state, and the lives of our students/patrons. Fortunately, there were some fantastic ideas tossed around at the meeting and the many impromptu meetings that happened during the conference that we feel will do just that.

It was clear to us that we need to redouble our efforts to increase communication and cooperation between school librarians and public librarians. We all have much to share with one another, be it resources, ideas, or expertise. While there may be differences in how we approach our missions, the end goal is the same: the betterment, education, and advocacy of Young Adults. Working together, we can accomplish so much more than we would by continuing to work relatively independent of one another. To that end, we are planning two YART sponsored events for this year that will bring our somewhat disparate groups together. Our spring event will have a main focus on public libraries as they gear up for summer reading programs and our event at the end of summer will focus on school libraries as they gear up for the school year. Both events will promote ways in which we can share our resources and knowledge to better support one another.

In addition to our events, we intend to create a program resource that can go from school to school and library to library. These "Programs in a Box" will have everything a librarian or school librarian will need to put forth an engaging, educational, and fun program for young adults. It is our aim to have a kind of roving depository of programs that can satisfy a wide variety of lesson plans, learning objectives, and themes available to any member of YART.

We would like to see more activity on our blog, as well. We intend for this to be a resource, not only providing information on YART, its members, and its business, but also be a source of pertinent information to better serve our young adult students and patrons. If you have anything you would like to add or any suggestions (be it programming, resources, aids, etc), please send one of us an email and we’ll do our best to get it up here quickly.

It is our aim to make YART membership worth a great deal more than the five dollars it costs to join. With your help, we can make this a reality and meet the great potential we all see in YART.