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.
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