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YART Fall 2011 Business Meeting Minutes

Young Adult Round Table Business Meeting

NLA Conference - October 6, 2011 4:30 p.m.

Cornhusker Marriott - Lincoln, NE

1. New Leadership
Gordon Wyant outgoing president announced the new board - Jake Rundle/chair, Lindsey Tomsu/vice chair, and Melanie Feyerherm Schultz/secretary.

2. Financial Report
Gordon provided the financial report stating YART has a profit of $281.83. Last year’s profit came from NLA section allocations, registration fees for the spring meeting, support from SCYP, and the program in a box.
Members want to get more NEMA members to become members of YART. However, there are financial barriers. Wyant talked about how we wanted representation on the board of both public and school but that did not happen for this upcoming year. The possibility of creating a scholarship for NEMA members was discussed as well as the possibility of making a change to the YART bylaws to include a “NEMA representative” and budgeting $30 a year to pay for this person’s membership. Also discussed was the possibility of just getting a volunteer to be this representative without having to change bylaws.
Wyant advised that YART put out more publicity on the fact that there is a discount to joining YART if you are a member of NEMA. He also stressed that anyone is welcome to come to events (members and non-members) as long as they pay the event fee.
At last check there were 36 paid members in YART.

3. YART Activity
YART took over a room for the entire first day of the 2011 conference with packed audiences at all sessions.
Gordon talked about presentations that were done with Dr. Pasco’s library science classes and Bridget Kratt said YART should talk to her YA literature class about how public and school libraries should work more together.
It was discussed that YART would like to keep trying to do things across the state so that librarians farther west can participate as well. Other ideas were to do more Programs in a Box, getting speakers for events and other items that will be mentioned in more details later in these minutes.

4. Program in a Box
The YART board clarified what “program in a box” is to those in the audience who were unaware. Anyone can make the activity box and “house” it and their library. That person is then responsible for shipping (which they are reimbursed for) as well as restocking it when it gets sent back. A soft ceiling of $50 per box creating was given. The $10 fee for the box covers shipping and restocking fees.
Gordon suggested having a way to make requesting/reserving a box more automatic. It was suggested we look into Google Forms.
Mary Mollner suggested a Lewis & Clark/Western-themed box that would have immediate school librarian interest, especially if standards were included in the box.
It was suggested we look at Joslyn’s “outreach trunk” and see how their program is set up. Jake Rundle has a contact at Joslyn that he was going to talk to about this.
Matt Couch suggested a pyramid scheme/pink flamingo in the yard idea where you could send a librarian a box and tell them to make something out of it.


5. Spring and Fall Meetings
The first fall meeting in 2010 was not as well attended as was hoped but beneficial to those that came.
The spring 2011 meeting was held in Hastings to try to accommodate librarians father west. However, this still isn’t far enough west for some. North Platte was suggested as well as the possibility of webinars (via Skype, GoTo Meeting, Adobe Connect, etc.). Faye Friesen said schools will typically have the equipment needed to do something like this. It was suggested that a remote location could be set up in a town (Kearney, North Platte, etc.) so that a group of librarians could get together for it. These sessions could also possibly be recorded to view later.
Stacy Lickteig suggested that these events include topics that would appeal to school and public libraries (not just “summer reading programs”).

6. Suggestions for Next Year
Gordon stressed the importance of finding ways to increase the value for members joining YART.
Stacy said the Round Table must promote to newcomers. She suggested an “adopt a librarian” kind of program for people new to young adult services to get advice and questions answered. Melanie mentioned this was the original intent of the forum (accessible through the blog) but not much publicity has been done with it to garner interest. Gordon mentioned that with the profit we have, we could look into purchasing an online forum (instead of using a free one) if that is something we want to put our focus on.
Faye suggested that we make t-shirts for the round table. Lindsey has a screen printing press that we could make these on if interested. It was suggested that we could either have a QR code or the back of the shirt could look like a band tour shirt with dates and locations of where YART has been/will be heading next.
Communications were discussed as e-mail has, in the past, proven not to be the best way to get information out. It was suggested that a Facebook and Twitter account be created, even though many school librarians will not be able to check these during the day because of filters.
Jake wanted to stress the focusing on trying to get partnerships together with school and public libraries. It was suggested that we look into setting up/coordinating a “take your librarian to lunch” day with public and school librarians.
Bridget Kratt also mentioned getting some flyers, promotional items to her to promote through UNO’s Met Link.

YART Fall Meeting

The YART fall meeting is GO!

It is going to be a good one! You guys should totally come! Great stuff to help you deal with potential challenges to your collection, great stuff to help inspire you to have some totally awesome author visits, great ways to collaborate between public and school libraries, and some great prizes to be won!

Look at the flier, fill it out, send it in, and join us!

Some stuff to talk about!

Just some quick things to mention for everyone.

First of all: we are almost done getting things cemented in for our Fall meeting in HAstings! We are going to have a discussion about intellectual freedom in your school and public library and their collections with people who KNOW. Learn about some amazing author visits Stacy Lickteig hosted at Bryan High School and get inspired to have your own! Share ways in which you partner with your public library or school library and get some great suggestions. We'll be doing more things than that, eat donuts and coffee, and give away some prizes (including and autographed Ellen Hopkins book in celebration of Banned Book Week).

I'll be getting the flier/signup out to the mailing list and link posted by Wednesday, so keep an eye on your mailboxes and this blog.

Second up: NLA elections! It is time to get your next YART officers (and other NLA positions) elected. Head to NLA site, log in, and vote!

Thirdly: Just a quick suggestion for programming and fun. I just discovered that my favorite board game publisher of all time, Cheapass Games has started making some of their games available as PDF files for free download! Check it out! Some amazing games that your patrons and students will love and you can't beat the price!

Edit: I should add that though the games are free, it would be nice to drop a dollar or two as a donation so they can keep doing this.

I love when YA makes it to EW

Librarians,

Many of you dont' know this, but I am a pop culture Junkie! I mean that in total honesty. I can sit and read back issues of Entertainment Weekly for hours. I have a stack of them going back to when I was in high school. Let's agree that I love that magazine and all the pop culture stuff it tells me.

What has me posting about it is what was on the front of the EW.com site today. Tomorrow is the release of "13 Reasons Why" on paperback, and EW did an interview with Jay Asher, the books author. You can check out the interview here, and you can learn about Jay Asher here. You can also be excited for his next book, coauthored with Carolyn Mackler and titled "The Future of Us" about two teens who log onto AOL in the mid 1990's and discover their facebook pages in 2011. Can it get more awesome than that?

Jake

P.S. If you haven't checked out the discussion boards yet, I would encourage you do to so. Gordon has some awesome stuff going on there and it never hurt anyone to put in your two cents.

Get Excited!!!

All,

I just wanted to drop a line because 1: I'm a terrible person and let summer get the best of my blogging. I will do a much better job. I didn't even know about the Wall Street Journal article until yesterday. I know, FAIL!
2: Gordon sent the first program in a box out on Wednesday. It was the Japanese tea set. Don't worry, it'll come back in a month's time (maybe sooner) and then you can check it out for your library. Don't forget, we also have a Hunger Games program in a box and a Blue Balliet box. Both of those are available for shipping RIGHT NOW and can be to your library for the low, low price of only $10.

Contact someone on the exec board to find out how you can get one sent to your library right away!

Lastly, I hope you have all been waiting in anticipation for our Fall meeting. If you're going to ask questions like "When is it" we'll have to get back to you. What I can tell you is that our topic of discussion will be intellectual freedom. We are hoping to have someone from the Library Commission come and talk to us about the current challenges in intellectual freedom, as well as the opportunites we can take advantage of with students and patrons to talk about the various aspects of intellectual freedom.

Be well! Stay cool, and keep being awesome.

Jake

Information and INFORMATION!!!

Hey everyone,

Jake here at the NLA board meeting. Gordon, Lindsey and I have been hanging out with a lot of really interesting librarians talking shop about NLA business.

A few things that you need to know:

1. If you have any ideas for presentations at NLA, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE submit them. It is very important that YART be a powerhouse of representation. Last year, we had at least 3 presentations at NLA Fall Conference, and we had standing room only at one of them and very good attendance at the other two. We have been doing well and we hope to continue that tradition. Proposals are due NEXT FRIDAY!!

2. June 1st is the deadline for nominations for Vice-Chair and Secretary. Each year, we have to elect new members to positions in our organization. It has come to our attention that we will need two (2) nominees for each position. That means we will need at least four (4) people to try for our open positions. I will be taking over for Gordon as Chair, so there will be someone in the exec board who knows what's going on (right...?)!

Lots of great things happening here. Be sure to keep in mind your Fall schedules because we will be having a meeting before NLA sometime in September.

Be Well!

YART Spring Meeting

Hey there, YARTers!

Gordon here, messing up Jake's blogging flow and telling you some of what went on at the spring meeting. Good times!

Well, we had our Spring Meeting on Saturday . . . and it was EPIC! Well, maybe not epic, but it was a lot of fun! We discussed our Program in a Box initiative, came up with some amazing program ideas during our speed programming, found out about some incredible books from NLC's Sally Snyder, ate some donuts, elected a new secretary, and watched some buffoon dance around like a muppet. Well, I didn't watch a buffoon dance around like a muppet . . . you guys did. I was the muppet. Anyway . . . on with the post!

Welcome to our new Secretary!

Cathy Mcmahon indicated she might have bitten off more than she could chew in the beginning of the year and asked to step down from secretary. Lindsey Tomsu said she would step in as interim secretary and has served in that capacity since then. At the spring meeting, it was put to vote to make Lindsey the official YART secretary until the term ends at this year's conference, as per YART bylaws.

So, a big thank you to Cathy for all you've done for us! We sincerely hope that you'll continue to contribute your time and expertise to YART where and whenever possible. Much love!

And a big welcome to Lindsey Tomsu as our new YART secretary! You've been doing a fantastic job as interim secretary and we are happy to have you on in an official capacity!

Program in a Box:
For those of you who weren't there, "Program in a Box" is an initiative by YART to distill our varied areas of expertise into programs and lesson plans put into a box with all of the materials you will need to execute those programs or lesson plans. These boxes contain items, supplies, and information for doing around 4 library programs and lesson plans. Any member of yart (this might end up being a flexible definition) may “rent” a box for $10, which covers shipping to the library and resupply (the home library is responsible for restocking and the initial ship, but is reimbursed any cost by Yart).

Essentially, for $10 the renting library or school gets at least 4 programs that they can put on. The idea is that there are many librarians and school librarians out there who would like to do certain programs, lessons, and events, but feel they do not have the money or expertise to execute those events. While they might not, someone else in the state just may . . . so we are trying to share our expertise in a way that all of us can benefit. After the renting library is finished with the box or the rental period is up, they are responsible for getting it to the next on the list or back to the home library. This can be accomplished through library rate shipping or hand-offs. All of this will be organized and orchestrated by the Yart exec board.

We came up with three initial boxes we presented to the group: Japanese culture, anime, history, and language; mystery, math, critical thinking, Blue Balliett book club; and Hunger Games book club, world politics, social issues. We will be looking to make a few more for this year. So, if you have any suggestions or interest in putting one together, being a home library for a box, or helping out in some way please email us and let us know.


NLA/NEMA Conference is just around the corner . . .

. . . and we want YOU! We want a plethora of presenters and sessions with the "sponsored by YART" tag at conference this year! If you have anything you would like to present or anything you would like US to present, please let us know! The deadline for proposals is the 15th! That's next Friday! So, think about it and decide to share your expertise with us at the NLA/NEMA 2011 conference! If you have any questions or want to make suggestions, post on our forum thread or send us an email!

Additionally, it was discussed at the meeting that we will have a pre-post-conference business meeting on the Thursday of conference. This will happen after the day's sessions, but before the evenings activities and banquets. This change is due to the previous year's sadly small attendance to the YART business meeting. It is a bit difficult to schedule a business meeting for YART with all the other round tables, sections, and session events going on at the same time. We feel our members end up having to play triage in regards to what session is more vital for them to attend. We are hoping that by using this unconventional scheduling we will have more attendants to our business meeting. Please, if you have any comments or suggestions on this, let one or all of us know. Otherwise, watch the schedule for us and make sure to pop in and say hello and help steer our direction for the next year!

Thanks very much, all!

Gordon Wyant
Resident Muppet and YART Chair

Information and collections: NLA presentations

Hello all!

Since it's March, that means......Time to start planning for OCTOBER!!!

If you were thinking of presenting at NLA (which you all should be thinking about!) then the link to get your topic on the list of potential presenters is here. So far, this link cannot be found on the NLA website, so you can thank you lucky stars that it's available from the folks at YART (and every other Round table, but we try to make ourselves sound awesome).

Again, NLA presentation proposal forms are live. We REALLY WANT to be active this year. If you haven't thought about presenting, you really should. Talk to fellow librarians in your building, or library staff, or librarians across town at the school in your community. Sharing is caring: Nobody has to do a presentation alone.

Do well, be brave.

Jake

Information and Collections: The Facebook is eating your life!

In case you haven't noticed, Facebook's email service went live this week. This might be both a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, it makes it much simpler for me the user to consolidate all of my Facebook messages into one place. The downside is that now EVERYONE will have an @facebook.com account.

Where do you think this will put your library? Are you excited to have email capabilites to places outside of the Facebook realm?

Information and Collections: How does your collection fare?

Hello Friends!

On this fine Sunday, I find myself flipping through VOYA and alternately looking in our card catalog to see if we have anything that I would want to read. So far, it's about 50/50 hit to miss. This leads me to the question I've proposed in the subject line: How does your collection fare? If you could have $500 more dollars for books, what subject areas or places would you bulk up your offerings to teens?

I would add more LGBT fiction and nonfiction to our collection. I think that though we have a good representation of GLBT materials, but I know the public high school has more. That's all well and good for them, but we also have a rural high school and a Catholic high school. Can I bet those libraries will have the same offerings? I can't, so I would like the Public Library to be able to provide.

What would you add? Why?

Information and Collections: the END of the the Ebook REVOLUTION!

If you haven't been keeping track of what's big in libraryland this week, I am right there with you. It wasn't until today that I found out about the changes coming to Overdrive in the coming months regarding ebook uses and the power of the publisher to exact dirty capitalist revenge on libraries.

The situation: HarperCollins has decided it is going to renegotiate the terms of its agreement with all ebook lenders (Overdrive and others) so that after so many checkout by patrons, an ebook may no longer be lent out. It will have to be repurchased. Essentially, libraries won't be in control of the conten they purchase.

[Insert angry tirade of your choice]

Now, while this is something is happening in the upcoming, I dont' think anyone can really be sure if it will last. With the ebook market getting bigger every day, it might be smart for some publishers to keep the old agreement, and thus get some business from libraries and econtent lenders.

What do you think YARTigans? where do we stand? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Information and Collections: Robot Jim

If you haven't been lost in the librarian blogs this weeekend you will have missed the news that a new print edition of The Advenutres of Huck Finn is being published. Unlike every other edition thought, the publisher has taken steps to get the book back into the mainstream. In the new edition, every instance of the "N-word" is replaced with the word "slave."

In an effort to remove all of the controvesial moments from the book, there is a fundraising goal on Kickstarter to publish a version where the "N-word" is replaced with "robot."

You can watch the video they made and learn more here

Jake

News: Spring Meeting and blog forums!

Hello, YARTers! This is Gordon, letting you know about a few things coming up.

We sent the registration/flier sheets out to the email list. If you didn't receive and email, please let us know. If you received the email and your mail server didn't pass on the attachment, you can download it here. The event will be held at the La Vista Public Library on Saturday, April 2nd. We are hoping the spring meeting will be enlightening, exciting, and a lot of fun for everyone. Take a look at the flier to see what we are planning! Registrations are going to be needed by March 28th but, if you need more time, just let us know and we'll do what ever we can to make your attendance possible.

Astute observers of the blog will notice that there is a new link on the sidebar. We are in the process of adding forums to this blog. We are currently running into a few issues, but the forums are kind-of up and ready to take your posts. I will be fiddling with this in the weeks to come in order to make it more attractive and usable. Please have patience with the blog during this change, it won't take long. :)

Thanks all!

Gordon Wyant
YART Chair

Information and Collections: Book List fiasco

I'm not sure if many of you have been keeping up with things lately, but B*tch Media put out their list of 100 YA books with a feminist bend. Then, over the weekend and after protests from some readers, the writers of the list removed some books and replaced them with others. This then inscenced other readers and a few authors who were named on the list. More than one author asked that her name and book be removed from the list. It's nuts!

What I think we should remember is that a book list is always made with a bias. Even in trying to keep bias out, you're still making a list based on your judgement. Thankfully, your judgement is not mine. Unfortunately, this leads to disagreements, suggestions and sometimes hurt feelings.

This does not mean we should stop making lists for our patrons. Just remember, if you choose a title, you might have to stick by it and stick up for it. For some, this might mean having conversations with administrators, other teachers, other libarians, or parents. Always have your reviews in hand and your rationale firm.

Go well, Librarians!

Jake

P.S. Here's the link to the list and the SNAFU that followed in the comments. Some of the posts are really thoughtful. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter if you search for #bitchplease. BE WARNED: The librarians didn't see if it was a trending topic before they started posting, so you will have to weed through some NSFW stuff to get to the good tweets.

Information and collections: Getting on the email lists that give you more

Many of you are probably already on the email lists sponsored by ALA and YALSA and a host of other library organizations. For those of us (myself included), here are instructions for joining a few of the YALSA email lists. I'll put a link at the bottom of the post that gives all the email lists available from YALSA, as well as some of their sponsored websites full of other information.

Joining YALSA-BK

Purpose: This open list for book discussion invites subscribers to discuss specific titles, as well as other issues concerning young adult reading and young adult literature. Subscribers will also learn what has been nominated for Best Books for Young Adults, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults and Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and be able to discuss those books. Young adults, especially those who belong to book discussion groups, are also welcome to subscribe and to discuss books they are reading.

Uses:

• Discuss books for young adults
• Discuss titles nominated for the YALSA lists
• Discuss issues concerning young adult reading
• Discuss issue concerning young adult literature

To subscribe:

1. Go to http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/yalsa-bk
2. Select 'Subscribe' on the left hand side
3. Enter your email address and hit the gray button

To unsubscribe:

1. Go to http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/yalsa-bk
2. Select unsubscribe on the left hand side.
3. Enter your email address and hit the gray 'Unsubscribe' button

OR

Send an email to: yalsa-bk-unsubscribe@ala.org, leave the subject line and message blank.

You can find the rest of the email lists at the YALSA electronic resources website.

Be well,

Jake

Some things we're starting

Hello YART folk!

Since this is supposed to be a blog that you'll want to come to for the newest and greatest, we are going to start a few things. There will be three different kinds of posts on this blog: The librarian interviews that we have already started; tips and information on building a strong teen collection and marketing that collection to patrons and students, including book reviews by guest librarians and school teachers and best practices for marketing and displaying; and thirdly, a real time experiment where a school librarian and a public librarian will actively plan and execute programming and other coordinating ideas and then share the results with you who are reading.

We hope that these three different areas of the blog will give you some ideas for your libraries and schools, as well as get a conversation started between teacher librarians and public librarians across the state on how to work together to impact young adults.

You'll be able to tell what the different posts look like because the subject will reflect what section if falls into followed by the topic. We look forward to getting you great information and helping ALL librarians working with teens do better for these very special patrons.

Jake