If you saw our recent post on what your teens will gain when you bring them to the BFYA Teen Session at Annual 2013, you may have been wondering, “Sure, that’s great – but what’s in it for me?”*

Publicity. What’s that? Local teens are speaking on a national level? Call in the press! This is a great opportunity for you to snap cool photos of local teens with famous authors, pull pithy quotes from their speeches, and share your teen’s McCormick Place Adventure with your Facebook fans, local social media, and neighborhood newspapers. When people see your library’s teens highlighted in this way, it’s going to reflect so well on your teens, your institution, and you.

Respect. It takes some guts, a whole lot of energy, and tremendous leadership skills to shepherd a group of teens around the convention center, but just think about what a great leadership opportunity it’s going to be! Your supervisor will know, once each sweet teenaged head is dog tired and tucked into his parent’s passenger seat at the end of the day, that you are a librarian to be reckoned with. You really can pull off a tricky event with grace and efficiency.

That Special Something. Why did you get into teen librarianship in the first place? It probably wasn’t so you could pore over weeding reports or negotiate departmental vacation time. And maybe it wasn’t even about the books. Maybe tech is your thing, or community building. But certainly you’re doing this job because you get a thrill out of giving teens what they want, seeing them elated at a success, and connecting them with resources that meet their needs, interests and passions. Bring them to McCormick Place and you will get that thrill in spades. It’ll revitalize you, pull you through the breakneck pace of summer reading, and give you a success to remember fondly when you hit a rough patch down the road.

Also you get a free Exhibits Only pass for Saturday the 29th. So that’s cool, too!

*Actually, teen librarians are so roundly awesome, you probably weren’t wondering what’s in it for you. So – surprise! There are benefits for you too!

Do you have a favorite Tweet from the past week? If so add it in the comments for this post. Or, if you read a Twitter post between May 10 and May 16 that you think is a must for the next Tweets of the Week send a direct or @ message to lbraun2000 on Twitter.

It made me reflect about the aspects of my work that I love the most. I love to start new relationships and partnerships – meeting and then getting to know new individuals and organizations – talking about ideas and possible ways to work together – launching a new project and then working together to help it succeed. I’m much more energized by the start of something new – the as-yet-unrealized potential – than in all the details that come afterwards—the negotiations, the implementation and the evaluation. I work hard to manage details because that’s part of every job – but I know it will never be my strength.

Often in our work, we focus on the areas that we need to improve rather than our natural strengths. The Strengths approach says that if we try to be too well-rounded, we’ll never be truly great at anything. If you haven’t dug into the Gallup Strengthsfinder work yet, take a look to see if it’s something that can benefit you in your work – or if it gives you a new way to talk with young people about their strengths.

After all, a strengths-based focus is exactly what we’ve been doing in youth work for years – it’s just another way to talk about positive youth development—looking at young people as assets to be developed rather than problems to be solved. I’d argue that it can be pretty tough to take this approach with teens unless we appreciate it in ourselves as well.

I’m a natural geek for personality tests – especially online ones (i.e. What Downton Abbey character are you and so on) and taking the Strengthsfinder assessment was such a different way for me to look at my work. It affirmed the aspects of my work that I enjoyed and have found success in – and also helped me think about what it looked like to “overuse” some of these strengths.

A fascinating article in Library Journal back in 2010 supports a theory I’ve been developing at the library about common types and how that both helps and hurts our work in libraries.

There are a lot of tools out there to support young people in identifying their strengths. In one of our programs working with truant youth, we’ve used the Youth StrengthsExplorer – designed for middle school students – and found it not quite perfect – the language of the questions was not as approachable for our youth as we would have liked, but give it a try with your teens — perhaps it’s something you could with a group of youth that you meet regularly with—an Advisory Board or book club.

Another tool my brilliant colleagues have found is part of the Igniting Sparks curriculum that the Search Institute has put together – in particular their new Spark a vision. We’re thinking of trying it as a entry-level way for youth in our Teen Tech Center to engage with media, peers and mentors– and helping them find a voice to talk about that through media.

What other ways have you dug into your own strengths – or those of the teens you’re working with?

Gretchen will be leaving her role as manager of The Hub when her term ends on August 14, 2013, so YALSA is seeking a new member manager to begin in August 2013. Interested in the job? Read on  to see the position description and qualifications and find out how you can apply. Applications are due to jfinneke@ala.org by July 1, 2013.

YALSA is seeking a Member Manager for its YA literature-focused blog, The Hub, with the mission to provide a one-stop-shop for teens and librarians to help them locate high quality audio, video, and text content related to young adult literature. The deadline for applications is July 1, 2013.

The Member Manager will lead an advisory board and together the group will be responsible for the site, including recruiting bloggers and soliciting content submissions from the YALSA community.

List of Qualifications:

1. Strong project management and organizational skills
2. Ability to delegate work and to manage a variety of contributors and volunteers
3. Dynamic, self-motivated individual
4. Excellent verbal and written communications skills, in order to develop content and communicate with potential content providers
5. Experience in web publishing with responsibilities including but not limited to: utilizing video clips, audio, and social media, maintaining a high standard of writing, and ensuring compliance with policies created for the maintenance of the site
6. Knowledge of WordPress, which YALSA uses for administration of blog sites; as well as knowledge of plugins, tagging, categories, and other WordPress tools
7. PHP knowledge a plus
8. Ability to set and meet deadlines
9. Knowledge of young adult literature and teen reading habits
10. Ability to work well in a team environment
11. Ability to work well in a mostly virtual setting, including using tools such as Google Drive, Google Calendar, Skype, etc. to coordinate work and communicate with others
12. Membership in YALSA and a passion for YALSA’s mission
13. High ethical standards and no real or perceived conflict of interest with YALSA or its portfolio of print and web publications

General Member Manager Responsibilities:

Oversight & Coordination

• Communicate with the Advisory Board and YALSA’s Communications Manager on a regular basis in order to generate ideas for content, assign tasks, discuss marketing and sponsorship strategies, and discuss site management
• Work with the YALS and JRLYA editors as appropriate to coordinate dissemination of information to members and the library community.
• Maintain communication with YALSA member groups whose work relates to young adult literature
• Follow all established policies and guidelines, enforce them as necessary and periodically conduct a review of them to ensure currency
• Direct questions about sponsorships, advertising, etc. to YALSA’s Executive Director
• Develop a calendar for content, based on YALSA events and activities as well as those going on in the larger community related to Young Adult literature
• Write reports prior to the Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting for submission to the YALSA Board

Seek Out & Manage Content & Contributors

• With the Advisory Board review and edit content submitted to the site to make sure the quality is acceptable and that it includes YALSA branding prior to posting, when appropriate
• With the Advisory Board manage postings regularly to guarantee quality of content and appropriate tagging and category identification
• With the Advisory Board recruit contributors on a regular basis, which may include but is not limited to: YALSA members, publishers, authors and teens
• Communicate regularly with bloggers to solicit content, share news, motivate bloggers, develop a blogging schedule, etc.
• Interact with and provide any necessary training to contributors as needed, including at ALA’s Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting and via virtual means
• Effectively motivate, support and manage a large and fluctuating group of contributors and volunteers
• Manage comments and spam daily in order to guarantee that the blog content is appropriate
• Work with YALSA’s Awards and Lists Marketing Taskforces to plan and implement activities that promote YALSA’s book and media lists and awards

Promotion

• Attend Midwinter and Annual to recruit contributors and inform member groups about the site
• Answer questions and inquiries about the site in a timely fashion
• Work with the Website Advisory Committee and the YALSAblog Member Manager to create cross-promotion of all YALSA’s web presences
• Utilize social media to increase awareness of the Hub and its content

Technical Maintenance

• Work with YALSA’s Communications Manager as appropriate to update and manage blog software
• Monitor new technologies as they impact the site: add-ons and plug-ins to blog software, widgets or applications for hand-held devices, etc.
• Communicates regularly with Member Manager to provide support and facilitate work
• Works with ALA IT Dept. to maintain the template for the blog
• Handles all financial transactions for the blog
• Works closely with the ad rep to ensure that ad revenues meet targeted goals
• Promotes the blog through appropriate venues
• Coordinates efforts and facilitates communication among all YALSA publications, including the blogs and journals
• Manages the blog software, including keeping track of add-ons and plug-ins and liaising with ALA’s IT Dept. to troubleshoot technical issues

YALSA Communications Manager Responsibilities:

• Communicates regularly with Member Manager to provide support and facilitate work
• Works with ALA IT Dept. to maintain the template for the blog
• Handles all financial transactions for the blog
• Works closely with the ad rep to ensure that ad revenues meet targeted goals
• Promotes the blog through appropriate venues
• Coordinates efforts and facilitates communication among all YALSA publications, including the blogs and journals
• Manages the blog software, including keeping track of add-ons and plug-ins and liaising with ALA’s IT Dept. to troubleshoot technical issues

The Member Manager will be selected by the YALSA Executive Committee by August 1, 2013. The term of the appointment is one year beginning in August, with an option to renew for a second year, based on performance. The Member Manager will receive an honorarium of $500 per year plus $500 towards travel to each Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting while serving as Member Manager. Candidates should send a cover letter and resume, which includes management, writing and web publishing experiences to jfinneke@ala.org. All resumes, etc. must be submitted via email. The deadline for submission is July 1, 2013. Please note that this is not a salaried staff position. It is a member volunteer opportunity.

To learn more about The Hub, visit The Hub. Please direct questions to Jaclyn Finneke at jfinneke@ala.org or 1-800-545-2433, extension 2128.

Title: Schoology
Platform: iOS, Android, Web
Cost: Free

This week’s app comes to you from Kayla,  a teen who works as a page at my library. The other day she came to tell me about the easy way she was doing biology homework on her phone. Since she was using the app, and if I downloaded it I would not have a class to practice with, I asked Kayla to tell us about how it works:

“Your teacher can upload multiple choice questions for you to answer for homework. They can limit how many times you can answer them, so it can give you a challenge by only having you do it once, or you can re-do it a few times and fix your mistakes. It’s a good learning site, because it’s hands on.  It’s a good way to review for big tests because the multiple choice questions reflect what you’ve done in class.  Teachers and students can post notes on it, and can comments on each other’s notes.  You can look at the schedule for future assignments.  You can put photos, vidoes, and files from drop box to share with the class. Students might upload their notes.”

I asked her what she likes about using Schoology:

“You can do your homework anywhere.  You can do a few questions on a break at work or backstage at drama club rehearsals.  And the internet is right there if you need to look up a definition.”

And I asked what her classmates think of it:

“We like it a lot because it’s hand held, we can do it at free time at school, or on the go, you don’t have to carry a book or worry about finding a pencil and paper, it’s right there on your phone.”

I took a look at the Schoology website and found that it looks like this app can do a whole lot more than effectively deliver biology homework to busy high school seniors. It can help teachers manage their schedules, communicate with students, and keep track of grades. Watch this short video for an introduction:

Last week I talked about presenting yourself as a professional. This week, the topic is:

Speaking the Language

When YA librarians talk about teen services they often–naturally enough–focus on the teens. They are likely to describe programs and activities in terms of the benefits to teens. Talking about how much fun a program or service will be, or how it’s the latest rage may be what’s on the top of your mind, or that of your teens, but it’s not necessarily what your library’s director thinks is important. Generally, upper-level managers are more interested in big-picture issues. In YALSA’s recent survey of members who are identified as supervisors or managers, several of the respondents commented that the upper-level administrators at their libraries want to hear about programs in terms of issues like community engagement, community health, collaboration, purpose, sustainability, partnerships, and return on investment (ROI).

When presenting a request to management for funds for teen programs or services, then, it is critical to frame the request in these terms. Think about, for example:

• What impacts will the program or service have on the community at large? (Will it engage teens and get them off the streets in those dangerous after-school hours? Will it affect the drop-out rate? Will it help teens get jobs?)
• What community partnerships can you bring into the program or service?
• What developmental assets® will this program or service meet?
• How will the program or service be paid for, and how will you sustain that over time?
• How will the program or service impact the rest of the library? (Focus on the positive ways it will affect the library: increases in circulation and attendance, for example.)
• Will the time, money, and energy spent on the program or service be worth it to the library and the community?

When you come up with a new idea for a teen program or service, it should not be something that, as one manager said, “is thrust upon the library director to make the workload more difficult.” The teen librarian should understand the director’s vision for the library, and be able to demonstrate how the new service or program will fit into and help fulfill that vision.

In order to accomplish that, you may have to do some homework. Find out what matters to your director, and think of ways to show that the programs and services you want to offer will help. Know your library’s strategic mission and goals, and be prepared to demonstrate how teen services fit into those goals.

Speaking the language doesn’t have to mean learning a whole new set of jargon, but it does mean being aware of the issues and concerns of management, and addressing those in your proposal.

Sometimes thinking beyond teen services can be the best way to get more support for teen services.

Next week, we’ll talk about collecting the data that you may need in order to present your case to management.

Sarah Flowers

YALSA Past President

Just like the civic groups libraries frequently collaborate with (Kiwanis, United Way, schools, etc.), religious organizations have what libraries desire most in our programming: people.  When you collaborate with a religious organization, you’ve automatically got an audience, who you can now market to more effectively, and, if you’ve planned your program well, participation in the collaborative effort will be natural.  By opening the library to collaborations with religious institutions, you also gain access to additional funding—either monetary in nature or in volunteer hours.  Collaborations with religious organizations help the library expand services to a greater number of its patrons than it could have done on its own.

Some concerns are immediately apparent here: What if the funding has strings attached?  What if the religious organization requires restricting program admission?  The answer is to hold religious organizations to the same fair standards as civic groups.  A grant from Duke Energy or a program cosponsored by Kiwanis can come with advertising and spending restrictions.  With open communication, we establish the terms for our collaboration.  Similarly, in terms of restricting admission, we’re already doing that at the most popular library programs!  For example, some libraries hold adult book clubs in bars.  But wait!  That restricts attendance to those over 21, who aren’t Muslim, alcoholic, or teetotalers.  Every library collaboration sets terms; do so with open communication.

Outreach programming at religious locations and events is a second programming option between libraries and religious organizations.  By outreach programming at religious locations I don’t mean that you need to embed yourself in a religious community, running storytime at Sunday school, or leading a book club at Sukkot.  But it does mean that you look for opportunities where a religious organization’s mission and the library’s mission overlap, so that you can deliver library services in the community.  Why not lead a knitting program at a religious ladies’ group?  Or you could lead your TAB in teaching a youth group peer mediation skills.  Why not set up a table with Summer Reading Program activities at the church softball league?

Just as before, there are cautions to observe with outreach programming at religious locations and events.  And, just as before, the proof is in the pudding: if you would take this outreach program to a civic group, it is generally appropriate for you to take it to a religious location.  I say “generally” because the library loses a measure of control when taking programming to an outreach program.  Open communication between all parties is key to prevention, but what do you do if the youth group wants to tie your collaboration to a Proposition 8 rally?  What if the ladies group wishes to pray during the program?  Talk to representatives from the location or event beforehand so that there are no surprises.  Prepare yourself and your volunteers for the cultural sensitivities and habits of the location you will be visiting.  You must actively choose what concessions you are willing to make as an individual and as a representative of the library.  For example, if you visit a mosque, wearing your shoes inside would be inappropriate.  You may find this a reasonable concession.  However, if your program at the mosque will be in mixed-gender company, and therefore any female library staff should wear clothing that covers the body but for face and hands, a librarian could decide that this goes beyond her comfort zone in terms of safety, personal freedom, or library mission.  At this point you can choose my final piece of advice for library programming and religion: be prepared to shelve the program.  No outreach program is worth compromising safety, sacrificing an employee’s religious freedom, or contradicting the library’s openness.  If the desires or needs of the religious location or event can’t be accommodated within the library’s desires or wants, then it’s time to shelve the program for another date, location, or leadership.

Another programming option that incorporates religious life and libraries is programming with a religious theme.  I think we all know that this is an area in which to tread lightly.  Incorporating religion with regular library programming can be difficult to do.  Our libraries share a dedication to openness to all people, and we must take care to make everybody feel welcome, included.  Penn Jillette, a noted atheist, speaks well to this aim of openness here:

As a guideline, incorporating historical information about religion is entirely appropriate—so go ahead, talk about religious freedom in a Thanksgiving program, or read a story about Our Lady of Guadalupe at El Dia de Los Ninos, or invite an imam to speak at a program commemorating 9/11—but before including a religious element, consider how important the element truly is to the program, and consider the element from the perspective of both someone inside that religious tradition, and somebody outside of it.  This ensures that the library remains respectful of the religious element while still remaining open to others outside of that particular religious tradition.

While it’s all fine and good for us to work within the guidelines outlined here, what about something more official than a blog post you can actually take to your supervisor or board, or use to train other library staff members?  I suggest looking to OCLC Webjunction for guidance on evaluating a potential programming partner, and for how to get the conversation started with those potential partners.  Check out their “Community Partnership and Collaboration Guide” and the tl;dr version: Attributes of Successful Partnerships.

For my final piece of advice on incorporating religion and library programming, I want to relate to you an example of many libraries’ worst case scenario: an influential patron fiercely and publicly objects.  I experienced this first hand whenever I posted to a listserv asking libraries for their experience collaborating with religious organizations.  A library director in Nebraska objected so virulently to my question, that she violated the listserv’s privacy policy and posted my question and full contact information to an online atheist forum:

More of your civil rights being eroded. A librarian in Indiana is seeking information about collaborating with churches to help with the library.

You want a church determining what you read and what is carried by your public library? How about public officials (librarians) actively seeking this information.

Culled from the Rural Librarian Association:

I am collecting stories of partnerships between libraries and religious organizations.  If your library has collaborated with a religious organization—whether successful or not—please message me off list with details.  I am interested in inspiring library staff to think creatively about outreach and collaborative opportunities.”

Please notice that my question was organization-neutral (referencing no specific religion) and specific (referring to programming only, not collection development, staffing, or library policies).  It is the poster who wrongly interpreted my question as having a Christian, civil-rights-limiting intent.  The poster imposed his fears and his religious interpretation on my neutral question.  No matter how carefully your library acts, the potential for gross misinterpretation and malignment exists, for while the poster’s interpretation is incorrect, his worries are real to him.

Now the good news: for all the attention the post garnered, only one person responded.  Reading that response, you’ll see that even there the poster talks himself around to agreeing that there is potentially a right way for libraries to include religious organizations.  Furthermore, no response was ever sent to me, the library, or the professional organization on whose listserv I posted the question.

If you pursue the incorporation of religion and library programming, your library should be prepared to address the concerns of teen patrons who are atheist and agnostic.  Their concerns are valid and emotionally charged.  If you have carefully considered your collaboration with the religious organization, then you will be able to answer the patrons’ concerns with calm reason: you have treated the religious organization the same as you would have any other civic group, including never compromising control of the library’s mission, collection, information, or policies.

Religion is a passionate topic, central to American life, and worthwhile to carefully incorporate into library services.  With our country’s backbone of religious tolerance and most libraries’ sensible, caring policies and actions, patrons’ religious lives can and should be a part of library services.

Anniversaries are a reminiscent time, remember what has been accomplished, but they are also a time to look forward. Connect with a friend, and share your favorite YALSA tools, awards and memories, comment on this post and tell us what they are! Then each donate $28 for YALSA’s 56 years of service. Celebrate the old, while ringing in the new!

Keep an eye on the YALSA blog for more ways to celebrate YALSA’s birthday and find out what else is on the wishlist!

This graph search shows patrons who have friended my rural Midwestern library, and who publicly list Christian as their religion.

This graph search shows patrons who liked the New York Public Library, who list their location as New York City (not one of the boroughs, but rather the city as a whole), and who publicly list their religion. For every religion selectable on Facebook graph search, the New York Public Library has patrons.

With religion and other ideologies so intrinsic to everyone’s lives, libraries should treat their patrons as holistic people and seek to see the subject of religion as normalized, rather than a feared taboo.

A knee-jerk reaction to incorporating religion in libraries is to strike a strictly legalistic, mathematical stance: there shall be a list of approved terminology; only salaried MLIS holders shall take religious reference questions; collection development dollars will be spent exactly equally between all religions.   This legalistic, mathematical approach is a reaction to, and supposed defense against people making religious objections to library services.

• Individuals or small groups may object to particular books on behalf of the entire community.
• Politicians may grandstand in objection to grants funding diversification.
• Library employees may claim religious exemption to training videos, vaccine programs, or reference questions.
• Patrons in the library may even raise objections: a staff member saying “bless you” when somebody sneezes, another patron visiting a website contrary to the first patron’s beliefs, a book of religious figures in the 200s rather than the 900s, a reference question with religious connotations, etc etc etc.

Preparing for these reactions is responsible librarianship; catering to them with legalistic, mathematical library policies is a shame.  Go legalistic, and your patron interactions will quickly become one-dimensional, robotic.  Your patrons could have just gone to ChaCha or Bing for that.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not advising you to jump into every potential religious conversation, or to stray against the advice of your library’s legal counsel.  Not at all!  What I’m saying is that libraries are bound by the call of superior patron service to strike a balanced, mindful approach where religion and library services meet.

This idea was described well in a recent editorial from the Bedford (Indiana) Times-Mail:

“I acknowledged that she’s [the caller is] right. We rarely write anything negative — or positive — about Obama. In this era, lots and lots of people cover the White House. People can turn to a lot of sources — many biased, many not — for information about Benghazi, or the fiscal cliff, or the latest news of the hour from Washington, D.C.

 

In short, lots of other people are already doing that job. Our job is to focus on Lawrence County government, Bedford and Mitchell city activities, the local schools. In short, we try to focus on the news that happens here, news that has a direct impact on people here and news that you might not get from other media sources

 

“So,” she asked, “you’re not conservative or liberal?”

 

“No,” I said. “We’re local.”

 

…[E]verything in the newspaper is subject to “review and maybe removal.” As I wrote above, we have limited time to report and write, and we have a limited amount of space in the print newspaper.

For the record, we don’t plan to do away with “anything with a religious bent.” That material is (mostly) local, and, according to our readership surveys, much of it is read and appreciated.”

–From “Commentary: Conservative or liberal?” by Mike Lewis. Jan 9, 2013 Bedford Times-Mail. [paywall]

Religion matters to your teen patrons, passionately so for many.  Libraries should treat their patrons as whole, complete persons when they incorporate religion and library services.  Get the conversation started today, and tomorrow return for part two of this religion and libraries series, where I post some best practices for library programming and religion.

Key Activities:

Collaborated with the Digital Media and Learning team to build out a month-long series about Teens and the Future of Libraries for connectedlearning.tv. Each episode is hosted every Tuesday in May with a different topic. The full schedule is:

May 2: Kick-off: Teens and the Future of Libraries

May 7: The Importance of Youth Access to Technology in Libraries

May 14: Effectively Leveraging Social Media in Library Programs

May 21: Getting Library & IT Administrators On-Board with Leveraging Social Media

May 28: Teens and the Future of Libraries: Sharing Best Practices

Tune in via Livestream at: http://www.livestream.com/connectedlearningtv

Hosted a meeting with key leaders from YALSA’s research arena to talk about future research projects for YALSA, especially around Priority Area 1 in YALSA’s Research Agenda.

Recorded a new Get Involved webinar with tons of cool new ideas. Find it here: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/getinvolved/getinvolved (it’s free & it’s only 16 minutes long!)

Represented YALSA at the 2013 Wrestlemania Reading Challenge Championships in New York City!

Hosted the spring YALSA Executive Committee Meeting via conference call. You can find our agenda and meeting minutes here: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/workingwithyalsa/ec/ecmeetings

Attended the April National Summit on Teens & Libraries Virtual Town Hall on learning spaces in libraries. The next session is on Tuesday, May 21. See you there! www.ala.org/yaforum/virtual-town-hall

Outreach & Media:

Interviewed by by several news outlets for WWE & YALSA’s Wrestlemania Reading Challenge Championships, held in New York City.

Important Dates:

Join the third National Forum on Teens and Libraries virtual town hall on Tuesday, May 21 at 2PM Eastern. Check out Linda Braun’s post on the YALSA blog here: http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2013/03/29/yalsa-virtual-town-hall-2-teen-learning-environments-you-want-to-be-there/

YALSA’s book sale ends 6/1.  $10 off select titles! www.ala.org/yalsa/products%26publications/yalsapubs/books

Stats:

Membership for March 5,189 (-.06% compared to last Feb.)

Donations in March: $130

Ballyhoos and Lovebombs:

Thanks big time to the Teen Read Week committee for the heavy lifting you all did to get the new theme live online! www.ala.org/teenread

Thanks a whole bunch to the Teens’ Top Ten committee for tall the work you did to help select this year’s nominations! www.ala.org/yalsa/teenstopten

Congratulations to Jenna Nemec-Loise for winning YALSA’s  travel grant to National Library Legislative Day! It was great to meet you in Washington DC!  Apply by Dec. 1st to attend the 2014 NLLD www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/yalsaawardsgrants