Supporting Our School Colleagues

A recent Teen Services Underground blog post reflected on the importance of school and public library collaboration. It's also a call to action to support our school colleagues at this time.

Stop here to read the post. [School and Public Librarian Partnerships Are a Beautiful Thing. Ingaham, Jenna. Teen Services Underground. August 15, 2022]

Speaking of beautiful partnerships, Connecting WI Libraries (a collaborative group of youth librarians from DPI, WEMTA and WLA) created the infographic below a few years ago that is worth sharing again. If you are hesitant or confident in reaching out to your school or public colleagues, this graphic has suggestions to help you!

Find the full infographic with survey results here.

Connecting WI Libraries image

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Pixabay image

Once or twice a month on weekends, YSS posts round-ups of ads that are sent to us or that we come across.   If you have a position opening up and would like to see it on the YSS blog, please forward the job ad link/descriptions to the YSS blog at the email address listed in the header above the day's blog post.

Here are mid-August listings:

Marion Public Library

Teen Services Librarian (part-time)

The Marion Public Library is seeking a creative, energetic, service-oriented, and detail oriented individual with excellent technology, communication, and interpersonal skills to fill a permanent part-time (20 hrs./wk.) teen librarian position. Primary responsibilities for this position include but are not limited to: planning & carrying out library/outreach events geared toward teens, assisting patrons with reference questions & technology needs, answering the phone, checking library materials in & out, and shelving & organizing library materials. This position requires strong computer skills & professional customer service. The ideal candidate will be highly organized, responsible, flexible, dependable, and team-oriented while being respectful and courteous to all patrons. Experience working in libraries is a plus but not a necessity. Hours can vary but are primarily afternoon & early evening hours. Resumes will be reviewed as received; the position is open until filled. Please email, mail, or drop off letter of interest and resume with references at: Marion Public Library 120 N. Main St., PO Box 267 Marion, WI 54950 Attn.: Le Ann Hopp, Director lhopp@marionpubliclibrary.info

Road Trip - YSS Meet-ups Are Back!

 Roadtrip!!!

September! Eau Claire! New Digs! Save the Date!  

Details coming in the next few weeks.

Throw-It Thursday: Quick Tips for Weeding

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library and YSS board member, is back with her monthly column and she found a great resource to share with you.

Are you always unsure of what you should and shouldn’t keep? Or what to do with the books you do discard? Here is the link to an excerpt from a Booklist article that gives some great advice.

Here are a few quick tips from the article (take a read for some more in depth explanations):

• Already discarded items can be donated, sold, given away, recycled, or repurposed.

• Award winners don’t need to be saved if they don’t circulate

• Gift items and local authors should be treated as every other book-if it doesn’t circ Throw-It (in the discard pile)!

• If you have upset patrons, create a Cart of Shame

• If you have a high circulating collection, re-evaluate space needs for other areas and think about expanding

The Cart of Shame is my favorite of these tips (and one I think I might try someday!). Do you have any fun or out there weeding rules you follow? 

If so, I’d love to hear them! Send me a message at aborman@clintonvillelibrary.org

YSS May 2022 Board Meeting Minutes

Wisconsin Library Association

Youth Services Section Board Meeting

May 17, 2022       1:30pm-3:00pm 

Present: Claire Parrish, Ashley Borman, Caitlin Schaffer, Alison Loewen, Linda Jerome, Melissa Carollo, Marge Loch-Wouters, Murray Johnson 

Approve May Agenda: Caitlin S. motions, Alison L. seconded

Approve April Minutes: Ashley B. motions, Murray J. seconded 

Welcome 

Getting ready for summer! 

Old Business:

• DPI Updates -Monica 
• Wisconsin Libraries for Everyone - Post about Beanstack, will be sharing on the blog. 
• Reach out to Ben Miller (benjamin.miller@dpi.wi.gov) if you still need the Collaborative Summer Library Program manual. 
• Blog Check-in - Marge 
• Cleared up problems with Follow It  
• Katherine Schoofs doing once a month posting, looking at Thursday rotation
• Recruiting for Tuesday blogger
• Graphic for YSS board minute posts?
• Melissa recommends YSS logo, which Alison will share with Marge
• Question from Claire - Do we ever share Youth Services job postings?
• Answer - We used to, and may do so again now that more jobs are being posted on Wispublib
• Frequency of posting? Once a week, aggregate, individual posting? Bi-weekly? 
• Marge would likely would post on weekends versus on premier days 
• Melissa - Kristine Millard, Practicum student from UW Madison who works at Waisman Center might be in touch with Marge to send along more content.
• Regional Meet-Ups - Murray
• Planning to contact L.E. Phillips library to check in about hosting in August
• Still deciding if it will be an actual meetup or virtual  
• Webinar Check In - Claire 
• Not much to report - Still hoping to do social/emotional, trauma support webinar. Talking to Waukesha PL to see what they are doing and if they would be interested in sharing what they’ve been doing in the community. 
• Will coordinate with Regional Meet-Up so webinar happens either a couple weeks before or after 
• WLA Update - Linda 
• WLA Annual
• Program proposals closed - a little over 100 submissions
• Site visit May 31st to plan out the space before narrowing down the list of presenters. 
• Keynotes - No contracts finalized for final keynote or YSS luncheon. 
• WAAL conference was low attendance
• WAPL - Went well and had good attendance 
• SSCS coming up soon, registration going well so far 
• Board met with Steve Conway, WLA lobbyist, to discuss challenges with the uptick of intellectual freedom issues 
• Work has begun on structuring and updating value statement 
• Children’s Book Award - Murray/Ashley 
• Winner and honorees have been determined and will be announced in June. 
• Three people are leaving the committee this year, so recruit for next year.
• Needing four new committee members. 
• Marketing Committee - No updates 
• Claire recommends a social media post for WLA to share to remind libraries about how hard YS librarians are working over the summer. 

New Business:

• WAPL Recap - Taylor/Ashley/Claire
• Social went well, had around 18 attendees
• Attendees especially enjoyed the games 
• Suggestions
• Look into adding at least a few tables to break out sessions
• Longer HDMI cables so laptops/devices can be used at podiums
• Microphones will soon be required in order to present at WLA conferences
• YSS Elections - Jenny W. 
• Start thinking about recruitment now, because waiting until August will be coming up on/past the deadline.   
• Open positions - Chair elect, two directors at large 
• Marketing options - Blog post, email blast, WLA quarterly newsletter
• Next meeting: August 16, September 20, October 18
•  November meeting - WLA Annual conference 

Motion to adjourn: Ashley B., Murray J. seconded

Meeting notes recorded by Caitlin Schaffer, secretary. 

Time for Back-to-School!

Hard on the heels of celebrating ends to successful summer library programs comes time to plan for service to kids and teachers returning to school.

Two recent ALSC blog posts share some lovely ideas on service and book displays to spark your thinking, your outreach and your inclusive collection development.

The first blog post from Maria Trivisanno explores creative ideas to connect back to your schools through outreach. Read it here. [Back to School Outreach. Trivisonna, Maria. ALSC blog. August 10, 2022.]

The second post is from everyone's favorite collection development librarian, Abby the Librarian.  She shares a great group of inclusive back-to-school books to expand your collection and your displays during this busy run-up to the first day of school. Read it here. [Inclusive Back to School Books. Johnson, Abby. ALSC blog. August 12, 2022]

New Graphic Novel Lists

Looking to beef up your graphic novel collections for kids of all ages at your library?  The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has you covered.

Their Quicklists Consulting committee team recently updated lists for Grades K-2; Gr 3-5 and Gr 6-8. You can access these free to download lists here.

Taking a Page from Ohio's Whole Child Framework

A recent ALSC blog post by Maria Trivisonno shared information on Ohio's efforts to consider the whole child when working with children and families.  Adopted by the Ohio Department of Education, the Whole Child Framework centers all of a child's needs.

Maria explores what that can look like in libraries. What does it look like in yours?

Read the post here. [Serving the Whole Child. Trivisonno, Maria. ASLC blog. July 19, 2022]

WI Library Launches Accessibility App

As seen in the Summer 2022 WLA newsletter:

This May, the W.J. Niederkorn Library launched an accessibility app, Sensory WJN, to help children and families with children on the autism spectrum and/or other sensory needs to help prepare them for their visit, as well as help them navigate the library on their visit. The app, developed in partnership with Infiniteach, was funded by the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities (BPDD) Sparks Building Connections Grant.

Jamie Mercer, Head of Youth Services, applied for the Sparks Grant in September of 2021. The BPDD outlined the purpose of the Sparks Grant s as providing people with disabilities more social connections by participating in inclusive, meaningful community activities. Jamie proposed a series of Sensory Friendly Family programs along with the development of the Sensory App in partnership with Infiniteach. Munchkin Mondays and Sensory Saturdays have been a great success that we are thrilled that we can now pair with the app. The app includes an “Explore” section where users can read and/or listen to guides explaining what to expect when going to the library, during storytime and when leaving W.J. Niederkorn. The app also includes a “Communicate” section where users can tap on a picture to talk and ask for help. Additionally, there is a section where families can create

- Jamie Mercer, Head of Youth Services, W.J. Niederkorn Library, Port Washington

Tuesday Tip: STEM Tips

Sam Jones is the Youth Services Librarian at the Beaver Dam Public Library. She shares tips to make your job easier in her Tuesday posts.

Last week, we published a post talking about the importance of STEM and how it can help stop the summer slide. 

There was an article on the website, STEM for Kids, titled Tips for New STEM Teachers that can be applied to the librarian profession and help librarians who want to help prevent the slide by creating a STEM/STEAM program. It provides numerous tips and words of encouragement. If you already have a program started, these tips may also be of use to you! This website is also useful for getting ideas for programming.