| Photo from SLJ.com |
An up-to-date spot for library staff serving youth around Wisconsin to find relevant news, events, and resources. Links should be correct at the time of publication. If a link is incorrect, please contact the blog administrator within a month of publication. Links on older posts may have changed. Any YSS member wishing to write posts, please e-mail us at yss.wla@gmail.com.
Monday, July 6, 2026
School Library Journal Teen Live!
Saturday, November 8, 2025
Registration Open for PowerUp 2026!
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Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Power Up Virtual Conference Registration Open
This Madison WI-based conference has been held biennially since 2017 (except in 2021 during COVID). This is the first time it is being offered virtually. It has the same great sessions as the in-person conference and the sessions are varied to appeal to youth library leaders whatever their position within the organization. You don't have to be a manager to be a leader. All library staff can step up to the plate and use leadership skills. This is a great chance to hone yours!
Join youth services managers and staff for two days of online learning. Sessions will focus on leveling up your leadership skills, best practices for serving your community, and how to best support your team. Each concurrent session will be presented live, and recordings will be available to registered attendees for 3-months.
Keynote Speaker - Kyle Lukoff
Kyle Lukoff is the author of many books for young readers. His debut middle-grade novel, Too Bright To See, received a Newbery honor, the Stonewall award, and was a National Book Award finalist. His picture book When Aidan Became A Brother also won the Stonewall, and his book Call Me Max has been banned in schools across the country. He is the recipient of the 2025 Children’s Literature Lecture award, and has forthcoming books for all ages on a variety of topics. While becoming a writer he worked as a bookseller for ten years, and then nine more years as a school librarian.
- Leading Staff Through Change to Elevate Youth Services
- The Right to Inclusion: How Libraries can Extend Privilege's to the Underserved
- Belonging at Work: An Inspiring Environment for Neurodivergent Employees
- Crafting Communication: Tools for Effective Youth Services Management
- And more!
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Tuesday Tips - Registration for CLELCON is open
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.
CLELCON (Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy Conference) registration opened recently. The conference is "open to anyone who is involved or wants to be involved with early literacy."
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Tuesday Tips: SLJ Picture Book Palooza
Sam Jones is the Youth Services Librarian at the Beaver Dam Public Library. Today she shares a tip on a free virtual event coming in two days (don't despair - if you register, you will have access to the sessions for three months after the event)!
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Virtual Lake Superior Library Symposium is ...Superior!
This conference is a marvelous multitype library conference that always has great content and presenters. The fact that it's virtual means all of you who are hesitant to drive all the way to Duluth to attend can go to it from your office or home. And it's worth every dollar!
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Sunday, February 27, 2022
Call for Proposals - Virtual Lake Superior Libraries Symposium
The organizers of the Lake Superior Libraries Symposium (LSLS) invite breakout session proposals for our tenth conference, which will be held virtually on June 10, 2022.
The registration cost for this year’s conference is $20.
This year’s theme is Thrive. This theme was developed based on feedback from past LSLS attendees about topics they want to learn about combined with current library and world challenges. We’re interested in a conference focused on what library workers and libraries need and what we can do to Thrive.
Possibilities for presentation topics include:
Wellbeing and Care
How have we made time and space to pursue our professional interests in meaningful ways? How do directors, managers, and other library staff foster a culture of care that encourages library workers’ personal and professional wellbeing? What strategies have we employed to mitigate burnout? How have we set boundaries around our work to ensure sustainable workloads for library staff? How has wellbeing or care factored into a program, service, or other aspect of library work?
COVID-19 Silver Linings
What have we learned so far during the COVID-19 pandemic that has improved a service, program, or library work? How has the pandemic helped us understand our priorities, strengths, and needs? How has the pandemic helped us better understand the needs of library workers and library users? How can what we’ve learned guide us into the next stages of the pandemic and beyond the pandemic?
Marketing
How do we effectively share our library’s worth and value? What tools and strategies have we employed to share our library’s story? What library stories have connected with our communities?
Collection Management
How does your library approach collection management? What collection management projects are you proud of? What challenges to collection management have you faced and how are you working to overcome those challenges? How does your library evaluate and weed ebooks? What new collections have you added to meet the needs of your community?
Successful breakout session presentations will be applicable to many types of libraries and showcase effective and innovative practices. 60-minute breakout sessions should include 10-15 minutes of question and answer. Panel presentations, particularly those representing a diversity of library types, sizes, and/or locations, are strongly encouraged. LSLS 2022 will be held virtually. The steering committee will provide more information about the virtual format to breakout session presenters upon notice of their presentation's acceptance.
Breakout session presenters should submit proposals at z.umn.edu/proposals. All proposals should be submitted by March 18th. Presenters will be notified of acceptance in April.
LSLS allows library staff to share their expertise, learn from their colleagues, and network to develop a stronger community of information professionals. Staff from all types of libraries are encouraged to attend. The event is organized and supported by library staff and educators from Minnesota and Wisconsin; for a full list of our supporters, see http://
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Power Up Pop-Ups Virtual (Mini) Conference - Last Chance
UW-Madison iSchool Dept of Continuing Education's biennial conference on Youth Services Leadership Conference for Staff and Managers is coming up next week and there is still time to register. Registration is on a sliding fee scale so it can be affordable to all.
Entitled "2022 Power Up Pop-Ups", the conference went virtual this year because of pandemic concerns. They changed the format to one or two hour-long sessions a day beginning the week of Feb 21 to allow people to dive in a bit each day. Eight of the sessions run during lunch at noon CST and the other four run at 10am.
The twelve sessions from national and state speakers delve into handling material challenges; coaching staff to greatness; having difficult conversations; social justice programming; successful partnership programs for teens; learning about APIA rubric for evaluating representation in children's literature; service adaptations during COVID; YALSA research roundup collaboration; learning judgement-free language; yoga programming and a final keynote. The conference sessions begin Tuesday, Feb 22 and continue through Friday March 4. All sessions will be recorded.
To read all about this great national virtual conference opportunity, homegrown in our own state, stop here.
Friday, November 19, 2021
Registration for Power Up Pop Ups Conference Opens
The well-regarded 3rd biennial Power Up Pop-Ups: A (Mini) Leadership Conference for Youth Services Managers and Staff will be presented virtually. Scheduled to begin February 21 and continue through March 4, 2022, the previous day and a half in-person conference format has morphed to "Pop-ups" - daily sessions from noon-1:00pm featuring speakers from around the country as well as from WI. This format allows participants to stay connected virtually with a little info/learning each day without burning out.
The University of Wisconsin Madison Information School and their team of youth services librarian consultants have put together an innovative format and line-up of speakers. The content ranges widely from diversity and social justice to suggestions to help you make the most of your skills as a leader and collaborator within your library, no matter what your position level is.
The cost of the conference is based on a sliding fee scale. Stop here for information about the sessions and here for registration information.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Monday, January 11, 2021
Youth Programs at Wild Wisco Winter Web Conference
This post by Leah Langby, the Library Development and Youth Services Coordinator for the IFLS Library System highlights some great content especially for youth folks!
The Ninth Annual Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference is coming soon. Fourteen webinars in two days, all recorded and captioned, all free to participants thanks to sponsorship from all 16 Wisconsin Library Systems and the DPI (with support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services)! While all the content is valuable and worth checking out, I wanted to draw your attention to four sessions that are especially relevant to youth services librarians.
Wednesday, January 27 at 9:00 am Opening Session: Libraries Lift Limits on Learners, with Wisconsin’s favorite pediatrician/librarian, Dr. Dipesh Navsaria. He’ll discuss the current role libraries play in helping people sort out misinformation, what they can do in the midst of a pandemic, and give suggestions for ways to engage a skeptical and scared public. Register here.
Thursday, January 28 at 9:00 am Introduction to Inclusive Marketing with Travis Smiley, Lansing, MI. He will discuss how libraries can remove barriers through library communications and messaging. Register here.
Thursday, January 28 at 1:00 pm Different Tries for Your Size: Finding the Right Teen Engagement Fit for You with Cat Mullens (Milwaukee), Emily Sanders (Williams Bay), and Alicia Woodland (Wisconsin Rapids). Librarians from three very different sizes of library will talk about their strategies to engage and build relationships with teens. You’ll come away with some great ideas! Register here.
Thursday, January 28 at 2:30 pm Staying True to Yourself in Times of Stress with Beck Tench (University of Washington). She’ll help us examine academic scholarship, ancient wisdom traditions, and personal creative practices for strategies to stay true to ourselves in times of stress. Register here.
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Wild Wisco Winter Web Conference
Wisconsin librarians, you are invited to the premier (and among one of the first - WWWWC is 9 years old!) virtual conference. The 2 days of learning are funded and supported by WI Library systems. This means your participation is free!
WWWC was conceived by Jamie Matzcak when she worked at NFLS in Green Bay and has continued now that she is at WVLS. She is ably assisted by IFLS' Leah Langby and SCLS' Jean Anderson. It is truly one of the best conferences around.
Don't miss out on incredible sessions with national AND state speakers on marketing, teen services, services during the pandemic, tips on policy making and much more!
Stop here to read all about it and register for sessions!
Sunday, August 23, 2020
School Library Journal's Free Virtual Summit
Join us for School Library Journal’s annual Summit: Culture Shift, which will take place on Saturday, October 24. Register here. Now in its 16th year, this national convening will focus on creating a culture that promotes an equitable world and closes the opportunity gap for all children. In this free, day-long virtual event, you’ll gain skills, ideas, and support in leading the change you want to see in your library, school, and community. The day will host three concurrent tracks, with sessions on:
Facilitated discussions will follow core sessions, providing you the opportunity to convene, network, and advance ideas on subjects ranging from Reimagining School—what are the lessons of remote learning and how will this impact the classroom of the future?—to SEL and supporting students and families in the COVID-19 crisis (advance registration required). And, in a first-ever reveal, we’ll announce SLJ’s 2020 Best Books at the Summit. We are anticipating an unprecedented number of library and education professionals to attend this summit, so you may find the environment or live sessions become full during the day. But fear not! All sessions and author chats will be available for viewing on-demand within an hour of their initial broadcast, and the entire event will be available on-demand until January 24, 2021. |












