Meet the Board: Emily Heideman, Member at Large

It's always a pleasure to get to know new board members and we like to give you a chance to get to know them, too, so that you can say hello if you see them at a conference like WAPL (coming up before we know it) or WLA (in the Dells next Fall).

Today, we're featuring Member at Large, Emily Heideman.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am the Teen Services Librarian at the Waupaca Area Public Library. I enjoy reading, outdoor activities, and spending time with my family and fur-babies. My husband and I recently welcomed our first little one this past August.

What’s your favorite thing to eat while reading?
Dark chocolate or hot cocoa with whipped topping

What is your favorite genre? Which genre would you choose to go outside your comfort zone?
I’d have to say that my favorite genre is probably fairytales…more specifically, fractured fairytales, or retellings. Gregory Maguire has been a longtime favorite author of mine because of the amazing things he does with fairytales. I do also really love nonfiction.

What was your favorite book or story as a child?
Mr. Popper’s Penguins. My parents used to read it to my siblings and me at bedtime.

How do you break the ice with teen patrons?
I usually chat them up. I try to find out what interests them and ask genuine questions about their interests. It’s always exciting when teens come back and tell me about the new Yu-Gi-Oh card they traded for or what trophy they unlocked on PS3. Not only does this help them warm up to me, but it also helps me get to know the things teens are into. I know way more about role-playing card games now than I ever imagined I would ever know.

Meet the Board in Person

It's also nice to know who your elected representatives are on the YSS Board because they are just like you and me. If you'd like to meet them in person, you're invited to the YSS Member Retreat:

Friday, January 27 1:30-4:00 PM
Waupaca Area Library
107 S. Main Street
Waupaca, WI 54981
Cost: Free!

During this time, YSS members are invited to come meet the board, to discuss YSS plans for the year and to connect with other YSS members. The board in turn would like to give members an overview of the resources available through YSS and to hear from you, the members, as to how YSS can best support you throughout the year.

Follow this link to register: http://bit.ly/2hVMEWq

Please plan to bring an informal book talk about a youth book you are currently reading or crazy about!

Have a colleague that isn't a member yet? Invite them along and they can see what YSS is all about!

YSS Values Statement

Submitted by Leah Langby, YSS Chair and Library Development and Youth Services Coordinator at Indianhead Federated Library System

YSS advocates for professional empowerment, collaboration, and innovative, inclusive, and intentional service.  That’s the Values Statement of the Youth Services Section of the Wisconsin Library Association.  The YSS Board created this values statement partially as an exercise to coalesce our board at a retreat this winter—talking together about common values is a powerful way to create energy and momentum.  We also hoped that having a values statement would help us focus our efforts as we moved forward.

We were lucky that board member Katherine Elchert learned about this process at the 2014 WLA Pre-Conference (Library Journal’s Lead the Change), and then had worked with colleagues and stakeholders to create a values statement for the Rice Lake Public Library.  She was ready to jump in and lead us through this process as a board.  It started with choosing words from a list about values we all thought were important to YSS.  We compiled lists, and thought hard about the ones that many of us chose, and also carefully considered less popular ones if someone was passionate about it.  Through a series of conversations, we narrowed our list of words, and then ran out of time at the retreat!  At the very next board meeting, we managed to create this Values Statement, even without the benefit of being able to see each others’ faces.

I’m thrilled with this statement, and feel like it has already helped me to keep on track as the YSS Chair.  I hope that it will be a useful tool for YSS in the future.  I mean, what’s not to love about values like empowerment, collaboration, inclusiveness, innovation, intentionality??