YSS Blog Breaks the 1 Million Views Barrier

Supersonic! Last week, the YSS blog clocked it's one millionth view! That's a pretty special milestone. 

A huge shout-out goes out to Jill Linniger who started the blog and all the subsequent YSS Board members who supported it. Another shout-out to all the blog administrators of the last 13 years and to the 50 blog post contributors who have created posts. Last, but certainly not least, thanks to all you, our YSS members and readers from around the country and world, who have stopped by and read, shared the content and contributed links. YSS deeply appreciates you!

Here's some fun infographics from YSS Board member Jenna Gills to help us celebrate the milestone:

YALSA's New Teen Celebration: TeenTober!

YALSA's kickin' off something new, y'all!

TeenTober is a new, nationwide celebration hosted by libraries every October and aims to celebrate teens, promote year-round teen services and the innovative ways teen services helps teens learn new skills, and fuel their passions in and outside the library. TeenTober replaces YALSA’s previous Teen Read Week™ and Teen Tech Week™ celebrations, allowing libraries the flexibility to choose what to celebrate (digital literacy, reading, technology, writing, etc) and the length of time for each celebration.

Library staff are encouraged to utilize this new celebration to advocate for and raise awareness of the importance of year-round teen services in libraries.

For its inaugural year, the celebration will have a soft launch with free, digital marketing tools, which will be available in the coming weeks.

EDIT:

Web graphics are now available! Woot!  Click HERE to check them out!

Noon Year's Eve Party

This year our library threw a Noon Year's Eve Party.  (Yep, you read that right, noon.)  For those not in the know a Noon Year's Eve Party is a New Year's celebration for families and children.  We celebrated ours on Saturday, December 31, from 11:00 - 12:30pm.  The major components of the party included:

1. Countdown clock to countdown to NOON!  I used THIS one and just had it displayed on a laptop, but you could project it onto a wall if you have the option.

2. Plenty of snacks.  I offered the masses multicolored goldfish in tiny Dixie cups, fruit trays with dip, cookies, Ritz crackers with cheese cubes, and sparkling white and red grape juice.

3. Crafts!  The kiddos (and some grown ups) made Noon Year's Eve crowns and tambourines.

4. Bubble machine with lots of bubble mix.  I purchased THIS one and THESE extra bubbles.  It was such a hit!  We did have to put ours on a large towel after a bit, because it can get a little slick on the table.  I would advise, if possible, putting this up higher than we did, as some kids wanted to touch the machine/where the bubbles came out.

5. Balloon drop at noon.  This was the scariest (for me) part of the whole shindig.  I was obviously worried that it wouldn't work, that the net wouldn't release, that the balloons would be static-stuck to the ceiling, etc.  HOWEVER, this was a smash with the kids and parents!  And, I got to send a bunch of the balloons home with families, helping with the overall cleanup.  Tips: I built my own net system and it took about a day, so plan for that, or just purchase one of the many options available on Amazon.  Buy a hand balloon pump, trust me.  Two words: Static Guard, I sprayed the net with it (and some of the ceiling), before filling with balloons.

If you want to know more details about how/why I built my own net system for the balloon drop, feel free to contact me!  Happy Noon Year!