Forums!

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to send a quick update that we now have forums to use on the new YSD website! I've set up one for the Summer Reading Club 2011 because I know that was a topic of interest, so please share ideas or questions that you have for the upcoming program.

Elizabeth Davis

YSD Business Meeting Agenda

PaLA Youth Services Agenda
Annual Business Meeting
October 25, 2010


Introduction: Welcome
Introduce board members
Laureen Maloney Chair
Mary Glendenning vice-chair, chair-elect 2011
Patte Kelley, secretary/treasurer
LeeAnn Anna, vice-chair 2011

Carolyn Field Award

Membership

Best Practices Awards:
Michele McIntyre, chair of the PR/Marketing Committee
Will report on the changes for the Best Practices Awards

Electronic networking
Blog “field reporters”
PaLA Website YSD
YSD Facebook discussions,events

Library Practices:
Responsible for bringing to the attention of the membership all issues, trends, and ideas that affect the concerns of librarians. Advocacy.

Professional Development:
Programs and explore grants for professional development
Webjunction

Fundraising for YSD
On-line silent auction
On-line garden sale
Logo-Brand for YSD to identify ourselves

Other:

Fall Festival Of Children's Books

Fall Festival of Children's Books
Friday, October 22, 2010
9:00AM - 12:00PM
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Lecture Hall

The Fall Festival of Children's Books is an annual program for parents and educators that brings authors and illustrators of children's books to Pittsburgh. This year's festival features:
Katherine Paterson
National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
Award-winning author of many books, including Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved

Marla Frazee
Caldecott Honor Book Awards
Author and illustrator of many books including A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, All the World, and the Clementine series.

E.B. Lewis
Coretta Scott King Award Winner
Illustrator of many books, including The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman, Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys.

Tickets are $20 (students $10 with valid student ID).
Online Registration
Book sales will begin at 8:00 am in the Director's Conference Room (First Floor, CLP Main).
Book signing to follow at noon. Pre-signed books will be available.
Print a flyer.
For more information, contact the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh at 412.622.1924 412.622.1924.

Presented by Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures, and University of Pittsburgh School of Information Science.

Dine-Out in Lancaster!

Join Youth Services Division members for dinner in the Publisher's Room at The Pressroom Restaurant before the "wild rumpus begins!" Have a great dinner and meet up with old friends and make new ones. The Publisher's Room is a private room that can accommodate up to 80 people. If we have more than 25 people attending we have to choose a menu with specific selections or have a buffet. The invitation is on YSD Facebook. Let me know if you are coming.

Best Practices Awards

The PaLA PR committee met in State College. At the meeting we discussed the lack of funding available for the Best Practices Awards luncheon and awards presentationat the early Learnign Forum in April. After much discussion that included several of the members of the committee ( Margie and Paula, Georgene, Jeanne, Susan Pannebaker and Laureen Maloney (Chair Youth Services)) the group decided to move the awards to the 2011 PALA conference. There will be no Best Practices Awards for Spring 2011. We also decided the Youth Services Division will now be in charge of the application and awards process. Since there is no money available to pay PPO&S to coordinate the application process and event the group decided it would be best to scale down the number of awards and the event. The two committee’s will be working together to facilitate the awards process for the 2011 conference. The awards will be presented in a session at the PaLA conference in Fall 2011. We will be making some changes and adding new ages categories. We will discusss the plans at the membership meeting at PaLA. Sometimes out of necessity, good changes happen.

New YSD Board for 2011

The results are in....Here are the officers for next year.
Congratulations and good luck to Mary and LeeAnn. LeeAnn was excited to be elected but was more excited abut her upcoming wedding.
LeeAnn is currently enjoying a post-wedding vacation!

Chair- Mary Glendening

Vice Chair – LeeAnn Swensrud

Secretary/Treasurer – Laureen Maloney

Views from Jessica's Guide to Dating a Vampire

Thanks to Patte Kelley we have real life pictures from the Romanian setting from Jessica's Guide to Dating a Vampire. Patte's son Travis and daughter-in-law Alexandra were married in Sighisoara Romania last summer.

I wonder how many Vampire royals showed up for their wedding?

Ultimate Tween Experience!

Elizabeth Davis and I had the pleasure of putting together and giving a workshop for NE chapter. We entitled it "The Ultimate Tween Experience". The Children's Library in Scranton is unique in that it serves children from babies to about twelve years old. We also have limited space where we can do programs in private. Most of our programs are conducted on the floor where it is open with the public. Our problems occur when we are doing programs for older kids such as tweens and parents insist their 3 years will be OK participating with the older kids. That may be all well and good, but 13 year olds will not come back to a program for fear there will be too many little kids. So we tried to make the programs "difficult" and "dangerous" so parents of toddlers wouldn't think they were appropriate for their youngsters. Like our Danger Club! The little girl above was testing her taste buds. It works pretty well.

Danger Club! Bottle rockets propelled by water and air pressure.

The little white speck above the roof of Lackawanna College is a successful bottle rocket launch!

Elizabeth put our Power Point of "The Ultimate Tween Experience" on Slide Share. http://www.slideshare.net/ScrantonPublicLibrary/the-ultimate-tween-experience-4142869

We used it as our outline. If you have any questions about the programs you see please feel free to call or e-mail us. Send us your ideas and we will blog them. The more ridiculous, the better!

Laureen Maloney

lmaloney@albright.org

Elizabeth Davis

edavis@albright

VOTE for your choice for the CWF Award!

The deadline is coming up fast for voting. Please use the link below to cast your vote for the Carolyn W. Field Award book for 2010.

The nominated books are included in the ballot.
Here is a link to the ballot:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2bIdQBY2033kaAKnokgx0Aw_3d_3d
Please respond by Friday, June 4, after which the ballot will be closed.
This link is uniquely tied to this ballot and your email address . YSD members only are allowed to vote. Once your vote is cast, you will not be able to return to the ballot. Your vote is anonymous and emails will not be tied to responses.

Thank you,

Laureen

Will Hillenbrand - What a Treasure!

Will Hillenbrand was wonderful! As someone said to me, "Mr. Rogers in a suit jacket."
He arrived for his 6:30 PM program at 4:30 in the afternoon. As he set up, we talked. Anyone who came in he spoke with. He encouraged one of the Children's staff members, who is wonderfully artistic, to go to Marywood to sit on some of their classes.Will gave one-on-one art lessons and encouragement to a future book illustrator. She is only 8. He had the children entranced! We had 3 programs with a total of almost 300 adults and children and everyone left happy. We set up interactive learning stations in our lobby. We used under-the-bed storage bins for our sandboxes where children could dig for bugs. When not in use, we put the covers on. The children learned about the concepts of over, under, and through with our "mole house", tunnel, and balance beam. Our library was filled with little miners! How appropriate for our coal mining region.
Tell us about your experiences with Will Hillenbrand. What kind of programs and activites are your libraries creating? Send me your experiences and pictures.
Onto the Summer Reading Program!

What a treasure ! Will Hillenbrand and two of his friends.

Laureen M. Maloney
Head of Children's Services
Lackawanna County Children's Library
520 Vine Street
Scranton, PA. 18509
570-348-3000 ext. 3027
www.albright.org/childrens

The Library ... wiring brains every day!

Dr. Jill Stamm was the keynote speaker at the Best Practices in Early Learning luncheon on April 14. Her presentation was based on years of research in early brain development after her first daughter was born prematurely at five months. Babies this early don't usually survive but Dr. Stamm's daughter did with a lot of help. As her daughter was growing, Dr. Stamm heard a lot of nevers. She is never going to talk, never walk, never read. Dr. Stamm never gave up! As a fifth grade teacher, she knew what to do. She introduced concepts to her daughter and consistently reintroduced them until her daughter was able to grasp them as best she could. As a result of working with her daughter, Dr. Stamm began to investigate the way a child's brain develops and how we can nurture and stimulate a baby's developing mind.
Her book, Bright from the Start will help you separate the myths about early brain development form the facts. It will show you simple but effective ways to nurture a babies growing mind. And more importantly, it's never to late to start.

The book provides useful ideas for activities for babies and toddlers which include brief explanations of the purpose of the activity and the science behind it. Dr. Stamm's presentation and book validates what we are doing in our programs with language, literacy, modeling and play with a purpose. That we as libraries play an important role in brain development. My new slogan for the library is “Wiring brains every day.”


One of the most interesting chapters is Chapter 5 Screen Time: When Baby Meets Modern Life. It confirmed what I have observed over the past 15 years. Children's attention spans are shorter and kids are more easily distracted with the introduction of video, computers, gaming systems and now hand held devices. A child's brain gets used to a short attention so it gets wired that way. All these devices contribute to a child's brain being trained to scan and shift rather that to pay attention. It's stop and go and on to something new.
I have heard many of the concepts Dr. Stamm has spoken about in her book. I use many of the reasons and explanations with parents in my programs. But I have been around a long time. Bright from the Start would be an excellent resource for those who do infant toddler programs but have limited knowledge of brain development or need an authority to support why we design our programs for young children the way we do. It also acts a guide to help structure infant toddler programs more appropriately and with intent.
As always, my neural pathways are still expanding!
Laureen

Funny How Things Change and the Dark Side

Hi All,
I don't get much time to read so when the CWF awards nominees are announced I read them.
I actually pretended to be asleep when I heard my family calling me for dinner one night. They couldn't find me and thought I went outside to sit on own my personal Stonehenge rock! I was in the living room and I had a book to finish! I was nearing the end of Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt . The story brought out several issues, one of which was ecological and environmental, mountain topping, the destruction of mountains for the sake of easier, cheaper coal mining. It brought to mind our current situation here in NE PA with the Marcellus Shale drilling. I know of families whose groundwater is now contaminated. Families need the money so they make decisions that may have negative consequences. Consequences that seventeen year old Remy comes to understand. He is faced with decisions: does he stay in his dying West Virginia town where his family settled 160 years earlier or go with his girl friend Lisa to Pennsylvania? Does he allow his father to sell the family mountain to mining company so that Remy has money to go to PA? After he meets a young artist and starts to see his town through her eyes, he makes his decision.

The other book I read non-stop was Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey. I have read all the Twilight books and was always left with a feeling of anxiety and annoyance. The yin and yang of Bella and Edward's relationship. Not a comfortable feeling. I had the Dark Side home for a week before I was "allowed" to read it. My 12 year old daughter Maggie claimed it as hers. She read it twice I read it once. I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun read with all the teenage angst and hormones, human and vampire. Lucius is Jessica's Henry Higgins. Can he transform Jessica from a Pa farm girl who mucks out stalls to a Romanian vampire princess? Maggie and I thought Lucius' letters to his uncle in Roumania were well written and funny in a sarcastic way. A royal vampire's impressions of teenage life in rural PA. Maggie took the book back for a third read and now wants her own copy. Maggie also wondered if Beth's last name was her real name. It looks so much like "fantasy".
Good reads!
Laureen

Crafty Sites

Not being a crafty person, I found that these sites have a lot to offer. I was searching for the perfect dryer lint play dough. I found it, made it, and it was the most disgusting thing I have ever made! Luckily I tried it out at home before making at the library. It was cold, slimy and had pet hair in it. I couldn't in good conscience allow the the library kids to make it! My daughter said it looked like, "cat yaak." So we made colorful, smelly, sparkly, Kool-Aid dough! This site has it all. Including dryer lint dough ... if you are feeling daring!http://www.justkidsrecipes.com/inxkcl.html
Have fun!
Laureen

http://www.primarygames.com/
This site was created by Susan Shuey who originally designed the educational games in this site for her own students. However, she saw their growing popularity among children around the world. She decided to expand this site and create games for students everywhere. An eye appealing, easy to navigate and varied site. Contains seasonal games and activities.

http://www.familyeducation.com/home/
At FamilyEducation.com, you can play games with your kids in the Family Entertainment Center, find arts and crafts projects and after-school activities, and explore ideas, decorations, and homemade gifts for the holidays. Don't miss the game and toy recommendations, and movies database!

http://www.first-school.ws/
First-School features free fun preschool lesson plans, educational early childhood activities, printable crafts, worksheets, calendar of events and other resources for children of preschool age. The preschool crafts, lesson plans and activities are appropriate and adaptable for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarten level (ages 2 to 6).
First-School's content is ideal for home schooling, preschool and kindergarten teachers, daycare, child care providers, after-school and babysitters.

http://alphabet-soup.net/index.html
Alphabet Soup--for the young and the "young at heart"! Alphabet Soup contains thematic units, holiday units, games and activities for kids; teacher and parent resources; and crafts, humor and recipes for all! Be sure to check out the Kindergarten Kafe, recipes dictated by 5-year-olds! Includes plenty of free printables!

http://familyfun.com/
This website includes all the great things FamilyFun, the country's number one family magazine, publishes ... only more. This site is about all the great things families can do together; travel, food, crafts, parties, holidays, games, activities, and products--all the essentials that enrich the important time parents and children share.

Carolyn W. Field Award Criteria

The Carolyn W. Field Award 2010 committee has chosen the nominees listed below for this year's award. The award will be presented at the Pennsylvania Library Association Annual Conference in Lancaster, October 24-27. The books have met the following eligibility requirements: the author or illustrator was a Pennsylvania resident at the time of publication, the book carries a 2009 copyright date, and the book has as its potential audience children from preschool through sixteen years of age.

Bagram Ibatoulline, PA Illustrator. Crow Call, Scholastic Press.
Beth Fantaskey, PA Author. Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, Harcourt
Matt Phelan, PA Illustrator. The Storm in the Barn, Candlewick Press
Melissa Wyatt, PA Author. Funny How Things Change, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, PA Authors. My Name is Sangoel, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers


In order to cast your ballot, please read the nominated books with the following criteria in mind:

The value of the book as literature
The uniqueness of the text and/or illustrations
The clarity and style of the text
The purpose and aesthetic value of the illustrations
The contribution of the design and format
The value to the intended audience
The potential acceptance by the intended audience


Please use the link below to cast your vote for the Carolyn W. Field Award book for 2010. The nominated books are included in the ballot.
Here is a link to the ballot:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2bIdQBY2033kaAKnokgx0Aw_3d_3d

Please respond by Friday, June 4, after which the ballot will be closed.

This link is uniquely tied to this ballot and your email address, please do not forward this message. Once your vote is cast, you will not be able to return to the ballot. Your vote is anonymous and emails will not be tied to responses.


Thanks for your participation!

Bianca Roberts
Carolyn W. Field Award Chair

YALSA programs at ALA Conference in DC

Hi Everyone!

Here is some information I have been asked to share with you from YALSA. If you can't make the conference, check out their website for some great ideas on teen programming. www.ala.org/yalsa.

Laureen

YALSA is coming to DC! In addition to our special events at ALA's Annual Conference (see them all at http://www.tinyurl.com/yalsaac10), we have two pre-Annual workshops on Friday, June 25 that you can attend without registering for Annual.

It's Perfectly Normal: Dealing with "Sensitive" Topics in Teen Services (Ticketed Event-- YALSA Member: $195; ALA Member: $235; Non-Member: $285; Student/Retired Member: $195.) Friday, 9-5. Have you ever found yourself worrying about how best to address critical but sensitive adolescent topics through your teen services and collection? Topics like sexuality, abuse, privacy and others can be difficult for librarians to address with teens &/or their parents and caregivers. Hear from experts in the field of adolescent development, along with authors and librarians, about how they have managed to successfully maneuver this difficult landscape. Explore strategies for collection development, services and programming relating to these sensitive issues. Authors participating: Ben Saenz, Laurie Halse Anderson, Nina LaCour, David Levithan, and Ellen Hopkins.

Promoting Teen Reading with Web 2.0 Tools (Ticketed Event-$99) Friday, 12:30-4:30. The participatory web has transformed adolescent literacy, as young people create and consume a new range of online content. Are you ready for it? Learn how libraries can use free web 2.0 tools to connect teens with reading and writing opportunities within and beyond your library collection. Librarians, reporters, and academics will explore teens' daily use of technology and the interaction of digital and print reading channels, including fan fiction and gaming. YA authors will discuss leveraging readership through social networking channels. Authors participating: Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Malinda Lo, John Green, David Levithan.

If you are planning to attend ALA Annual Conference, you can add either event to your registration at www.ala.org/annual.

If you have already registered and would like to add this special event to your registration, you have two options: (1) By phone: Call ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084 and ask to add a workshop to your existing registration; (2) Online: Add an event to your existing registration by clicking on - http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=Events&Template=/CFApps/Experient/Redirect.cfm&Meeting=A10. Use your log in and password to access your existing Annual registration and add events in the “Your Events” section (screen 6). Then simply check out and pay for the events you have added.

To register only for either of the pre-Annual workshops, please fill out the form at http://yalsa.ala.org/annual/event.pdf (skip Section I) and either mail or fax it to 800-521-6017 or mail it to: ALA Registration and Housing Headquarters
568 Atrium Dr.
Vernon Hills, IL 60061

Questions? Contact us at yalsa@ala.org or 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4390. Hope to see you in DC!

-Stevie

Stephanie (Stevie) Kuenn
Communications Specialist
Young Adult Library Services Association
skuenn@ala.org
v: 312.280.2128
f: 312.280-5276

Carolyn Field Nominees Selected

Hi Everyone,
Now that the snows of winter have ended, the roads are clear and the smell of spring is in the air , we are ready for new challenges ... Fun ones like reading the Carolyn Field nominees. "There were many excellent books this year and the committee members engaged in a long deliberation to compile this list. We are sure that you will find at least one book that "calls" to you - your difficulty may arise, as ours did, when trying to choose just one favorite! Enjoy!" I quote the indefatigable Anita Ditz !
The committee worked long and hard to choose these books. Please read them and then vote when the ballot comes out. I would like to see a record number of librarians voting! Please feel free to add your comments about the books to this post. It may encourage others to read them.

The Nominees Are:

Bagram Ibatoulline, PA Illustrator. Crow Call, Scholastic Press.
Beth Fantaskey, PA Author. Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, Harcourt
Matt Phelan, PA Illustrator. The Storm in the Barn, Candlewick Press
Melissa Wyatt, PA Author. Funny How Things Change, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, PA Authors. My Name is Sangoel, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

YSD members, check your e-mails for the link to vote.

Thank you ladies for doing such a great job!
Laureen

2010 Grammy for Best Children's Musical Album

The Grammy Award show was great this year with Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Lady Gaga but my favorite part is the part not ever shown, the Grammy Award for the best children's album. There were some really great performers up for a Grammy this year. Ziggy Marley, Cathy & Marcy and my personal favorites that I use all the time, Greg & Steve. It is always gratifying when the artists are actually children's performing artists, not cross-overs who are just trying to capitalize on the explosion of music for children.
Here is the list of the Nominees and the winner!

WINNER
Ziggy Marley. Family Time

Cathy & Marcy With Special Guest Christyle Bacon.

Banjo To Beatbox

Milkshake. Great Day



Buck Howdy. Pete Seeger Tribute - Ageless Kids' Songs

Greg & Steve. Jumpin' & Jammin'

Best Spoken Word Album for Children 2010

Buck Howdy

Aaaaah! Spooky, Scary Stories & Songs

So load up the I-POD's and try some new work out music! With the ear buds in, who is going to know. But really, who cares!

Carolyn W. Field Award

The Carolyn W. Field Award was established in 1983 by the Youth Services Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association. A Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, Carolyn Wicker Field retired in 1983 from the Free Library of Philadelphia where she served as Coordinator of Work with Children for 30 years. Each year the Youth Services Division presents this award, which recognizes the best books for young people by a Pennsylvania author or illustrator.
The Carolyn Field committee solicits books from publishers, the committee reviews the books, and then makes a final selection of 5. Over the years there has been a wide variety of books selected, from picture books to young teen, fiction to non-fiction. A good book is a good book! The chosen selections are sent out to Youth Services Division members who then vote for their choice.

The 2009 winner was:Susan Campbell Bartoletti, for The Boy Who Dared .

In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hubener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.

The 2010 committee is currently working to select 5 books for nomination for the award. The committee will be announcing the nominated titles in February.

Bianca Roberts, Chair Carolyn Fields Award Committee
Becky Sheridan
Patte Kelley
Anita Ditz
Barbara McNutt

I thank this year's committee and we are looking for volunteers for the 2011 committee. Only requirement is that you like to read! Any takers? Let me know.

Laureen

New Year , New Challenges!

My name Laureen Maloney and want to introduce myself and two other members of the YS division, Mary Glendening , vice-chair, from Narbeth Community Library and Patte Kelley, secretary/treasurer from Carnegie Library. As the new board members, we have an awesome responsibility. This initial communication is the hardest to make. After this it will be easier. As I tell my staff, "baby steps". One of the reasons I haven't sent anything out until now is that I am going through "the binder". I need to understand how the division functions and it's role and responsibilities in PalA. I'm beginning to understand!

I recognize we are are all feeling overwhelmed at our libraries with staff and budget reductions, but I hope we can over come the challenges to do our best and continue providing quality services to our patrons. Together we can achieve great things and I ask your help in keeping the Youth Services Division a vital part of PaLA.

Stay tuned ... there's more to come!

Thank you

Laureen

Laureen M. Maloney
Head of Children's Services
Lackawanna County Children's Library
520 Vine Street
Scranton, PA. 18509
570-348-3000 ext. 3027
www.albright.org/childrens
lmaloney@albright.org