Central Massachusetts Year of the Teen

CHICAGO —The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced that the Margaret A. Edwards Trust is the new sponsor of its award for outstanding young adult reading or literature programs. The award will now be known as the MAE Award for the Best Literature Program for Teens.

The award honors a YALSA member for developing an outstanding reading or literature program for young adults. Winners receive $500 and an additional $500 for their libraries. Applications for the MAE Award, along with all of YALSA’s grants and awards, are due to the YALSA office by Dec. 1.

“This award for the best literature program for teens now joins other esteemed YALSA awards supported by the trust, such as the Alex Awards and the Excellence in Library Service to Young Adults project,” said Sarah Cornish Debraski, YALSA President. “It is fitting to have this award supported by the trust as Margaret Edwards was a true believer and innovator in bringing young adults and books together.”

Edwards was a well-known and innovative young adult services librarian at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Md., for more than 30 years. Her trust has supported many initiatives from YALSA, including the Alex Awards for adult books with teen appeal and all five rounds of the Excellence in Library Service to Young Adults project.

For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos, and audio books for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists, or contact the YALSA office by phone at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4390 or by e-mail at yalsa@ala.org.

There was a great article in this weekend’s New York Times about NYPL adding video games to their collections and services for teens. They’ve also added gaming space in a bunch of their libraries. Check it out!

BTW, Jack Martin, who is quoted often in the story, will be here to do a workshop on serving GLBTQ teens on May 12.  Cool!

During the February school vacation, librarians at the Chelmsford Public Library in northeast Mass did a fun math-based program. Yes, that’s Fun and Math in the same sentence! They are doing a lot of math-based programming this year, and, inspired by the book “All of the Above” by Shelley Pearsall, decided to construct a Sierpinski tetrahedron. It became an all-ages program, that anyone in the community could work on.

Volunteers spent many, many hours cutting out 4,000 tetrahedrons on the Ellison machine. Library patrons taped them together to create small, 3-sided pyramids. During February vacation teens took all the individual tetrahedron shapes and glued them together to form large structures. The end result is amazing.

You can read about it in the Chelmsford newspaper, and see an excellent explanation of the whole project on YouTube . They also have photos on their Flickr site.

Congratulations to the teens, staff and volunteers who made it happen!

I just read an article in eSchool News about teachers who are incorporating geocaching into their curriculum with kids. How cool is that?! If you’re not familiar with it, geocaching is like a scavenger hunt using a handheld GPS device. Caches are hidden all over the world, but like the official website says, it’s one thing to find it on the GPS and another to actually find it wherever it’s hidden. Caches usually contain a logbook for you to sign, and sometimes small items for you to take. (The general rule is if you take something you’re supposed to leave something of equal value for the next person.) A quick scan of their site today showed 213 caches in Massachusetts alone! Each listing gives you the coordinates and sometimes a description of where to find it.

Wouldn’t that be a fun program for teens in the summer? Maybe a local orienteering group or geocaching group could lend their expertise and/or their GPS units!

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced this week that Dungeons & Dragons, a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., is the 2008 Corporate Sponsor for Teen Tech Week, taking place March 2-8.  D&D!! How cool is that?

Registration information, resources, products and more can be found at the Teen Tech Week Web site, www.ala.org/teentechweek.