Central Massachusetts Year of the Teen » Programs

New award for teen reading programs

Maureen — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:46:26 +0000

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.

Video games at NYPL

Maureen — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:14:59 +0000

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!

A Sierpinski what?

Maureen — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:48:12 +0000

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!

Possible program idea … geocaching

Maureen — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:15:13 +0000

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!

Teen Tech Week 08 – brought to you by D&D!

Maureen — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:41:30 +0000

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.

Singshot transformed: interesting program idea

Maureen — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:44:11 +0000

I just read about a new “face” for Singshot.com - the former karaoke/audio reading website – on the YALSA blog. Here’s what Beth Gallaway had to say:

“I’m not clear if the site was originally owned by Maxis’ EA Games, with intent to launch another Sims Expansion pack, but I don’t care if it was a bait & switch, because the tools are really cool, like Movie Mashups – you can make your own machinima music videos with clips and stills from the Sims. You can create an avatar of yourself that looks like a Sims character. Plus, they added 100 new songs at the beginning of month, and this may become a regular thing: over 80 new titles were added at the end of September, with hits from current pop artists like Teddy Gieger, Nickleback and Fallout Boy, plus a nice mix of country, R&B, and Christian artists as well …”

Wouldn’t that be a fun teen program? Hook up the PC to a projector, plug in a couple mikes, and you’re ready! Or have kids create recordings of poetry, comedy routines, or stories – lots of possibilities!

31 author chats in 31 days this month

Maureen — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:44:31 +0000

31 top authors for teens will participate in online chats that are open to teens anywhere with an Internet connection this month. All the chats are at 8 pm Eastern, and some of the authors include Brent Hartinger, Stephanie Meyer, Holly Black, Ann Brashares and Meg Cabot. The full schedule, downloadable posters and bookmarks, plus directions to join the chats, are all posted on the Readergirlz website.

Anastasia Goodstein touring in MA! You should go!

Maureen — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:31:07 +0000

Anastasia Goodstein, author of the book pictured here, and of the Ypulse.com blog, will be touring Massachusetts in early October as part of her national book tour. She will be appearing at the libraries listed below. If you get the chance to hear her speak, go! She’s one of the top experts on this topic and it’s awesome that she will be in our state!

Contact the host library to be sure of the time/date before you go. The program at Marlborough Public Library is through the Central Region – you can register at http://www.cmrls.org/. Hope you can make it to see her!

Tuesday, October 2, time tba Clapp Memorial Library, Belchertown, MA

Wednesday, October 3, 4 p.m. Manchester-By-The-Sea Public Library, Manchester, MA

Wednesday, October 3, 7:00 p.m. Peabody Institute Library

Thursday, October 4, 3 p.m. Wareham Free Library, Wareham, MA

Thursday, October 4, 8 p.m. Strugis Charter Public School, Hyannis, MA

Friday, October 5, 6:30 p.m. Westport Free Public Library, Westport, MA

Tuesday, October 9, 6:30 p.m. Faneuil Branch Library, Brighton, MA

Wednesday, October 10, 10 a.m. Metrowest MA Regional Library System, Waltham, MA

Wednesday, October 10, 7 p.m. Chickering Elementary School & Dover Schools, Dover, MA

Thursday, October 11, 10 a.m. Marlborough Public Library, Marlborough, MA

Thursday, October 11, 7 p.m. Sargent Memorial Library, Boxborough, MA

Pimp My Bookcart II contest now open

Maureen — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:09:04 +0000

Ever since the end of last year’s Pimp My Bookcart contest, people have been telling Unshelved how they plan to customize, trick out, augment, or otherwise “pimp out” their bookcarts for 2007. They are more than happy to announce the contest is now officially open, this time sponsored by Highsmith!

The deadline to submit photos for the contest is October 31, 2007 so grab a book cart, find some teens, and get ready to win! See the Unshelved contest website for more info!

Support teen literature on April 19

Maureen — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:30:09 +0000

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), is celebrating its first ever Support Teen Literature Day on April 19, as part of ALA’s National Library Week celebration.

Support Teen Literature Day will include an event in Chicago with authors and the band The High Strung, who made an appearance in Groton last summer. The event also will be the official launch of YALSA’s 2007 Teen Read Week initiative, which will be celebrated October 14-20, 2007, with the theme “LOL @ your library.” The humor theme is meant to encourage teens nationwide to make time to read something light and entertaining just for the fun of it.

Librarians all across the country are encouraged to participate in Support Teen Literature Day by hosting events in their library on that day. The purpose of this new celebration is to raise awareness among the general public that young adult literature is a vibrant, growing genre with much to offer today’s teens.