Utah State Library Youth Services

Banned Books Week takes place September 24-October 1 this year. Banned Book Week is an annual opportunity to discuss intellectual freedom and the guarantee of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution that states

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In the age of Social Media it seems easier than ever for individuals to pressure schools to take certain materials off the shelves of their libraries and out of their curriculum. Teen author Chris Crutcher has written on his blog about several examples of his materials being challenged.

Banned Books Week is a fantastic opportunity to discuss with your students about the ramifications of censorship. Why are certain books targeted? Who should determine what writings students have the opportunity to read? Why do we so frequently allow the loudest voices to win the argument?

The American Library Association say on it’s Banned Books Week web page:

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

Check out the resources, discussion ideas, and lists of banned books on the ALA website. Perhaps you will want to join the discussion or create a display in your library to get your patrons thinking about this topic.

Today, I thought I would re-blog an article from the YALSA e-news that I received yesterday. I think this is a very good way to work with teens in your library. You might think of creating a display announcing the voting and highlighting books on the list. You might also consider applying to be one of the nominating libraries in the future (and your teens will get advanced reading copies of soon-to-be-published books, too)!

Encourage Your Teens to Vote Aug. 15 to Sept. 15
By Amy Fiske, Teens’ Top Ten committee

Teens’ Top Ten is all about teen choice! Get your teen readers to vote for their favorite books from this year’s list of 25 nominated titles. The resulting Teens’ Top Ten will be announced during Teen Read Week. The nominated books are posted at www.ala.org/teenstopten, where you’ll find an annotated nominations list as well as tips for promoting the Teens’ Top Ten to teen readers. Please help us get the word out!

The Teens’ Top Ten is part of an ongoing project that connects teen book groups with publishers of young adult books. The publishers provide advance reader copies to selected teen book groups and the teens evaluate the books and provide feedback to the publishers. These same teen book groups create the voting list for Teens’ Top Ten by nominating their favorite titles published in the previous year.

More information, including a list of the rock star Teens’ Top Ten book groups, may be found at www.ala.org/teenstopten.

Since 2006, Jumpstart has held an annual “Read for the Record” campaign, where librarians, teachers, and other community organizations have pledged to read the same book on the same day.

From Jumpstart’s website,

On October 6, 2011, more than 2 million voices will call for an end to America’s early education achievement gap by reading Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney – setting a world record in the process! Sit down to read in your community.You’ll be standing up for children everywhere!

To track participation, Jumpstart encourages participants to pledge to read by filling out an online form, and then record and submit the number of children that you read to that day.

Your library can participate by including Llama Llama Red Pajama in your storytimes that day, or by having a special reading of the book throughout the day. Children and parents will have fun being part of a day when more than 2 million people read the same book and helping to reach the goal of breaking a world record in the process!

It’s still the middle of the summer, but the annual Letters About Literature writing contest is coming soon! The Utah Center for the Book duties are now being led by the Utah Humanities Council. The Utah State Library is coordinating activities for Letters About Literature in Utah.

We are fortunate to have the Salt Lake Community College Community Writing Center as a partner this year. They will host a two-day workshop to help youth in 4th-12th grades to develop a reflective, personal letter to any author that explains how that author’s book inspired a change in the student’s life. The workshop will take place on October 8 and 15, 1-3 pm both days. Register by contacting the Community Writing Center at 801-957-2192.

Information packets should be available in early September and contest entries are due by January 6, 2012.

More information will be posted when it is available!

I attended a workshop while I was at ALA titled “Trends in YA Services: Using Mobile Devices to Serve Teens” which I thought was excellent. There were four speakers from libraries in New York and Texas, as well as two teens from the New Orleans area who were giving their feedback about services libraries are providing.

The gist of the program was that while access to computers remains spotty across socio-economic backgrounds, practically every teen has access to a mobile devices. One of the teens mentioned that the iPad is the “most desired” devices for every teen. The Nassau County Library (New York state) has developed a teen reads app that was clean and simple, but still useful.

It got me thinking that this is probably the best way libraries could reach out to teens. Creating useful apps and resources that will be used by teens outside of the library, but will still connect teens with libraries. However, as I’ve seen mentioned several times recently (at ALA and in other online content I’ve read), libraries don’t seem to be embracing the app. This is a challenge we should embrace and figure out.

I visited the Springville Public Library yesterday, and as I walked in the lobby, there were several tables set up and a hubbub of activity. Springville had invited members of their youth city council to sign up library patrons to the Summer Reading Program. They already had hundreds of children signed up, and nearly a hundred each for teen and adult Summer Reading. During times when there were no patrons signing up, the teens were helping put together summer reading packets and finishing preparation for some activities. I thought this was such a great use of volunteers that I wanted to share.

The Association of Library Services for Children has created a book list to help celebrate 2011 El día de los niños/El día de los libros event on April 30. You can customize the list for your library, too!