Youth Services Forum Executive Committee
Charlottesville, VA
September 10, 2004
Attending: Ginger Armstrong, Tim Carrier, Shelley Gravel, Donna Hughes, Sue Llewellyn, Dena Martin, Pat Muller, Julie Ramsay, Susanna Spencer, Neva White, Deborah Wright
Julie started the meeting with information about retiring members. Maureen Harrill and Tim Carrier have completed their term on the committee. Val Thomson resigned due to her move to Alabama. The group welcomed Susanna Spencer as the new Region VI Representative.
The minutes from the June meeting were approved.
Pat Muller discussed Library of Virginia news. Read Aloud to a Child Week posters and information can be downloaded from their web site at readaloud.org. Pat has tried to bring VEMA into the program this year. Pat recommended a “Zen and YA Literature” program as well. This year the summer reading program workshops will be held as follows: Tuesday, Nov. 9 at the Natural Bridge Inn Conference Center; Wednesday, Nov. 10 at the Doubletree in Charlottesville, and Friday, Nov. 12 at the Clarion in Williamsburg. The theme is FUNtastic Reading for children, and Phoebe Stone will provide the artwork. The teen theme is READiculous, and Alfred E. Neuman bookmarks and posters may be used or photos of teens in funny disguises. Pat is working on questions for a meeting with the VEMA board to encourage the school librarians to work with the public librarians. She would like to do joint training on Find It VA and would like VEMA to partner and help fund services like tutor.com. Pat distributed a memo detailing her hope for cooperation with VEMA. Pat also mentioned an Early Literacy Conference that will be held in Richmond on April 6-7, 2005. One person from each system will be invited to this event, and then regional programs will be offered to follow-up. The regional programs will use PLA/ALSC curriculum. Currently two of these kits are available at the Library of Virginia that systems can borrow. The kit focuses on the six emergent literacy skills.
Julie reported on VLA Council news. Membership is currently down from last year and the council is hoping that the conference will improve this situation. The ballot for officers was included in the August newsletter. 51 exhibits have been sold for the VLA Conference so far. The VLA manual is being updated. Julie will e-mail any discrepancies in the Youth Services Forum’s current procedures that may need updating in the new manual. Work on the 100th anniversary of VLA has begun. Discussion ensued about compiling a booklist of 100 titles written by Virginia authors in the past 100 years, a booklist of the best books about Virginia from the past 100 years, or a booklist of 100 best titles (listing one book for each year). The scholarship award is currently underfunded although the VLA Paraprofessional Conference did very well. The Intellectual Freedom Committee encouraged everyone to submit a photo of your library’s Banned Books Week display for an award. ALA now has a new intellectual freedom toolkit available. ALA has formed a new committee for rural and tribal libraries. The Legislative Committee is working on an agenda for next year.
Donna is the new Jefferson Cup Chair and reported on Jefferson Cup news. Letters have been sent to approximately 280 publishers. As she is updating the publisher database, she has found some small presses and is getting ready to send letters to them as well. The committee will meet on October 8 to talk about the books and issues so far. Members will receive approximately 60 books per month up to the end of January. Donna brought a copy of this year’s winner, Grape Thief by Kristine Franklin, and encouraged the group to promote purchasing the Jefferson Cup seals. Buying the seals helps make money for VLA. She hopes that publishers will start to order the seals as well. For a package of 10 seals, the cost is $1.50. Donna distributed an order form as well as information about the Jefferson Cup Award itself. The committee this year is made up of all new members with varied experience and appears to be a strong and well-rounded group. She distributed a copy of the Jefferson Cup Committee roster. Donna will send a list of all Jefferson Cup Award winners and those titles of special note to anyone who would like a copy. This list will soon be on the VLA web site. Julie was contacted by someone who was concerned about 1492 as the historical starting date for titles eligible for the award. Julie will check on who officially decides the criteria for the award and have that body respond to the concern.
Shelley reported on Virginia Young Reader news. The committee will meet on October 23rd to vote on titles for next year. The current nominees are on the VSRA web site at http://www.vsra.org.
Deborah began regional reports with news from Region III. Noreen Bernstein, of the Williamsburg Regional Library, was recently on the cover of School Library Journal with a Giant Step Award. She will visit some new schools this year as well as HeadStart with this program. The “Paws to Read” program will continue. Tedd Arnold and Claudia Mills will also be visiting later this year. The Mathews Memorial Library offered many field trips this summer to the museum and the Coast Guard station. Weekly “Lemonade Lectures” included visits from astronomers, meteorologists, and others who shared information about earth and space. Middlesex County Public Library continues with its children’s room renovation project. Portsmouth Public Library featured the music of the C Shells at its end of summer celebration. The Blackwater Regional Library held its first separate teen summer reading program with great success. Teen programming included a contemporary jazz ensemble and a very popular clogging group. The Chesapeake Public Library hosted its 12th Annual Civil War Days. The summer reading finale included Brad Matchett of Magic 4 U. The Hampton Public Library held a weekly “Name That Tune” contest. Working with Newport News, Hampton Public Library hosted New Orleans Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks who read aloud to kids at area libraries and talked to them about reading. The Norfolk Public Library offered various family literacy programs such as “1,2,3, Grow with Me” and Babygarten. Poquoson Public Library held Super Hero Tuesdays. The Teen Advisory Board is hosting a mock election for the younger children to vote for their favorite book character for president.
Neva reported on Virginia Beach Public Library news. The C Shells, Rick Jebavy with “Get Loud in the Library," and Jonathan Austin visited this summer. A mystery night complete with a forensic scientist was held as well as a Lemony Snicket program and a Magic Tree House program. Members of the Central Library’s Teen Council visited members of Congress during ALA’s National Library Legislative Day on May 4th. Neva also reported that the Oceanfront Library will open shortly with a new children’s librarian.
Dena reported on Region IV news. Dena distributed the Teen P.O.V from the Pamunkey Regional Library which shows an online form used by teens to write reviews of material for the library. Teen reviews and ratings can be posted on the web page. The Chesterfield County Public Library will offer a “Create Your Own Urban Legend” activity for Teen Read Week and a 60’s film series begins with a 60’s sing-along. Henrico County Public Library has a new child-care initiative grant and will hold two workshops that are open for child-care providers and school librarians. Musical guests Greg and Steve will be in attendance. Basic skills and credit for recertification will be provided March 24, 2005 from 4-5:30 p.m. and 7-8:30 p.m. at the Glen Allen Cultural Arts Center. The young adult committee is working on outreach opportunities. Programs discussed were a question and answer session with a DJ, a radio station van at the summer reading program kickoff, a character based storytime given by teens, and a hip hop program. The Powhatan Public Library will hold year round storytimes. No teen programs are currently in place. Richmond Public Library will hold a martial arts program and a visit from Sister Berenstain Bear. For teens, a writer’s festival, a perfume making workshop, and a Halloween makeup workshop will be held.
Sue reported on Region V events. The Alexandria Library will continue with its regular storytimes. The Arlington County Library used a “Get Caught Reading” theme and invited patrons to send in photographs of their favorite or most unusual places to read. These photographs then appeared on bulletin boards and the library’s web site. A bilingual storytime was offered on Saturdays this summer. Also the youth services staff plans to visit all sixth graders in the public schools to play a game that promotes the library’s homework help resources. The Fauquier County Public Library offered weekly
“half-pint” storytimes for 18-30 month old children and their caregivers and “sleepy time” programs and preschool storytimes for 3-5 year olds. The Loudoun Public Library offered a Family Storytelling Concert series with Bobby Norfolk, Heather Forest, and Antonio Sacre. Other programs included an Indian Bollywood Dance, a Toddler Sign Language program, Parachutes and Balls, Where’s My Mummy, Teen Mystery Night, and a Teen Coffeehouse Café. At the Prince William Public Library system, Chinn Park Regional Library will host Debbie Wiles, author of Love, Ruby Lavender, for a visit. For the grand finale of the bookmark contest, author of The Many Adventures of Johnny Mutton, James Proimos, will visit. The Potomac Community Library offered pony rides and a petting zoo while the Bull Run Regional Library held a carnival. Teens prepared the games for elementary school age children and helped them during the event. The Central Community Library will host a “Shiver Me Timbers” pirate party to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day. In Fairfax County, a “Ready, Set – Read!” theme was used for the teens this summer. The Fairfax County Public Library Foundation is also sponsoring a Motheread/Fatheread program with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. All Fairfax Reads is a new project hoping to create a “community conversation” around the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The Mary Riley Styles Public Library had three times as many teens sign up for the summer reading program and used the state theme for teens.
Tim reported on Region VI news. The Augusta County Library will hold its annual bookmark contest for Children’s Book Week for ages 2-18. Teens are invited to create a “spine-tingling” pumpkin for a display during Teen Read Week. Jefferson-Madison Regional Library will host Heidi Rugg of Barefoot Puppets for Children’s Book Week. Children’s Services Coordinator Nancy Cook will present an Early Literacy Workshop on October 19. The Central Library will start providing a monthly bilingual English/Spanish storytime in September. “An Unfortunate Evening at the Library” is planned in advance of the Series of Unfortunate Events movie with the warnings that “there will be games, but they may be horrid; fun, but it may be minimal.” Teens will be invited to the 7th Annual Science Project Help Day scheduled for November 7th. Scientists in various fields will be on hand to assist students with questions about their upcoming projects. A two-session workshop on writing a college entrance essay is scheduled for November and will be presented by a writing instructor at James Madison University. The Massanutten Regional Library will offer “The Great Checkers Challenge,” a four-session tournament. The Orange County Library is searching for a new Youth Services Librarian. The Samuels Public Library was pleased with the success of its “Murder in the Library” program for teens. A scary storytelling program for teens will be held in October. Teens will sit around a campfire and make s’mores. The Staunton Public Library offers “Goops, Gumps, and Gadzooks,” a hands-on series of programs for ages 9-12. The Waynesboro Public Library has set up a blogspot on their site for teen events and book reviews.
Susanna reported on Culpeper County Library events. Circulation of materials is way up with so many people moving into the area. Storytime attendance is increasing with a walk-in storytime open to all ages beginning this fall. During the summer, teens were able to enter for a prize drawing with each book review written. Presenters from the local community have visited including a Mexican folk dance troupe.
Donna reported on Handley Regional Library news. Donna was very excited about the public schools in the area adopting the summer reading program as well. A rally for reading was held in the park and summer reading registration statistics were very high. Three hundred children received a prize and teens were given t-shirts. She worked with schools on summer reading for children as well. Three books were chosen. For the younger children, Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth was recommended. For older children, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis was offered and for teens, Seek by Paul Fleischman was chosen. She has started planning with the entire region already for this year’s activities and discussion ensued about using a database of participants and sending the certificates to the schools. At the Bowman Library, a Fiesta de Latinos, a celebration of Hispanic cultures, will be offered.
The VLA Conference will be held October 28-29. The Preconference will be held on October 27 at 1:00 p.m. The group decided not to schedule a Youth Services Forum meeting at the VLA Conference.
Julie welcomed Dena as the new chair of the Youth Services Forum in October. The annual report for this year was discussed. For the coming year, legislative, outreach, and program ideas for the conferences were discussed. Pat suggested that someone from the committee may want to serve on Voices for Virginia’s Children since early learning is a priority, and the committee could then continue its legislative activity and support. For outreach purposes, a listserv of all youth services forum contacts and librarians in the regions is still in the works. Concurrent session ideas for the VLA Conference next year included a school/public library cooperation session or another Patchwork of Programs session. For the Paraprofessional Conference in May, Julie suggested the Programming on a Shoestring program or the Jefferson Cup Overfloweth program. If any members have suggestions for other Paraprofessional Conference sessions, please let her know. Pat suggested that the group may also want to promote advocacy next year. Pat and the group thanked Julie for all of her hard work this year and especially for speaking at the hearing.
The next meeting will be held in 2005. Meeting time and place to be announced.
The meeting adjourned.
Respectfully Submitted,
Ginger Armstrong