Youth Services Forum Executive Committee
April 6, 2001
Charlottesville, VA

Attending: Ginger Armstrong, Katy Caron, Tim Carrier, Jane Ferguson, Shelley Gravel, Maureen Harrill, Sue Llewellyn, Sherry Pearson, Rebecca Purdy, Lorry Risinger

The meeting began with regional reports.

Maureen reported on Region I news. The Radford City Public Library is celebrating National Library Week with a contest called "Stump the Librarian." Questions are submitted on site or online. Roanoke County Public Library celebrates National Library Week with a program called "Read-a-book-add-a-spot" at all branches. Children are given black spots to put on a dog shape hanging on the wall for each book read. Buchanan Public Library will have a visit from the mouse of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The company providing the mouse costume is Costume Specialist (800-596-9357) and the company only charges for shipping of the costume. The Galax-Carroll Regional Library will be hosting the summer meeting of the Children’s Division of SWING at the new library in August. All libraries contacted will be using the state theme for the summer reading program.

Lorry reported on Region II activities. Region II is working on a fair and efficient method to share the region’s Ellison Die Machine and the state puppets. Bedford County uses a courier so the current system works well for them. Blue Ridge Regional goes to Lynchburg to pick up the machine while Campbell County will schedule time and visit Lynchburg just to use the machine. Meherrin Regional would like dies only to be sent on request. Other libraries in the region are interested in using the dies but have problems with pick-up of the machine/dies due to limited staff time while other libraries own their own machines and would only like to use the Ellison dies. Lorry will be offering the "Bookless Storytelling Encore" on September 21, 2001.

Ginger reported on Region IV news in Chesterfield County. The Midlothian Library has formed a Youth Advisory Council to help plan programs for young adults at the library. Recent programs have included a visit by a local rock band, a poetry and pizza program, a pet lovers program and a visit from Historical Impressions. Upcoming programs include a "Buckets of Blood" program with contemporary ghost stories and vampire myths. The Virginia Blood Services van is planned to be present for anyone wishing to donate. A prosecuting attorney will speak about forensic science and a music series is planned for the summer. A report of Region IV activities at the Pamunkey Regional Library was submitted by Linda Gosnell. Gayle Ross, a Native American storyteller and author, will perform. She was booked through www.classacts.org. Pamunkey Regional Library and Henrico County Public Library cooperated on two storyteller workshops – one with Heidi Rugg of Barefoot Puppets and one with Sharon Zoumbaris on using music in storytime. Four branches of the Pamunkey Library currently have active Teen Councils. Their activities have included book discussion groups, Open Mike Night, Sign Language classes, a Murder Mystery party, a Film Festival and Watercolor Techniques classes. The Goochland Branch hosted a very successful "Who Wants to Win a Lot of Dough?" contest complete with pizza prizes. Questions were supplied by reference staff and a Regis look-alike was present.

Sue and Jane reported on Region V activities. Alexandria will host Super Sam, the Sing-Along Man for National Library Week. Puppet shows as well as an open house are in the planning stages. The Mary Riley Styles Public Library will host Scallywags Theatre for National Library Week. The Fauquier County Public Library posted quotes about libraries throughout the library for National Library Week. Patrons were invited to write their own quotes to be posted. Two drawings were held each day for a child and an adult. The Friends funded prizes that included stuffed Curious Georges for the younger ones and mugs and bookbags for older entrants. The Teen Advisory Board has just finished writing a play, The Tale of Prince What’s-His-Name Anyway. The teens are working on a backdrop and will be presenting the play during the summer reading program. Loudoun County received a grant for a special teen program called Book TV. Middle School students in afterschool programs were asked to volunteer to do a 30-second commercial on their favorite book. The Cable TV of Loudoun videotaped 10 students, and the commercials will air during National Library Week. The Prince William Public Library system was visited by Angelina Ballerina (with cooperation from Barnes and Noble). Bull Run Regional held a special Fairy Tale Tea. Bob Brown Puppets visited the Central Library to perform Teddy Bears’ Picnic. Chinn Regional is hosting the Loud Poetry Guy as well as a "How to Find a Summer Job: Workshop for Teens." Potomac will feature storyteller Mary Veverka.

Tim and Katy reported on activities in Region VI. The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library recently completed its 6th Annual Logo Contest to select a design for the brochure cover of the Teen Summer Reading Program. Teens in the community judge the entries of which about 40 were received. Summer programs scheduled include book discussion groups, mehndi, flutemaking, and creative writing workshops. A Spanish language storytime was offered. Educator and performer Jim Gill presented a concert as well as a workshop for parents and early childhood educators on using music and drama with children. The Augusta County Public Library hosted local author Alice Leonhardt and held a Peter Rabbit’s Garden Storytime. A "Survivor"-style book competition was held for National Library Week. The ultimate "Survivor" was Louis Sachar’s Holes. The Shenandoah County Library started a Mother-Daughter Book Discussion Group using Dear America materials provided free from Scholastic. The Reading Patch Club, an afterschool program for grades K-5, allows participants to earn Upstart patches as they read. The Massanutten Regional Library offers a homeschool story hour. The Staunton Public Library will participate in Kids Matter Safety Day, an annual event providing information to parents about child safety while kids participate in fun activities. The event is sponsored by the local government and various organizations. The Region VI book review meeting was held in March with representatives from most libraries present. Culpeper County Library has found that its storytimes for 2-3 year olds are currently the most popular of the storytimes. Culpeper is currently recruiting young adults for its young adult programming. Upcoming programs for Culpeper include Little Big Band, Barefoot Puppets, Ron Kromer, and the Rainbow Company (children’s interactive theatre). Mason Talespinner appeared for three programs. An Ellison Workshop will be held on Friday, April 13th at Culpeper County Library. The Handley Library building has been completed and will reopen for the public on April 16th. A statue of a little girl reading was unveiled at an open house. The Handley puppeteers (the teen group) performed and an architectural historian spoke. The new Bowman library is scheduled to open to the public on July 2nd. The Waynesboro Public Library has been busy with various storytimes including a Dr. Seuss storytime complete with green eggs and ham. The library will offer three reading programs: Family Reading for those who can’t read yet, Read-On-Your-Own for grade school age readers, and Teen Reading for teen readers. Cathy Callo Francis and Gary Lloyd will be performing this summer.

A contact list for Region VI was distributed and Tim distributed flyers about the logo contest and the Spanish storytime.

Katy informed the group that Eddie Arnold has started a nonprofit organization called the Seeds Corps. This organization will send out seeds for vegetables and fruits such as tomatoes and pumpkins. No shipping and handling is charged.

The February minutes were approved without addition or correction.

Sherry reported on VLA Council news.

Currently VLA has 1035 members with 244 new members and 276 members not returning. New VLA memberships are being received as a result of the VLA Paraprofessional Forum. As a result, the membership directory will be published later so that these members may be included in the update.

VLA Council expressed concern about sponsorship for scholarship monies as well as state aid. At VLA Council, the chair for the School Library Section, Steve Matthews, encouraged school librarians to join VLA. New VLA listservs have been created. Steve Helm encouraged all to join. The Paraprofessional Forum chair announced that a one-day workshop will be held in Abingdon for paraprofessionals titled "How to Lead When You Aren’t in Charge." Caroline Parr read an excerpt from Because of Winn-Dixie and discussed the Read Aloud Initiative during the "Read Aloud Virginia" report.

Linda Hahne’s new e-mail address is: lhahne@coastal.net

At the VLA Conference this year, the Henrico County bookmobile will be parked outside the hotel near the exhibits. Tours will be provided for those interested. The Program Planner’s Workshop will be opened up to the members at large and will be presented in separate sessions.

The Youth Services Forum is still in need of a chair-elect. Sherry encouraged suggestions from the group.

Rebecca and her teen volunteers are working on a Jefferson Cup web page and will send it to Steve Helm when completed.

Suggestions for regional programs included a Capitol Choice program and a program on evaluating and selecting web sites. Current regional programs planned are Region VI’s Ellison Die Workshop and Region II’s "Bookless Storytelling Encore."

Katy informed the group of the latest Library of Virginia news. Libraries can still schedule Jim Weiss for the summer. Pat Muller will be offering two programs at the Paraprofessional Conference – "Youth Participation: It Works" and "What Do Teens Read and Why." Several Ellison workshops will be held in June. A proposal for a VLA program for next fall is "Creating Library Spaces for Teens." Read Aloud training is forthcoming. The Summer Reading Program Workshops are currently scheduled for November 2 in Virginia Beach, November 9 in Charlottesville, and November 16 in Roanoke. Pat Muller is also searching for more Youth Services Advisory Committee members. If interested, please contact her at the Library of Virginia.

Rebecca followed with the Jefferson Cup report. She distributed the press release for the award winner, Blizzard by Jim Murphy, and asked that we share the release with our local presses. The honor books were Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Boxer by Kathleen Karr. Titles worthy of note were America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle by David Adler, Radio Rescue by Lynne Barasch, Spellbinder: The Life of Harry Houdini by Tom Lalicki and The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Lisle. No series were voted as worthy of note this year.

Shelley stated that the Virginia Young Readers committee will be meeting in April.

In a VLA 2001 Conference update, Sherry stated that a Pre-Conference tour has been added to the 2001 VLA Conference. The tour will include a public, school, and academic library in the Richmond area. An academic pre-conference may also be offered. The Jefferson Cup breakfast and visiting the exhibits were encouraged. A late evening program may be offered at the Library of Virginia on Thursday evening.

The group brainstormed on programs to offer at the VLA Conference. Other than the Jefferson Cup programs and breakfast, the group decided to send a proposal for the following programs: "I Signed Up for That Computer!: Managing Your Public Use Computers" and "Dealing with Problem Parents." For the computer program, a panel will discuss success stories and what works for them. The group thought that an adult reference speaker, a children’s reference speaker, and a director on the panel would offer a variety of information. Suggestions for speakers included Susan Keller, Dawn Sowers, and/or Stella Pool. For the problem parents session, the group suggested a panel of four members with one of them being a school library staff member. Suggestions for speakers included Caroline Parr, Katie Strotman, and Steve Matthews. The group also discussed offering a puppet workshop and discussed contacting Heidi Rugg about this program.

For table talks and registration packets, Katy suggested offering bookmarks and brought a sample of one used by Culpeper. Sherry asked that all members think about handouts that we could offer at the VLA Conference.

The next meeting will be held on June 1st at the Gordon Avenue Library in Charlottesville at 12:30 p.m.

The meeting adjourned.