ALA’s YALSA Division Releases “Transforming Teen Services Through Continuing Education” Report

From ALA:

The Young Adult Library Services Association has released its new report, Transforming Library Services for and with Teens Through Continuing Education (CE). The report was authored by Linda W. Braun, YALSA CE Consultant; Nicole A. Cooke, Director of the MS/LIS program at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign; Denise Lyons, Deputy Director of Statewide Development at the South Carolina State Library; Sara Ryan, Teen Services Specialist at Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon; and Beth Yoke, YALSA Executive Director.
The report is the result of a year-long national forum that took place from June 1, 2017 to May 31, 2018, and was hosted in partnership with the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) and generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
The project brought together state library agency (SLA) chief officers, youth consultants, library practitioners and others to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and recommendations for improving CE for library staff to aid them in transforming teen services. These discussions took place both in-person and virtually and resulted in the following overarching recommendations to help improve the CE landscape for serving teens through libraries:

1. Commit to CE that promotes deeper learning
2. Connect with others to provide a richer learning experience
3. Create an organizational culture that prioritizes staff learning
4. Embrace effective models for CE

Additionally, recommendations for specific stakeholders such as national organizations, state library agencies, public and school library staff, funders, and more were identified. Recommendations for each group include some or all of the following:

• Setting a strategy and vision for CE
• Identifying and promoting models and best practices
• Building capacity
• Embracing and promoting a culture of learning
• Advocating for high quality CE
• Embracing national guidelines
• Advancing a 21^st century vision for teen services
• Adopting best practices in CE delivery
• Gathering data for informed decision making

Direct to Full Text Report
64 pages; PDF.
Direct to Executive Summary
Direct to News Release
Direct to All Project Materials Including Audio Recordings

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