Hello!  I'm Katie Anderson, the youth services consultant at the Oregon State Library.  I provide direct service to children's and teen librarians, not to youth.  However, I provide training, resources, and information to youth librarians to help them in their work with children, tweens, and teens.  Prior to becoming a librarian, I taught kindergarten and 4th grade.  While several of my 4th graders were certainly tweens by the end of the year, I taught over 10 years ago! My teacher education and training didn't including anything specific to tweens. It was before NCLB and the new era of testing that made us stop to ask "What about those tweens between 4th grade and 9th grade." Since becoming a librarian I have focused on early literacy, and have done a lot of professional development around teens.  As you can see, there is a big gap in my knowledge and experience with tweens. My purpose for taking this course is to learn enough about tweens to provide useful information and resources to the youth librarians I work with.

 

 

 

Yay! Glad that you are finally getting emails from me and to see your intro, Katie.

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                                  Hi, I'm Susan Bakhru, I'm a media specialist in a middle school (Montgomery County, Maryland) outside of Washington D.C.,  serving kids ages 10 to 14 mostly.  I've been interested in the word Tween and what it means since I first heard it.  I felt it really fit the middle.  I  quite agree that there isn't enough distinction for our tweens.  It is particularly difficult to figure out what a tween is because I believe it isn't age, it is development.  I have had my MLS degree for 34 years and I've worked in public libraries as well as now in a middle school.  I have over 50 other media specialists that I am eager to share what I am learning.  We meet once a month and share books as well as talk about curriculum.  I am really trying to find reading of interest for boys particularly since they tend to be the higher percentage that needs motivation to read.  I'm really looking forward to this online course because I can do it any time of day...or after midnight if wake up and can't sleep....and I'll look for a picture of some kind probably by next week. 

 

Hi, Susan. The good news is that there are more books for boys than there have been in the past.  I just finished several in the last couple of weeks that are good for this age and gender.  I think I might create a page for noting new reads here at the wiki.  That way we can all post titles.  Welcome.  Teri

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Hello!  My name is Gina and I am a public services librarian in the adult department in West Bloomfield, Michigan.  I am in charge of ordering for our Teen Fiction collection and we are also working on focusing on the needs of our tweens.  Since we have a YA room that is not part of the youth area we feel that the tweens are sometimes lost in the middle.

I originally studied to be an academic librarian and just sort of ended up working with teens so it is all quite new to me but I am really enjoying myself.  This is my first ALA course and I am really looking forward to it!

 

Gina makes an interesting and important point that often tweens get lost in the middle.  Happy to see some people here in the class so that we can keep them from falling in the cracks.  tsl

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Hi Everyone! I have never used a wiki before, so I don't know if I am doing this correctly! I'm Lacy and I work at a small branch of the Boulder Public Library in Colorado.

 I am a shelver, a clerk, the creator of the bulletin boards and book displays, and the only staff person at my library interested in kid's and teen literature.

 I am currently taking a break from pursuing my MLS because the 4 hour bus ride to class was killing me! I am applying to online programs now. 

 I am married and we have a big dog named Moose. I love to hike, ride bikes and do anything outside (if the sun is shining!) My goal is to become a children's and teen librarian so that I have more opportunities to interact with kids>

 

Welcome, Lacy.  I deliver MLS classes 400 miles from my home base, so I understand travel weariness.  I head off this weekend to San Antonio (3 hours from here) to teach an MLS course.  Welcome to class. You can do this in your jammies!  tsl

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Hi, Everyone.  This is my "Mad Men" avatar. It probably looks more like me than any of the photos I have saved right now.  My name is Teri Lesesne (last name rhymes with the word "insane), and I am the Instructor for this YALSA class.  I am a professor in the Department of Library Science at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Huntsville is about 40 miles north of downtown Houston.  SHSU is a small (by Texas standards) university.  Our department specializes in the preparation of school librarians.  I am not a librarian but a former middle school English teacher who found her way to the department to offer classes in literature for children and young adults.  I have been doing that for 20 years now.  I have some experience with tweens, most notably a book I wrote about the subject called NAKED READING (Stenhouse, 2006).  In addition to teaching and writing, I do a lot of speaking in front of teachers and librarians over the course of a year. This month will find me at the USBBY/IBBY Conference in Illinois and then at a Literacy Extravaganza in New York and finally in 4 cities in Missouri speaking about  tweens to public librarians.  In my spare time, I am a wife and a grandmother rearing her 16 year old granddaughter (she was the "naked reader") and a couple of cats.  My web site (www.professornana.com) and my blog (http://professornana.livejournal.com) have much more information if you are curious to know more.  You can also follow me on FaceBook and Twitter where I am known as "professornana."  Welcome to this new adventure.

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  Hello Teri and classmates! I couldn't figure out a way to get my avatar into the comments form so I am just going to edit the original page since you asked us to include an avatar. My name is Morgan Doane and I am a youth librarian in Walker, MI (a suburb of Grand Rapids). I have been here for 4 years. Prior to this I taught juvenile delinquents at a locked state facility in Iowa. I got my Master's in Library Science online through Drexel University.

 

This is my second online YALSA course and I'm excited to get started. I was actually lucky enough to win a free e-course last year when I responded to a blog post and had my name drawn.

 

In my spare time, I do a lot of sewing. I am a doll collector and I sew doll dresses and sell them on etsy. I am on facebook 'Morgan Doane' and twitter 'morganannie'.

 

I will add you to FB and Twitter. I love your avatar!  tsl

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Whoops. My bad. I posted originally in the "comments" section. I'm the book nerd here, not the tech nerd. I think I've figured it out now. This is only my second experience with Wiki-related stuff. : )

 

Hi! I’m Lindsey Tomsu, but I prefer going by “Rory.” I graduated from Bellevue University in Nebraska in 2005 where I got degrees in sociology and philosophy. Throughout college, I worked as the Head Writing Lab Tutor and ended up being a professional editor for the past eight years. I decided to go back to school at the University of Illinois at Springfield (online) to get my actual English degree. Next semester will be my last at UIS.

 

In August 2010, I will be attending San Jose State University (online again) to get my MLS degree with a youth services concentration as I’ve recently embarked on a new career—as a Teen Librarian. Can you tell I love school? I’m a total nerd.

 

My biggest hobby is being a connoisseur of classic literature of all genres. My all time favorite books are Great Expectations by Dickens and Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. I spend most of my “play” money on books to the chagrin of my boyfriend. My personal library holds more than 8,000 pieces of classic literature, including tons of textbooks, more than 60 anthology collections, and my prized possession (so far), a first edition of Bambi, which is worth an estimated $3,000.

 

Academically, my area of expertise is children’s and young adult literature. For fun, I’ve been systematically reading, in alphabetical order, my library’s teen collection to not only know my collection personally and be able to better serve my patrons, but to also see what is out there for teens to read. I’ve been doing it since December (before I got my job there) and am currently on “G” authors. No wonder I got the job as Teen Librarian, huh? : )

 

Rory

 

P.S. If anyone has a Facebook account, please look me up (Rory Tomsu in Omaha, Nebraska). After being in online classes/programs for more than two years now, I find Facebook a great way to connect outside of the Discussion Board. I’m into making friends and staying connected with my fellow classmates!

 

Hi, Rory.  Good online program at San Jose.  Some of my friends work in that program.  I, too, am a nerd when it comes to learning.  Welcome to class.

 

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Hi, Everybody! My name is Meg and currently I am the Teen Services Coordinator at the Meekins Library in Williamsburg MA.  This is a very fancy title for a grant funded position that is 10 hours a week so I have to make every minute count!I have been here since the end of May so I am still earning a TON of stuff. I just graduated from Simmons College (Boston) with my MSLIS a focus on Childrens/Youth/Teen/ YA services. For my final project I assessed the efficacy on the LSTA grant "Serving Tweens and Teens" on four Massachusetts libraries....and now this grant is paying my salary LOL!. The Meekins Library is in a well to do rural town and most of the kids that come here are fairly well off and are "country kids". Some of them are farming kids. There are a lot of 4H ers here, a lot of boy scouts and girl scouts and over all they are good kids. Some of them are home schooled, some of them go to a variety of charter schools, there is a real mix.

 

Personally, I have two teenage boys (14 and 18) and they are the LIGHT of my life. Really. I absolutely am head over heels when I see them making the big connections and seeing the big picture. Yeah, they frustrate me to Kingdom Come sometimes, but I wouldn't trade all the tea in China to see them growing up to be good, productive men.  My reading tends to lend towards dystopia fantasy, manga and "real life" fiction. I am going through a Flo Rida stage musically, but listen to anything, well.....except couintry.

 

I look forward to learning a lot from all of you and am very excited to get to work.

 

Meg Anastasi

 

PS I, too am on Facebook as Meg Aust-Anastasi and am always looking for more librarian friends. I am also on Twitter as @OceanGal . Follow me if you want to!

 

Hi Meg!  Love the avatar.  Is it from Second Life?  My avatar from SL is still in progress as I attempt to add items.  Glad to have you in class.

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Hello all. My name is Keira Digel Drake and I am the library assistant in the Athens Academy middle and upper school library, a small, independent school in Athens, GA. Athens, population about 110,000, is a great college town known for its' music and for the University of Georgia. There are four public middle schools and two public high schools. Athens Academy serves as one of four or five independent schools in the area. Our students are come from all walks of life, but many are children of parents who are associated with the university. Our library enjoys tremendous support from the administration and the parents and we are thankful for that. Our students are like most other students -- some are enthusiastic, energetic readers; some are reluctant readers; and some just haven't found the right book. I am hoping this course will help me to meet the needs of each of these reader-types.

 

My background is not that of a librarian, but I do have long standing ties with education in some form or another. Early in my career, I worked as an outdoor educator for elementary students through elder hostel groups in Maine, Georgia, and the Virgin Islands. I went on to earn a Master of Education from UGA in instructional design and curriculum development. While working on my masters, I worked at Athens Academy in their media center and, among other things, helped to support middle school students -- this is where I got the notion that working in a library with middle schoolers wouldn't be such a bad gig! - At any rate, we left Athens and I spent the following 10 years with a healthcare information technology and consulting company primarily working in their education department serving clients both internal and external. A career move for my husband brought us back to Athens. I was fortunate enough to find that Athens Academy had an opening in their library! Coincidence? Fate? I don't know, but I couldn't be happier.

 

I participate in two bookclubs (for parents/adults), help support a 7th grade bookclub, and host a 5th/6th grade bookclub, so my reading list this last year straddles tween lit and our bookclub books. Outside the bookclubs, I am primarily reading books from our juvenile and young adult fiction section, trying to familiarize myself with the books we have and keep up with the books our students are reading. It seems that I always have at least three books going at one time!

 

Obtaining an MLS degree is something I am considering, but it won't fit into my home life right now. In the meantime, I plan to continue participating in YALSA and other online courses to help keep up-to-date with the research and work focused on library usage and reading trends for tweens and teens.

 

Hi Keira.  Welcome to class.  Working in a middle school?  I did that for 10 years. I love the age group.