Youth Services Consultant Transition Period

With Youth Services Consultant Tegan Beese recently departing the State Library to move closer to family, the State Library will be in a period of transition until the position is rehired. The Pop YS Newsletter will continue to be sent to keep you up to date on any important youth services topics and CE opportunities that arise.

Feel free to reach out to your District Consultant or Brenda Hall with any youth services related questions in the meantime; we appreciate your patience and understanding.

When the youth services consultant posting is available, we will be sure to share it on Library Talk and post it to the Library Job List, so be thinking if you or someone you know might be a good fit for this dynamic position!

2022 All Iowa Reads Virtual Author Visits

Join us for virtual chats later this month with the authors of the 2022 All Iowa Reads titles!

Everyone is welcome at these special, free events. Reading the book in advance is encouraged, but not required. The events will NOT be recorded. Be sure to invite your book club members! 

The Kids and Teen virtual visits will be moderated by Johnnie Each (right), the 2022 Iowa Student Poet Ambassador. Johnnie, 16, is a student at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids.

The State Library is sponsoring these conversations to give all Iowans a chance to hear from each All Iowa Reads author about their books, creative process, and ask questions about the title.

Click the dates below to register for each event:

Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. | Jennifer Longo, author of the 2022 Teen All Iowa Reads title What I Carry

Tuesday, July 26, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. | Kate O'Shaughnessy, author of the 2022 Kids All Iowa Reads title The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane

Download a printable PDF poster at the link below to display at your library to promote the events!

Virtual Author Visits Poster

Upcoming Youth Services CE Opportunities

Big Ideas Book Discussion: Making Numbers Count

Thursday, August 11, 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

The next title in the Big Ideas Book Discussion series is Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath (veteran author of the Big Ideas series) and Karla Starr (c2022).

The Fall of the year is the run-up to budget time, when attention turns to compiling library statistics—lots of statistics. Data needed for annual reports, stats needed for the Iowa Public Library Survey, numbers needed to share with city and county funders. This discussion will look at the many numbers we gather, as well as fresh ways to flip those numbers into more compelling stories about library service. With a big assist from the ideas in “Making Numbers Count” like “vividness, perspective cues, and emotional measuring sticks.”

We encourage participants to purchase books used throughout the Big Ideas series for your own collections. And join us for the next big read: Making Numbers Count.

Register for Making Numbers Count

Pop YS Book Club

Monday, August 22, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Pop YS book club will meet quarterly and read books across the youth services spectrum, including picture books, early readers, middle grade, and young adult. Leadership texts and other nonfiction will be read as well. This month, we will be discussing an anthology, Fools In Love: Fresh Twists on Romantic Tales edited by Ashley Herring Blake and Rebecca Podos. This text is required reading. Microphone access is also required, or participants may use a phone (cell or landline) to access audio.

Pop YS Book Club

Monday, August 22, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Pop YS book club will meet quarterly and read books across the youth services spectrum, including picture books, early readers, middle grade, and young adult. Leadership texts and other nonfiction will be read as well. This month, we will be discussing an anthology, Fools In Love: Fresh Twists on Romantic Tales edited by Ashley Herring Blake and Rebecca Podos. This text is required reading. Microphone access is also required, or participants may use a phone (cell or landline) to access audio.

Register for Pop YS Book Club

Back to School: Best Practices for Promoting Brainfuse HelpNow

Wednesday, August 24, 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Check it Out Webinar Recording

The recording for May and June's Check It Out! webinar is now available. Check It Out! is a webinar series spotlighting the best new books for ages 0-18. Watch for booktalks on the latest titles. Check It Out! gives you collection development ideas and looks at trends in publishing and more. 

Note: With Tegan's departure, Check It Out! will be on a hiatus until the Youth Services Consultant position is rehired. We look forward to offering more collection development CE opportunities in the future!

Watch the May and June Check It Out! Recording

Resource of the Month

ALA's List of Celebration Weeks & Promotional Events

Celebration weeks and months are a great way to promote libraries and create awareness of library issues, but it can be hard to keep track and plan for upcoming events and source ways to promote them.

Enter ALA's list of celebration weeks and promotional events! This complete list includes all of the celebratory months and weeks for libraries with links to more information and resources. Most of the celebrations include free promotional materials or toolkits containing book lists, graphics, posters, social media posts, and more. At the end of the list are links to non-ALA celebration events as well.

Upcoming celebrations for the remainder of the year that you may want to highlight in your library include:

September: Library Card Sign-up Month and Banned Books Week

October: TeenTober

November: Picture Book Month

Check out the list and bookmark the link below!

ALA Celebration Weeks & Promotional Events