YALSA Write2Xpress presentation at ALA July 13 2009

Presented by Elise C. Cole Teen Services Librarian Oakville Public Library ecole@oakville.ca

 Oakville, Ontario, Canada – Located just outside of Toronto on Lake Ontario – Population of 165,613 (2006 Census)

 Number of youth (13-19) living in Oakville, has grown 23% between 2001 and 2006 (just over 17,000)  Youth account for over 10% of the population!  Library statistics indicate that 14% of all registered library patrons are between the ages of 12-19

 Our Kids Network Bulletin No. 4, 2007

 Teen Services at OPL: A Brief History – Grew out of Youth Online (YO!) – Fuelled by the numbers we saw earlier – Increased focus on serving this age group in Ontario – Borrowers ages 12-19  10,134 have borrowed items in the last three years  13,714 have borrowed items in the past five years (2008)

– Our Kids Network and Town of Oakville studies – Youth identified as an important sector and is included in the Library’s Strategic and Business Plans 2007-2011:  “Staff will promote library services to the teen audience by designing and presenting programs to meet their unique needs”

 SWOT Analysis of Strategic Plan (2009) = a Teen Services Business Plan – Highlights:  develop and implement a gaming strategy for all branches  develop a high calibre teen volunteer program  increase and diversify teen workshop offerings  deliver system-wide training to provide tips for serving and advocating on behalf of teen patrons

 Teen Advisory Group (TAG) created in 2003 – TAG provided us with the input regarding their desire to have a writing contest – Teen Services asked to develop event for Oakville Public Library Month – Write To Express was born! (2005)

 How is this all organized? – In Spring, TAG decides on photo or phrase for theme  For 2009, they chose to return to a photograph – TAG Coordinator then selects about 40 photos for consideration  Narrowed down to 7, and voting began! – Marketing then creates posters – Awards event speaker confirmed

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

 Judges are contacted and asked to participate  Awards Event date, time and location are set  Judges packages are prepared  Advertising materials sent out to schools, put on website, posted in branches

 Contest closes  Entries sent to Judges with judging packages  Postcards mailed to participants inviting them to awards event  RSVP list compiled  TAG members volunteer for Awards event – Set up, pick up food and flowers, MCs, introductions of Judges and Guest Speaker

 Money Matters: – Prizes are donated gift cards to Oakville Place Mall – Budget comes from Friends of the Oakville Public Library  2008: Received $2000 Spent: $803  2007: Received $2000 Spent: $1274

 Planning a writing contest or need other program ideas? – YALSA, Blog and Mailing lists  http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/yalsa.cfm  http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/  http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/electronicr esourcesb/websitesmailing.cfm esp YA-YAAC – Google News/Blog alert for Teen programs  http://news.google.com/ and click on News Alerts

 More ideas…. – PUBYAC  http://www.pubyac.org/ – SLJTeen (School Library Journal)  Subscribe @ https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/subscribe.asp?screen= nl1 – Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)  http://www.voya.com/ – Conferences, of course!  http://presentations.ala.org  http://www.accessola.com/superconference2009/  http://www.cla.ca/conference/2009/index.htm

Slides will be available at: http://presentations.ala.org Or, contact me at ecole@oakville.ca

YALSA Write2Xpress presentation at ALA July 13 2009

by Elise C. Cole

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YALSA Write2Xpress presentation at ALA July 13 2009 Presentation Transcript