Do you ever feel like you're missing an important segment of your population? Where are all those quarter-life adults and young professionals? If you look around and do not see them, they are your new underserved population. With an impressive panel of speakers from across the US, find out how to connect with this elusive group through innovative programming, direct marketing and smart connections. If you didn't work in a library, would you use it?

1. Hosted by the 2009 Emerging Leaders, Group C: Amanda Brewer Kristen Kirk Portia Latalladi Sandra Sajonas Manya Shorr Outreach and programming to patrons in their 20s & 30s

2. Mel Gooch joined the Brooklyn Public Library in 2002 as an Adult Services Librarian and now supervises adult services in six branches. She received her MLS from Rutgers University in 2002. At BPL Mel has been selected for the library’s Leadership Forum, Reference Resources Advisory Committee, and Everyone Serves Seniors Training. Mel was also part of a team that initiated BPL’s first staff unconference. In the neighborhoods she had served she has introduced new programs to reach adult patrons including Book Swaps, Guitar Hero for Adults, and a Book Club that meets at a neighborhood bar. Once a former bank CEO, Crosby Kemper III is now the executive director of the Kansas City Public Library system. In 2008, under his guidance, KCPL was awarded with the National Medal for Museum and Library Service.

5. Kristen Kirk manages an urban youth services department in the Ocean County Library system. Active in New Jersey’s Children's Services committees, her focus in 2010 is making new partnerships and increasing low budget, high impact programming. She has served children and teens at OCL, but is particularly concerned about this issue because she is one of the patrons we’re discussing. Sandra Sajonas is a Young Adult Literacy Librarian working on a pilot program to improve the literacy and job readiness of “disconnected youth” in New York City. She received her MSLIS at Pratt Institute in New York City. Sandra was a member of ALA’s Class of 2009 Emerging Leaders Program as well as PLA's 2010 national conference program sub-committee. Her professional interest include unconferences, usability, young adult literature and services, literacy, pre-GED services, emerging technology, web 2.0 and community outreach.

10. Twenge, Jean. Generation Me . New York: Free Press, 2006. pg. 24.

12. *http://www.roanoke.com/extra/wb/58164