Talk the future of Facebook in the library in YALSA’s July YA Forum discussion in ALA Connect

For Immediate Release
Wed, 06/29/2011 - 11:21

Contact: Eve Gaus
YALSA

CHICAGO —The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) will host its monthly discussion forum next week on using Facebook in the library. Throughout the week, YALSA members are encouraged to check in to the discussion forum and ask questions and contribute to the ongoing discussion. The forum will open July 5 at 10 a.m. EDT and will close July 8 at 3 p.m. EDT.

Having a Facebook page for your teen department has practically become a requirement for the modern day library. However, Slate recently published an article questioning whether Facebook‘s popularity in the United States has peaked. According to the article, in May 2011 Facebook lost 6 million American users, http://www.slate.com/id/2296932/. Are your teens on Facebook? Join YALSA as we explore the subject of Facebook in the library. Should libraries be on Facebook and if so, what should our presence be? Creating a dynamic interactive Facebook presence that displays the personality of your teen department and successfully engages your teens can be challenging to make and maintain, so how do you do it? Join us for this lively discussion, which will be moderated by Bill Harris, who is the co-convener of YALSA’s Teen Advisory Group Interest Group.

YA Forum is a monthly discussion just for YALSA members. Each discussion will focus on a specific topic and will be moderated by an expert in the field. YA Forum is hosted in YALSA’s space in ALA Connect at http://connect.ala.org/yalsa. To access the discussion, you must be a YALSA member.

To access the YA Forum discussion, you must be a YALSA member. Starting at 10 a.m. Eastern, members can join the conversation by logging into ALA Connect and choosing “YALSA” under “My ALA Groups,” then selecting “Discussions” on the upper right.

For more information about YA Forum, please contact Eve Gaus, YALSA’s program officer for continuing education, at egaus@ala.org  or 1-800-545-2433, ext. 5293.

For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos and audiobooks for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or e-mail, yalsa@ala.org