A Moment to Say Thanks

A lot of awesome people helped Heather Booth and I write this book. They shared their wisdom and experiences. They shared their passion. Librarian are really good at sharing I have always found. If it wasn’t for all of the librarians I have met in my professional life, I wouldn’t be the YA librarian that I am today.

And then Heather took all the parts that I wrote and made them better because she is awesome that way. All I did was open up my own personal youth services manual that I have been creating for myself for the last 20 years and share. It’s a collection of thoughts and outlines and techniques that I have been developing for 20 years now. Some of it has become such a part of my core being that I can’t remember how the thoughts came to be, I just know that they have served me and my teens well. They have helped me be successful in accomplishing my goals. For 20 years I have taken classes, gone to workshops and conferences, sat in on webinars and networked with my fellow librarians. Some things have changed, some things will change again, but there is also that core of what we do, of who we are – of who I am. 

And it was very rewarding to write it all down, to organize it, and to see that every sacrifice over the last 20 years was worth it because in the end, it truly all does come together and make sense. It has been worthwhile. It has been, for me, glorious. 

I love what I do. And I believe that teens need YA librarians who understand them, who like them, and who want to serve them. They deserve and need YA librarians who know how to build diverse, well rounded local collections, who know how to connect them to those collections, and who are willing and able to talk about those collections with them. They need and deserve YA librarians who can stand up and say this is what we need for teens in our libraries and in our communities and this is why. And they need YA librarians who can adapt, who can create programs and resources to meet their ever changing needs, because this world is not static and neither are teens. 

I learn new things every day that make me better at my job. 20 years later and I am still proud and excited to call myself a YA librarian. My teens still need me. Yours still need you. Soon, my oldest will be a teen. It’s a hard journey the teenage years. Often glorious, but hard. I hope she will have YA librarians in her life that will serve her well. I believe YAs are still under-served in a lot of libraries. They don’t have the staffing or funds or spaces or collections that they need. And as more libraries cut staffing and outsource things like collection development, customer service to all patron groups suffers. As other businesses work to make each customer experience more targeted and rewarding, libraries are reacting to funding challenges by outsourcing, cutting staff, sacrificing knowledge and experience and passion for part-time, no benefits, no consistency. Many libraries are choosing good enough instead of best practices. We can’t let this happen. 

I hope this book and all the wisdom and experience shared by all inside of it will help us make a difference. Teens need and deserve quality library services, and I believe our future demands it.

Filed under: Uncategorized