Join Macmillan for a night of fun and games with authors Mike Curato, Adalyn Grace, April Henry, and June Hur! Flex your bookish trivia skills and enter for your chance to win books!

Join us for a networking event hosted by Reno, Tahoe and The ROW. You will learn how to make a cocktail or mocktail, have the opportunity to win a free suite upgrade or registration at next year’s Symposium and get the opportunity to speak to other attendees in breakout sessions. This is a great opportunity to meet other attendees and make sure your login works.

View the ingredients list for the cocktails/mocktails.

A conversation with Romina Garber, Adib Khorram, Mark Oshiro, and Courtney Summers. Moderated by Scot Smith

Romina Garber
Adib Khorram
Mark Oshiro
Courtney Summers
Moderated by Scot Smith

If you believe that every conversation about diverse books should include thoughtful considerations about culture, then please join this session. Together we will explore strategies for facilitating culturally relevant conversations about Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC) books with audio, video, and primary source digital materials. Grounded in love of literature, as well as cultural humility and cross-cultural competencies, participants will leave this session ready to share loads of materials that we hope empower beautiful, honoring conversations about diversity, individuality, and books for all.

Nick Glassis a nationally known educational partner, and is the Founder and Executive Director of TeachingBooks
Sulin Jones, LSTA Coordinator at the Nevada State Library, Archives, and Public Records

A recent trend is the desire for subscription boxes for books. These boxes consist of a new book in a particular genre/age range and fun trinkets that are themed with the book. Most subscriptions such as OWL Crate and Lit Joy are available as a paid subscription. As a library, we can offer this service for free while promoting our services and materials to our teen patrons. We will describe how our libraries got started with this service, obstacles we found along the way, tips to get stakeholders on board and how our teens reacted to the service.

Stephanie Brand, Lead Librarian, Worthington Libraries in Ohio
Tara Shiman, Youth Services Librarian, Worthington Libraries in Ohio
Melisa Martinez, Children’s Services Assistant Manager, Fountaindale Public Library District in Illinois

Led by New York Public Library’s Head of Teen Services, a panel of award-winning authors will discuss the importance of Upper MG as a safe space for a wide range of young readers to explore complex and sometimes controversial issues within age and developmentally appropriate stories featuring characters aged 12-15 years old.

Elisa Garcia, moderator.
Authors:
     Paula Chase Hyman
     Barbara Dee
     Aida Salazar
     Melanie Sumrow

Update your collection philosophy to help diversify and broaden your collection. Start a school-wide journey around the world through a competitive reading initiative that challenges patrons of all ages to read one book by an author from each continent. The Read the World program encourages community participation, a diversified collection, and global citizenship! This workshop will walk you through how we researched books and authors from around the world, curated a diverse collection for middle and upper school aged students, and created an expansive LibGuide of books listed by country. In addition, we will discuss how we used formal and guerilla marketing (from posters to announcements to music videos) to promote the project and create buy in from students and teachers.

Maggie Davidov is the Upper School Librarian at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts

Volunteer programs are a great way to bring teens into libraries. But how do you ensure that your volunteers are getting something meaningful out of their time at the library? In 2019, the Pikes Peak Library District worked with local agencies to develop a career and college readiness training that we implemented over the course of our summer reading program. In this session, we will share tips and tools for designing, implementing and evaluating a training program for your teen volunteers. Participants will leave with access to our full trainings.

Britt Bloom and Lauren Fellers are Senior Library Associates at the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs, Colorado

In this session, participants will learn about three types of narratives that emerge when one examines recent YA novels of mental illness: stories of failed cures, stories of symptoms, and stories of recovery. Participants will see how an understanding of disability narrative theory allows librarians to discern among the many stories of mental illness that come across our desks and how to recommend the most empowering ones to patrons.

Diane Scrofano is an English instructor at Moorpark College in California

A conversation with George M. Johnson, Dahlia Adler, TJ Klune, and Aiden Thomas, moderated by Malinda Lo.

George M. Johnson
Dahlia Adler
TJ Klune
Aiden Thomas
Moderated by Malinda Lo