YOUTH SERVICES

The Youth Services Department exists to help libraries provide excellent and economical service to children, young adults and their families. Through consultation, continuing education and coordination of special projects, the Department provides opportunities for staff in the member libraries to strengthen skills and promote a positive image of library service. The active participation of the Youth Services Coordinator and Young Adult Specialist in local, state and national organizations provides a mechanism to keep libraries abreast of professional issues and to showcase the accomplishments of Suffolk libraries in service to children, young adults and families.

Individual advice and assistance is available to staff serving youth from 0-18 years of age in collection development, programming, technology, and development of policy and departmental procedures.

Regular monthly meetings providing in-service training programs and discussion of current books and issues are held for member library staff delivering service to children. Use of the Internet as a tool in serving youth and families is frequently a topic at these meetings.

Quarterly meetings of children's services department heads are held as a forum for discussion of management issues related to running a children's services department.

The Young Adult Specialist meets regularly with the SCLA Young Adult Services Division, which provides programs and discussions for YA librarians. In addition, the Young Adult Specialist designs training opportunities for staff serving young adults in all member libraries and meets individually, as requested, to provide guidance in relevant service areas.

The Department publishes a combined monthly professional information bulletin, "NOTES" and "YA Communiqué," for children's and young adult librarians, highlighting important developments and upcoming events. It also distributes announcements and promotional materials of organizations serving children, teens and families.

Periodic full and half-day workshops are offered on issues of importance to staff serving children, young adults and families. Topics such as technology, programming skills, reference services and collection development are presented in lecture, panel and hands-on format. Special professional events, such as co-sponsorship of a bi-annual children's literature conference with the Children's Librarians Association of Suffolk County, Inc., provide additional opportunities to develop professional skills.

The Youth Services Department works with a committee to develop and maintain the "Kids and Teens" page on SuffolkWeb. This site focuses on offering quality websites for the educational and recreational needs of children and young adults, parents, teachers and library professionals, and includes a group of resources for children which are part of the SCLS Virtual Reference Collection.

Youth Services receives complimentary review copies of most children's and young adult books as they are published. Reviews from major professional journals are attached to new books as they are received. A monthly list of new books received is sent to member libraries and the books are displayed at the monthly meetings.

A portion of each monthly meeting is devoted to oral reviews of a selection of books from the group. The books are then placed in an Examination Collection and held for up to a year following publication. During this time they are available for borrowing by library staff and are also used for book discussions, including mock Newbery and Caldecott votes. A small number of books are added to the permanent Juvenile Demonstration Collection (award winners, controversial subjects, etc.) and the remainder are dispersed, usually to local charity groups. In addition, a Professional Collection of current materials relating to library service to children, young adults and families is developed and maintained by the Youth Services Department.

The Youth Services Department is contacted frequently by member libraries for reviews and background information on controversial books; for titles in specialized subject areas; for sample policies relating to service to children; and for samples of model library programs for children, teens and caregivers. Our extensive professional collection and our clipping and filing procedures make it possible to respond promptly to most requests. The growing popularity of electronic resources has resulted in the establishment of YouthNet, an electronic discussion list for Suffolk youth librarians.

Several county-wide programs are organized and promoted through the Youth Services Department including the young adult Battle of the Books, a fun event in which teams of young adults compete to demonstrate their knowledge of popular books. Two important coordinated programs are the Summer Reading Program and the Hospital Visit Program. Each year an extensive and sophisticated package of materials related to the statewide summer reading club theme is developed and offered to member libraries to enhance their local implementation of the theme. Because of the complexity of this project, SCLS shares the responsibility for it with the Youth Services Department of Nassau Library System and offers it on a bi-county basis. The Hospital Visit Program is a county-wide project in which librarians from member libraries make regular visits to children in six Suffolk hospitals, talking with them and their parents and leaving each of them with a gift book and get-well kit provided by SCLS. This is a very popular and successful program affecting nearly 1,000 children each year and generating support from community agencies throughout Suffolk. While Youth Services is responsible for the administration of this program, it is greatly dependent on the donation of library staff time and financial contributions to continue operation.

•Annual Performers Showcase
•Centrally maintained file of programs suitable for use in libraries
•Extensive collection of Ellison and Accu-cut dies and machines for use by member libraries, as well as a central database reflecting all the libraries' die collections
•Special reading lists and bookmarks and promotional materials for children, young adults and parents
•Recruitment of YA and children's librarians