Link(s) of the week – ALA & “AS IF!” June 27, 2008

Are you interested in intellectual freedom? Do you believe that information should be available to all people regardless of sex, race, creed or color? Do you think censorship makes sense if there are good reasons for it? Do you think teens should have the same rights as adults, or different ones? If any of these questions interest you, no matter how you answered them, you might want to check out the sites below.

The first is the American Library Association’s page on Intellectual Freedom for Young People. It includes a whole lot of links on rights and intellectual freedom – some heavy stuff, but also potentially important and interesting.

The next is one of the links off the ALA’s page. It’s a blog called “AS IF!” (Authors Support Intellectual Freedom), which chronicles articles, stories and sites of interest regarding intellectual freedom. It’s supported by and contains lots of news about teen books and teen authors.

Link(s) of the week – PFLAG & nAGLY June 20, 2008

PFLAG is an organization that’s been around for some time and is a fantastic resource for GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or questioning) teens and adults alike, as well as their friends, families and supporters. They have regular meetings at local places and the library is one of them.

There’s another organization I just learned about at a recent Beverly Community Council meeting, though. They’re local, and their website is really well put together. They’re called nAGLY, the North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Youth. It’s safe and welcoming and specifically geared towards people between the ages of 14 and 21.

Ask a librarian. Go on. You know you want to. June 17, 2008

Beverly Library is now using IM. So now you can ask a question of our helpful librarians any time the library is open, even if you’re not in the building or can’t get to the phone.

 

To contact the Reference Desk with a question, simply IM beverlypublic through AIM, Googletalk, Jabber, MSN, Y!M or log in to Meebo with any of these accounts, including ICQ. If you’d like to get a hold of the me or the Young Adult section in general, then you can IM yabeverlypublic with any of the above accounts. I keep shorter hours than the Reference Desk, but I usually try to keep my away message updated with where I am.

 

Also, if you’re on the library page and either can’t log in to your IM account, or just don’t have one (*gasp*), you can always get the Reference Desk from the Meebo window on the right hand sidebar of the Reference page. I should have my own widget up on this site soon, so you’ll be able to contact me directly from that once we’ve done some more tweaking of the teen site.

 

Keep on the lookout for updates and feel free to drop us a question or two!

Summer Reading Basics (careful – this is a long one!) June 12, 2008

Summer is just around the corner and we all know what that means: Summer Reading! Here is the basic rundown of how the library can help you obtain copies of your books.

 

Do you have copies of the summer reading books at the library?

Yes! Each year we buy multiple copies of the books on the Briscoe & BHS reading lists. If all our copies are checked out, we can also order copies from other libraries in our system which can take a few days, but is really convenient.

 

I can keep my books all summer, right?

Unfortunately, no. Because there are more books on the lists now than in prior years, we can’t afford to buy 30 copies of each one, so you can only keep them out for 3 weeks. You may be able to renew them if no one is waiting.

 

Do you have copies of the summer reading list and the assignments?

Yes. We have a display stand in the teen area with all the lists and assignments and rubrics you should kneed for the standard summer reading work. AP students will need to look up their assignments online, but we have a list of websites for those classes with our other summer reading info.

 

Where are the books?

Again, because there are so many titles, we don’t have the space to put all the summer reading books in one spot. So they are shelved with all the regular fiction and nonfiction. The Briscoe books will be largely in the teen area, with some extra copies in Children’s, while the BHS stuff is partly in the teen area, and partly in the adult area.

 

Are these books available on audio?

Some of them are. We’ve purchased everything that’s available on audio for all the summer reading books which means that they could be on cassette, CD or online download for you to listen to. Unfortunately, not all books are made into audios, but a fair number of this year’s choices have been.

 

Any questions? Ask one of our wonderful librarians, or call us at 978-921-6062. We’re happy to help and get you what you need.

Happy Reading!

~Liz

Gone for a bit! June 9, 2008

Hi again!

I just wanted everyone to know that I’m going to be taking a leave of absence for several weeks during the month of June, starting today. So, no – I don’t hate you. No, I haven’t run off to Cancun without you all. I will be back, I promise, and in the meantime, if you have questions or anything, please feel free to ask the other librarians. They’re all cool and they hardly bite, so please don’t feel weird about talking to them.

I’ll be making every attempt to have some stuff for you to read here, even while I’m gone, so come back and take a look to see what’s new!

Take care of yourselves while I’m out and be good!

~Liz

Pictures? I like pictures. June 6, 2008

Did you know? The Library has a Flickr page.

We post pictures from programs, from around the building, and just some random things that are interesting or funny.

The thumbnail below is linked to the set of pictures from our 12th Annual Teen Poetry Contest reading and reception night this past April. We had a really great time, heard some wonderful poetry by local teens, and had some snacks. A fun time for all.

Feel free to check out other pictures in our album. There’s a special tag for “teens“.

*waves* June 2, 2008

Hi everyone!

I’m back again (yay!). The poor old blog was languishing like a… poor languishing thing largely because of a technical glitch that didn’t let anyone post to it anymore. So here we are with a fancy new one!

I’m slowly getting some new links up to replace a lot of the older, outdated things on the former teen site, so check back often to see what’s going on. Feel free to leave any suggestions about what you like, what you don’t like, or things you’d like to see here. These pages are for you all, after all, so I want to be sure to add things you’ll find interesting, at the very least.

I’d also like to thank the 8th graders that came by on a class visit last week. You guys were great fun to talk to and I hope each of you came away with something cool for your projects. It looks like just about everybody walked out with at least one item, so I was happy to see that. Please feel free to come back either for more stuff to check out or a visit!

Stay tuned, gentle listeners. This is… TO BE CONTINUED —>

~Liz :D