Theme: Endurance

Theme Description:The past two years have been hard. Teen librarians and teens have been dealing with a worldwide pandemic. We have been on lockdown, working from home, separated from family and friends. We have seen video after video of people murdered on the streets and in schools. There have been protests and trials. And, in the midst of all of this, we have had to continue to function and provide services and resources for our users, often overlooking our own mental and physical health while caring for those we serve in our libraries.

But, here we are. We made it to the other side. In this issue we’d like you to share your experiences with the hard parts of the last two years.. What were they? Did you overcome them and how? Did you fail? If you failed, what lessons were learned? How have your teens coped? What success stories do you have? Are there things you started doing during this time that might stick around?

Let’s share our successes and our failures. Below are just a few of the examples of what we are looking for:

Serving teens in a work from home situation
Finding and keeping employment in bad times (budget, covid, etc.)
Keeping teens encouraged
Keeping yourself encouraged
Trying new methods/approaches to services and/or resources that were successful
Trying new methods/approaches to services and/or resources that failed
Taking on more responsibility in your library
Giving teens more responsibility in your library
Handling book challenges and bans
What does self care look like for teen librarians? For teens?

What was a struggle? What worked?

We are also seeking articles for our "Future Trending" column, which highlights new, up-and-coming ideas, perspectives, and initiatives that are somewhat out of the box. Examples of focuses include the following themes (or another theme you want to address): technology(ies), Covid-19, universal design, etc. What do you think we should know?

Please remember that this is a volunteer writing opportunity with no monetary compensation. YALSA has the right to first refusal.

If you have an article idea for this themed issue, please submit article proposals by January 3, 2022.

If you know someone who has experience on this topic and would be interested in writing for YALS or have questions, please contact YALS editor, Yolanda Hood at yhood@upei.ca.