A Word from the Chair
Dear Colleagues,
In this winter‘s newsletter we focus on Library Services and Programs for Young Adults.
Most libraries do not find it easy to deal with this user group at the border between childhood and adult age. Their needs and interests clearly differ from those of other user groups, and sometimes young adults are judged as “difficult”. In our newsletter you will find inspiring examples of programmes and concepts for Young Adults' Libraries – we all should try hard to create good services at our libraries for this important user group.
Therefore we are proud to announce our new Guidelines for Library Services to Children aged 0-18. We are deeply grateful for the contribution of the international library community on the work with the guidelines. After a long process of survey, carried out by Dr. Carolynn Rankin from Leeds-Beckett-University (UK), the revised version of the guidelines was presented during the World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) at Kuala Lumpur in August 2018. We hope that they will be useful and, dynamic, and will also give guidance to the international library community about children's needs and rights on information, literacy, and reading.
The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a framework of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All countries should engage actively in making our world better for its people through supporting the SDGs by actions, programmes, or advocacy. It is important that we all participate to make this happen! The last goal – Number 17 – seeks to create cooperation and strengthen global partnerships. To create international cooperations it is important to meet and to work together. Both can happen face-to-face as well as online. For many librarians our annual WLIC is a possibility to come together to get connected for developing great library services for children and young adults, to learn from each other, to get inspired by best practices, and to broaden the horizon. We were so happy to see so many of you at Kuala Lumpur, and we hope to meet more of you next year in Athens.
The papers from the WLIC 2018 are now online at the IFLA Library , take a look at "Catalysts for Environmental and Social Sustainability" . You will also find a short report on our Satellite Meeting at Singapore on library services to people with special needs.
Please share your project with us, or find new inspiration in our ongoing projects and programmes:
We would like to invite you to share your ideas with the international community of children’s librarians: Upload a short trailer about a project at your library on our Best Practices YouTube Channel. The goal of this collection of best practices for children and young adults is to share the knowledge and benefit from the experience of others.
You still can become a Sister Library! The program connects libraries from different parts of the world working with children and young adults.
The World through Picture Books is a great publication to download. Listed are the ten most popular picture books from over 50 countries, selected by librarians. There is also a physical collection of this list you can borrow to have an exhibition of the books.
Wishing you a peaceful year 2019 and great library services for children and young adults all over the world!
Jorun Systad
Chair Standing Committee on Libraries for Children and Young Adults
Newsletter December 2018 articles:
Adulting 101: Teaching Daily Life Skills to Teens at the New York Public Library (USA)
The Munich Municipal Library in Germany offers a special space for young adults: update
Gateshead Library (UK) cooperates in a youth project with Japan
Mobile Streetworker Project at Stuttgart Municipal Library, Germany
Prioritizing User's Needs in the Maker Movement in Teen Libraries (USA)