Vol. 25 No. 4 (2019): Youth Services Take Over OLA Quarterly!

Abstract: This issue fulfills a goal to highlight youth services librarianship in Oregon, and to dedicate one full volume to celebrating what we are doing now, what we hope to do in the future, and ways that we are changing the emotional, intellectual, and literary landscape of the lives of children and teens. It’s a great mix of articles, and I’m proud of each of the authors. I appreciate their time and efforts, both in their daily work and in their contribution to the written field of librarianship practices and philosophy.

We are practicing all the good stuff of librarianship: programming, collection development, readers’ advisory, activism, reference assistance, and engagement that is all combined into the important work every librarian does. Add in the elements of intellectual freedom (which are, of course, also of note for non-youth services librarians), privacy rights for patrons under the age of 18, the programming fun and challenges of working with youth, and code-switching to connect with kids, tweens, parents, educators, and our own non-youth oriented librarian peers, and you’ve got the quintessential youth services librarian. You’ll find each of those features represented in this issue.

Guest Editor: April Spisak, Albany Public Library

Editor Biography: The Albany Public Library has an incredible staff, a fabulous collection, and summer reading stats that will knock your socks off. April Spisak is quite happy to be part of it all as Head of Youth Services. Given that her only skills are all word related, it is quite fortunate indeed that her dream job uses so many of them in myriad ways.