LIBR 542B Services for Youth: Young Adults – Course Syllabus

 

Program: Master of Library, Archival, and Information Studies
Year: 2005-2006 Winter, term 2
Course Schedule: Tuesday evenings, 6-9 pm , January 10 - April 4(no class February 14)
Location: Koerner Library Room 216
Instructor: Kirsten Andersen
Office location: TEF III Room 321
Office phone: please phone me at RPL 604-278-9811 ext. 619 or home 604-737-1149
Office hours: Tuesdays, and by appointment or phone
E-mail address: coming soon

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Course Goal: The goal of this course is to provide students with the knowledge required to plan, implement, and evaluate effective and exciting public library services for young adults.

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Apply information on adolescent psychology, growth and development in planning for materials and services for young adults
• Determine the needs of the general population of young adults as well as those with specific requirements in the planning and implementing of young adult services
• Identify and discuss the current issues and trends associated with service to young adults including, but not limited to, societal concerns, informational freedom issues and the Internet
• Recognize the broad range of young adult materials and other library resources in discussion of a balanced, relevant collection
• Identify the numerous selection sources available for young adult materials and assess their different focuses and values
• Discuss strategies and methods to promote young adult resources in order to increase access and encourage use (ie: booklists, displays, etc.)
• Describe the elements of a welcoming environment to attract young adult use of the library
• Compare and contrast elements of a variety of different young adult spaces
• Identify and evaluate the resources available for reference and reader’s advisory services to young adults
• Recognize the skills required to interact in the reference interview with young adults
• Apply these skills to instruct young adults in the effective use of library resources and development of efficient information gathering techniques
• Formulate goals, objectives and priorities in planning and implementing Selected programs for young adults
• Plan and evaluate programs for young adults
• Describe methods of involving young adults in the planning and implementing of services and programs
• Discuss outreach services, school and public library relationships and liaison with other youth-serving agencies in the community

Course Topics:

• Historical development and changing patterns in library services to young adults
• Reference and reader’s advisory services
• Collection management
• Censorship
• Programming
• Electronic resources and services
• Outreach and Selected services
• Administration and management

Prerequisites: LIBR 500, 510, 540, 560.

Format of the course: Instructor and student presentations, guest speakers, one field trip, small and large group in-class activities, case studies, in-class booktalking, discussions, games and activities you can use with teens.

Required and Recommended Reading:

Required: No text book is required. Weekly readings from various sources will be assigned.

Recommended: A list of recommended readings will be distributed in class.

Course Assignments, Due dates and Weight in relation to final course mark:

Assignment	Due Date	Weight
Library Spaces: written evaluation of public library environment for teens or public library web service for teens	February 7	20 %
Library Programs: written outline for public library program for teens	February 28	20%
Current issues and library users and non-users: oral presentation on selected topic in library service to teens	March 7, 14, 21 or 28	35%
Library Collections: reading log	April 4	15%
Participation – readers’ advisory	ongoing	5%
Participation – in-class case studies	ongoing	5%

Course Schedule [week-by-week]:

Date	Topics	Guest Speakers	Student presentations/graded participation	Deadlines for written work
1. January 10	-Introduction to course & each other -Introduction to YAs: developmental features and assets of adolescents
2. January 17	-Overview of library service to YAs -What are teens reading? -Introduction to community partners	-Ruth Hahn Supervisor, Youth Intervention/RJ Richmond Detachment -Wendy Phillips, teacher-librarian, MacNeill Secondary -Judy Dale, Richmond Health Services, Youth Health Nurse -Wayne Yee, City of Richmond
3. January 24	-Introduction to bibliographic tools   -Reference & RA to teens	-Meet at UBC Education Library Joanne Naslund	-Readers’ advisory (RA) -in-class case studies
4. January 31	-Bibliographic instruction -working with school districts -Intro to YA spaces	-Thomas Long – VPL	-RA -in-class case studies
5. February 7	-Reading promotion -Intro to programming -Booktalking -Collections I: Fiction	-Alison Taylor McBryde, NVDPL	-RA	DUE: Library space evaluation
February 14	Reading break
6. February 21	-Programs -Reading Buddies how-to -Collections II: non-fiction	-Chris Miller, CPL -Anna Pearson, NVCL	-RA
7. February 28	-Intellectual Freedom	-Ann Curry, UBC	-RA -Program outlines -in-class case studies	DUE: Program outline
8. March 7	-Issues in YA service -Collections III: non-print -Web content & online book clubs	-Virginia McCreedy, RPL	-RA -Program outlines -Selected topic presentation 1	(Selected topic presentation)
9. March 14	-Issues in YA service (to be determined by the class)		-RA -Program outlines -Selected topic presentations 2&3 -in-class case studies	(Selected topic presentation)
10. March 21	-Issues in YA service (to be determined by the class)	-Janet Mumford & Rubab Arim – UBC Family Studies	-RA -Selected topic presentations 4&5	(Selected topic presentation)
11. March 28	-Issues in YA service (to be determined by the class) -Youth engagement	-possible community partners: Richmond Society for Community Living	-RA -Selected topic presentations 6&7 -in-class case studies	(Selected topic presentation)
12. April 4	Conclusion		-RA	DUE: Reading Logs

Attendance: The calendar states: “Regular attendance is expected of students in all their classes (including lectures, laboratories, tutorials, seminars, etc.). Students who neglect their academic work and assignments may be excluded from the final examinations. Students who are unavoidably absent because of illness or disability should report to their instructors on return to classes.”

Evaluation: All assignments will be awarded letter grades using the evaluative criteria given on the SLAIS web site.

Written & Spoken English Requirement: Written and spoken work may receive a lower mark if it is, in the opinion of the instructor, deficient in English.