University of Alabama, Masters of Library and Information Studies - Youth Services, 3 Semester(s)

Youth (Children and/or Young Adult) Services is an area of professional library practice centered on serving the informational, recreational, educational, and cultural needs of children, young adults, and their caregivers within a public library setting. This diverse area includes library services to youth ages birth up to nineteen. Students most suited to this area of emphasis are those that enjoy working with a wide range of youth and their caregivers, interacting with diverse clientele, engaging in creative activities (such as puppetry, traditional and digital storytelling, dramatic play, poetry slams, spoken word, etc.), and planning literacy-related programs.

Youth services librarians generally possess three broad categories of professional skills: collection development and readers? advisory, service and program planning and management, and community outreach. Collection development and readers advisory skills embody a broad, working knowledge of children?s and young adult print and digital materials, an ability to use specially-designed collection development and ... Read more

Youth (Children and/or Young Adult) Services is an area of professional library practice centered on serving the informational, recreational, educational, and cultural needs of children, young adults, and their caregivers within a public library setting. This diverse area includes library services to youth ages birth up to nineteen. Students most suited to this area of emphasis are those that enjoy working with a wide range of youth and their caregivers, interacting with diverse clientele, engaging in creative activities (such as puppetry, traditional and digital storytelling, dramatic play, poetry slams, spoken word, etc.), and planning literacy-related programs.

Youth services librarians generally possess three broad categories of professional skills: collection development and readers? advisory, service and program planning and management, and community outreach. Collection development and readers advisory skills embody a broad, working knowledge of children?s and young adult print and digital materials, an ability to use specially-designed collection development and reference resources to develop a rich collection of these materials, and an understanding of the reading interests of contemporary youth.

Service and program planning and management skills exemplify an understanding of how to manage the day-to-day operations of the youth services department in a public library, how to determine the informational needs of diverse youth and develop appropriate library services, and how to create engaging library programs that connect contemporary youth with library collections via booktalking, read-alikes, hands-on activities, etc. Within all three categories of professional skills is an underlying ability to reach and serve culturally diverse populations.

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