The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) recently released new core competencies for library staff that deal with teens on a regular basis. From their press release:
YALSA’s Teen Services Competencies for Library Staff, which replaces Competencies for Librarians Serving Youth, is the latest resource developed to help graduate schools, library administrators, and library staff guarantee that all teens receive high quality service from their public and school libraries, regardless of whether the library has the capacity to dedicate a full-time position to serving teens. It is intended to set a foundation for the education and professional development of all library staff, regardless of job title, and to provide guidance for determining practitioner skills and knowledge. It is also meant to provide a framework to enable those within and outside the field to understand the unique role library staff can play in helping teens prepare for college, careers and life, and to communicate that role to others.
There are 10 competencies with 3 ascending levels of proficiency within those competencies for young adult services. For those unfamiliar or just beginning young adult services, there are “Developing” competencies, then there are “Practicing” competencies and for those that are well experienced in young adult service there are “Transforming” competencies.
The 10 core competencies are:
- Teen Growth and Development
- Interactions with Teens
- Learning Environments (formal & informal)
- Youth Engagement and Leadership
- Community and Family Engagement
- Cultural Competency and Responsiveness
- Equity of Access
- Outcomes and Assessments
- Continuous Learning
Beginning in March 2018, YALSA will be holding FREE webinars on these facilitated by knowledgeable youth development experts and library staff and focus on on a difference competency. These will be held 12-1, mountain, the second Thursday of the month and will be recorded for those need to access later. More information on the webinars can be found here.
