Introductions

[Bonnie]

hi everyone. my name is Bonnie Peirce. i'm currently head of children's services at the dover town library, founder of the library goddesses blog network (http://librarygoddesses.blogspot.com) and thebestkidsbooksite.com. I started this group as a place for youth services librarians to share what they are doing and hoping to do with web 2.0.

[Kelley]

Hi All! I've been guiding Library 2.0 discussions at presentations all around the state this spring with Pennsylvania Library Association's Youth Services Division Chair and a group of savvy librarians. It's been fun to introduce children's staff to some of these technologies and discuss what they could imply for our services now and in the future. I currently provide a wiki for all the youth services staff in our county and am hoping to open it up to contributors as soon they get more familiar with it. it's http://aclayouthservices.pbwiki.com

[Marita Thomson]

Hello everyone. I'm Marita Thomson and I am a secondary (yr7 to 12) school teacher librarian from Sydney. Just finished ane job and about to take up another in a couple of weeks. I love reading YA fiction and have had a go over the last year at using a blog to get kids to review and comment on books. Has been coming together recently, just as I'm moving on. But I'm so much wiser now! Have a look at Book Bites at www.bookbite.blogspot.com I heard someone at my new school say that boys don't read much, which is just the kind of challenge I love. It is unbelievably late at night now as I just found this network as I was about to go to bed so must sleep!

[elizabeth davis]

Hello! I am the Early Literacy Outreach Coordinator and I am supposed to work primarily with children 5 and under but I'm the moderator of the Teen Media Club. I edit our Youth Services Blog at http://oflys.blogspot.com. I've been slowly getting the staff used to new Library 2.0 services and I almost have my director convinced on a myspace account. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Wish me luck.

[joshua m. neff]

Hello, everyone! I'm Josh Neff. I'm a Web Content Developer at the Johnson County Library in Johnson County, Kansas (which is in the suburbs of Kansas City, MO). One of my main duties is overseeing the Youth Services web pages, including a complete redesign and rethinking of the YS site. I have lots of idea, big and small, for turning into a Library 2.0 site that will help encourage children to explore, learn, create, connect, wonder, wander, dream, and play. My job involved me working closely with the YS staff. I'm very lucky in that the two main YS staff members (including the head of YS) are around my age and are very open to new ideas. In the past, I've worked in Youth Services, doing storytimes, writing and performing puppet shows and reader's theater plays. I also worked at Borders Books, where I did a Saturday storytime for 2 and a half years. I'm married to a beautiful, brilliant woman and father of a beautiful, brilliant 10-year-old girl. I also blog as much as possible on my library-oriented blog, the goblin in the library.

[Sonja Cole]

Hello! I am Sonja Cole, the host of Bookwink, a video booktalk website/podcast for kids. I love booktalking and connecting kids with great books, so Bookwink grew out of that. Feel free to take a look at http://www.bookwink.com. I hope you find it to be a useful resource recommending books to the kids in your lives.

[Kathryn Jones]

Hi there,
I'm Kathryn Jones and I work in youth services for a public library in South Australia. I am frankly technologically illiterate when it comes to Web 2.0. I recently attended a presentation by Jessamyn West of the US who spoke alot about this and have since been seeing it everywhere. I'm hear to learn more and hopefully be inspired to put some things into practice, e.g I'd love to create a my space page for my library and look into podcasting.

[Kelaine Mish]

Hi! I'm Kelaine Mish, a youth paraprofessional/teen coordinator for the East Grand Rapids Branch of Kent District Library in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I've been working with teens for 1 year now. Prior to that I did storytimes for toddlers for 5 years. I'm interested in using podcasting with the teens at our library and have been exploring facebook and myspace for ways to get teens/tweens interested in library programs and activities. Thanks for opening up this space Bonnie!

[Adam Paszternak]

Hi,

my name is Adam, I'm a Hungarian reference librarian from Budapest!
My passion is the continous search for better YA services, that's the maint poin of my blog as well (it's Hungarian)...
Nice to have this network, I hope I'll learn a bunch of gooood things here!

Have a nice day y'all!

[Beth Gallaway]

Hi, I'm Beth, a library trainer and consultant. Much of my work focuses on youth and technology, and I'm also looking for ways to make the case for why these new applications are relevant and developmentally appropriate for today's youth! I'm excited to see different types of libraries collaborating by sharing projects, resources and ideas.

[Melissa Wasilewski]

I am Melissa Wasilewski, Branch Librarian of the New Scotland Branch of Albany Public Library in Albany, NY.
Although I serve everyone in my current position, I am primarily interested in serving urban teens. I am always trying out new programming that engages teens in technology and develops their sense of community. I will post blogs describing these efforts.

I am also a lover of urban fiction and booktalk favorite titles often to both teens and adults.

I love suggestions for great books, programs and initiatives for teens! I always welcome advice from colleagues!

[Maureen K]

Hey, Kristin

Do you follow Brotherhood 2.0? (I think it's www.brotherhood2.com) It's a video blog that your kids might enjoy. YA author John Green (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines) does it, together with his brother Hank. They take turns posting videos and just talk about their lives. They're very funny and very brotherly, and when one messes up (forgets to post their video or accidentally sends a text-based commincation to the other) the other brother gets to think up punishments.

The really neat thing, for YA lovin' folks like us, is that John Green is friends with some other YA authors like Scott Westerfeld, Maureen Johnson, and E. Lockhart, and will feature them in his videos sometimes.

[Megan Danak]

LOVE Brotherhood 2.0. Maybe we should start a Nerdfighters group on here. :-)