Listservs+and+Discussion+Groups

=Listservs: =

**PUBYAC** is one of the most well known list servs for Children's and Young Adult librarians working in public libraries. It is hosted by the Center for Children's Books at the University of Illinois. Subscribers use the list serv to share questions, concerns, programs, answers, collaborations, policies, and anything else regarding or relating to public library service for children and teens.
 * The most comprehensive portion of this tool is the list serv itself, which can be subscribed to in a shorter digest, in a digest with summaries, or through each individual post. The actual PUBYAC site also features links to the archives, so anyone searching for information on a topic may look through the archive for answers before sending out a query to the list serv itself.
 * While information on the list serv does cover a wide variety of topics, it is pretty nice to have a network of librarians who are skilled in multiple facets of public librarianship. In the past, when I have generally used PUBYAC it has been after exhausting in-house resources in the attempt to figure out the title of a book that is no longer in print. However, I have noticed many people offering programming plans or helpful hints on grant writing, etc. that I feel could be relevant to my professional life in the future.
 * I first encountered this tool through Christina Jones, a children's librarian at Monroe County Public Library. I joined the list serv in the winter of 2011, per her recommendation.

1. "PUBYAC." University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2010. []. 26 Feb. 2012.

**Fiction_L** is a listserv devoted to reader's advisory hosted by the Morton Grove Public Library system. While reader's advisory questions might focus on adult titles, they may also focus on teen, tween, or children's titles. The great thing about genre fiction is that many of the appeal elements (although not all) are applicable to both titles geared at youths and adults.
 * Fiction_L features a quick subscription process and a listserv feed that can be subscribed to in a regular and a digest version. Archives as well as booklists are also available to use and a librarian does not need a subscription to access them.
 * This tool was extremely helpful to me during the Fall 2011 semester when I took Adult Readers Advisory. At the time, I subscribed. Due to reading time constraints, I unsubscribed over the summer. However, if hours on the reference desk become a focus of my professional career, I will likely subscribe, again.
 * I first learned about this tool via an interview I read before joining library school from the leader in the readers advisor field, Joyce Saricks.[]

2. Fishman, Natalya. "Fiction_L Subscribe/Unsubscribe."2010. Morton Grove Public Library. 26 Feb. 2012.

= Discussion Groups: =

**YALSA Discussion and Interest Group**s are a set of groups listed online in one handy location that work together to provide public librarians serving young adults or older teens to a forum to discuss specialized topics ranging from "Teen Advisory Groups" to "Serving Teens in Urban Populations."
 * While logging in and registering is required to post, the actual discussions are all available online. Each of the YALSA groups are lumped together on the same page. When you subscribe to a feed you are added to the list and updates to the feed are autimatically sent to you. Discussion can be added to the mix only when a user is logged in.
 * Portions of the YALSA discussion groups could potentially be applicable for any public librarian working with older youths. I used it once when MCPL children's department head Josh Wolf and I were looking into various amalgamations of TAGs, or teen advisrory groups. In the future, depending on where my library is based and what age group I am working with, other discussion boards will likely be applicable to subscribe to.
 * MCPL's Josh Wolf initially mentioned the boards to me when we were looking into TAGs.

3. "YALSA Discussion and Interest Groups." ALA Connect. []. 26 Feb. 2012.