YAWN:Youth Advisors of West Nyack

This year's YAWN group

2006-11-18T12:09:00.000-05:00

In the back (l to r): Gerard and Kevin; In the middle: Divya, Briana, Gary, Phoebe, Jansi, and Ravneet; Up front: Nina, Rachel, and Shweta; Camera shy: Arthur, Kristina, Joe, Jenny, Marie and Jenna

Join us on the first Monday of every month from 4:30 to 6 for pizza and snacks, while we work on making a more "teen-friendly" library. If you're laughing while you're reading this, then we need your help. Need more community service hours? We can use teen volunteers to tutor library users in the use of computers and the Internet. Email me at jmarallo@rcls.org for more information.

~Julie Marallo, Teen Services Librarian
West Nyack Library

Our new look

2006-11-17T15:03:00.000-05:00

Nina, Rachel, and Ravneet are trying to suppress laughter as they help their clueless librarian fix the blog.

Thank you for a great meeting this month! We had record attendance, and you guys had helpful suggestions. You told me to brighten up the blog . I took your advice, and now I want your input. What do you think of our new look?

(Special thanks to Briana and Gerard for their help with the computer classes, and to Kevin for his help in the magazine room.)

Volunteer Fair

2006-05-25T15:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I attended a volunteer fair at Clarkstown South. I handed out so many flyers that I had to get someone from the library to come back with more! For those of you new to YAWN, let me explain some things about our group.

Make sure you are hungry when you come to a YAWN meeting. We have pizza and snacks at every meeting. Someone at the fair asked if we had brownies... if you guys want brownies, I'll be sure they're at the meetings.

Bring your suggestions. Teens often find the library to be a big "yawn". We want to change that, and it is your job to help us. Tell us what books, CDs, DVDs, and programs should be in the library to make it more attractive to teens.

Help people. Every year, YAWN members participate in a community service project. If you read the blog entry before this, you will see that we had a very successful computer/Internet tutoring program that I may continue next year.

If you have anymore questions about YAWN or our community service project, please call or email me.

Julie Marallo
358-6081
jmarallo@rcls.org

The End of the Year Is Almost Here!

2006-05-22T18:34:00.000-04:00

Our last meeting of the 2005-2006 school year will take place on Monday, June 5. I want to thank all YAWN members for making our computer/Internet tutoring program a success. I've had lots of positive feedback about this program, and I'm thinking of running it again next year. In fact, for those of you interested in tutoring over the summer, I have a waiting list of interested students. Please contact me if you wish to provide additional tutoring.

I would like to thank the following tutors:

Joe Benedetto
Zachary Cahn
Marie Coene
Jansi Damarla
Briana Levine
Rachel Lipson
Shweta Megati
Ryan Rubinstein
Nina Sinatra
Gary Wong

You guys have all done a great job!

Julie Marallo
358-6081
jmarallo@rcls.org

Volunteer Tutoring

2006-01-16T14:31:00.000-05:00

The library newsletter is out, and it has generated a lot of interest in our community service project. The next part of this process is to pair tutors and patrons. In order to do this, I need to know when each of you is available.

For those of you who are not familiar with YAWN, we have decided to offer free tutoring for patrons of the West Nyack Library, many of whom have had no computer exposure. The tutoring sessions will be conducted primarily by YAWN members, although joining our group is not required to provide this service. The tutoring sessions will begin in mid-February and will take place here at the library. The exact start date depends on tutor availability.

If you are interested in teaching our patrons how to use the computer and Internet, please e-mail me - jmarallo@rcls.org, or call the West Nyack Library at 358-6081, and ask for Julie. Our next YAWN meeting, which will take place on Monday, February 6, at 4:30 PM, will focus exclusively on volunteer tutoring. All tutors are required to attend this meeting, even if they are not YAWN members.

Thanks, guys! E-mail me your questions.

Julie Marallo
jmarallo@rcls.org
358-6081

Do video games belong in the library?

2005-12-05T19:52:00.000-05:00

This is the question we considered at this month's meeting. Our relatively new video game collection has not been as popular as we had anticipated. We're trying to find out why. Should we publicize the collection more, or should we stop expanding it? Some people suggest that video games don't belong in the library. Based on our discussions at YAWN meetings, I think most of you would disagree with this statement. What do you think? Email me - jmarallo@rcls.org - and I'll post your suggestions.

We are also working out a plan for computer and Internet tutoring. We are still planning to start in February. I will try to match each interested patron with a teen volunteer. If you have friends who would need community service hours and work well with people, please refer them to me.

Finally, I'd like to make YAWN more accessible to those of you who cannot regularly attend meetings. Please email me your thoughts on the topics discussed on this blog, and I will post them so that all YAWN members may respond.

Enjoy the holidays! Our next meeting will be the second Monday of the month, January 9.

Julie Marallo
jmarallo@rcls.org

Summer Reading Lists

2005-09-09T10:54:00.000-04:00

Still haven't done your summer reading? Here are some ideas from your classmates:

Top-Rated Summer Reading Books @ Felix Festa

7th Grade
Driver's Ed - Caroline Cooney
Shipwreck (book one of the Island series) - Gordon Korman
The Best Little Girl in the World - Steven Levenkron
One Fat Summer - Robert Lipsyte
All Harry Potter Books

8th Grade
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series - Ann Brashares
All books in the series The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot
Flight #116 Is Down - Caroline Cooney
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
No More Dead Dogs - Gordon Korman
Eragon - Christopher Paolini
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud
Picture Bride - Yoshiko Uchida