Are We Mad to Work with Kids? [Hint:Nope]

I spent my career as a youth librarian, educator and consultant on public library youth services. Like many who have worked primarily with kids, I have always been aware of a certain...shall we say... lack of respect within the library profession for those who work with kids.

There is a tendency among some in the profession to treat youth librarians as if they are children themselves. It is a subtle and maddening prejudice that stands in the way of position promotions, raises, opportunities to lead projects and take a place at the table of leadership. Much like any form of discrimination, it forces children's librarians to prove themselves over and over, to work harder but achieve fewer rewards for it, and to have to listen to asinine people presume they know more - and better - than you despite your professional expertise.

This type of treatment is not just found in the library profession of course. The medical field, teaching; social work...whichever profession it rears its ugly head in, it often means that funds, staffing and services for children are given a lower priority. It's makes us crazy to fight battles over and over again to prove the worth of the choice to serve children.

That's why I was so excited to see the American Library Association's Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) the recent rollout of a great toolkit that really gives some needed resources to all youth librarians to stand up and advocate for the importance of not just youth services but youth services librarians.

The professionally produced resources include a video; powerpoint template to use with presentations to the community (or administration and board)  at the library; graphics to illustrate the work of youth librarianship; and ideas for programs and networking to increase understanding of youth work and more.

Every youth librarian can embrace this and use it to up advocacy for their work and for the children they serve. I applaud ALSC for this. Now let's use it!