YALSA partners with Best Buy for 2015 Teen Tech Week™

CHICAGO – The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has announced its partnership with Best Buy for its 2015 Teen Tech Week celebration.

The need for youth to develop the 21st-century skills needed for future career success is more important than ever. Yet too many teens have little or no access to the latest technology and as a result, they fall behind their peers. By becoming a sponsor of Teen Tech Week, Best Buy seeks to provide teens with opportunities where they can develop tech skills that will inspire future education and career choices.

“This partnership with Best Buy is extremely important to YALSA,” said YALSA President Christopher Shoemaker. “We’re grateful to be able to work with Best Buy because they get us. They understand the value digital literacy holds for the future of teens and their careers.”

Through this partnership, YALSA and Best Buy will join hands to offer schools and libraries a variety of resources that will aid them in promoting and developing digital literacy programming for and with teens. Some resources provided by YALSA include a digital literacy programming grant opportunity, several digital literacy focused webinars and much more.

Individuals who sign up as online community members of the Teen Tech Week site will have access to free, downloadable themed promotional materials and will have the opportunity to attend four free webinars sponsored by Best Buy, the first one of which will be held at noon EST on Dec. 16, 2014, titled “Demystifying Connected Learning.” Eligible individuals will also have the opportunity to apply for one of twenty Teen Tech Week 2015 grants worth $1000 each to support their library’s digital literacy programming.

Supplemental products related to Teen Tech Week and digital literacy, such as a Makerspace Safety poster, a Good Digital Citizen poster and bookmark and YALSA’s Teen Read Week and Teen Tech Week: Tips and Resources for YALSA’s Initiative publication are available for purchase through the ALA Store.

Learn more about making in libraries via the resources on YALSA’s wiki, including a free webinar and downloadable toolkit.  Read YALSA’s recent report “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action” to learn more about libraries’ role in helping teens extend their learning beyond the classroom in order to gain the digital literacy skills needed for 21st century careers.  The report can be accessed at www.ala.org/yaforum.

Teen Tech Week is a national celebration that offers libraries the chance to highlight all of the digital tools, resources and services they offer to teens and their families. It will be celebrated with the theme “Libraries are for Making….”  To learn more about Teen Tech Week, visit www.ala.org/teentechweek, or check out #TTW15 on Twitter.

Best Buy Co., Inc. is the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer, offering advice, service and convenience – at competitive prices – to the consumers who visit its websites and stores more than 1.5 billion times each year.  In the United States, more than 70 percent of Americans are within 15 minutes of a Best Buy store.  Additionally, the company operates businesses in Canada, China and Mexico.  Altogether, Best Buy employs more than 140,000 people and earns annual revenues of more than $40 billion.

For more than 50 years, YALSA has worked to build the capacity of libraries and librarians to engage, serve and empower teens. For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources go to www.ala.org/yalsa, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or e-mail: yalsa@ala.org.