91´«Ã½

CHICAGO – The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½), awarded the to Shira Pilarski and Jill Slay, and to Meagan Kellermann. Each winner will receive up to $1,000 to attend the in Washington D.C. this summer.

Pilarski is the Teen Librarian at the Farmington (Michigan) Community Library. By attending Annual, she hopes to “learn from librarians and other information professionals from all kinds of communities” and to “share some of [her] knowledge and experience as well!”

Slay currently serves as the Library Media Specialist at the Putnam City West High School in Oklahoma City, OK and has focused her efforts on making her library “not only a place for books, but as a place of discovery.” At Annual, she is looking to connect with other practitioners to help “create an atmosphere of creativity and growth” through her school’s makerspace.

Kellermann is a graduate student at Dominican University who is also gaining library experience at the Batavia (Illinois) Public Library as a Technology Librarian’s Assistant. “Opening the possibilities of young adults to follow their dreams, expand their empathy, expose them to diverse ideas, and give them room to grow and be themselves without question is my philosophy,” Kellermann says. “I strive to be in their places […] so that I can better understand how I can serve them the way they want to be served.”

The is awarded to first-time attendees of an Annual Conference. One grant is given to a school librarian and one grant is given to a public librarian. Recipients must be YALSA members and have between one to ten years’ experience working with young adults. The is funded by YALSA's Leadership Endowment and is given to a graduate student attending the conference for the first time.

for the Baker and Taylor Grant and Dorothy Broderick Student Scholarship can be found on page of the YALSA web site. by December 1, 2019.

The YALSA Conference Travel Scholarships Jury members are: Chair Alice Son, Arlington Heights Memorial Library, Arlington Heights, IL; Tegan Beese, Lake Villa District Library, Lake Villa, IL; Kim Farnsworth, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, CA; Ariana Hussain, St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School, Alexandria, VA; Cherity Pennington, Shawnee Public Schools, Shawnee, OK.

The mission of Young Adult library Services Association (YALSA) is to support library staff in alleviating the challenges teen face, and in putting all teens– especially those with the greatest needs– on the path to successful and fulfilling lives. For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources go to , or contact the YALSA office by phone, 800-545-2433, ext 4390; or email: yalsa@ala.org.