For those of us who’ve dedicated our careers to sharing great books with kids, today’s electronic landscape may feel alarming (for those of us who are also parents of, say, 11-year-old boys who get in trouble for watching YouTube videos in the middle of the night, even more so…but I digress). On the other hand, youth librarians are often found knee-deep in emerging technologies and communications, because we have to keep up with the young patrons we serve. You may have seen by now that the American Academy of Pediatricians has revised its recommendations about screen time for kids. This is a particularly timely development for those of us in children’s librarianship, in light of ALSC’s recent white paper on media mentorship.

Kudos to our professional association for ahead-of-the-curve thinking on this one! Read ALSC President Andrew Medlar’s recent blog post outlining resources ALSC offers for helping us educate the children and families we serve about responsible media use.

Online and print media aren’t mutually exclusive; there is no one better than a youth service librarian to help our folks navigate the complicated technology and media environment these days. Stay tuned in this space for more projects (and events?) related to youth media literacy.