YALSA's National Guidelines and Position Papers

Learn more about national guidelines from YALSA, including competencies for serving youth, teen space guidelines, programming guidelines, position papers, and more.

YALSA Guidelines I Research I Position Papers I Related Resources I Guidelines from Beyond YALSA

YALSA is your source for national guidelines, competencies, position papers, and benchmarks to aid librarians, library workers and libraries in better understanding the components of an excellent teen services program.

YALSA Guidelines

Core Professional Values for the Teen Services Profession (also available in PDF) Adopted on June 27, 2015.

Teen Programming Guidelines (also available in PDF) Adopted on March 4, 2015.

Teen Services Competencies for Library Staff

Teen Space Guidelines (also available in PDF)

YALSA's Public Library Evaluation Tool

Research Guidelines and Tools

National Research Agenda, 2017-2021

YALSA's Research Bibliographies

Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults

Henne Research Grant

Midwinter Paper Presentation Travel Stipend

YALSA Position Papers & Reports

Reports

YALSA's position papers are authoritative guides that make recommendations on important issues in teen librarianship. Current, board-approved papers include:

Related Resources

Issue Brief: Libraries Help Keep Teens Safe Online (PDF)

Issue Brief: Adolescents Need Libraries (PDF)

Issue Brief: Libraries Help Teens Build STEM Skills (PDF)

Library Bill of Rights & related documents (see the menu on the left side of that web page for links to the related documents)

Roots and Branches: YA Services Past, Present, and Future (speech by Mary K. Chelton, available as mp3 or PDF)

Teens First: Re-imagined Library Services for and with Teens

Other Guidelines of Interest