Adding to her impressive repertoire of teaching and service, Associate Professor Joni Bodart recently accepted the editor role of Young Adult Library Services, or YALS, the flagship journal for youth services in the library field.

YALS is published by the Young Adult Library Services Association, which is a subdivision of the American Library Association. The digital journal focuses on library services for teens and features articles that cover emerging practices, news and events from related fields, and professional literature reviews. 

As the new editor, Bodart’s first tasks are to work on the publishing schedule and determine themes for the next four issues. Her responsibilities involve “everything in the journal, including the appearance of the cover,” she states. Bodart also hopes to encourage more contributions to the four-time APEX Award winning journal, including submissions from students and faculty at the San José State University School of Information. She says that students have “several assignments that could be turned into articles,” as well professional work experience. “Many of our students have full or part-time jobs as library staff, which give them experiences that could be turned into articles,” she explains.

Those interested in the Youth Services career pathway can also benefit from publishing in the journal. “It can be a source for ideas and actions you might not have considered before. It’s a way to get involved with the division and meet outstanding teen librarians from all over the country,” says Bodart. She also mentions that there are opportunities at conferences like YALSA’S Young Adult Library Services Symposium where students can make ”valuable connections.”

The editor position entails attending several ALA events, including ALA Annual in June and the YALSA symposium, which will be held in the fall. Bodart’s plan at these professional events is to “to look for new ideas for articles, meet new authors, and contact publishers about upcoming authors/titles they want to promote.”

Bodart has published 21 books on the topic of young adult literature. She explores several themes in young adult literature in her books including controversial fiction titles, the use of monsters and the “psychology of evil.” Bodart has been recognized for her work and has won the 2010 Scholastic Library Publishing Award.

Bodart teaches courses in the SJSU School of Information’s fully online Master of Library and Information Science degree program, including INFO 265: Materials for Young Adults and INFO 267: Seminar in Services to Children and Young Adults. Other topics Bodart is interested in include “disconnected youth, adolescent culture, the need for information on developmental psychology in course work preparing students to become children’s and young adult librarians.”