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Youth Advisory Council
Mission Statement
"GVPL's Youth Advisory Council strives to make the library and the services it offers important and relevant to teens in the community."
Youth Advisory Council (YAC) includes youth ages 13-18 from all over the Greater Victoria region. This is a unique volunteer experience to add to your resume. You will get to work on special library projects, offer your opinion, meet other teens and have fun. YAC meets monthly and runs from September-December, and January-June. Summer schedules vary. Check out our teen programs to register for the next session. If you are new to YAC, please complete a YAC Referral Form and bring it to the first meeting. For ages 13–18.
YAC News
GVPL's YAC's Top Reads in 2011 for Teens is a list of the best books YAC members read last year. You can check out the full list plus find tons more reading recommendations on the GVPL Recommends for Teens booklists page.
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United Way Youth Development Day YAC members Ryan, Daphne, Cindy, and Annie attended the 3rd annual Youth Council Development Day organized by the United Way of Greater Victoria’s YouthNOW! along with representatives from the City of Victoria, Saanich, and Sooke youth councils. It was a great learning experience centered around team building and communication -- oh, and there were lots of fun games too! |
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Teen Panel at BC Bookseller Education Day YAC members spoke to close to 70 booksellers and publishers about teen reading and book selection at the BC Booksellers Association (BCBA) Education Day in February 2012. Thanks to Ryan, Charlotte, Jadzia, and Maia for attending this fun, funny and informative day!
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In 2011, the library reviewed its youth spaces. YAC helped design, analyze and write up results from the Teen Zone Survey, which led to the Teen Zone Survey Report (PDF). Thanks to everyone who filled out our Teen Zone Survey and congratulations to Kristina, who won the iPod Touch prize! |
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Shopping Spree at Bolen Books! YAC received a gift certificate for participating in UBC's Digital Tattoo project and Cindy, Matt and Kangni came out to help spend it on new books for the library. |
Meet Some Of Our YAC Members
Keep watching as we add more profiles of our crew:
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Salutations! I’m Charlotte and this is my first year in YAC. I think that it’s awesome and you should join. I also enjoy reading (obviously), playing the piano and violin, singing, writing musicals, sewing, learning Esperanto, plotting my next travel adventure, dreaming of world peace, protesting with my friends, biking, planning my self-sufficient organic farm, wishing I was a lighthouse keeper, and organizing the books I own by the Dewey decimal system. I’m not weird at all... My favourite part of YAC is having a voice about library happenings and getting to see the fruit of my labours. I hope to meet you soon! |
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Greetings, humans who have stumbled upon the YAC page! I'm Holly and I've been volunteering at the library for three years. The library is superb because that's where books are found! I'm also into all sorts of wacky things like violin, writing, drama, social justice, slam poetry, sci-fi, pretentious words, gauntlets, and chocolate. Mmm... the snacks are another reason why we love YAC. Come on, someone had to say it.
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My name is Jadzia and this is my first year in YAC! I love reading (my favourite series is Harry Potter), volunteering with the library and playing music with my friends in school. |
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Name: Cindy Interests: browsing the web, professional photography, music, and any other semi-geeky thing you can think of. Why I volunteer: because I love volunteering. Why I volunteer for YAC (NOT pronounced 'yack'. Sorry Michael. =P): so I can have a voice. Why you should volunteer at the library: because cool things happen when you do. |
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Hi, I'm Michael. I mostly use the library for music: jazz, pop, world, classical, hip-hop, you name it. I've been in YAC (pronounced yack) for two years and try to act as a voice of reason. |
For more information about volunteering at the library, contact teens@gvpl.ca or check out our teen programs or see Teen Volunteers at the Library.
Our teen volunteers are amazing, as always! On Feb. 11, I accompanied three teens from our Youth Advisory Council members and one brave last-minute teen recruit to the BC Booksellers Association (BCBA) Education Day at Laurel Point Inn. The teens did a great job answering a wide range of questions about their reading and book selection habits to a room full of rapt independent booksellers and publishers, well over 50 people in all. The session lasted for around one hour and questions ranged from what book covers the teens prefer, to favorite genres, to the influence of librarians/booksellers on their book choices, and beyond. The teens spoke articulately and demonstrated their great senses of humour. I spoke a bit about some of our teen programs at GVPL and made a number of contacts with book publishers, which hopefully will build up our supply of ARCs for our increasingly popular ARC Club. The teens were rewarded with a great round of applause, a bookbag full of ARCs, and some extra volunteer hours for their reference letters. All in all, a pretty great way to spend a Saturday!
