The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults is calling for papers for two upcoming issues:
1. The current state of teen services (deadline: January 31, 2025)
Over the last four years we have seen many issues and even legislation related to libraries that serve teens and young adults. The next issue will cover a wide range of topics that apply to teen services including but not limited to the current state of young adults and libraries:
- The impact of technology on teen services and libraries
- The changing role of libraries in teen education
- Teen programming
- The challenges of serving teens with special needs
- The future of teen services
- YALSA National Research Agenda 2017-2021 priority area 1
Librarians, researchers, graduate students and others who conduct research related to teens (ages 12 – 18) and libraries are invited to submit manuscripts. Papers describing scholarly research (qualitative, quantitative, or theory development) as well as action research are welcome for peer review and consideration of publication. Papers that report library programs but lack an original research component will not be considered. Additional information regarding author guidelines and the submission process can be found at the following website: https://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/author-guidelines/
2. Call for Papers Special Themed Issue: Culturally relevant pedagogy and cultural responsiveness in library service to Teens (deadline: January 31, 2025)
What is culturally relevant pedagogy and cultural responsiveness in terms of collection development? What are the best practices when it comes to cultural relevance and cultural responsiveness when it comes to serving teens in various types of libraries?
- Public Libraries
- School Libraries (K-12)
- College Libraries (particularly those that serve teens in Dual Credit or Early college programs)
- YALSA National Research Agenda 2017-2021 priority areas 3 and 4
Librarians, researchers, graduate students and others who conduct research related to teens (ages 12 – 18) and libraries are invited to submit manuscripts. Papers describing scholarly research (qualitative, quantitative, or theory development) as well as action research are welcome for peer review and consideration of publication. Papers that report library programs but lack an original research component will not be considered. Additional information regarding author guidelines and the submission process can be found at the following website: https://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/author-guidelines/
PDFs of each article (where available) can be accessed by clicking on the 
Volume 14
Number 2: November 2024
Number 1: October 2024
Volume 13
Number 2: August 2024
Number 1: July 2024
Volume 12
Number 2: May 2022
- “My Mom Recommended It to Me”: Understanding Homeschoolers’ Information Practices
- “What Is Unseen Is Eternal”: Undergraduate Views of Religion and Spirituality in Young Adult Literature
Number 1: June 2021
- Accounting for Diversity: Measuring Change in the Proportion of African American Teen Literature in the Senior High Core Collection
- Essential and Dedicated: Discursive Practices of Librarians Serving Teens in Fall 2020 of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Volume 11
Number 2: April 2020
- When Libraries Aren’t Challenged: Librarians Discuss a Lack of Patron Challenges to Their Collections
- The Darkest Themes: Perceptions of Teen-on-Teen Gun Violence in Schools as Portrayed in Teen Literature
Number 1: February 2020
- “The Expectations That We Be Educators”: The Views of Australian Authors of Young Adult Fiction on Their OwnVoices Novels as Windows for Learning about Marginalized Experiences
- “It’s Okay to Be Confused”: LGBTQAI+ Teen Novels as Sexuality and Sexual Health Information Resources
- A Public Health Approach to Uncovering the Health-Related Needs of Teen Library Patrons
Volume 10
Number 3: November 2019
- Getting Basic Information Isn’t as Helpful as the Nuanced Advice We Can Give Each Other”: Teens with Autism on Digital Citizenship Education
- Teen Social Media Practices and Perceptions of Peers: Implications for Youth Services Providers and Researchers
Number 2: July 2019
- Feels Like Home: The Digital Information Practices of Teen Fans
- Perspectives on Youth Data Literacy at the Public Library: Teen Services Staff Speak Out
- What’s Going on Down Under? Part 2: Portrayals of Culture in Award-Winning Australian Young Adult Literature
Number 1: March 2019
Special Themed Issue: Movements that Affect Teens
- Editor’s Message: Movements that Affect Teens
- One, Two, Three, Four! We Don’t Want Your F**king War! The Vietnam Antiwar Movement in Young Adult Fiction
- Disability Narrative Theory and Young Adult Fiction of Mental Illness
- What’s Going on Down Under? Part 1: Portrayals of Culture in Award-Winning Australian Young Adult Literature
Volume 9
Number 2: January 2019
- The First All-Digital Library Space: The Effectiveness of BiblioTech’s Services for Urban Youth.
- Pausing at the Threshold: Peritextual Images in Young Adult Nonfiction Award Winners.
Number 1: July 2018
- The 2014 Rainbow List: A Descriptive Study of the List and Ten Public Libraries’ Ownership.
- Asian American Teen Fiction: An Urban Public Library Analysis
- Happiness at the End of the Rainbow: Exploring Happy Endings in Young Adult Literature with Queer Female Protagonists, 2009–2017
- INFLO-mation: A Model for Exploring Information Behavior through Hip Hop.
- Middle-Schoolers’ Perceptions of Government: Intersection of Information and Civic Literacies.
Volume 8
Number 2: December 2017
- Drawing Queerness: Evaluating Notable LGBTQ Graphic Novels for Teens
- Patterns in Multicultural Young Adults Novels about Persian Culture
Number 1: July 2017
- Dreaming in Color: Identifying Race and Ethnicity in YA Speculative Fiction Reviews
- Provide the Highest Level of Service: Public Library Collections of LGBTQ* Materials for Adolescents in the United States
- Understanding Empathetic Services: The Role of Empathy in Everyday Library Work
Volume 7
Number 3: December 2016
- Hunky Cajuns and Gay Sextons: Diversity as Represented in Adolescent Book Reviews
- The Real Deal 2*: How Autism Is Described in YA Novels
- Teen Book Covers: What’s Missing?
- What We Know: Planning, Implementing, and Assessing a Media Literacy-Themed Summer Camp
Number 2: June 2016
- Competencies Needed to Provide Teen Library Services of the Future: A Survey of Professionals in Learning Labs and Makerspaces
- Designing the Library of the Future for and with Teens: Librarians as the “Connector” in Connected Learning
- How Usable Are School Library Websites? A Random Sample from All Fifty States
- The Impact of Social Media on Ghanaian Youth: A Case Study of the Nima and Maamobi Communities in Accra, Ghana
Number 1: March 2016: Teens, Libraries, and LGBT Issues
- “They Kind of Rely on the Library”: School Librarians Serving LGBT Students
- Sex in the Stacks: Teenager Sex Education Information Seeking Behavior and Barriers to the Use of Library Resources
- The Curriculum Materials Library as a Hub of Resources, Literacy Practices, and Collaboration: Expanding the Role of the Library to Support Foster Youth
- “It’s Woefully Inadequate”: Collections of LGBTQ* Fiction for Teens in English Public Library Services
Volume 6
Number 4: November 2015: Practice-Based Research
- Find Poetry: Using Found Poems in School and Public Libraries to Enhance Student Creativity and Writing
- Future of Library and Museum Services Supporting Teen Learning: Perceptions of Professionals in Learning Labs and Makerspaces
- Book Tweets and Snappy Reads: Booktalking to Engage Millennial Teens
- YouthStudio: Designing Public Library YA Spaces with Teens
- Examining Inclusive Programming in a Middle School Library: A Case Study of Adolescents Who Are Differently- and Typically-Able
Number 3: August 2015
- Adolescent Females and the Graphic Novel: A Content Analysis
- Teen Library Website Models: Identifying Design Models of Public Library Websites for Teens
Number 2: April 2015: Selected Papers from the 2014 YALSA Young Adult Literature Symposium
- You Are What You Read: Young Adult Literacy and Identity in Rural America
- The Real Deal: Teen Characters with Autism in YA Novels
Number 1: March 2015: The Future of Library Services for and with Teens
- The Impact of Assigned Reading on Reading Pleasure in Young Adults
- Connected Learning, Librarians, and Connecting Youth Interest
Volume 5
Number 1: January 2015: Eliza Dresang Memorial
- Eliza Dresang and the Boy Who Lived
- Looking at Kim Dong Hwa’s Color Trilogy through the Prism of Radical Change
- Putting Youth First: The Radical Eliza T. Dresang
- Radical Change Theory: Framework for Empowering Digital Youth
Volume 4
Number 2: August 2014
Number 1: May 2014
- From Dickens to 9/11: Exploring Graphic Nonfiction to Support the Secondary-School Curriculum
- Motivational Attributes of Children and Teenagers Who Participate in Summer Reading Clubs
- Beyond Books, Nooks, and Dirty Looks: The History and Evolution of Library Services to Teens in the United States
- More than Just Books: Librarians as a Source of Support for Cyberbullied Young Adults
- Comics: A Once-Missed Opportunity
Volume 3
Number 1: April 2013:
- This, That, Both, Neither: The Badging Of Biracial Identity In Young Adult Realism
- Taking a Dip in the Crazy Pool: The Evolution of X-Women From Heroic Subject to Sexual Object
- YA Literature: The Inside and Cover Story
Volume 2
Number 4: September 2012
- Graffiti, Poetry, Dance: How Public Library Art Programs Affect Teens Part 1: Introduction & Literature Review
- Graffiti, Poetry, Dance: How Public Library Art Programs Affect Teens Part 2: The Research Study and Its Practical Implications
- Recent South Korean Immigrant Adolescents’ Everyday Life Information Seeking When Isolated from Peers: A Pilot Study
Number 3: April 2012
- Editor’s Message: Continuous Publishing
- Media Literacy and Learning Commons in the Digital Age: Toward a Knowledge Model for Successful Integration into the 21st Century School Library
- The Cover Story: What the Book Jacket of Adele Minchin’s Young Adult Novel, The Beat Goes On, Communicates about HIV/AIDS
Number 2: February 2012
- Editor’s Message: February 2012
- An Agenda of Praxis for Young Adult Librarianship
- Research Matters: The Long Reach of the Model of the Information Search Process (ISP)
- The YALSA Research Agenda: Getting It Done
Number 1: November 2011
- Editor’s Message: Fall 2011
- Research for the Next Generation
- Young Adults’ Information Behavior: What We Know So Far and Where We Need to Go from Here
- The Impact of Libraries on Young Adults: Toward a Critical Research Agenda
- Gimme Shelter: Informal and Formal Learning Environments in Library Land
- The Young Adult Voice in Research about Young Adults
Volume 1
Number 4: August 2011
- Editor’s Message: Summer 2011
- The Silent Message: Professional Journals’ Failure to Address LGBTQ Issues
- Juried Posters from YALSA’s Research Poster Session at ALA Annual 2011
Number 3:’ June 2011
- Editor’s Message: Spring 2011
- Are All Lists Created Equal? Diversity in Award-Winning and Bestselling Young Adult Fiction
- More Powerful than a Locomotive: Using Graphic Novels to Motivate Struggling Male Adolescent Readers
- YALSA Research Committee Poster Session
Number 2: February 2011
- Editorial: Winter 2011
- An Initial Exploration of Printz Award Winners from Outside the U.S.
- The Printz Award Winners Under a Microscope: Content Trends, Committee Challenges, and Teen Popularity
- Rural Teens on the Role of Reading in Their Lives
- Information Seeking in the Context of a Hobby: A Case Study of a Young Adult with Asperger’s Syndrome
- The School Library versus the School Board: An Exploration of the Book Banning Trend of the 1980s
Number 1: November 2010
- Editorial
- Cultural Inquiry: A Framework for Engaging Youth of Color in the Library
- “Teens Today Don’t Read Books Anymore”: A Study of Differences in Interest and Comprehension Based on Reading Modalities: Part 1, Introduction and Methodology
- Pushing the Envelope: Exploring Sexuality in Teen Literature