This episode's guest is Erin Knight, Learning Director for the Mozilla Foundation. Erin walks us through all the ins and outs of the new education initiative "Badges for Lifelong Learning", a developing system that will enable users to highlight and gain recognition for specialized learning and achievements outside the the standard classroom or workplace.

Ted Anderson from YALSA's teen literature blog The Hub returns with an in-depth conversation with Joni Bodart, author of the new non-fiction title They Suck, They Bite, They Eat, They Kill: The Psychological Meaning of Supernatural Monsters in Young Adult Fiction.

For this episode we are happy to bring back Jesse Karp, author of the new non-fiction book Graphic Novels in Your School Library.

For this episode we sit down with Megan Honig, editor-in-chief for YALS, YALSA's own quaterly journal. Megan tells us about some of the highlights of the November, 2011 issue as well as the brand new online component that will enhance the content of the print version of YALS.

This episode's guest is April Layne Pavis. As convener for YALSA's Teen Music Interest Group, April takes us on a whirlwind tour of music and ways to integrate into the programs at your own library.

Ted Anderson and Sarah Debraski of YALSA's The Hub blog return to the podcast as they challenge each other with another pair of books in their ongoing "Comfort Zone" series. Will Robin McKinley's Beauty press Ted to finally proclaim his love for fairy tale retellings? Will Sarah run away in terror from Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson's graphic novel Beasts of Burden? Listen and find out!

For this episode we talk to Thomas Knowlton, librarian for the New York Public Library and Convener for YALSA's Serving New Adults Interest Group, about new adults: who they are, how to reach them and some of the unique programs they might be looking for. For further information please check out these links mentioned in the episode:

YALSA's Serving New Adults Interest Group: bit.ly/newadults-yalsa

New York Public Libraries Sci-Fi Summmer Program: bit.ly/scifisummer

This special edition of the podcast features Sarah Debraski and Ted Anderson of The Hub, YALSA's blog dedicated to information about teen reads.  Ted and Sarah decided to try something interesting to broaden their horizons: they each made a list of the types of YA books they don't read, and then each chose a book for the other person to read from those categories, to deliberately force themselves outside of their comfort zones and read something they normally wouldn't. Did it work? Read on!

For episode #99 we're talking New Orleans as we preview some of the upcoming YALSA-oriented events happening at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference. First we talk to Penny Johnson, who gives us the big rundown on The Nuts and Bolts of Serving Teens Pre-conference. Then Blog Manager MK Eagle interviews Matt Moffett about The Table Talk Mashup Program and things close out with Gretchen Kolderup giving us a nice overview of the Speed Networking for YA Librarians event.

For episode #98 we are joined by critics Francisca Goldsmith, Candice Mack and Eva Volin to discuss the fine art of book reviewing and how it relates to the world of libraries.