Teens Speak Blog

At long last, there is an app for this! The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has created a FREE app to highlight teen-centered booklists and award winning teen titles. YALSA is a part of the American Library Association which specifically focuses on library services to teens.

The app can do all the basic search/browse functions: title, author, year, and subject (e.g. Fiction, Horror/Thriller, Mystery/Crime, Nonfiction, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Sci Fi/Fantasy), but also has neat features for searching by booklist and award winners. You can create your own list of personal Favorites, and share items you find on Twitter and Facebook. The app also features a Find It button to locate that book in a nearby library via WorldCat.

Fantastic perks:

• Three new titles featured on the homepage everyday.
• The Great Graphic Novels for Teens List is awesome.
• The Booklists also include movies and audiobooks.

Some limitations:

• The app only features titles honored each year by YALSA. It's meant to be a Best of the Best recommendation tool, not all inclusive.
• Browse by Author sorts alphabetically by the author's first name. Weird.
• The Find It feature is a little odd. All of Hennepin County libraries show up as one pin in Minnetonka.
• The Facebook feature kept crashing on me, but that could just be Facebook or my iPad, and not the app's problem. Twitter worked perfectly.

Right now the app is only available on Apple products with an Android release planned for later in 2012.

Get it now! iTunes

More tools for finding great Teen Books:

The HCLib App: official library app for Hennepin County. FREE. Search the library catalog, access your account, find hours, locations, events, new title lists, and more. With BookLook, you can see if the Library owns a book by scanning the barcode with your phone's camera. You can access eBooks and eAudiobooks through the app as well.

NoveList Plus: library database. Free to use with your library card. Search for descriptions of fiction and nonfiction titles. Find author read-alikes, book lists, book discussion guides, and reviews.
TIP: Select the Teen button from the Recommended Reading Lists on the left sidebar.

Books in Print: library database. Free to use with your library card. Search the marketplace of in print, out of print, or forthcoming books, ebooks, audiobooks, and videos. Find reviews, tables of contents, full-text previews, cover images, author biographies, awards information, annotations, and publisher contact information.
TIP: Go to Advanced Search, and limit Audience to Young Adult.

GoodReads: website. Requires you to setup a free account. The largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world. A home for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads users recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, find their next favorite book, form book clubs and much more.
TIP: The Recommendations feature works like Netflix to match you with books based on how you've rated other titles.

posted by Teens Online at 11:12     0 comments