History

VOYA Mission, Policy, and Principles

Owned by Scarecrow Press, part of the Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) is a bimonthly journal addressing librarians, educators, and other professionals who work with young adults. The only magazine devoted exclusively to the informational needs of teenagers, it was founded in 1978 by librarians and renowned intellectual freedom advocates Dorothy M. Broderick and Mary K. Chelton "to identify the social myths that keep us from serving young people and replace them with knowledge." Broderick retired in early 1997, when Cathi Dunn MacRae became editor after twenty years as a young adult librarian in public libraries. Librarian and library educator Stacy L. Creel replaced MacRae in 2007.

VOYA bases its policy on these three principles:

• Specialized YA library services: Young adults aged 12-18 deserve their own targeted library services, collections, and attention to the same extent as populations of other ages.
  
  
• Intellectual freedom and equal access: Young adults have rights to free and equal access to information in print, nonprint, and electronic resources, without infringement of their intellectual freedom due to age or other restrictions.
  
  
• Youth advocacy and youth participation: Youth-serving professionals must advocate for the above rights and services for youth within their libraries, schools, and communities, while providing opportunities for youth to practice decision-making and responsibility in running their own projects.