WLS Teens

Your Teen Experience in the Library

As an optional exercise for my YALSA web course, we could listen to a recorded version of Patrick Jones' "Moment of Truth Rap," a guided imagery exercise that brings you back to your teen years and particularly into your teen experience of the library. (The exercise can be found in Do it Right!: Best Practices for Serving Young Adults in School and Public Libraries by Patrick Jones and Joel Shoemaker.) I loved the library as a teen but being terribly shy I didn't interact with the librarians or other staff very much. I don't particularly recall them being friendly or unfriendly, although I was a bit intimidated by them.

Perhaps the most interesting memory the exercise brought back was how in high school, I put a note in the library copy of Sylvia Plath's diary, hoping to meet a kindred spirit. I went back a few times but no one ever replied and after several months I took the note out. I couldn't relate to many kids in my town, and just think how social networking online might have helped me find other teens I had stuff in common with! (I've done just that as an adult. Many of my good friends are people I first met online via common interests.) The internet often provides a way for shy or socially awkward people to test the waters of being social. While there are dangers online for lonely teens, there's also a wealth of possibility.

Nancy Kunz, TUK

YALSA Online Course: Pain in the Brain: Adolescent Development and Library Behavior

This week I started taking YALSA's online course titled, "Pain in the Brain: Adolescent Development and Library Behavior." I'm really enjoying it already and learning a great deal about adolescent brain development (and why our young patrons act so crazy sometimes). I asked the instructor, Beth Gallaway, if I could repost any of the links to articles here and YALSA is okay with perhaps one per week. I really recommend taking this course if you get a chance. (I've passed information on to Judith about a group discount.)

This week's teaser link discusses teen brain development (the topic of the week): http://www.dana.org/pdf/specialpublications/cerebrum_dahl.pdf

Next week we'll be discussing Developmental Assets, which I feel like I have a head start on after recent teen librarian meetings hosted by Linda. I've joyfully immersed myself in this class (how could I not, being immersed in the tween/teen world at work every day?) and hope to come out of it with more understanding of my teen patrons and their needs. And perhaps more sympathy for their confounding behavior.

Nancy Kunz - TUK

Graphic Novels

Kelly Czarnecki just posted some good links on the YALSA blog about graphic novels and in particular info. that helps librarians deal with challenges to graphic novels.  In general, and of course I'm a bit biased, the YALSA blog is a good place to go to find out about what's happening in the teen and teen library world.

YALSA's Teen Tech Week Website

The Teen Tech Week (TTW) website has been available for quite awhile, but it wasn't really until today that there was any content.  Now, when you visit the site you'll find program ideas and resources to help you get ready for Teen Tech Week and links to the Teen Tech Week wiki so you can gather more ideas and add your own too.

The TTW website also includes a page that explains why YALSA decided to use a wiki for TTW. Check out both the TTW site and the wiki.

Of course, Teen Read Week (TRW) is before Teen Tech Week - TRW is in October. So, you might want to check out the TRW website too.

Ladder of Participation

So many times I talk to teen services librarians about their youth particpation programs and discover that what they are doing is less youth participation and more librarian driven programming.  In the past I've found that using the Ladder of Participation, developed as a part of a UNICEF conference, is a great way to think about the youth participation activities developed in libraries and how to make sure these activities are more youth participatory than librarian led.

I don't think it's fair to ask librarians to jump straight to the top rung of the ladder. But, as you think about the ways you work with teens in your community, consider whether or not you can make the programs and services you provide hit at least rung #4 on the ladder.  If you do, it's very possible that your programs and services will be even more popular than they already may be.

40 Developmental Assets

As some people know, I'm a big fan of the 40 developmental assets from the Search Institute. I use the list of assets as a way to sell to administrators the importance of teen services, and specific programs and services.  For example, often when I hear about a challenged item in a library collection, I look at the item within the framework of the assets. I ask myself if it's possible to support the challenged item within the framework of the assets. I might ask questions like:

• Does the item help teens gain a sense of personal identity?
• Does the material help teens gain social competencies?
• Does the resource help give teens a sense of boundaries and expectations?

I can do the same thing when working with librarians on planning specific services for teens. For example, if a teen services librarian would like to start a teen committee on gaming she might look at the developmental assets and ask:

• How will being on this committee help teens learn boundaries?
• Can work on this committee help teens feel supported in the community?
• Does the work that will be done on this committee constitute constructive use of time.

Whenever I've used the assets in this way, I've been able to articulate to colleagues, administrators, and community members why what we are trying to do and achieve in teen services is important. Check out the 40 Developmental Assets and start thinking about your services for teens within this framework.

YPulse

YPulse is one of my favorite sites to find out about teen trends and research related to teens and what they are interested in.  Recent stories include packing for college, what's up with MTV and Survivor, and info. on sleep deprived teens.  I'm always finding information on the site that lets me know what teens are interested in and helps me figure out the programs and services (including items for the collection) librarians might offer teens that would actually be of interest.

Readers of YPulse can subscribe to receive daily updates of teen-related news.  It's possible to receive these updates via email or RSS. To subscribe via email use the form on the left side of the main page of the site.  If you use RSS this is the URL of the RSS feed.