WLS Teens

Teens and Trends in Social Networking

SFGate.com has a very interesting article about teens burning out on social networking sites, as well as trends in social networking for the future. The end of the article contains links to a variety of niche social networking sites, most of which I had never heard of before. After reading the article, I don't know that I think teens are necssarily abandoning social networking, however they do seem to be cutting back on the time spent doing it as well as the breadth of sites they post profiles on. I suppose like anything that was once novel it's losing its novelty. However, as teens will always have a need to make new connections, they anticipate the kids coming into their teens will still be attracted to social networking.

Social sites becoming too much of a good thing.  Many young folks burning out on online sharing.

I also posted the link to our del.icio.us page.

- Nancy Kunz, TUK

Fear, Fiction & Teens

I just came from an amazing symposium, jointly sponsored by the Yale University Child Study Center and the Anna Freud Center, entitled “Fear and Fiction: The Power of Children’s Books and the Inner Life of The Child.” Presentations by children’s and teen authors who have written books dealing with this theme were interspersed with analyses of their books by psychiatrists and therapists. It was a wonderful affirmation of why literature matters and how literature works.

For teens in particular, the intimate voice of an author who seems to be writing just for you and who seems to know your darkest fears—can provide a feeling of companionship as well as direction on the lonely voyage to adulthood.

Arietta Slade, Professor of Clinical & Developmental Psychology, City University of New York, reminded us that “the beauty of literature is that we discover pieces of ourselves by loosing ourselves in the stories of others.” And Chris Crutcher added, that “it doesn’t matter where the stories come from (online, print, film), but where the big questions come from – where did I come from? Where am I going?”  "Fearlessness," pointed out Jacqueline Woodson, "is freedom."

Karen Gilmore, Associate Director, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, explained some of the development tasks of adolescence, emphasizing individuation and separation from parents. The journey to adulthood can be scary and it can be lonely. Books, stories, literature, she pointed out, can help teens feel less alone.

It was inspiring to see how inspired the psychiatrists were by the authors and their books and the eagerness of the therapists to incorporate literature into the lives of teens. 

If I can decipher my notes, I’ll share quotes and insights from Gregory Maguire, who gave a personal, poetic and very wise keynote, and from Lois Lowry, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Jacqueline Woodson, and Chris Crutcher —who were all wonderful—among others like Neil Gaiman and David Almond, who sent papers.

Judith Rovenger, WLS

Serving Teens - Assets, Behavior, Spaces

At today's WLS Teen Services meeting we had a good discussion about the ways in which libraries support healthy teen development via the programs, services, and spaces they provide.  We looked at the Developmental Assets - created by the Search Institute - and talked about exactly what libraries do for teens that help support the assets. The list created by the group is available here.

I stressed a few things about the assets over and over again. First, the assets provide teen librarians with a framework for the services they provide and they also provide language for articulating the importance of what teen librarians try to accomplish with and for teens in libraries.  As I mentioned in the meeting, librarians serving teens can include the developmental assets as reasons for why they  create specific programs, services, and collections. For example, one can look at the assets and find that providing a separate space for teens meets many of the items on the list - support, boundaries and expectations, social competencies, and more. I have had great success selling programs and services to administrators by putting them within the assets framework.

At the meeting I also distributed a handout that provides some guidelines for handling problems in teen_behavior. The sheet can be effectively used with all staff members as a jumping off point for talking about teen behaviors and as a way to help staff understand how to successfully work with teens.

Another handout included questions to ask when analyzing the library's teen space. These questions serve as a launching point for helping librarians determine what they are already doing successfully with teen space and how they might make changes and improvements.