Introducing Jennifer…. Jennifer is a Young Adult Librarian for the Otis Library at Norwich, CT. Getting a new shipment of books is the best part; it always feels like Christmas morning and she has the hardest time deciding which book to take home first. Thus her bookshelf is filled with books and she has a mile long list of books-in-waiting. She’s also addicted to the internet.

Teen Library Websites: Love them or Hate Them?
I’ve recently spent a lot of time researching library websites in anticipation for our new website for Otis Library in Connecticut. Our site, in trying to be uniform as a whole site, quickly made our teen page less about graphics and more about the information.However, when I first looked around, there were pages that I wanted to emulate (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery). My favorite site was the teen site at the Public library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County of North Carolina. Their Library Loft page is bold, interesting, and chock full of information. The Louisville Free Public Library has a wonderful teen page including, along with many other libraries, booklists. I freely admit to including 2 booklist pages after looking at this page. Teens at the Johnson Country Library’s teen page can change the background theme of their page with several choices including Goth or monkeys. Each library strives to make their page unique and attention grabbing, but according to teens that I’ve spoken with, it may be a lost cause.

1) Do teens really look at library websites?

2) Are they drawn to images/graphics or more information?

3) What do they envision for the library website?

The biggest question of all:

4) Do they even care?

With all the social networking sites (yes, I’m on myspace, facebook, and Shelfari – all under the title YABOOKNERD to make it easy) does it really matter to have a wicked cool teen website? From the teens I talked to, most didn’t really know that we had a website catering to them. Once they did know, they didn’t seem impressed and when asked would be unlikely to use the site, unless they were bored. So in this case – how do we reach out to teens? Does anyone else find the library website a tool of the past?

Posted by Jennifer

The word has been out for awhile now that social neworking sites provide a creative and easy way to connect with people. Libraries, businesses, publishers, musicians, politicians, radio stations, you name it, the question is not so much “do you have a MySpace?” but “who does not have a MySpace?”.

One of the first things librarians often do when they create their MySpace (or Facebook) profile is search out well known YA authors and add them as friends. The purpose is mainly to help introduce book titles to visiting teens and to promote books and the joy of reading in general. Besides, who wouldn’t want Meg Cabot on their friend list. How cool is that?

Publishers have caught on and many have started automatically creating MySpace and Facebook profiles for their authors as soon as their books come out. However, after reading an article in the October issue of Publishers Weekly, it would appear that some publishers are becoming weary of this practice for two reasons. First of all, maintaining author profiles can be time consuming. Second, a publishers ultimate goal is to sell books and it’s difficult to find verifiable statistics proving that social networking sites actually do increase book sells. “We have tangible results that blog postings and website features sell books. The jury is still out on the effectiveness of social networks” says Fauzia Burke, President of FSB Associates. Granted, the people interviewed for this particular article mainly publish for an adult audience, so it would be interesting to see what HarperCollins would say about the effectiveness of author profiles when it comes to selling their books.

Nevertheless, this article intrigued me since a librarys’ motivation for creating social networking profiles are in a sense similar to that of a publisher. We’re trying to connect, to direct viewers to our physical and virtual locations. So if publishers are having a hard time getting tangible results from them then how are librarians doing? Is it possible to be able to prove that a MySpace is getting viewed and more importantly, directing viewers to our resources? I believe it is, at least with MySpace. (Keep in mind that I am only 75% techie so if someone out there knows a better way please share). I noticed recently that the “new skin” on MySpace has a new site tracker so you can see how often your profile is being viewed. If you want to know whether your profile is leading viewers to your website or blog then you can use free applications like Blog Tracker and Google Analytics which show you how viewers interact with your site and how they got there in the first place (keywords, referring sites, etc.).

There does, however, seem to be an interesting movement away from traditional social networking sites. Anna Zelenka of Wordpress wrote a post mentioning how some well known bloggers have always seen the whole MySpace/Facebook thing to be pretty much a waste of time and found blogging to be much more effective in reaching readers (the focus of the discussion on these posts has more to do with the OpenID movement, a concept I’m still trying to wrap my pretty blond head around). She also points to a fascinating post by Dana Boyd who uses the term ephemeral profile to describe a particular behavior that I’ve also witnessed with the teens at my library. They have this tricky habit of loosing or forgeting their passwords. However, rather than hunt down the password or having it emailed to them (which is what I and probably most adults do), teens are more apt to just start over again, beginning with an entirely new email address, creating an entirely new profile and possibly even moving to a completely different social networking site (since they do seem to be in abundance lately).

Boyd notes that this behavior is indicative of teens who are all about creating and recreating their identity. What better way to do this than with social networking sites. Create a new profile, a new you and meet completely new friends. She has an interesting quote, “I should note that I don’t think that the answer is “help teens remember passwords.” I actually think that this tendency to shed is advantageous in the way that we shed clothes every year because the “old me” is no longer relevant. Technology is a bit too obsessed with remembering; there’s a lot of value in forgetting.”

So, where does this leave teen librarians? It’s a hazard of the occupation I guess and all the more reason why we need to remain on our toes.

While librarianship is an apolitical profession for many, I endeavor to practice advocacy and activism in the library and dispense with the fallacy of neutrality. In my first year as a librarian, I have not been successful in implementing the tenets of what may be called radical librarianship and I am still trying to figure out what it means to cultivate social justice in and through the library. The best way for me to do this may be to incorporate activism into youth programming. My first project is an Amnesty International chapter at the library.

My friends and I belonged to our high school AI chapter and Wednesdays after school consisted of a clutch of punks eating pizza and writing a letter or two but spending most of our time messing around. It was a good time and I talked to people I wouldn’t have talked to otherwise. I do not know yet how successful AI will be at the library. Young people are particularly interested in their freedoms and rights, which may easily extend to a concern for the freedoms and rights denied to political prisoners from China, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Burma, and throughout the world. Perhaps AI will provide a context for understanding about the Other, for fostering compassion, for fighting injustice. Maybe it will just be a fun gathering of letterwriting and pizza. That would be enough.

In a great interview in the November 2004 issue of Arthur Magazine musician and activist Kathleen Hanna said, “I think it’s completely political for people to feel joy in a joyless culture. That in itself really is doing a great service to the planet.”

This is a guiding principle for me. I think in our programing and outreach efforts, joy is a most worthy aim.

If anyone else wants to start an AI chapter at their library or school, there is some information here.

My Alt. Teen Services post is a day late. I guess that’s an improvement on last month when it was a week late. I’m going to blame it on indecisiveness this time. I spent most of yesterday trying to come up with a good topic. There’s so much to think about and talk about these days when it comes to teen services, so much in the world impacting a teenagers life and so many librarians trying to figure out the best way to help them. I was pretty much set on writing about how neat it would be to have a Teen Yoga program at a library, however, while crunching on my Grape Nuts early yesterday morning my husband thoughtfully reminded me that November 11th was Veterans Day, something which had completely passed me by. My husband has good reason to be paying close attention to this particular holiday. His nineteen year old cousin was killed a mere three days into the invasion of Baghdad in April of 2003. We were newly weds at the time, young adults ourselves and it was the first time I’d ever seen him cry. Suddenly a yoga program seemed like a very trivial topic.

It makes me twitch to think about all the issues teens have to deal with these days but the one that leaves me most anxious, the one that makes me gnaw on my hang nails and yank at my tangled hair in the morning, is the depressing situation in the Middle East. The past few years has revealed a lot of dishonesty in our government. I’m not here to argue over those issues. I’m here to try and put myself in the shoes of a sixteen year old and imagine what it must feel like to be at the edge of my childhood in a world where you seemingly can’t trust anyone, or look to anyone for honest leadership. All the facts and the falseness, all the broken promises, I wonder, how do they make sense of it all? How does it effect them? Do they even care?

Of course they do. They may not keep up with the news in the traditional way but they do keep up and they do care.
I’m currently reading The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf. Now before you say “Whoa, maybe not such an objective middle-way read”, know that I’m only on page twenty and don’t have much of an opinion on the book other than that it’s helping me learn a lot of WWII history that I didn’t know. There is, however, a quote I read which has been stubbornly sitting at the tip of my brain all weekend. In an attempt to express how fragile our civil liberties are Wolf uses an interesting pendulum analogy:

“Up until now, the basic checks and balances established by the Founders have functioned so well that the pendulum has always managed to swing back. It’s very success has made us lazy. We trust it too much, without looking at what a pendulum requires in order to function; the stable framework that allows movement; space in which to move; that is liberty.”

I read the part about being “lazy” and was reminded of another quote that I read recently in Julian Aiken’s article from American Libraries, Outdated and Irrelevent? Rethinking the Library Bill of Rights. The results of the survey he reviewed indicated that “more than half of our public libraries are not conforming to Article V of the Library Bill of Rights“. Apparently this particular part of our job has simply turned into a cumbersome battle that most librarians are “no longer interested in fighting.” I find something downright scary about “rethinking” the Library Bill of Rights and remolding it to better fit the needs of busy librarians who are unwilling to spend the time explaining Article V to busy working parents.

So, where am I going with this? I’m not entirely sure, this is definitely a very randomly thought out post. Am I saying that we’ve become lazy? I don’t know. I’m not sure you can quantify laziness so lets not even use that word. Maybe we’ve become too cautious. Tensions are high in this country, people are on fire with opinion, who can blame anyone for choosing to remain reticent in the wake of controversy or for choosing precaution over advocacy if it means keeping relations in a community peaceful, not to mention helping to avoid heated disagreements with friends and peers. That route is easier, less stress on everyone, that’s for sure. But I have to admit, the repercussions of that kind of cautious action scares the bejezus out of me. Is it enough that we keep gay/lesbian fiction on our library shelves, yet overlook doing programs or displays to promote those books because we’re afraid of upsetting people? How many of us shy away from doing teen programs that may involve political or religious topics because we worry it might lead to inflammatory discussion or upset parents? I think Teen Librarians need to be careful about choosing the quiet stay out of trouble lets lay low and walk the path of least resistance so we can appeal to everyone route. You may think your appealing to everyone that way but instead you end up isolating your services to a quiet reading room and I say quiet because, well, eventually no one will be there. They’ll be here instead.

I think Younker had it right when he described teen services as “the illegitimate child of public libraries”. It’s unfortunate but true and because of it teen librarians have to expect controversy while on job. They have to anticipate these moments be willing to face them and engaged in them productively. Most importantly, we shouldn’t be afraid to let teens engage in disagreement. When holding a book discussion, don’t gloss over hot topics because you’re worried it may pinch a nerve and start an argument. If you do, you may be missing out on a perfect opportunity for teens to express themselves. Teens love to express their opinion. Let them. While you’re at it let them know what it means to be able to live somewhere where they are able to express their opinion without persecution. Then let them know how fragile those rights are and how easily they can be stripped away from them. Using library services to empower our youth is one way we can help maintain the checks and balances in our society.

This Product Is Harmful To Your Health

Most of us are familiar with the mandate of women’s magazines to build us up on one page and tear us down on the next through the cult of the body, the aspirational advertorializing of products and celebrity, and the usage of stereotyped gender roles. While men’s magazines may be culpable of these offenses to some degree, they are fundamentally different. They are based on interest and experience and doing rather than shopping and adorning and being and are defined less by guilt, caution, and anxiety than by an enthusiasm for subjects like music, biking, design, naked women, business, or literature.

Of course, it is not accurate to say magazines like Rolling Stone, Wallpaper, Bicycling, Juxtapoz, Foreign Affairs, Discover, or Business Week are for men. Women read them too. But most media is intended for a white male audience unless it pronounces otherwise. Why do women need a such large airless body of literature devoted to consuming femininity? Why aren’t parallel glossies for men successful (Men’s Vogue, anyone?)

Unfortunately, this is duplicated for children’s and teen magazines and the makeup and dieting frenzy has been filtered down to children and teens, changing bodies and minds that need play and flexibility more than they need withholding and narrowness. In a public library, the available magazines for young people include CosmoGIRL, Teen Vogue, Lucky, Girls’ Life, Cheerleader, Boys’ Life, Spin, Hype Hair, and various gaming mags. This reading material is a small part of the heterosexist, classist, gendered climate in which kids are reared. Early on, children learn that the life of boys is devoted to fun while girls require regimens and advice, paeans to perfection. Aside from New Moon, I see no alternatives to the monoculture that prescribes The Way to Be for Girls and Boys.

Where are the alternatives? Where is the young adult Bitch, Believer, Adbusters, Arthur, Maximum Rock’n'Roll, Venus Zine, Utne Reader? Why aren’t these magazines in YA rooms? Sure, they have their faults, but they attempt to be sources of knowledge and criticism and enlightenment, whereas more mainstream magazines are devoted to checklists and manuals and rules. Media consolidation is locking us out of alternative choices. There is no more Punk Planet or Stay Free or Sassy or Black Girl. We are depending on conglomerates to teach us about ourselves and our culture.

If we decide to buy these titles for children and teens, we should at least provide them with alternatives. If we can’t buy indie magazines, we should encourage kids to make their own zines in the absence of counterculture print material and check out others on the Web

P.S. What do you think about Adbusters’ proposed CosmoGIRL ads?

I finally finished my masters last December.  Although my husband and I aren’t entirely ready to uproot our family, I have tentatively been looking for jobs and my mind has been very focused on what my future in the LIS profession will hold.  Generally speaking, I only have a little bit of experience with teen services, mainly just the odd program here and there.  I do blog about teen services on occasion but most of that is gleaned from things I read.  I often wonder, even if I do know how to talk the talk, can I really walk the walk?  When actually faced with my first day as a teen librarian, will I even know where to begin?  I have a pretty good feeling that I’m not alone in this, that there are plenty of other new librarians coming into the profession wanting to be the best teen librarians they can but feeling a little overwhelmed and bewildered by the continuous flow of ideas being presented to them. So, here’s the scenario.  You’ve just landed your first job as a teen librarian.  Where do you start?   What’s the first step? 

The following is a draft of some of my own ideas.  I have yet to cross this threshold so it will obviously be a rather incomplete list.  What I’m really hoping for is that this post will help generate a dialogue with readers and other fellow teen librarians who have already been through this.  Together, hopefully we can help ease some of those first week jitters for us newbies out there.


1) Evaluate the services already in place

I figure the most logical first step would be to get to know your new library.  What services/programs are already in place?  Are there outreach services, school visits throughout the year?  Study the collection. Note any gaps that may need to be filled.  Is there a collection development policy or statement for your area?  Ask for the past years monthly reports, circulation stats, attendance stats for past programs.  What about regular library goers?  Do a lot of teens come into the library after school?  Have there ever been any behavior issues in the past, if so, how were they dealt with?  What about organizations in your community, are there any that your library has collaborated with before?  If so, collect and store their contact information in case an opportunity arises for collaboration in the future. 

2) Make yourself known to your demographic

In addition to introducing yourself to teens who come into the library, make your presence known to teens who aren’t regular library goers.  Begin with an online presence.  If your library doesn’t have one already, start a teen blog (see Josh’s post on Creating a YA blog for some guidance).  Make sure all your contact information is available on the blog, including a picture of yourself so teens know who to look for when they do come into the library.   I would also sign-up for Meebo and imbed a widget on the blog.  I wouldn’t worry about starting a MySpace or other social network profile right away.  A blog and Meebo are a good start to connecting with teens online.  Find out how they respond to that first.  Then create some snazzy brochures for your teen department that include the blog address and perhaps pictures of your teen area in the library.  Take the brochures with you when you go for school visits or just drop them off at various locations in the community frequented by teens. 

3) Start slow when it comes to programs

I’ve always had a hard time slowing down my brain when it comes to programming.  I hear about so many great ideas nowadays, it’s really hard not to just want to try them all.  But you’ll likely overwhelm not just your staff but also your teens if you try to plan for too much in the beginning.  Stick to the tried and true stuff.   Obviously, budget is going to be an issue here so check into that, maybe start with something cheap and easy first so you can reserve your money for bigger events once you’ve been on the job for awhile.  I think an online gaming event would be a safe bet to start with.  It doesn’t require much more than space and internet accessible computers, perhaps some pizza and pop for refreshment.  Runescape has always been a popular online game with teens but there are plenty of others out there for them to try (Gaia and Naruto Arena have become really popular with the teens at our library).  Then try a second event that’s completely different, like a Fashion show or Pizza tasting contest.  This way you’ll get a diverse sample of teens that you can size up and get to know.  Provide suggestion boxes at each event and maybe a sign-up sheet to see if anyone is interested in starting a TAB.

4) Organize your professional tools

I know they’re expensive but I do think it’s important to have subscriptions to some of the essential publications like YALS and VOYA (in many cases employers will pay for them).  If you can’t afford the subscriptions then remember to bookmark their websites and check them often for new links, resources and articles of note.  Keeping up with blogs is also important but…yikes…that deserves a whole post of its own.  There are a lot of good ones out there and it’s hard to keep up with them all.  I try to keep my list pretty condensed.  In addition to the Alt Teen Services blog, I also read Ypulse, Pop Goes the Library, the YALSA blog  (they even have a catagory especially for new librarians). 

5)  Contribute to the profession

I think anyone would agree that it’s important to wait until you’ve found some sort of sense of balance between work and home before piling on any additional responsibilities beyond your initial job requirements.  But after things have slowed down a bit and you begin feeling a little more comfortable in your position, it may be a good idea to look into contributing to your profession in some way.  There are a number of different ways to do this.  First, figure out how much time you are willing to commit.  ALA and YALSA have all sorts of committees and task forces you can join.  However, if that seems a little daunting then you may want to start with something a little smaller, perhaps on the state level (check your state library website for opportunities).  Or even something more local like a seat on the literacy council in your community.  If you like to write and do research about librarianship then start a blog of your own.  Don’t have time for your own blog? Then join a collaborative blog or do something that requires even more of an irregular committment like contributing to the TeenLib wiki.  Despite how small scale they are, these experiences have the potential of helping you on and off the job.

6) Advocating for teens

One of the most important aspects of being teen librarian is advocating for teens and their right to access information.  This is also probably one of the most difficult aspects about being a teen librarian.  Stay on top of intellectual freedom issues by being proactive.  Know your library’s policies and the steps taken when a request for reconsideration occurs.  Most important, know your support base (who to call if you need help) before an issue comes up in your library or community, as opposed to just reacting to it when it does.  Look beyond your own institution.  How can you as a teen librarian help fight censorship in your community?  Anticipating these situations before they happen will help you deal with them better when they occur.  In addition, make sure your teens are aware of their rights.  Post links to the blog or print out information for them to look at while they’re hanging around in the library.  Build a display around the theme of censorship.  One of the best times to do this would be during Banned Books Week  but you can also do it during the month of a Banned authors birthday. 

7)  It’s not always golden

Working with teens is a tremendous challenge but that is also what makes it so rewarding.  I hate to say it but there will likely be a number of disheartening experiences that you will go through…a program will completely flop, teens will look at you like your from Mars, a parent may get angry at you for suggesting that their child read a Gossip Girls novel…in the midst of all this you will likely make all kinds of mistakes and blunders, all of which you will learn from if you allow yourself to.  The important thing is to never loose your enthusiasm for what you do and never ever stop trying

Recently my library system decided to start a YA blog.  Previously we did not have much of an online presence for our teens and this will hopefully mark a change in the right direction.   We have it ready, but we will not be officially launching it until the end of the summer.  I wanted to share some of our goals and thoughts behind the blog so they might aide other librarians, but also so those of you who already have one can advise us on what will and won’t work.  So let the comments fly.

            In regards to content, we decided we wanted to model it after a blog called The Atrium.  The Atrium is the blog for the Grand Rapids Public Library system and it is one of my favorite library blogs.  The thing we liked about The Atrium was that the bloggers discuss more than just books and events.  They talk about anything on their minds, from the weather, to knitting, and everything in between.   Then they find a way to tie it to the library.  I have seen a lot of teen blogs that talk about programs and or books, but not too many that go beyond those topics.  We wanted something a little more versatile so we could talk about the things that really interest our teens.  We plan to write about anything and everything, from sports, to music, movies, or books.  Basically anything that interests us and would interest our teens.

            This then presented a small problem.  How do we make this blog applicable to the library if we are not necessarily talking about library events or items?  Well we have two answers to that.  The first is that almost every topic we could write about can be tied to the library.  If we write about the latest movie in the theatres, we can link to our catalog showing some movies we carry with those actors.  We could write about playing fantasy baseball and give a plug for a new sports book, or mention an upcoming program with a local athlete.  Secondly we decided that every other blog entry should directly tie to a library item or event.  This should not be hard, because, as mentioned above, almost anything can be tied to our collection or programs. It does, however, provide a reason for us to stay on task and it also helps us defend the blog if our board or administration is skeptical about its purpose.

            So, we have our content ideas ready, what about commenting?  We were unsure what, if any, rules we wanted to have for commenting.  After consulting the 12 laws every blogger should know found on the Aviva Directory and reading the comment guidelines on a variety of other blogs, we came up with the following guidelines, which will appear on the comment form.

• Please use appropriate language.
• For your safety, comments containing or requesting personal information, including phone numbers, will be deleted.
• Feel free to speak your mind, but please be respectful to others; offensive and inappropriate comments will be deleted.
• Comments are moderated; CADL is not responsible for the content of posted comments.
• CADL reserves the right to delete comments at any time for any reason; comments not directly related to the discussion will be deleted.

Most of these guidelines are probably not necessary but we wanted to make sure that we had the right to moderate the comments if a need were to arise.  They basically just give us the right to not post a comment, or to delete a comment, and they explain why we might do that.

            That is where we are right now.  The blog is ready to launch and we are simply waiting on a name.  We have decided that a fun way to launch the blog would be to have a contest, in conjunction with our summer reading program, to name it.  For the next month or so our teens will hopefully be emailing us possible names.  The winner will receive a gift card for a book store, in addition to having the name selected for the blog.

            Hopefully these ideas help any other folks out there starting a blog.  I would love to hear from those of you who have been running a teen blog for a while now.  What has worked for you and what hasn’t?  What do you write about?  Do you moderate comments at all?  And of course how have you attracted your teens to it?

Gaming and libraries seems to be a topic on the tip of everyone’s tongue here lately. Shifted Librarian, Jenny Levine has been blogging notes about the Gaming, Learning and Society conference which took place in Madison, Wisconsin last week and I imagine the biblioblogshere will soon be buzzing about the much anticipated ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning and Libraries symposium taking place later this month on July 22-24. All this recent attention on gaming and libraries has brought a shift in focus from viewing gaming simply as a recreational activity to acknowledging its potential as a literacy/educational tool.

At ALA this past June, OCLC Vice President George Needham conducted a presentation called Gaming, Information Literacy and the College Student, which ultimately attracted a lot of stimulating discussion and criticism. Although the focus of this presentation was directed more towards academic libraries, I think there is a lot here that would make for some interesting discussion amongst teen librarians also. Relying on recent research (2003 Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition, Pew Internet and American Life Project, Marc Prensky) Needham’s presentation attempted to encourage librarians to think ahead a few years and consider the information literacy needs of the graduating class of 2010. Pegged with a multiple of descriptive, if not stereotypical names (net gens, millennials, gen y, gen me), this generation is especially known for its video gaming enthusiasm.

According to Needham’s presentation, gamers believe:

• there are multiple paths to victory
• failure along the way is to be expected
• leaders can’t be trusted
• life should be fun

Taking these traits into consideration, Needham suggests that we design library tools with gaming technology in mind so users can essentially learn on their own (remember: multiple paths to victory, failure to be expected, life should be fun) without having to turn to the “information priest” (leaders can’t be trusted) for assistance. He does not necessarily advocate that we completely forfeit our role of helping students find information, only that we allow them the opportunity to “play” first and ask when they feel they need the help.

Needham said that in this environment, librarians should focus on “in demand training,” helping students when they hit an obstacle, not before they start. Even then, he said, librarians shouldn’t say that they are providing formal training, but should say things like “let me show you a short cut,” the kind of language students use with one another all the time.

Many critics have since taken issue with Needham’s use of metaphor (digital native vs. digital immigrant, librarian as information priest), while others have take issue with his attempt to make gaming behavior synonymous with information seeking behavior. There is a lot of concern that allowing for “failure” is the same things as lower expectations and as such would be detrimental to the learning process. There also seems to be a lot of concern about taking the “librarian” out of the process and diminishing their role to mere “shortcut pointer-outer”. Would designing library technology tools so they are more game-like, more intuitive and trial-by-error be better for teens? Would this be considered the same as speaking to them on their own terms or is it simply “lowering the bar”?

When mulling over this myself, I can’t help but think about a presentation I saw at PLA last year called Making Traditional Library Services Teen Friendly. Mary K. Chelton was among those presenting that day. Well known for her research on teens and information seeking behavior, one of the things she kept repeating was how librarians tend to suffer from an “ideal user” syndrome. Attitudes need to change, she said, we need to start treating teens according to who they are, not how we wish them to be. I have since come to believe that this philosophy is key to providing successful services to teens; however, critics may still view it as another example of lowering standards. Reference-anxiety is another thing that needs to be taken into consideration here. Can we really expect teens to admit that they can’t do something and to come for help?

Current research on teens and information seeking indicates that whatever information literacy we are teaching them isn’t working very well. They make errors when they search and have difficulty combining word variations. But research in this area is incomplete and I have yet to see anything that really substantiates whether other tools such as podcasting or vodcasting might actually help in this area. So what do ya’ll think? Is it time to push for more alternative, non-traditional methods when it comes to teaching teens how to find information? Does the answer rest with gaming technology? Or do we need to take this thing back to the drawing board?

This past week, I joined the ranks of teen librarians attending the American Library Association annual conference in Washington, DC. The majority of the conference was spent networking, participating in meetings, and attending programs such as the To I-Pods and Beyond Presentation and Video Games as a Service: Hosting Tournaments @ Your Library.

One of the empowering aspects of the Washington DC trip was the tour of Capitol Hill that I worked into my schedule before the flight home. There I began reflecting on freedom and democracy while absorbing the sight of the Lincoln and World War II memorial. My thoughts drifted to all the soldiers that have died to secure the safety, culture, and democracy of the United States. You could say these people died for our freedom and I think the best way to repay them is to get involved with making the world a better place. I like to imagine that the soldiers would be proud to know that some of us are not taking our freedom for granted and are instead actively contributing to the progress of society.

By working with teens, I think this activism translates into several things. It’s about empowering teens and providing them with programs that support their developmental needs. It’s about being a friend when a teen needs someone to talk to. And sometimes this means being the only person in your library that is a teen advocate.

Activism is also about contributing ideas to national organizations like YALSA, so that it is relevant to all types of teen librarians. One of my colleagues complained to me that YALSA isn’t relevant to them and lacks the types of resource they want. So I encouraged this friend to take action by joining YALSA and attempting to start something new or at least get involved on some level to make a difference.

But even so, we still need outlets that aren’t tied to national organizations, where we can discuss teen library services without fear of a public relations stigma or having to express our ideas within Robert’s Rule of orders. Online communities such as the listservs and blogs can in many ways provide this type of grassroots forum. I hope that in some ways Alt. Teen Services can also be that type of resource.

Urban Libraries Council recently provided an audio conference about effective youth services in our branch libraries. The featured libraries were able to spearhead an Everyone Serves Youth philosophy that shaped their environment, allowing them to provide quality services to teens. I would like to discuss a few strategies that were highlighted in the conference, and comment on the situation of librarians that lack resources for serving teens.
 

A best practice mentioned repeatedly in the presentation, was an Everyone Serves Youth Training. Key speakers argued that youth service is dependent on staff involvement from all levels. This process includes our library administrators, who essentially define our level of commitment to youth. If serving teens is not an integral part of library service, then we lack the work culture necessary to make it happen.
 

The conference presenters challenged us to examine our work culture in regards to youth services.  Are teens a high priority in the library? Is youth development written into the strategic plan? Does all staff serve youth, or is the youth librarian held responsible for all teen issues (*sigh*, as if one person can make all the difference…)
 

For some of us, these questions reveal a need for organizational change that turns youth development into a top priority. If teen services is not valued, then what can we do about it? How much difference can an entry level librarian or paraprofessional staff make in this regard?
 

When this question was brought up during the Q & A of the audio conference, it was suggested that well prepared arguments and presentations would make any reasonable manager stop and listen. Merely vocalizing dissatisfaction is not enough, and instead our efforts should be concentrated on building a case. One presenter went as far to suggest teen involvement in this case-building process, by asking teens to stand-up and speak out to the board and administrators.
 

I wish all managers were reasonable enough to listen and take action when the above strategies were used. But this would not happen in at least a handful of libraries (maybe more than we’d like to admit…)! I have met librarians that received disciplinary action at some point in their career, specifically for addressing the systemic problems that dumb down teen services. What can be done as a staff person in an environment that frowns upon organizational change?  Is there any hope?
 

I want to say YES! I want to say – one person can make a difference. And honestly, any librarian that cares and puts forth effort will positively impact teens. But as stressed in today’s ULC conference, it takes more than one person to serve youth. If you are the only person that is making an effort, then teen services in general will fail…
 

Maybe our question will lead to this: is it better to work in a functional, progressive work place where one can be effective, or to stay in a disconnected environment, knowing that by doing so at least ONE advocate will be able to help teens.  

Recently, we received this comment on the Alt. Teen Services Blog:

MySpace - Libraries on MySpace appeal to teens!”

Is this true, or just an aphorism? I’ve heard from teens that MySpace is a good source of library information, but I’ve also heard from the same teens that they want MySpace for themselves. They’re not pleased with organizations, especially ones they consider to be “authority” (read: school or library) being on their turf.

Here is my response, which hopefully propels us into a nice discussion:

With the large number of libraries creating MySpace profiles, I find myself wondering if teens want a public authority such as a library on their friends list. Does a teen feel pressured into adding the library on their contact list? The teen that just “added you” may have done so to be polite, but is actually annoyed that the library will be able to view their personal profile.

I have met young adults that refuse to add the library onto their friends list. “Um, I don’t think you want to KNOW what is on MY PROFILE”. And that’s okay if a teen doesn’t want to add the library. In fact, I have both a private and professional MySpace, and encourage teens to do the same if they feel splintered between the Library MySpace and their personal MySpace.
But I’ve also run into teens who LOVE having the Library on their friends list. The library is in their top 10, and we banter back and forth with quirky library comments. One teen commented, “OMG…books can be dangerous when thrown at high speeds?! Why didn’t anyone warn me…”. When we encourage these library-related comments, we are accepting teens for their quirkiness and strengthening our library relationship with them.

Still, there are the teens that feel befriending the library would limit their ability to “be themselves” on MySpace. They may dread the thought of the librarian reading profile comments and seeing private photos.

I’m curious as to what other librarians think about this question. Are we invading a teen’s private space when we add them as a friend?

I’m finding the Maplewood “Lock the Library” situation to be very distressing (see library’s announcement here). I know teen behavior has often been a topic for discussion on this blog, but I would be interested in hearing some thoughts on this specific situation. The behavior problems exhibited by the teens in the Maplewood community are extreme and would certainly necessitate an extreme response. I feel for the librarians who have to endure this and realize that this action was pretty much a “last straw” response, but locking the library during the prime hours of the day defies reason and could only end badly for the Maplewood library. I personally feel it shows the community/library board’s inability, perhaps even incompetency, to deal with a major problem. If the library itself is unable to handle the over abundance of teenagers with disciplinary problems then shouldn’t the community (including the library) pull together and find an alternative that doesn’t include such a drastic and unfair step as closing the library entirely? This is one of those situations where having a teen librarian would be very advantageous to a public library. We should be here to advocate for these teenagers and promote more constructive solutions for situations like this.

Linda Braun also blogged about this situation on the YALSA blog last week.

During the month of October a group of YALSA Bloggers spent time looking at social networking sites. Everyday they added a new post talking about a new site or group of sites and how libraries or schools can positively use them. If you missed these posts I suggest you check out the recently released pdf, which includes all of them.

Anyway, I wanted to take a second to mention a few other sites that I think are a lot of fun and have some good potential for libraries. The first site I want to mention is www.bookcrossing.com . According to the site, and also now the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, a bookcrossing is “n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.” If you’re still confused as to what Bookcrossing is then the “3 Rs” of Bookcrossing should help.

1. Read a good book (you already know how to do that)
2. Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
3. Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, “forget” it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records a journal entry for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!

Basically the idea is to create a worldwide library and to share books. This has potential for some real fun programming that could promote reading. You could host a program, or maybe try combining it with a Teen Advisory Board meeting, that involves teens bringing in a book to label and write a journal entry for. Then you send them all out into the community to release the books. From there you simply keep track of the books online and see what happens to them. Or better yet, the librarian can release a bunch of books into various places in the community and record where they are on the site. Then your teens can use the hunting feature to go find them and read them. If you can think of a more fun way to get teens excited about reading a good book than a community wide scavenger hunt I would like to hear it.

The next site I want to mention is a little more obscure and does not apply to libraries quite as directly but it is my personal favorite social networking site so indulge me. It is called Frolf Caddy. According to the creator “Frolf Caddy is a user driven disc golf community, which aims to bring frolf players together.” For those unfamiliar with it disc golf is a sport very similar to regular golf except you throw discs or Frisbees toward a basket rather than hit golf balls toward a hole. Basically Frolf Caddy is a website where disc golf players meet online to share scores, courses, stories, and anything else disc golf related. The site will keep track of all your scores every time you play and give you all sorts of stats so you can analyze your game as well as compare it to your friends. So how does this apply to your library? Well that depends on your community, if you don’t live near any disc golf courses then it doesn’t, but chances are there are at least a few courses near your area and you can use the sites course locator to find out. If that’s the case why not have a program based around Frisbee golf for your teens. You can have a local player come in to talk about the game, the equipment and of course the site. Or if you know some of your teens are frolfers then simply tell them about the site, they are bound to love it. Be creative, there are many ways you could use this site if you think your teens would find it interesting. If you are still unsure trust me, it is huge across the country, especially among high school and college students so use the site to find a player in your community and see if they have any ideas.

The main thing that you should learn, both from the Yalsa pdf, and from my rantings on social networking sites is that they come in many different varieties and they have many possible applications for your library. They don’t need to be a scary or foreign thing; they are simply online communities for people who share interests such as books, disc golf, or anything else. So, find a site that would be interesting to your teens, explore it, and find a way to use it at your library.

I just wanted to take a few minutes to mention that I absolutely love being a young adult librarian. Today I spent much of my day helping demonstrate how to play videogames to many of the library heads, and upper level administration in my library system.

As I mentioned the other day we are hosting a Dance Dance Revolution tournament for Teen Read Week. Part of convincing the system to host the tournaments involved convincing them to buy the Nintendo’s, games, and some other equipment. Now, mind you, thanks to our very awesome youth services coordinator and also great IT director this convincing did not take too much, but still, there were some issues to work through. One such issue involved both my coworker and I agreeing to write up directions for the equipment and games as well as offering to train everyone on them.

That brings me to today. I spent the better half of my day at our main branch talking about video games and teaching people how to use them. I have now been referred to as a “specialist” because of my knowledge of Nintendo. This is why I currently feel like shouting out to the rooftops that I love being a young adult librarian. I am now being singled out and respected because I know about and am somewhat good at video games. How great is that?

This is not to say that there isn’t a whole lot more that goes into being a young adult librarian, or even into planning and hosting gaming events, but it is a part of it. Other great parts involve keeping up with pop culture by listening to music, watching popular shows and movies, and reading YA books and comic books. Not to mention talking to and getting to know young adults. These are all things I would and do, do for free in my spare time but I get paid to do it for work. Anyway, I have no real knowledge or ideas to impart at the moment, but I just wanted to remind you all how much fun our job can be.

I recently received a Myspace friend request from a band that I had formerly never heard of called The Remus Lupins. I of course gave them a listen and discovered that I really like their music. This was the second Harry Potter related band I had heard of, the first being Harry and the Potters and I decided it was time to investigate this coincidence. Here is a little about what I found.

Both of these bands and many others are bands that fall under the fairly new genre of Wizard Rock. According to Wikipedia “Wizard Rock is a musical movement dating from 2002 that consists of a number of bands formed by young musicians playing songs about J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter literary phenomenon. The lyrics are usually humorous and simple, and many bands write songs from the point of view of a particular character in the books, usually the character who features in the band’s name.” To my surprise this is becoming a very popular genre. A quick Myspace search turns up dozens of Wizard Rock bands and you can even find the Wizard Rock groups page, which is a discussion board and forum for fans of the genre. This page includes links to many Wizard Rock band pages with streaming music. Many of these bands tend to go for a rock or indie sound but I have found some that lean toward electronica, folk, or just the simple sound of a singer-songwriter.

One of the aspects of Wizard Rock that I find most fascinating is how interested most of these bands are in promoting literacy. Almost every one of these bands on their Myspace or website mention that one of their goals is to promote literacy. Some even have links to sites or pdfs you can download explaining how to help promote literacy in your own area.

Also of note is the Wizard Rockumentary, a group who is filming a documentary about Wizard Rock. According to the website “ The Wizard Rockumentary is a feature length documentary exploring Harry Potter fandom, the Wizard Rock community, and the goals of these musicians to promote literacy. “ Production is currently underway for this documentary but there is already a fair amount of interesting material to view on both their website and their Myspace page.

These bands have some great possibilities for young adult librarians. Many of them will play in a library making for a great program. Given the proclivity of most of these bands to promote literacy why not find one nearby and work with them on some sort of literacy program or project. A viewing of the Wizard Rockumentary, once it is released, would also make for a fun program for the teens in your library. There are countless ways to tap into this as a young adult librarian, but simply as fans of young adult literature and in the case of most of us, fans of Harry Potter it seems important just to be aware that these bands are out there and some are becoming quite popular. Below is a list of a few of these bands with links to either their Websites and/or their Myspace pages.

Harry and the Potters – Website / Myspace

The Remus Lupins – Website / Myspace

Draco and the Malfoys – Website / Myspace

The Whomping Willows – Myspace

Dobby and the house Elves – Myspace

The Hermione Crookshanks Experience – Myspace