Teens Matter

Moving Day

2007-10-08T22:00:00.000-04:00

http://www.teensmatter.net

I'll leave this up in case people are still using links, but all the old posts have been transferred as well.

YA Lit Wisdom: On Relationships

2007-10-02T19:41:00.000-04:00

From Gotta Get Some Bish Bash Bosh by M.E. Allen:

"If you're planning on going out with a girl, take my
advice: don't start over the summer holidays.  Do it
in term time, when there's loads of other
distractions.  Over the summer holiday, keeping a girl
happy on a day-to-day basis can really drain you."


Ah, but for a lot of teens the boyfriend or girlfriend is the major distraction.
I have one girl who was a very enthusiastic participant in almost every library program for the past two years, this year she has a boyfriend. 
I hope she'll be back when they go their separate ways, but such is the world of teen.

The First Ten Lies They Tell You In High School

2007-10-01T12:07:00.000-04:00

Inspired by Yalsa-bk, and busy working on an upgrade for this site, this week I'm doing a series on wisdom from YA lit.

From Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson:

The First Ten Lies They Tell You In High School

1. We are here to help you.
2. You will have enough time to get to your class before the bell rings.
3. The dress code will be enforced.
4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.
5. Our football team will win the championship this year.
6. We expect more from you here.
7. Guidance counselors are always available to listen.
8. Your schedule was created with your needs in mind.
9. Your locker combination is private.
10. These will be the best years of your life.

Yes, I think that is pretty accurate based on my high school experience.

Feel free to share your favorites in comments.

Do the Slam Thing: CPL's TRW

2007-09-27T14:20:00.000-04:00

It's almost TRW and here at CPL that means getting ready for Cleveland Real Star. This is the third year of competition and it works like American Idol. Teens compete at the branch, the best three from each branch compete in three semi-finals by area of the city, and then the top three from each semi-final make the finals in the auditorium. The teens get backpacks, t-shirts, and the winner gets a trophy. The branch gets bragging rights. The library brings in a couple hundred teens, families, and friends throughout the course of the competition.

The first year was a singing competition, last year was dancing, and this year will be performance poetry.

See our web page and listen to the podcast announcement.

2007-09-25T10:45:00.000-04:00

Michael Stephens is talking about what books would make good discussions for incoming LIS students

It got me thinking about which books would make good reading for prospective teen librarians.

Not necessarily things like Connecting Young Adults and Libraries,though everyone should read that before they start. I was thinking of more general titles about teen development or culture. Such a list might include:

The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids
by Barbara Strauch
Why do they do that? Strauch, a science and health editor at the NYT, includes recent research and conversations with teens and parents to try to shed some light on the mysteries of teen behavior.

Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids: American Teenagers, Schools, and The Culture of Consumpt ion by Murray Milner Jr.
Milner talks about social strata in high school and suggests that cliques and teen relationships as a whole are shaped by teens' lack of power in the other areas of their lives.

Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart
Quart follows how marketers target teens and how it affects them. Though weakened by a focus on the upper and upper middle class this book still provides a lot of material for discussion.

What books would you pick?

Talking With Teens

2007-09-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

Jami had a great post over at the YALSA blog about how powerful and important it is just to listen and talk to teens (and other patrons too).

So many teens need more adults in their lives that are low pressure. Our Teen Coordinator often points out that we are one of the few adults in a teen's life that isn't a relative, a teacher, or here in the city:a security guard.

One of the great things about craft programs is how much the teens will open up when their hands are busy. This is a great way to get to know your teens and once they are comfortable they tend to stop by often when there is something on their mind. I have one young man whose mood I can tell easily from the way he flops into the chair by my desk for a chat.

I love conversations about books, but I've also had an opportunity to talk informally about much bigger issues including tolerance, violence, sex, and self respect. Building these relationships is easily one of the best parts of my job.

Are you ready for Teen Read Week?

2007-09-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

Teen Read Week is coming up fast (October 14-20), but it's not too late to plan an event.

Top Ten Reasons to celebrate Teen Read Week:

10. It breaks up that Labor Day to Thanksgiving slump quiet nicely.

9. Got a co-worker who hates teens? Bring in more just to spite them!

8. There are always Great New Titles to promote.

7. With standardized testing and AR teens need to be encouraged to read just for fun.

6. WWDD? What would Dewey do? Well, he'd celebrate TRW.

5. Teens need positive press.

4. Everyone needs to LOL sometimes!

3.It's a good time to connect with youth-serving partners in your area.

2.Between the Official YALSA site and the TRW Wiki you don't need to stretch for ideas.

1. We're teen librarians, we don't need a reason to celebrate teens and reading!

Coloring Books for Big Kids

2007-09-18T13:03:00.000-04:00

Probably one of the cheapest and best investments I've made in the last couple years is to purchase several coloring books from Dover Publications .

They have a wide variety including famous works of art, ethnic designs, classic cars, and almost anything you could want.

The three that are most popular with my teens are:

Big Book of Geometric Designs and Illusions to Color

African Designs

Japanese Designs

2007-09-17T10:27:00.000-04:00

This is Your (Father's) Brain on Drugs

This New York Times piece doesn't shock me at all. I often tell people the teens are fine, it's the "adults" that cause problems. Turns out that middle-aged Americans are the ones acting irresponsibly.

"Today, the age group most at risk for violent death is 40 to 49, including illegal-drug death rates five times higher than for teenagers."

Wow, so apparently the drug prevention programs should focus on parents, and around here some of the grandparents, rather than the kids.

M for You, T for Me

2007-09-14T13:39:00.000-04:00

I was really glad to see the new line of Kimani Tru books aimed at African American teens. The covers are attractive, the dialogue is realistic, and my high school girls, especially the ones who are heavy readers, are coming back for more.

I was leafing through some of the newer titles that have arrived at the branch and I was surprised to find a small sticker on the back cover, "M-Mature".

After prying the sticker off and throwing it out I couldn't help but ask "What on earth does that mean?"

I haven't been able to read all these titles, but the ones I have read are not especially graphic in any way. I also know that the girls reading these would be reading Triple Crown otherwise, so I doubt they would consider these especially mature.

That is the essential problem with ratings isn't it? What is mature for you might be teen appropriate to me.

Asset: High Expectations

2007-09-13T13:49:00.000-04:00

High Expectations is one of forty developmental assets for teens, and in my opinion it is one of the most important. In serving the public sometimes there is a tendency to melt to the lowest common denominator, and while those patrons deserve service too, we can provide so much more.

I have heard adults in my community say that nobody ever talked to them as if they were expected to go college. That struck me very deeply, and I always try to promote college as an option for my teens.

I encouraged them to show me their report cards and gave out candy as a reward. I required a 3.0, an A in English or Reading, or marked improvement from last term to get the reward. Yes, that is high, but I don't think that is unreachable for most of my teens.

This fall I launched Amplify. Amplify is a leadership development program that requires a twice-weekly commitment. I decided that I would go forward with 12 teens and limit it to 20, I currently have 22 teens enrolled because I just couldn't turn them away. Only time will tell if they last the year, but I expect most of them will.

Book Review: Raise Them Up

2007-09-10T17:00:00.000-04:00

I'll be doing informal book reviews from time to time, mostly for professional resources.

Raise Them Up: The Real Deal on Reaching Unreachable Kids by Kareem Moody with Anitra Budd, published by The Search Institute ISBN: 1-57482-866-5

Positives:
Mr. Moody is not an academic, he is the director of a program for at-risk youth in Little Rock, AK. Raise Them Up is filled with stories of how he used the strategies in the book with teens in his youth programs. His main suggestions are ones that form the foundation for anyone that works with youth:

Listen to them
Let them know they have value
Set high expectations
Help them put their education and skills to use

Drawbacks:
Raise Them Up has little to add for those with experience working with youth or familiar with the 40 Developmental Assets. Additionally, the recreation center and library environments are different in some key ways. For example, while effective and creative Mr. Moody's punishment for horseplay would probably not fly in most libraries. I am also a firm believer that one does not need a similar background to the youth they serve to be effective, however, many of the examples in Raise Them Up imply that one's own "war stories" are a powerful tool. That might be very true, but not necessarily relevant to all situations.

Recommended For: New librarians with little experience working with this age group or administrators without a background in youth services who would like to have more positive interactions with teen patrons.

Paper Bead Craft Program

2007-09-07T11:37:00.001-04:00

This one is more girly than most of my craft programs, but it's cheap and fun. It was inspired by this Martha Stewart Kit but could be easily done with scrapbook or wrapping paper for a bigger group.

Supplies

Strips of thin paper (You can pre-cut the strips or have the teens do it themselves. )
Bamboo skewers or really thin dowels
Elastic beading string or similar
Glue
Decoupage medium and brushes (optional)

Directions

Roll the strips of paper around the skewers keeping the edges even.
When an inch of the paper remains coat with glue and continue rolling.
Slide the bead off the skewer
Coat bead in decoupage medium (this is not strictly needed, but the beads will last longer)
Continue making beads and string a necklace or bracelet.

Not in the Handbook

2007-09-05T19:57:00.000-04:00

Asteve' "Cookie" Thomas might have been one of "my teens", but she'll never get the chance. Asteve', only 12 years old, was killed by a stray bullet on her way home from the corner store in Cleveland. She'll never get the chance to do a lot of things.

A new student at Cleveland School of the Arts she hadn't visited my branch yet, she likely would have been given a library card application in English class this week. A few of my teens knew her from class, they said had a smile for everyone. There isn't much I can do other than let them talk about it if the want and do my best to provide a safe space for them.

Asteve' died because two grown men were chasing each other down the street shooting at each other. The sad truth is that little will change in Cleveland until more of those over 18 start acting like adults and taking responsibility for their own behavior and their communities.

Why Not?

2007-09-04T19:42:00.000-04:00

When you do as many programs (3-5 a week) as I do you tend to go a little soft on the traditional boundaries of library programs. Sure, we have book related and educational programs, but sometimes it's enough to keep them entertained and out of trouble. Here are a few of my more random programs or upcoming program ideas:

Contest for the best house of cards.
Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament
Identifying scenes from Jeffrey Metzner's book Stick
Building towers with dry spaghetti and mini-marshmallows
All Haiku poetry slam
Giant color by number with a little help from the overhead projector

Any ideas?

Intentionally Untitled or What's in a Name

2007-09-01T10:32:00.000-04:00

I wonder if we waste time and energy trying to think of clever names for programs and services? On one hand, I'm not sure the teens care, but there are some positive considerations.

I remember asking my teens to suggest names for a series of poetry programs. They said just call it "poetry club".

I wonder how many teens can tell you what the theme was for Teen Read Week last year? Likely few, but I bet there are many that could tell you about a cool program they attended at their library last October.

I will admit sometimes the name conveys key information that improves attendance, I'm sure more teens notice Pizza and Pages than Teen Book Discussion. Branding is also an issue when the program is ongoing. I've named my twice-weekly leadership program, but I did consider just calling it leadership program.

Your thoughts?

Library Shorthand?

2007-08-30T21:30:00.000-04:00

In honor of David Pogue's great list of possibly new online abbreviations and acronyms I wondered if we can create some library related ones for our teens to use (after all, we introduced YNK to tons of teens who had never heard of it).

How about these:

G2GCTE: Got to Go, Computer Time Expired
CBFTH: Can't Borrow: Fines Too High
GBLC: Great book, Lousy Cover
AARBWD: Any Accelerated Reader Book Will Do or ABAR: Anything But Accelerated Reader

or maybe some to simplify the rules for them:

PUH: Please Use Headphones
GOHL: Get off his/her lap
TYFO: Take Your Food Outside

Can you add to the list?

Back to School

2007-08-28T11:33:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the break, I always try to take a library-free vacation before school starts, sometimes I even have a chance to read a book published for adults. YA librarians around the country are preparing for the back to school rush. Here back to school means we go from 6 kids in the library to 60.

We tried something new this year, having a very short orientation for the teens on the first day of school to give them a heads up. Topics included:

Library card sign-up campaign
Reminder that I am happy to order books from other branches but it takes a few days and they should plan ahead
How to sign up for teen programs (held nearly daily)
The leadership training program I am offering this year
Our three strikes and you are out for the day behavior policy
Our unfortunate but much needed zero tolerance for food and drink policy
That we now have reference copies of their text books

How do you handle back to school?

Tweens: The Next "Big" Thing

2007-08-14T14:29:00.000-04:00

They might drive you crazy, they might drive the children's department crazy, they almost certainly drive your high school teens crazy. They are the tweens, the 9-13 year-olds in your library, and they might just be the next big thing in youth services. They already mean big money for marketers.

In teen services we often talk about attracting teens to the library. Why is this?

We lost them at 10 or so when they got bored with American Girl Teas and Captain Underpants. This is not meant to be negative towards children's departments at all, I know how difficult it is to plan programs for so many developmental levels, but let's not forget that second and fifth graders are not at the same level. I certainly don't have the answers, but here are some questions to consider:

How are tweens using my library? Are they coming in at all?
Can children's and YA cooperate in offering programs specifically for this age group?
Would more older teens be interested in library programs if the sixth and seventh graders had different activities? (at my library this gets a resounding yes)
How can we make the middle grade books more attractive and accessible to this age group? What are the go-to titles? What graphic novel, manga, and non-fiction series are appropriate for this age group?

Check out the YPulse Tween entries

The CDC has already caught on with the Verb campaign:
Info for adults
Interactive tween site

Low Budget Craft Program

2007-08-10T11:27:00.000-04:00

I love doing craft projects with teens, it gives them a chance to be creative and they really open up when their hands are busy. After spotting these mobiles for sale I knew I'd found a great project that costs next to nothing. Have teens make them individually or collectively build one to decorate your teen area.

Materials

Small diameter, flat, paper plates
Glue
Old magazines from withdrawals or donations
Fishing line
Large eye sewing needle

Directions

Using paper plate as a stencil trace the shape onto magazine pages and cut out
Glue magazine circles to both sides of paper plates
Using needle string fishing line through the center of the circle
Continue adding plates, hanging various strings from one central plate.

20 Things to Do With Your Anime Club

2007-08-08T16:50:00.000-04:00

A fun video my Anime Club shared with me last night: Too Much Anime is Dangerous

20 Things to do with your Manga/Anime Club when you can't stand to watch another episode of Naruto or Bleach

Watch a travel video about Japan.
Pick a manga title to discuss.
Have a fan art or fanfiction workshop or competition.
Cosplay.
Manga related video games.
Anime Karaoke.
Watch classic anime.
Do anime improv by having teens create scenes using stock characters and situations.
Play Anime Jeopardy .
Create a fan newsletter.
Sample Japanese food.
Learn to play Go.
Arrange a webchat or other virtual social gathering with a club from another library.
Learn some Japanese.
Make color copies of cover art, black out identifying information, and have a contest to identify the series title and volume number.
Let teens help you create read-alike lists for manga series.
Watch YouTube videos related to Anime, you may want to get links ahead of time and pre-screen to be safe.
Make Twinkie Sushi
Learn origami.
Find dvds with interesting special features and focus on those.

Class and Social Networking

2007-08-07T12:30:00.000-04:00

There has been quite a bit of media buzz about this report from Danah Boyd. The basic premise is that mainstream, college-bound, white teens are using Facebook while their less affluent and minority counterparts are on MySpace.

The teens at my library are almost all members of a minority group and from working class backgrounds. They came late to the MySpace wave, mostly migrating from Tagged. I am yet to notice a Facebook page open on a public computer in my branch.

What bothers me about this article is that it seems to imply, while categorically denying that it does so, is that having a Facebook account is some sort of upgrade from a MySpace account.

If a social networking is simply a tool to connect people than why can’t different people prefer different tools? In library land we certainly have our preference for everything from email clients, to OPAC interfaces, to podcasting software.

My answer to why teens at my branch are on MySpace isn’t about “bling” or hip-hop as Ms. Boyd suggests, it is even simpler: Teens go where their friends are. Period.

If anything this means that librarians should seek input from a diverse group of teens before trying to reach them through social networking.

All We Have to Give 4/4: Expertise

2007-08-06T15:16:00.000-04:00

The similarities between the teen and the toddler brain don’t end with a lack of impulse control. Teens also soak up information like sponges, they are just a bit more selective in what they are willing to absorb. Here is where we come through again, this time offering expertise.

Sometimes it’s our own expertise in our reference work and programs we conduct ourselves. Sometimes it is teaching teens to recognize expertise through resource evaluation. In many cases we provide expertise by bringing in experts to teach, inform, and entertain.

Some well tested ideas for offering expertise to your teens:

Invite a nutritionist to talk about easy to make healthy food
Have a poetry workshop for teens featuring a local poet
Put together a panel of college students and personnel to discuss the realities of college life.
Ask your local yarn store about teachers for a knitting or crochet class
Offer a safety and self-defense class in cooperation with law enforcement

How do you provide expertise to your teens?

All We Have to Give 3/4: Structure

2007-08-04T15:38:00.000-04:00

You don’t always see teens and structure as part of the same thought, but it’s important part of what we do. Of course we provide structure through our rules and policies, and that certainly has its place helping teens become part of the adult world, but that is not really what I mean by structure.

The structure that is one of our greatest assets is in our ability to use our resources to create memorable experiences and events for our teens. Think back to your teen years, what do you remember? Not the small everyday things, but the one- of-a-kind experiences. Concerts in the library, lock-ins, teen summits, city-wide talent competitions, and other opportunities abound for our teens because of their local libraries.

CPL’s Wizard Rock Concert

More patron footage

What experiences will your teens remember?

All We Have to Give 2/4: Community

2007-08-02T11:44:00.000-04:00

Libraries build community. I know, not exactly an original thought, but community is another thing that libraries have to offer teens. If play is a child’s work then it’s not that big of a leap to say that socializing is a teen’s. Providing opportunities for positive socialization goes a long way to providing for teens’ developmental needs.

Reading is generally a solitary activity, but libraries create a community of readers with programs like book discussion groups, Libraries all over the country are creating opportunities for teens get together over knitting, creative writing, anime, gaming, and anything else that interests them.

Libraries are building communities for teens virtually as well. Perhaps the best example of this is My Own Café, but it’s happening on MySpace, in SecondLife, and on library web sites like the Ann Arbor District Library .

What opportunities will you have this school year to build community?

All We Have to Give 1/4: Validation

2007-08-01T15:38:00.000-04:00

Today on the YALSA blog Linda Braun busted what I think of as one of the great myths of YA librarianship, the coolness factor. You don't have to be cool to be a good YA librarian.

So, if we aren't projecting coolness what exactly is it that we as YA librarians offer our teens?

I've worked with teens in two very different communities and it turns out they basically want the same thing: acknowledgment as a valuable member of the human race. Don't we all?

Consider all the ways a good librarian does this:

We listen to them.
We look for their input and put it to use in all kinds of ways including teen advisory boards, surveys, and suggestion boxes.
We buy books that will interest them, not just their parents and teachers.
We advocate for them both in and out of the library.

What other ways do you give teens a sense of validation?