Over the past couple of weeks I’ve collected a variety of bits and pieces of information that I thought would be of interest to YALSA blog readers. Here’s what I’ve collected:

• In mid-September IMLS (The Institute of Museum and Library Services) announced the National Leadership Grant awardees. The list of 44 institutions and projects includes several that are youth (and teen) oriented.  These include: 
  ◊ Hennepin County Library’s project titled,  Media MashUp: Public Libraries, Youth and 21st Century Literacy. This project focuses on developing best practices for innovative technology implementation.
  ◊ San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Studies project titled, Making Space for Young Adults in Public Libraries. This project aims to collect and analyze data on teen library spaces. The findings will be disseminated in order to help those serving teens create successful spaces for the age group.
  ◊ New York Public Library’s project titled, Homework NYC Widgets: A Decentralized Approach To Homework Help By Public Libraries. This project focuses on the development of a suite of digital tools for students to use as a part of the homework process. It also includes working with teachers to help them understand the role these tools play in supporting student homework needs.
  

  While reading through the full list of projects, I did notice that several awards went to institutions that are working to help undergraduates be more successful in their research. While these projects aren’t geared specifically to the teens with whom a lot of us work, they are worth paying attention to as the tools and resources developed should provide models for how public and school libraries support teen homework and research needs.

• Last week Nielsen Mobile released survey results that focus on the amount of text messaging Americans do. As reported by CNET, since the first quarter of 2006 to the time of the Nielsen survey, the number of text messages Americans send per month has increased 450%. And, for readers of this blog, a really key piece of data is that “The surge in text messaging is being driven by teens 13 to 17 years old, who on average send and receive about 1,742 text messages a month.”
• A recent article in Reuters reports on data analysis that says as a result of social networking, viewing of porn on the Internet has decreased.  The article includes this quote from the author of the data analysis, “young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites….”  Isn’t that interesting within the context of social networking in schools and libraries? Could it be true that by providing access to these resources, libraries are actually helping to keep teens away from pornographic content on the web?
• Wordia is a video dictionary completely created by its users.  Visit Wordia and view user created dictionary definitions that explain, in human terms, what specific words mean – from the video creator’s/user’s perspective. Or, visit Wordia and have the teens with whom you work post videos with their own definitions for the words that appeal to them.
• And, what’s a post without something related to Twitter included?  Twitter Election just launched and its one place to go to read, in real-time, what people are saying about the presidential candidates, the debates, and more related to the upcoming election.  CSPAN also launched a debate hub site that includes real-time Twitter posts along with video, blog posts, and more.  These tools are a good way to give teens a chance to read what others are saying about the upcoming elections and spur discussions about a variety of political, current events, and historic topics.

If you’ve recently heard, read, or seen something that you think has an impact on teen services, let blog readers know about it via the comments on this blog post.