The YALSA online chat on Advocacy is archived at http://connect.ala.org/chatrooms/archives/249. Thanks to everyone who joined us and stuck with it through the technical difficulties! Lots of great ideas and resources were shared, but of course, the topic doesn’t end with the chat session, our conversation can continue, here on the blog!

For discussion:

• What does advocacy mean, to you?
• What are some successful advocacy strategies you have employed?
• What do you talk about with people, when you talk about teens?
• What frameworks, if any, do you use, and what do you do when people don’t want to hear about developmental needs or assets?
• Do you work with community agencies in your advocacy efforts?
• Do you involve teens in advocacy (i.e. Legislative Day, Friends Board Mmber)?
• What kinds of resources or training do you find useful, in terms of advocacy?

Thanks for commenting!

I had the pleasure of visiting the Wilton (NH) Public and Gregg Memorial Library this week to conduct a staff training on Gaming at the Library, followed by a gaming session for teens. While setting up Rock Band, I noticed a display board propped in the window that was titled “Return on Investment.”

Director Carol Roberts told me it was prompted by the New Hampshire State Library, but they made the idea their own, and the Board really appreciated this concrete breakdown. For example, the Return on Investment (ROI) states that the cost of renting a computer for an hour at Kinko’s is $12; the library hosted 3500 hours of computer use at a value of $42,000. All of the values were totaled and the figure compared to the actual operating costs of the library.

In 2008, the Wilton Public and Gregg Memorial Library provided a return on investment of 306%. This data was archived online in multiple formats, as well as displayed in the library and pictured in this post.

Some libraries lump YA services stats are lumped in with Children’s Services; at other libraries, YA is lumped in with adult services. One way to be a YA advocate is to start asked that these figures be clearly distinguished. In 2006, Nanci Milone Hill championed this cause and talked with other YA librarians in Massachusetts to lobby for separate statistics on the Annual Report Information Survey (ARIS), part of the an annual, voluntary State Aid to Public Libraries program. The result? Beginning with FY ‘09, The Institute of Museum and Library Services asked participating libraries to provide the number of Young Adult Programs and Young Adult Program Attendance at libraries across Massachusetts.

If your library doesn’t already do a value of service exercise as part of the annual report, you could write one for YA services, and pass it along to your supervisor or director to share with the Friends or the Board. We often say that teen services generate a lot of bang for your buck (Youth Services programs tend to cost $1-$2 a head, while programs for adult cost $10); creating an ROI report is a way to demonstrate it.

Tools
The Orange County Library System in Florida has developed an ROI Calculator that allows you to put in local values to determine the Value of Your Library Services; the Massachusetts Library Association has a Value of Service Calculator, too. Give one a spin; it’s possible that if you are able to demonstrate to your key stakeholders just how little YA services actually costs, you can successful advocate for more resources.

YALSA will offer three online courses in October: AIMing at Tweens: Advising, Involving, Motivating, taught by Teri Lesesne; Graphic Novels and Teen Readers: The Basics and Beyond, taught by Francisca Goldsmith; and Reaching Teens with Gaming, taught by Beth Gallaway  (hey, that’s me!).

Gaming at the library refers to board, card, role-playing, and big games, not just digital video games. Thinking about hosting board game nights or starting a circulating video game collection? Already offering Rock Band and Mario Kart and looking for a next step program? Would you like to engage RuneScape players, RPGers, or use a big game to promote the library? These topics, and more, will be covered in this session. The main focus is to educate non-gamers about what games are and introducing librarians to the many formats of hobby that engages the free time of their teen clientele. The session concludes with creating a plan of service to engage gamers at the library.

The gaming course runs six weeks and has been revised and adapted to include multiple types of board games, not just video games. Expect to spend 8-12 hours total on the course work, playing games and responding to discussion board questions. All required readings are free and available online, in text, audio and/or video format, with many optional resources.

The course is designed to bring the beginning gamer up to speed in weeks 1 & 2 (and be a review to some extent for those already doing gaming). The gaming & literacy connection is relatively new for everyone, and it never hurts to get a refresher in advocacy or to establish a common vocabulary. In weeks 3-6, the course will offer creative solutions for intermediate and advanced gamers to take gaming to the next level while newbies get their feet wet. Strong focus is on services that support gamers, without librarians needing a lot of expertise, or having to pick up a controller or pair of dice – themselves. My intent is that those who are doing NO gaming, will try something after the class is done – and those who ARE, will go beyond a video game program a month.

Registration for all three online classes is now open; classes begin October 5, 2009.

If you are going to be around on Monday afternoon, June 13, the ALA Committee on Literacy is sponsoring an off-site visit to the real and working school library at the Claremont Academy on Chicago’s Southside from 2:30 to 4:30 PM. This is a fabulous opportunity for YALSA members and other youth serving librarians to see what’s happening in Chicago.

Through a federal Improving Literacy through School Libraries grant, Claremont Academy and 11 other Chicago Public Schools are taking an A-B-Cs approach to addressing primary students’ literacy needs. During the visit, participants will:

• Learn more about the federal grant program from the U.S. Department of Education and Chicago Public School representatives.

• Learn more about Claremont and the community from school administrators, library media specialists, parents, and students.
• Observe Claremont’s library activities.
• Talk with school media specialists and literacy teachers about changes, challenges, and progress.
• Share your experiences with everyone!

Claremont Academy is located at 2300 West 64th Street, Chicago, IL 60636. Transportation is available from McCormick Place departing at 1:30 pm and returning at 5:30 pm. Space is limited and MUST be reserved in advance.  Please contact Dale Lipschultz, OLOS Literacy Officer dlipschultz At ala DOT org with questions or to reserve space.

Event Flyer for ABCs of Library Literacy

CHICAGO – Libraries are changing and dynamic places, and no better evidence of that exists than the spread of gaming in the nation’s public, school and academic libraries.

In recognition of this trend and the increasing value of gaming to literacy improvement, the American Library Association, with assistance from a $1 million grant from the Verizon Foundation, has developed an online toolkit to aid librarians in serving this growing constituency.

The Librarian’s Guide to Gaming:  An Online Toolkit for Building Gaming @ your library offers content contributed by expert gaming librarians across the country.

The toolkit includes a wide range of resources to help librarians create, fund and evaluate gaming experiences in the library.

Games, from traditional chess games to authentic  board games to popular video games, help libraries fulfill their mission by providing educational, cultural  and recreational resources for patrons of all ages.

“Games of every type play an important role in developing fundamental competencies for life,” said ALA President Jim Rettig. “They require players to learn and follow complex sets of rules, make strategic and tactical decisions, and, collaborate with teammates and others, –all things they will have to do in college and in the workforce.”

By providing grant dollars to fund the project, Verizon recognizes the growing importance of gaming in promoting literacy.

“We at the Verizon Foundation believe that learning is not only for the hours between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the classroom,” said Albert J. Browne, national program director and vice president of education and technology for the Verizon Foundation. “We believe that libraries can help children learn more and continue to learn even when they are not in a classroom environment.

“We also think gaming in itself is a powerful tool that has an amazing ability to help in learning 21st Century skills,” he added.

Librarians are also recognizing the potential of gaming. On Nov. 15, hundreds of libraries across the country celebrated the ALA’s first annual National Gaming Day @ your library.  Libraries of all types joined in the celebration by registering for two national gaming activities: a national video game tournament and board game challenge.

Evidence of the growing influence of gaming on library programming is backed by recently collected data. In 2007, a pilot study was conducted by Dr. Scott Nicholson, University of Syracuse.

Four hundred randomly selected public libraries responded to the survey. The study found that at least seven out of every 10 supported gaming, four out of 10 public libraries run gaming programs, including both board and Web-based games, and more than eight out of 10 libraries allowed patrons to play games on library computers. Nicholson wrote, “Over the last few years, some libraries have been turning to gaming activities like Dance Dance Revolution as a way of bringing in new demographic groups and exposing them to library services.”

For additional information contact: Dale Lipschultz, Literacy Officer, Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, by phone, (312) 280-3275, or e-mail, dlipschultz@ala.org.

Visit www.librarygamingtoolkit.org for more information.

The American Library Association (ALA) Office for Literacy and Outreach Services is seeking applications from public, school and academic libraries interested in developing and implementing innovative literacy gaming services for youth ages 10-18.

This program is part of ALA’s Libraries, Literacy and Gaming initiative funded by  Verizon.

Ten $5,000.00 grants will be awarded to libraries clearly demonstrating creativity, capacity, sustainability and a strong commitment to literacy-related gaming services. In addition, the winning libraries will receive ongoing support and technical assistance from a team of nationally recognized library gaming experts. Winners will be announced during National Library Week, April 12-18.

The grant application is available online at http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/rfp . All applications must be submitted by 11:59 pm, Friday, March 20.

“There is no doubt that gaming and literacy go hand-in-hand. Board and video games come with text of all kinds including instructions, menus and much more. Learning the language and mechanics of any game, from chess to Little Big Planet, involves acquiring a new vocabulary and a new set of 21st century literacy skills,” said Dale Lipschultz, Literacy Officer, Office for Literacy and Outreach Services.

Gaming is one example of how libraries continue to change to meet the needs of their communities and users, offering innovative programs and services that educate, entertain and expand interaction with their patrons.

On Nov. 15, hundreds of libraries across the country celebrated the ALA’s first annual National Gaming Day @ your library.  Libraries of all types joined in the celebration by registering for two national gaming activities: a national video game tournament and board game challenge.

For additional information about the grant contact: Dale Lipschultz, Literacy Officer, Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, by phone, (312) 280-3275, or e-mail dlipschultz@ala.org.

For those who won’t be attending the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Denver, Colorado, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) will recreate the YALSA Mixer and Tech Playground in the 3-D virtual world, Second Life.

This interactive exhibit, which runs Jan. 9 through Jan. 31, 2009, features models of some of the gadgets being featured at the special event, which kicks off YALSA’s Teen Tech Week™ and will be held Jan. 23 at the Hyatt Regency Denver, 8 – 10 p.m. Gadgets are displayed on platforms at ALA Island (61, 228, 35). You may need to fly to see all the platforms! A menu with locations is in the large column at the entry point.

Each gadget featured in SL includes an informational notecard with tips on incorporating the item into Teen Tech Week events. Teen Tech Week is a national initiative sponsored by YALSA and aimed at teens, their parents, educators and other concerned adults to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, and videogames. The 2009 theme for Teen Tech Week is Press Play @ your library®. Teen Tech Week is March 8-14, 2009.

While visiting the Second Life exhibit, try one of the following activities that we will be replicating in Denver:

• MySpace Photo Shoot: Dress up your SL avatar, then take a snapshot. Upload it to Flickr or Snapzilla with the tag “photoshoot.” Try editing the image with some of the graphics editors suggested, then upload it to your favorite social software application.
• Play The Game (You Lost the Game): The game is a big game, with 3 simple rules. More information at www.losethegame.com.
• Teen Tech Week People Scavenger Hunt: Collect notecards from SL avatars who have participated in certain events, such as creating an avatar, planning a Teen Tech Week program, listening to a podcast, commenting on a blog, and so on. The first SL avatar to turn in a TTW People Scavenger Hunt notecard with 25 SL avatar names (a different one for each item) to Cerulean Vesperia will win a prize of L$1000!

You can learn more and participate. For more information, contact Beth Gallaway via email, or Cerulean Vesperia in Second Life.

I’ve been fortunate to teach “Pain in the Brain,” a class on teen behavior, for YALSA several times, and am always on the lookout for new information on how biology influences (undesirable!) actions. Last week,  U.S. News and World Report followed up on their 1999 article “Inside the Teen Brain” with a feature titled “Deploying the Amazing Power of the Teen Brain” that reports on a  Duke University program designed to empower teens to use their brains. The article covers basic brain changes, other factors for teen behavior and a quiz you can take to see how much you know about the adolescent brain.

A little understanding goes a long way in coping with unwanted teen behavior; for example, knowing that teens are more likely to react to your emotion than to your words serves as a reminder to librarians to stay calm, and take stock of your tone of voice and body language, not just what you say, when working with teens — they may be reacting to cues you send out, not to what you say.

Someone told me a few weeks ago that the average 16 year old was born the year I graduated high school. Then, I got a Facebook invitation reminding me that I have been out of graduate school for ten years. Wow! Where has all the time gone? And how do I keep up with today’s youth, and the chasm of years between myself and them continues to grow?

One great tool is the Beloit College Mindset List…

The list has published annually since 1998. It’s audience is college faculty, and it’s intention is to acclimate instructors and staff about the worldview of the incoming freshmen class, who will, presumably, graduate college in 2012. The list is a series of generalizations that may not apply to every student. Generally, it does a good job of listing common experiences, landmark events, and shifts in viewpoint that may help us to understand young people

It seems to me that anything “true” for incoming freshmen applies to the teens you are serving today. Thus, the List is a good reality check for people who work with teens – maybe even for staff that find teens a challenge to understand

Some gems from this year’s list:

• Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
• WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
• Clarence Thomas has always been on the Supreme Court.
• They could have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
• Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.

Check out the entire series of Mind Set lists at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/

We had a very low turnout for our Teen Gaming Interest Group meeting on Saturday afternoon, making a swap and share of resources difficult at best. One of the things we did was unanimously elect Jami Schwarzwalder as the new chair fo the Teen Gaming Interest Group. Congrats, Jami!

We also discussed creating a list of great games (tabletop and videogames) for teen programming. The list has been started on the YALSA wiki; please feel free to contribute annotations.

On Sunday morning, I counted over 125 at our Sunday Morning program, Beyond Gaming Tournaments. Slides and handouts are forthcoming.

Craig Davis from Youth Digital Art CyberSchool shared ways to get kids creating, using professional design tools to make digital art, music and games. There were oohs and ahhs at the Madplayer he demonstrated, which allows for intuitive music compositions and sound editing through listening, so anyone can do it. They have been discontinued, and probably hard to get; try eBay, or register for YDACS classes. Due to some sound glitches, we couldn’t hear the demo of multiple tracks being played in Cakewalk, but could see the notes being played, as the software is highly visual, and were impressed by the drag and drop composition editing.

Craig showed 2 games created by students; check out more YDACS games at http://www.dev-lcg.com/cyberschool/mod/resource/view.php?id=462

1. The Durham Library game, which features a red dot character ( a Dewey decimal? suggested an audience member) doing a walkthrough of the library. The backgrounds are all photos; game design elements make it interactive, and many of the library’s features are clickable to deliver information about books, magazines, spaces, etc.
2. Revolution is a MMOG that YDACS will be selling for $5 a digital copy. The student who made it will get 50% of the profit. YDACS not only teaches 21st century literacy skills, it teaches entrepeneurial skills as well.

Elizabeth Saxton from the Cleveland Public Library transitioned us from high tech to low tech, sharing ideas for programs about and around gaming that are JUST like other more traditional library programs for teens, encouraging literacy and library use.

• Promote gaming reading material. A list of Books for Gamers is on the ALA Gaming Resource Wiki already, please feel free to contribute.
• Conduct a Gaming Discussion Group — just like book discussion! The program could be themed (adventure games, puzzle games, simulation games, online games, Worst Game Ever), center around a single popular game (Runescape! Spore! Grand Theft Auto!) or focus on games teens are playing now, or even anticipating as future releases (Guitar Hero 4! Spore!)
• Create a Gaming Advisory Board — just like TAB, but not necessarily with your TAB members. Gaming might attract a whole different set of teens. The GAB can create content for you: ‘zines, podcasts, reviews, lists of great games, and displays. Plus, you can harness their expertise to advise on programs and collection development, etc.
• Host a gaming career program! Gamasutra may be a good resource for finding local game design students. Augment with titles from your career books

Amy McNally from the Hennepin County Library brought two teens, Karina & Brigit, with her to talk about the anime/gaming connection. Having real live teens participate was awesome! They did a fabulous job explaining cosplay (it’s not just dressing up! It’s also about being in character) and the programs at their library. There are game spinoffs of anime shows (.hack sign), games stylized to have an anime look (Final Fantasy) and anime or comic versions of games that can be tapped (Pokemon). Some activity ideas:

• Offer a sewing club. Teens can swap expertise and share sewing know-how. The Hennepin Library provides a sewing machine and sewing notions for it’s Sewing Club.
• Have your Anime club meet at a local convention.
• Host an Anime Prom, where everyone comes in costume and in character. Activities at prom can include gaming events, costume contest, a dance off, anime showings, and random battles (no costume required! pair characters against one another – challenge is to “defeat” your opponent using a signature move. Attack and/or die in character!)

All three topics could have been a program unto themselves. Our panel presentation concluded with a raffle (congrats to all the winners of t-shirts and software from YDACS and schwag from Red Octane, creators of Guitar Hero). Red Octane will send stuff for your library events if you email a request for prizes.

Craig demoed the MadPlayer and let folks try YDACS games; Elizabeth led a worldbuilding exercise, a game designed hosted several sessions of LetterJam. Teens led a dance off to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya and random battles. Gaming magazines were available for browsing. A reader’s advisory activity was provided; results are online.

On a personal note, thanks to SOCIAL NETWORKING I was able to track down the owner of the missing blue diary, left at our program! It’s on it’s way home