I work in a library where children’s and adult programming is incredibly successful on the whole–I’m talking standing-room-only in a room that seats 175 people, and in a town of about 20,000, that strikes me as pretty good. Teen programs…not so much. We’ve had a few programs where I was floored by the number of teens who came–nearly 60 to a Black Tie Party that the Teen Advisory Board hosted, about 50 to our Summer Reading Finale party. But some, like book groups, chess programs, craft stuff….get zero kids, two, three–teeny numbers. So I’ve been thinking a lot about the kind of publicity I’ve been employing and how it should change.

Basically, the kind of publicity we do for teen events can be boiled down into three categories: print, in-house, and virtual. For print stuff, I send out press releases to the papers. In-house means electronic signage on our flat panel, flyers, and talking to the teens in the Teen Lounge. And virtual is email distribution lists, Facebook, and posts on the library’s website.

Having tried ALL of these methods exhaustively, I’ve determined that for our library, the best outreach is…in-house! Yikes. Not such good news, considering we’re trying to not just reach the teens who are already in the building. But I also think that, because the program is still growing, there’s nothing wrong with working what you’ve got. For example, the reason so many teens came to the summer reading party is because Heather, our awesome part-timer who organized the event, made hundreds of tickets on cool craft paper and handed them out to every single teen who walked through the doors.  I think that her personal connection with each teen she spoke to, plus that feeling of “I’m invited to something special,” was what did it. It was an active interaction instead of a passive one. A blurb on the library website might not stick with a teen in the same way that a smiling, fun Heather will.

We’ve also started building programs around the teens who are already here. Sounds like a no-brainer–and many librarians are probably doing this already–but I can’t tell you how many times I ended up eating the pizza that was intended for a 7 PM book group that NO ONE came to. So now, we basically go into the Teen Lounge when there are a bunch of people in there, throw down some Flip cameras or a bucket full of craft supplies and let them have at it. It’s worked like a charm!

None of this is to say that I don’t want to keep hammering away at publicity that reaches out to teens outside of the library. I just don’t think email, press releases, or Facebook work as well as I would like them to. Press releases might reach parents, but definitely not teens. Teens don’t read their email, either. And the problem with Facebook is that you risk turning teens away when you invite them to 453786 programs a week. Right now I’m looking at text messaging outreach. If I could only send out text message blasts somehow….anyone out there have any solutions?

Waaaaay back when I started working at my library, my colleague Kate Sheehan and I talked about a program she had been meaning to try. We moved it to the back burner for many months, but this summer, we were able to get the planning process going, and the program began this fall.

We called it Juniors Helping Seniors, and here’s what it is: teens aged 13-18 tutor seniors (well, they don’t technically have to be senior citizens–they can really be adults of any age,  but the name is cute) on how to use a computer. The program is really geared toward adults who have little to no experience using a computer–this program isn’t for people interested in getting help concatenating spreadsheets, but rather for people who aren’t great at using a mouse, or downloading attachments from their email, or searching for information using Google.

I totally recommend organizing a program like this in your library, simply because it’s been working very well for us so far. If you’re interested, here’s how we did it.

The first thing I did was visit the high school volunteer fair. It was so great–in fact, most of the contacts I’ve made with teens came out of that event. I got kids to sign up for the Teen Advisory Board there, too. But there were definitely some who were specifically interested in Juniors Helping Seniors. I can’t really say why, except that teens in Darien seem very focused on community service; it’s valued in this town.

Kate and I reached out to the teens first, because without them, we didn’t have a program. Of all the teens who were interested, ten of them followed through. We planned two hour-long training sessions (they could choose which time slot to attend; there was only one hour worth of training per kid). In the training sessions, we basically talked about patience. Digital natives might have a hard time understanding the difficulty others can have with simple technology tasks. We told them about mousercise and how to explain the difference between a Gmail text ad and an actual email. But these were just examples of some of the things that seniors could ask about–essentially, we taught the teens how to break things down and take it slow.

Once the teens were trained, we called the seniors who were interested. To publicize the program, we made up flyers, put a post on the library website, and visited the senior center. Then I figured out when the seniors were free, when the teens were free, and started matching people up. It is an hour-long commitment, once a month. The junior/senior pair comes to the library and uses one of our computers, and the senior brings any questions they might have. I did sort of pre-screen over the phone to find out what the seniors were interested in to make sure that no one was going to be asking questions about stuff that a teen couldn’t address. So far, most questions are about using email, Word, and the internet.

We got off to a false start because on Sunday, the teen came in but not the senior, and it was disappointing all around. But then! Today! Two pairs were scheduled for 4 o’clock, and everyone showed, and it was AWESOME. The teens were so patient and friendly, and the seniors were so grateful. It was the perfect match, because there was no time crunch, no line of people waiting at the help desk, and the teens could focus all their attention on their “student.” The two boys who were here today were just great, and they even offered to come in again next week, which is above and beyond the commitment we asked of them.

Really, it’s been so cool, and one of the more successful programs we’ve done here for teens thus far. If you’re interested in starting a program like this at your library and you have questions or want any more information, please feel free to email me! (sludwig@darienlibrary.org)

Last Saturday at ALA, the committee I’m on, Technology for YAs, sponsored “Downloadable Technology: Current and Future Trends,” a fantastic panel discussion featuring three speakers: Beth Gallaway on downloadable gaming, Kate Pritchard on downloadable and streaming music, and Karen Potash on OverDrive. If you weren’t able to attend, here’s an overview of how the panel gave librarians some great ideas about how to save money and keep on top of music, gaming, and ebook trends.

For the presenters’ slides, click here.

Karen from Overdrive:

The digital audiobook market is growing, and publishers are responding to this. And among all Overdrive titles in all genres, the Twilight series are the four most checked-out books. So, publishers are paying attention to teen books when it comes to downloadable content. Overdrive is working on their mobile initiative, which would allow users to download books directly to their phones via a virtual branch–a mobile version of the website.

For some examples of libraries that are using Overdrive in cool ways, check out the Burlington County Library System (NJ), which features scrolling digital bookshelves that link directly to digital title checkout page, and the  Salem-South Lyon District Library (MI), which uses downloadable audiobooks in its summer reading program.

Beth Gallaway, Youth Services Consultant:

Beth talked a lot about GameTap, a subscription service for video games that can be installed on library computers. It costs between $4.95-9.95 a month, depending on the package you select. Users have access to over 1000 games, including older console games and PC games. Using a subscription service like this means there’s no storing, damage, theft, or compatibility issues. The disadvantages? These games can only be played in the library, plus the games require a ton of memory on the PCs you’re using. GameTap also offers a download to own service where users can buy digital versions of games and store them on PCs for roughly $10-$30.

Check out the Westmont (IL) Public Library for a model of how to use GameTap.

Also look at PlayFirst – direct to drive services; ERSB privacy certified—personal information not stored or shared; Free 1-hour trial of all games, then pruchase digital downloads for $10-20; Made Diner Dash; Some content is rated.

You can get downloadable strategy guides from Prima Games. They have an electronic database and charge $20-25 for PDF versions, which can be printed out.

For online games, try Games for Change, which offers “serious” games – there’s an underlying educational concept to the games, leading to that “learn by accident” phenomenon. I can personally attest that The Cost of Life is really fun and interesting.

One really cool resource is the Ben 10 Alien Force Game Creator, which allows teens to not just play but create—they drag and drop characters, settings, weapons, and strategy. What a great framework for a program. Ben 10 has an internet safety feature built in.

For early adopter gaming info, try: Joistiq, Escapistmagazine, and Boingboing.

Kate Pritchard, Wilbraham (MA) Public Library

Streaming music is growing; teens are using it more often. Streaming music is music that you listen to online and don’t download. There are two kinds of streaming music: a radio station, which plays a continuous stream of music and could have a theme, and a playlist, where the user chooses specific songs or artists. Some good streaming sites:

• MySpace Music offers a playlist option.
• The Live Music Archive through archive.org has a huge catalog of live music concerts.
• Pandora: this is a great place to discover new music as it plays songs that are similar to artists you like.
• Last.fm: you can create themed radio stations, and it’s also a social networking site. You can post link to your radio station, but you can’t embed streaming content.
• Finetune: you can create your own playlists with specific songs. Use this to promote the library’s new music purchases! You can also embed your playlists on the library website.

A great idea is to link playlists to library programs and events.

For legal downloads, Kate says that iTunes is the most popular. Also. some artists offer free music downloads. You can use download sites to see which bands and artists are most popular; use this information for collection development. In addition to iTunes, the RIAA lists legal websites where you can download music. On good legal site is The Hype Machine, which is great for teens into indie music.

Also, please see Kate’s note re: Finetune, posted after the presentation: Finetune has recently stopped allowing users to create their own playlists. They have not deleted any of the existing playlists. However, if you are looking for another way to create your own playlists to share at your library, you may want to look at imeem or playlist.com. Playlist.com is newer, and doesn’t yet have the RIAA’s stamp of approval (see here for a list of RIAA-approved music websites), although it looks easier to set up and use. imeem has been around for longer, starting out as a video-sharing website, and it does appear on the RIAA’s approved list.

I’m at Computers in Libraries this week, and this morning I attended Helene Blowers’s talk on digital natives. It was awesome. Helene is a great advocate for children and teens using technology. Here are some selected notes from her talk:

Identity—For teens, their online identity is the same as their in-person identity; they explore to see if a space is safe; their social identity is very important to them

Safety—Digital natives have grown up in a world that they perceive as very safe; adults are paranoid that there’s a lot we need to protect them from; teens are great at making good decisions about their online safety. Only 0.8% of teens report meeting someone in person who they met online without asking their parents’ permission.

Information Quality—We’re seeing a shift from authoritative to collaborative control; social responsibility is heightened; we can influence people by sharing information; Britannica now has Wiki element—there are advantages to getting and sharing information in this way; people trust user-generated content the most to help them make decisions about purchases

Creativity—Teens have the ability to express themselves and create content; cultural consumers are digital natives; thrive on information and ideas to fuel their own self-expression; 2/3 of teens are content creators

Opportunity—Teens have high accessibility to information and technology; there’s no barriers; the playing field is leveled; access is universal; connection is ubiquitous; teens have access to a huge sandbox to assert their identity

Sharing—Teens don’t see this as piracy; it’s copying, remixing, creating mashups

Check out Helene’s slides here; there’s lots of rich, useful information in there.

I’ve noticed a particular phenomenon among teens that I don’t see as much in children or adults. Actually, it’s two things.

1. Often, when I see a teen searching for a book on the shelves, and I approach her and ask if I can help her find what she’s looking for, she says no–even though it’s pretty obvious that she’s having trouble locating the title she wants.

2. When a teen asks if I have a particular book and we don’t own it, I always offer to buy it for him. Many times, he will decline. The same goes for offering to put an item on hold–he will say “no, it’s no big deal, don’t worry about it” very politely, but very definitively.

Why does this happen? And what can we do about it?

I don’t think I’m really qualified to delve too deeply into the teen psyche, although I suspect it has something to do with confidence. That said, might it also have to do with not having much experience with librarians (or other “authority” figures) offering to go the extra mile?

We need to convince teens that not only are they worth it, it’s no big deal for us to buy the book they want. In fact, we like doing it. Maybe one way of making this process a little less painful is by giving teens a way to anonymously request books–either in paper, through a book suggestion box, or virtually, through an easy online form.

As for teens who say they don’t want help, my reaction is to back. off. It’s so easy to scare off teens who just want to be inconspicuous and independent, and the worst thing in the world is to yell across a group of their peers: “do you need any help?” I have definitely made this mistake, and the look of terror/annoyance in their eyes is pretty telling. Instead of interjecting, I suggest making your collection really easy to both search and browse–with friendly signage overkill. I arranged my collection by genre to make browsing easier, but I also have to make sure that someone who is looking for a specific book can find it easily. Otherwise, they walk out the door and I’ve lost my chance to connect with them.

Do you have any ideas on how we can reach out to, and connect with, teens–without being overeager or scary?

The candidates for YALSA’s elected positions spoke at an open forum here at Midwinter. They each introduced themselves and made a brief statement, and then answered questions from the audience. Here’s some of what they said. (Note that not all candidates were in attendance.)

Candidates for President-Elect

Jerene Battisti (could not attend, but prepared a statement that was read by the moderator, Michael Cart):
Due to the economic climate: direct value of library service to YAs is more important than ever.
Her personal motto: collaborate, communicate, and succeed

Kim Patton:
“Grew up in YALSA” and is thankful for opportunity to give back
Libraries, ALA, YALSA facing tough times; the best way to bring services to teens and libraries is to bring management into the picture
We must look at our administrators, boards, managers back home and encourage them to be involved with teen issues – we will have a better chance of success that way.

Candidates for Board of Directors

Kelly Czarnecki:
Is aware of the needs of school libraries even though she’s a public school librarian
Wants to help YALSA to continue bringing in new members and keeping YALSA relevant to its current members

Sara Ryan:
Has served on board before and found it to be a valuable experience
Libraries are essential spaces for teens
Teens can help to understand and help to transform role of libraries in the community—YALSA is critical to this

Stephanie Squicciarini:
Staying relevant, viable, and current
Ensure that we grow as an organization
Rely on professional organizations to help us as we deal with difficult economic circumstances
Counts on YALSA to offer encouragement, support, re-charge

Not in attendance: Dora Ho

Candidates for Councilor:

Nick Buron:
YALSA for 10 years
Committee member, chair, serving the underserved trainer
Board of Directors – 3 years
3 areas need to be addressed: YALSA not losing members, so we need to present our issues to ALA council (represent YALSA and YALSA issues; report back to the membership; support for issues that affect librarians who work with teens; maintain contact with the membership)

Elizabeth K. Shuping:
Past president of SCLA
Represents SC in DC
Critical year in ALA council: budgeting, electronic/virtual partnership (using committee members in virtual ways—supports increased virtual attendence dispite the potential economic impacy); for service for teens, second for funding and advocacy; look at access and intellectual freedom

Candidates for Margaret A. Edwards Committee

Robin Brenner:
No Flying No Tights
Finding the right book at the right moment is amazing for teens
Wants to help create that moment
Was on Graphic Novel task force
PPYA
Great Graphic Novels for Teens – was chair
Judged on Eisner award committee

Not in attendance: Amy Alessio, Christine Jenkins, Betsy Levine, Hollis Rudiger, Caryn Sipos

Candidates for Michael L. Printz Committee

Joni Bodart:
Experience, ability to evaluate, passion for materials for YAs, can define the quality of the books he/she is evaluating

Jan Chapman:
James Cook award
Write for VOYA
Passion for YA literature, proud of how YA lit has changed and reflects the best literature today

Erin Howerton:
American Born Chinese represents everything that YA lit should be
Search for next great “onion” – book with many layers

Jan Sarratt:
Wants to share knowledge and experience gained in 30 years working with teens
Wants to select book that Printz would be proud of
Eager to share love of literature with today’s teens

Eva Volin:
Judge for Eisner awards
Loves committee work and teen books – putting the 2 together is fun for her
Loves putting the right books into the hand of the right teen

Melissa Rabey:
Loves books—talking about them, thinking about what makes a book relevant/appealing, sharing them with teens and colleagues

Not in attendance: Brenna Shanks, Jamie Watson

Candidates for the Nonfiction award

Barb Conkin
Outstanding Books for the College Bound, Former chair of Intellectual Freedom committee

Charli Osborne
Nonfiction one of her passions; teens love reading nonfiction for pleasure

Not in attendance: Christine Allen, Carrie Bryniak, Monique Franklin, Jeanette Larson, Don Latham, Mary Long

Questions to the candidates:

Briefly, tell us what you think are YALSA and ALA’s most pressing issues over 3-5 years

KIM: funding, conference attendance
NICK: front-line staff working with teens–getting directly to decision-makers
ELIZABETH: funding, but should be hopeful
KELLY: funding, highlight resources: advocacy toolkit, podcast on YALSA blog on how to support YALSA
SARAH: decreased funding requires increased advocacy
STEPHANIE: Staying motivated, positive, and strong

What would be your role in getting our inactive members to get engaged?

KIM: Keep message out, work harder to keep giving members opportunities to get the information that they need
NICK: Making information accessible to those who can’t attend conferences (wikis, blogs, videos online), increased virtual participation
ELIZABETH: have to be involved locally and with our staff members
KELLY: using the technologies that we have to reach members, using member surveys to get feedback so that we can respond to what people want
SARAH: Mentoring, connecting newer librarians with those who have been in the field for a while
STEPHANIE: Keep talking about how important elections are, how we need to make our voices heard

What would you like to change about YALSA?

STEPHANIE: Celebrate ourselves more–wants a shuttle to run the night of the Printz reception just like it does the night of the Newberry
SARAH: More diverse membership
KELLY: Continue being a risk-taking organization
ELIZABETH: reach out toand promote ourselves to  other areas of librarianship/associations
NICK: Library students should be larger percentage
KIM: engaging more of our library administrators

As teen librarians, we have to connect with our users–and this may be true for us more than other library professionals. Teens are great at seeing straight through us, and being fake is no way to earn a teen’s trust or get them interested in using the library. With that said, there are some easy ways to learn about things that interest teens.

Stay up-to-date on local high school sports and theater, and watch as many movies and TV shows as you can. I really can’t say enough about watching Gossip Girl if you want to connect with teen girls. Use Pandora or another music app to learn about new music. Another good way to see what teens in your area are into is by reading their info pages on their Facebook profiles…I know, I can’t stop talking about Facebook!

When I lived in a dorm with teenage girls, all they did was watch the Disney channel and MTV, for hours on end. You may feel like your brain is leaking out your ears if you follow this model, but it’s important to at least know what’s being broadcast and who the important people are. And that’s where the gossip blogs come in. I’m not sure I can advise you to do this on company time, as not all employers may see reading gossip blogs as professional development, but if you have 15 minutes at home, this is a great way to be able to talk to teens about one thing that matters to them. It may take you a little while to figure out who everyone is…but that’s what Wikipedia is for! Gossip blogs cover people who are of the ultimate importance right this very minute, and trust me: teens read them.

Here are some must-reads. Be warned that the content on these sites is constantly changing, and there may be posted photos or text that is not particularly safe for work.

Perez Hilton [okay, full disclosure, I actually loathe Perez Hilton, but his blog is definitely the most popular and therefore cannot be avoided]

Pink is the New Blog

Oh No They Didn’t

Go Fug Yourself [not so much a gossip blog as a catalog of terrible outfits that celebs are wearing]

TMZ

Just Jared

Yeah, this stuff is incredibly superficial, and sometimes it’s terribly mean-spirited. However, we can’t ignore the force that is celebrity gossip and teens’ (and many adults’) obsession with it. If you don’t want to feel like teens are speaking a second language or that they live in a world populated with people you’ve never heard of, perusing these blogs is a good way to crack the code.

(And for the record, “Speidi” = Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, the arch-villains of uber-reality show The Hills on MTV. They’re the king and queen of trashy celeb gossip, the ones you love to hate. So dive in, and gossip your heart out!)

I’ve been on Facebook for a little while now–maybe three years? When I was at my last job, in a school library, I didn’t friend any of my students, because there was too much personal information on my Facebook page…and it would be, I think, crossing a line. But I use it to keep in touch with friends. It’s probably the number one way I communicate with people these days, and I also use it as my photo management tool.

So now that I’m here in my new position, in my new community, I decided to use Facebook as a way to reach out to teens. I set up my new Facebook account at the end of the summer, with one picture and some rudimentary information on it, like my name, where I work, and some innocuous “personal information” that I thought might appeal to teens. (My favorite TV shows, for example–and this isn’t made up, they really are my favorites: Gossip Girl, House, Friday Night Lights, Project Runway, The Office.)

I also set up a fan page for my library. For information on how to create a fan page on FB, read this.

And I waited.

……..waited……

Shockingly, nothing happened! No one friended me! Okay, one creepy person did. He had no photo, no information in his profile, and only young women as friends. I actually accepted him as a friend, just to get one more person on my list. Don’t worry–he’s off now.

When I learned that my FB presence was going to be included in the library’s monthly e-newsletter, along with my Twitter, MySpace, and AIM accounts, I realized it would be pretty embarassing for someone to visit my profile and see that I didn’t actually have any friends from my community. So I took a plunge. I started friending kids. I included a note; you can do this on FB. The note said something like: “Hi, I’m the teen librarian at the Darien Library and I’m trying to get to know people in Darien. I know you don’t know me, so if you don’t want to accept me as a friend, I totally understand! But if you do, that would be great.”

And it worked! They accepted me. (Well, virtually. In real life is yet to be determined.) My theory is that teens will pretty much accept anyone as a friend, unless they get really creeped out. And I made my profile as friendly and safe as possible. Once I got a couple of friends, I could start friending their friends, without the note, even–because they could see that we had mutual friends, which probably made me a safe bet. Some of them even started friending me first.

Several teens became fans of the page that I’d created. And the great thing about FB fan pages is that they really can be portals for a ton of information and content about your library. You can post photos and videos, list upcoming events (which you can blast out to all of your friends, and get them to RSVP to), post news items, and list basic information, including a link to your library’s website and your email address and IM username. You can send messages to all of your fans with the click of a button, too.

Last night, when I put up a poll on our library website. I posted a link to the poll as my status update, which everyone on my friends list can see, and lo and behold, some of them actually clicked the link and answered the poll–one of them even left a comment on it. I’ve also already gotten a message from one girl who wanted to see if she could create art for the teen room, and several teens who are interested in joining my TAB. Others have told me how excited they are for the new library to open. Hooray! Social networking works!

I’m going to keep adding friends and putting information up, with the hope that I’m reaching kids I might not otherwise.  If you’re planning on using FB to network, here are some of my tips:

1. Keep your page pretty simple. I have only one application, Music Playlists, which I plan to use as a sort of collection development tool. Overwhelming your page with apps really serves no purpose, as far as I can tell, but leave a comment if you disagree.
2. Post a photo of yourself. It makes you much more approachable, because it makes you a real person. I don’t have pictures of my family, because that’s too personal, but I do have pictures of my pets, because they’re cute.
3. Start by friending someone you’ve connected with in person, if you can. I was able to friend a girl who I’d met, which started the ball rolling for me. If you can’t, try doing a search for FB communities that are run by teens in your area.
4. Be an active user. Update your status. Respond to wall posts. Don’t be all adult-y about it. Relax and have fun with FB: it’s not a press release. A sample update of mine: “Sarah just got an email from rachel cohn gdskghslghdfs i am so excited!!!”
5. If you don’t have your own personal FB account, get one. It will help you be more comfortable with the site.
6. DON’T friend other libraries, people who don’t live in your town, or all your co-workers. It won’t help your cause or your credibility. And what’s the point? You’re not reaching the people you want to reach.

If you have other ideas about how to use your Facebook page to its best advantage, post them in the comments!

I bought Spore last week. And it’s safe to say that it’s the coolest game I’ve ever played. I’m not a big gamer, but I do like simulation games–Sim City, Civilization, The Sims, MySims–because you can’t die and there’s no clear mission to the game; you just create things and try to control the world you’re in. (MySims is a little different: you do have goals that you have to meet to advance, but you still can’t die.)

You might know about Spore, because it’s been pretty hyped, but for the uninformed, here’s the basic breakdown. There are five levels, or phases: cell, creature, tribal, civilization, and space. Each phase has its own style of gameplay, although creature, tribal, and civilization are pretty similar and have the same goals: either convert/ally with the other creatures in your world, or dominate/kill them.

The cell phase is fairly basic (you swim around eating, growing, and mating), but it’s crucial to the rest of the game because in this phase, your creature evolves, and you play with that creature throughout the rest of the game (it does grow arms and legs in the creature phase). You can continue tinkering with your creation in the creature phase–in fact, that’s one of the ways you advance to the next phase–but once you hit the tribal stage, you’re done doing any physical evolving.

The choices you make throughout Spore affect the path you take throughout the game. If you’re a vegetarian who makes friends with other animals, you become a religious city in the civilization phase. That’s me every time, because I can’t bring myself to eat the other adorable creatures! There are multiple outcomes for carnivores, omnivores, those who kill, those who make friends, and those who do both. And each one of these outcomes gives you different advantages and powers in different phases.

In the space phase, you get missions…and a spaceship. You travel throughout a vast galaxy gathering information, trading, making friends or enemies, colonizing planets, and ultimately, hopefully, becoming god.

Spore has infinite outcomes and possibilities, and the sheer magnitude of the game is mind-blowing. So, how does this single-player game fit into the library? Can it be a collaborative game? Can you base a program around it? Of course.

Spore relies heavily on user-created content. If the player is online, then he or she is going to be surrounded by the creatures of thousands of other Spore players. Additionally, creatures, objects, and buildings that the player creates are being made available to all the other Spore users out there. So even though a teen isn’t directly interacting with other players (like they would in Second Life), they are interacting with a massive world populated by the creations of people who aren’t in their physical space.

The Spore Creature Creator may be the most fun part of the game. The power of the creator is hard to explain; basically, every part of the creature is malleable and customizable. The initial body shape has a spine, and each vertebrae can be pulled, moved, and manipulated. And there are tons of add-ons and skins that allow the user to make a truly unique creature. Check out the Sporepedia for some cool and funny examples. It could be fun to host a Creature Creation contest. It could be just like a Halloween contest: award prizes for funniest, scariest, most creative, etc. If you have a color printer, print out the teens’ creations and put them on display.

Or wouldn’t it be funny to give them assignments? Make a creature who looks like your dad, your principal, your soccer coach, you!

Or, very simply, you could buy four copies of Spore and make it available to teens. Have a weekly or monthly get-together. Games don’t need to be competetive for them to be fun or for a group.

Do you have any ideas how Spore would work in your library? Post them here!

I’m excited to go to YALSA’s first-ever YA Literature Symposium for a number of reasons (including getting to see my friends, and sneaking a trip to the country music hall of fame), but one of the most important is that this is the first conference I’ll attend as an official representative of my library. In the past, I’ve been a bit of a follower at conferences. I went to my first ALA midwinter this past January, and I wasn’t yet in my current position as a teen librarian, so I got to tag along a lot and learn the ropes. I went to Computers in Libraries (CiL) this spring, but talk about a conference where everyone knows each other and knows the drill–I was a definite newbie. (I don’t mean to say that I felt left out; the people I met were super nice and I even made some new friends.)

This time, it will be different…and I have the business cards to prove it.

I’m going to be approaching the Symposium with an eye for application: how can I take what I learn and use it to develop our new teen program?

The first thing that came to mind when checking out the Symposium program of events was that I can actually get to meet some authors. Real authors. And maybe those authors will want to come visit me! Maybe they’ll be excited to hear what’s happening in our library. And how cool would it be to kick off our new slate of teen programming with a visit from someone like Coe Booth (swoon) or Barry Lyga? And even if no one at this particular event can make it to our neck of the woods, it will be great practice for me to learn how to promote our library and form connections.

Much of the programming will teach me how to start branching out beyond novels. I’ve got books down pat; what’s next? Well, I’ll get to learn about zines, graphic novels, audio books, and on-screen reading. Can zines fly in a traditional town? Hmmm, I have a funny feeling the answer is YES. And lord knows teens in Darien are already texting, tweeting, blogging, and social networking, so let’s learn how to tap into that. I’m also excited to focus on non-fiction, an area that a lot of libraries aren’t providing enough of for teens.

All of this will come in incredibly useful when I’m thinking about growing and developing our collection beyond the novel. Any teen librarian worth his or her salt knows how to order the starred titles in PW and SLJ; are those the books that teens are drawn to? Is that what they’re coveting? When (okay, IF) they go to Barnes & Noble, is that what they browse through?

Since this is a symposium centered around, nominally, literature, will I be able to learn anything about outreach or programming? Well, of course. I’ll be able to write more about this after the Symposium, when I’ve been given some great ideas, but I’m pretty sure that there will be a ton of excellent tips and resources on how to get teens into the library, promote that killer collection you’ve built, and create teen-centric programming–especially since there’s a session just on fandom and participatory culture (Twilight, anyone?). Sweet.

Thanks to those friends who took the time to introduce me around at midwinter and CiL, I won’t feel like such a newcomer this November. And it will be nice to be with like-mided people who are committed to serving teens; that’s always great way to generate ideas. I know this symposium will kick-start and inspire me, the fledgling teen librarian, and others like me, and all you veterans out there. See you in Nashville!