“Can I have more time on the computer?” “Just ten more minutes please?!” This question is frequently asked at my library in regards to using the virtual world of Teen Second Life. Teens themselves are the ones that marketed this technology to each other in the library. It started off with one teen using the program to teach peers around the world how to speak Spanish.
The point I want to make about telling this is not about TSL in particular. But, I want to makea point about introducing technology and supporting the access of it so that the teens who probably would not have picked up on it otherwise, because the places they come in contact with might not have it available, know that it exists.
What other technologies have we as libraries been able to support in ways that other places haven’t? What skills are teens learning by allowing teens to use various technologies? How can we as organizations support the power of viral marketing, from our patrons, to grow a program?
It’s great to watch interest unfold and discover the lessons of introducing skills and programs that originally might have seemed impossible to start.
