Last night’s monthly chat focused on programming for older teens. YALSA has provided a partial transcript (PDF) of the chat. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer a full transcript. The chat was hosted by Penny Johnson, convenor of the Serving New Adults Interest Group.
Join us next month on May 5, when Wendy Stephens leads a chat on using Web 2.0 tools to encourage reading at 8 p.m. Eastern. See you there – and remember, be part of First Wednesdays with YALSA.
How exciting! I wish I could have been there.
Here in the UK many teens leave school and start work at 16. For some months I’ve been thinking that maybe one of the best ways to engage young people ages 16-26 who a) haven’t gone on to higher education and b) don’t come into the library* would be to look at unemployment and job-seeking centers and also connect with employers who tend to hire a lot of young people.
One of the best UK initiatives that I’ve seen is the Six Book Challenge (http://www.sixbookchallenge.org.uk/), which is promoted not only in libraries but also in places of employment(!) in order to engage more people with the pleasures of reading. I’d love to see a program like this aimed more specifically at teens who are out of school and unemployed, seeking employment, or working part/full time. This might help reach a demographic that many libraries aren’t currently engaged with.
*Acknowledging, however, that plenty of young people who aren’t in higher education do engage with library services!
In regards to the references to Second Life at the end of the conversation-I did work a lot with older teens who came back to the teen island as mentors. They themselves also worked a lot with adults in Second Life (on what is called the main grid or for those 18 and older) when they turned 18. Those relationships that were started on the teen grid definitely continued when the teens turned 18. Also, as far as the funding for the teen island my library provided-it was my decision to discontinue the funding-at that time it was not my library’s decision to just pull the funding. Just wanted to clear those things up so they’re not misrepresented. Thanks.