How are your preparations for Teen Tech Week 2011 coming? With budget and staffing strain it can be difficult to find the resources to plan events for teens in your libraries. However, the teens can be your biggest asset when it comes to program planning and presentation. Find out what they’re interested in and help bring their ideas to life. It will increase program attendance and could develop into an active Teen Advisory Group.
In case you’re still making arrangements for your event, here are some low cost Teen Tech Week programming ideas.
Cell Phone Novels – Are your teens constantly texting away while in your library? Put their thumbs to good use by starting a collaborative writing project. Give one teen a line or two of text and have them continue the story. After every sentence, or paragraph, they can send it on to the next participant. Once the story is complete have a reading for the group.
Teen Tech Week Bingo – Make a list of 25 different technologies or tech-related activities available at your library and put them onto a bingo card. Give the teens who complete all of the activities on the card a prize or an entry into a drawing.
Start a Book Club – Teen Tech Week is a great time to start a new book club at your library! Mash up fiction and nonfiction in a bookclub that will inspire teens to look beyond their favorite books to make real-world connections. Come up with theme-appropriate activities for each meeting, like ask teens to create a playlist that they think goes along with the most recent book club pick.
Visual Poetry – Take inspiration from the Las Vegas-Clark Count Library District’s Visual Poetry competition and mix it up with a photography exhibit. Invite teens to submit their photographs that they have taken. Photos can be scanned and digitally altered to add a technological touch. At the end of the month, invite the participants to a gallery exhibit showcasing their work. Create an online gallery and link to it from your library’s website.
For more programming ideas check out YALSA’s TTW page with links to booklists, the YALSA Wiki, Mini Grant Winners and more!
Christine Claiborne
I’m late on reading this post but wanted to say that these ideas could be used anytime of year to engage students in IL instruction and bolster their interests in information and libraries. Plus, many of these activities are adaptable as to be used in other arenas of IL.