Issue Theme: Endurance
The past two years have been hard. Teen librarians and teens have been dealing with a worldwide pandemic. We have been on lockdown, working from home, separated from family and friends. We have seen video after video of people murdered on the streets and in schools. There have been protests and trials. And, in the midst of all of this, we have had to continue to function and provide services and resources for our users, often overlooking our own mental and physical health while caring for those we serve in our libraries.
But, here we are. We made it to the other side. In this issue we’d like you to share your experiences with the hard parts of the last two years.. What were they? Did you overcome them and how? Did you fail? If you failed, what lessons were learned? How have your teens coped? What success stories do you have? Are there things you started doing during this time that might stick around?
Let’s share our successes and our failures. Below are just a few of the examples of what we are looking for:
- Serving teens in a work from home situation
- Finding and keeping employment in bad times (budget, covid, etc.)
- Keeping teens encouraged
- Keeping yourself encouraged
- Trying new methods/approaches to services and/or resources that were successful
- Trying new methods/approaches to services and/or resources that failed
- Taking on more responsibility in your library
- Giving teens more responsibility in your library
- Handling book challenges and bans
- What does self care look like for teen librarians? For teens?
- What was a struggle? What worked?
Please send your proposals to us by January 3, 2022