Teens walk into the library with friends and attitude.’ They ignore the rules, they want to do things their own way, and they want adults to leave them alone.’ Library staff respond with hostility, superiority, and a demand to follow rules that are not necessarily enforced for other age groups.’ How to change that?’ Educate your staff about the psychology of adolescence, help them see that the behavior they are objecting to is perfectly normal for adolescents.’ In addition, educate your staff about applying rules equally across age ranges.’ If teens have to work quietly, then so do the man with the cell phone who yells at the person he’s talking to, the senior citizens who forgot their hearing aids, and the mother with the screaming, hysterical infant or toddler.’ Read More →
