OUTREACH SERVICES FOR TEEN LIBRARY STAFF: WHAT SOME STAFF ARE DOING OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF LIBRARIES

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The American Library Association (ALA) defines outreach as providing library services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented populations; populations such as new and non-readers, LBGT teens, teens of color, poor and homeless teens, and teens who are incarcerated. As these populations are often marginalized and underserved, it is crucial for libraries to recognize these populations and provide services and programs to them where they are.

The President of YALSA, Candice Mack, is focusing her year as President with an initiative, “3-2-1 Impact: Inclusive and Impactful Teen Services,” which will focus on building the capacity of libraries to plan, deliver and evaluate programs and services for and with underserved teen populations.  Visit YALSA’s wiki to find and share information about serving diverse teens and building cultural competence.

Each month I will profile a teen librarian or staff working in teen services providing outreach services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented teens. The purpose is for us to learn, connect, network and share with each other the crucial work we are doing in this area.

This month I interview Pamela McCarter, Outreach Specialist for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

Pamela McCarter 2

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OUTREACH SERVICES FOR TEEN LIBRARY STAFF: WHAT SOME STAFF ARE DOING OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF LIBRARIES

by

The American Library Association (ALA) defines outreach as providing library services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented populations; populations such as new and non-readers, LBGT teens, teens of color, poor and homeless teens, and teens who are incarcerated. As these populations are often marginalized and underserved, it is crucial for libraries to recognize these populations and provide services and programs to them where they are.

The President of YALSA, Candice Mack, is focusing her year as President with an initiative, “3-2-1 Impact: Inclusive and Impactful Teen Services,” which will focus on building the capacity of libraries to plan, deliver and evaluate programs and services for and with underserved teen populations.  Visit YALSA’s wiki to find and share information about serving diverse teens and building cultural competence.

Each month I will profile a teen librarian or staff working in teen services providing outreach services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented teens. The purpose is for us to learn, connect, network and share with each other the crucial work we are doing in this area.

This month will be a different focus where I interview Kim Dare who was the YALSA Cultural Competence Task Force Chair 2014-2015. How can the priorities of the YALSA Culural Task Force be brought into the conversation of outreach and are there things that can be helpful when thinking about working with underserved and underrepresented populations?

What does the Cultural Competence Task Force focus on? What are its priorities?

The idea for the Cultural Competence Task Force was born in March 2014 based on findings from The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action. The YALSA Board of Directors realized that as our teen patrons reflect increasingly diverse backgrounds, librarians must be able to meet their needs in ways that go beyond traditional programming and collection development. The task force was created in September 2014, and during the year that we worked together, we were charged with bringing together resources that would assist librarians in developing their cultural competence.  The term may have different connotations to different people. There are several good definitions out there: our task force sees cultural competence as the recognition that each of us is shaped by our culture, and an appreciation of diverse cultural backgrounds through our interactions with others. It is the welcoming and integration of diverse ethnicities, sexualities, cultures, incomes, and education levels into the services we provide, with an ultimate goal of enhancing the lives of our patrons and our own professional growth.

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OUTREACH SERVICES FOR TEEN LIBRARY STAFF: WHAT SOME STAFF ARE DOING OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF LIBRARIES

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The American Library Association (ALA) defines outreach as providing library services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented populations; populations such as new and non-readers, LBGT teens, teens of color, poor and homeless teens, and teens who are incarcerated. As these populations are often marginalized and underserved, it is crucial for libraries to recognize these populations and provide services and programs to them where they are.

The President of YALSA, Candice Mack, is focusing her year as President with an initiative, “3-2-1 Impact: Inclusive and Impactful Teen Services,” which will focus on building the capacity of libraries to plan, deliver and evaluate programs and services for and with underserved teen populations.  Visit YALSA’s wiki to find and share information about serving diverse teens and building cultural competence.

Each month I will profile a teen librarian or staff working in teen services providing outreach services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented teens. The purpose is for us to learn, connect, network and share with each other the crucial work we are doing in this area.

This month I interview Candice Mack.  Candice is the Interim Coordinator of System-wide Young Adult Services for the Los Angeles Public Library as well as the YALSA President.

What kind of outreach services do you provide for teens?
As the interim coordinator of system-wide Young Adult Services at Los Angeles Public Library, I help coordinate system-wide partnerships with different local organizations, which all 73 of our libraries will collaborate with on outreach and services.  Some of the main partnerships we’ve developed recently are with the LA LGBT Center, which has a youth center that provides transitional housing and drop-in education, career and social services to LGBTQ youth in the LA area, many of whom are teens who originally from out-of-state who have either been kicked out or ran away from home to try and find a better and more accepting future in LA.  Last year, we did a book drive and participated in two of the LA LGBT Center’s resource fairs.
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ALA Midwinter Impressions

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I began the ALA Midwinter Conference off by hosting a tour coordinated with YALSA and my organization, the Boston Public Library. In February 2015 the Teen Central and Children’s Library both received significant renovations to their spaces. Teen Central is a 2,00 square foot designated teen space focusing on the homago model (hanging out messing around and geeking out). There is a Media Lounge where teens can access video gaming, movie access and more, a digital makerspace; the Lab where teens can go beyond consumption and create with access to 20 different types of software such as; Adobe Creative Cloud, Manga Studio, FL Studio, Logic Cut Pro, Garageband, Autodesk 123D Design and more. The tour had about 15 librarians from across the country who focused on youth services and interested in learning ideas and seeing the design of both spaces.
I spent the day on Saturday in the strategic planning meeting with the YALSA Board. All of YALSA Board meetings (unless indicated as a closed meeting) are open door meetings and anyone can observe, listen and learn. All day Saturday, Board members worked with a consultant from the Whole Mind Strategy Group on organizational planning. The goal was to develop a focused and responsive plan which will help YALSA meet the needs of members and advance teen services in libraries across the country. Based on the outcomes of the organizational planning discussions, the consultant will help the Board draft a new, 3 year plan. The goal is to have that in place by March 1st. All of the agendas, notes, and updates on YALSA Board meetings are included in YALSA Blog posts and archived on the YALSA website.
YALSA Happy Hour was on Saturday at Rosa Mexicano and it was a great opportunity to meet new friends as well as be with old friends. It’s always so great to go to the happy hours as I will always meet new people and learn about things they are doing with and for their teens in their libraries.
I’m running for YALSA Board Member at Large and participated in a great opportunity on Sunday morning, Coffee with the Candidates.  There are 6 positions on the Board that are open that people are running for, elections open on March 15 and close on April 22, 2016.  The elections also include people running for the Printz, Edwards and Nonfiction Committees so don’t forget to vote.  The event also included people running for ALA President and Treasurer.  It was a good opportunity to meet the candidates, ask questions and get to know what their thoughts on various things affecting teens, teen services and teen librarians.

I finished the conference by tabling the YALSA booth.  This opportunity always gives me a chance to meet librarians doing amazing stuff with and for teens as well as new librarians wanting to know more about YALSA and how to get involved.  At each conference there is always the opportunity to table the YALSA booth and there is a call put out through YALSA e-news  and I would highly encourage you to think about doing it.

Working with and For Refugee and Immigrant Teens

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Libraries by their very nature provide resources, access, information and materials  that are free to all.  We may or may not know it but we are all working with immigrant and refugee populations.  I’m sure we do know who we serve and hopefully we are addressing some of the needs these populations may need.  But as we have all been reading news as of late there is some significant movement with some populations in the United State and in other countries.  What is the distinction between refugees and immigrants? In the simplest of terms; an immigrant is someone who chooses to resettle to another country.  A refugee has been forced to flee his or her home country. As such, refugees can apply for asylum in the United States and this process can take years.  It also isn’t an easy process.

Background

The United States is the world’s top resettlement country for refugees. For people living in repressive, autocratic, or conflict-embroiled nations, or those who are members of vulnerable social groups in countries around the world, migration is often a means of survival and—for those most at risk—resettlement is key to safety. In fiscal year 2015, the United States resettled 69,933 refugees and in FY 2013 (the most recent data available) granted asylum status to 25,199 people.

The Obama administration’s proposal to significantly increase the number of worldwide refugees the United States accepts annually up to 100,000 in FY 2017 would mark the largest yearly increases in refugee admissions since 1990.

The proposed 85,000 worldwide ceiling for FY 2016 would include 10,000 Syrians and is further broken down into regional caps: 34,000 resettlement places for refugees from the Near East and South Asia (up 1,000 from 2015); 13,000 from East Asia (no change); 25,000 from Africa (up 12,000); 3,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean (down 1,000); and 4,000 from Europe and Central Asia (up 3,000). The unallocated reserve also increased from 2,000 in 2015 to 6,000 in 2016.

The numbers from recently war torn Syria is not as high as numbers of other nations; Nationals of Burma (also known as Myanmar), Iraq, and Somalia were the top three countries of origin for refugees in 2015, representing 57 percent (39,920 individuals) of resettlements. Rounding out the top ten countries were: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Bhutan, Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan, and Cuba. *Information from Migration Policy Institute 

What are libraries doing to address needs of refugee and immigrant populations?

What are libraries across the country doing to help support and understand the needs from these refugees and new immigrants?  Are there things that you may be able to provide based off of some of this information?

We probably all read the amazing news article about Gary Trudeau passing out wordless picture books to Syrian refugees in Canada. What can libraries do to welcome immigrant or refugee teens to the libraries?

Look at what the city of Toronto Public Library did

A good number of libraries across the country already offer citizenship classes, ESL classes and workshops.  The Los Angeles Public Library offers citizenship programs and classes

San Francisco Public Library citizenship classes and other organizations to help

Austin Public Library has the New Immigrants Center citizenship classes, ESL classes, computer classes in other languages, job searching, legal help and more. How are they providing outreach and working with immigrant populations?

The NYPL promotes its work with immigrants and refugees visibly on their homepage under Outreach Services and Adult Programming  by calling it “Immigrant Services”

Ady Huertas and the San Diego Public Library are addressing immigrant and refugee needs by partnering with organizations that work directly with them and providing library services.

Libraries Without Borders founded in 2008 is an organization that responds to the vital need for books, culture, and information in developing regions. In doing this, they provide relief in humanitarian emergencies and the building blocks for long term development. Launched its Ideas Box-The Ideas Box provides access to a wide variety of resources carefully selected by our team based on the needs of diverse cultural and linguistic areas and populations of each implementation zone. Its four content modules allow beneficiaries to connect, learn, play and create. Each Ideas Box is equipped with:

  • 15 touch-pads and 4 laptops with satellite Internet connection;
  • 50 e-readers, 5000 e-books and 250 paper books;
  • MOOCs and stand alone Internet contents (Wikipedia, Khan Academy…);
  • An in-built TV set, a retractable projection screen and 100 films;
  • Board & video games, and other recreational activities;
  • 5 HD cameras for participatory journalism and film-making;
  • 3 GPS devices for participatory mapping
  • Arts & crafts materials and more

Queens Library right on homepage “New Americans” that provides services in areas of financial services, citizenship classes, ESL, including connections to other organizations providing mental health services, legal services and more

The REFORMA Children in Crisis Project with the recent arrival of over 70,000 children crossing the southern border into the United States has created an unprecedented humanitarian refugee crisis that compels REFORMA as an organization to act.The children, mostly Spanish speaking, are coming from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.  While recent news coverage of this event has focused on legal, medical and emergency response to services, there are few if any news stories that demonstrate the social-emotional and information needs of these children and families.  A view of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities shows children waiting in large storage like facilities with no activities to occupy the children’s minds through learning and play while they are being processed.

And this is just what REFORMA Children in Crisis Project is providing; books.  On their homepage they provide lists of books they bring to children and teens in detention centers, group homes, and other locations where these teens may be detained. Book lists can be accessed for some ideas.

Salt Lake County Library System has worked since 1939 in serving and actively working with immigrant and refugee populations in Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City has worked since 1898.  They provide a list of all of their partners and services they provide  which identifies partners like; Refugee and Immigrant Center of Utah, the International Rescue Committee and others.

YALSA resources such as Serving Diverse Teens @Your Library is a good one stop shop with everything you may need to help you get started; research, reports, resources, connections, networks and more.

Library Journal had a recent article about the work that libraries are doing with refugee populations.
So what can you do? Being aware of who is in your community is a good start.  Seeing what the influx of new immigrant and refugee patterns are is helpful.  Identifying organizations through your city, town or county that are working directly with refugee and immigrant populations and reaching out to these agencies to see about partnering and collaborating.   But mostly sharing what the library can provide and really listening to what their needs are and how the library can address those needs. Maybe working with your collection development team in expanding the resources your library has available in other languages and then working with organizations to share out that collection.  Sharing the work your library is doing with and for teens on the YALSA Blog, Library Journal and other publications is important too so that others can learn and replicate some of those initiatives.

OUTREACH SERVICES FOR TEEN LIBRARY STAFF: WHAT SOME STAFF ARE DOING OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF LIBRARIES

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The American Library Association (ALA) defines outreach as providing library services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented populations; populations such as new and non-readers, LBGT teens, teens of color, poor and homeless teens, and teens who are incarcerated. As these populations are often marginalized and underserved, it is crucial for libraries to recognize these populations and provide services and programs to them where they are.

The President of YALSA, Candice Mack, is focusing her year as President with an initiative, “3-2-1 Impact: Inclusive and Impactful Teen Services,” which will focus on building the capacity of libraries to plan, deliver and evaluate programs and services for and with underserved teen populations.  Visit YALSA’s wiki to find and share information about serving diverse teens and building cultural competence.

Each month I will profile a teen librarian or staff working in teen services providing outreach services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented teens. The purpose is for us to learn, connect, network and share with each other the crucial work we are doing in this area.

This month I interview Kate McNair, the Teen and Outreach Librarian for the Johnson County Library, Kansas, Antioch Branch.  Kate’s position focuses half of her time working directly on outreach, working with partners outside of the library.

J: What kind of outreach services do you provide for teens?

Personally, I love outreach, and I am lucky to work for a library that allows me and my colleagues to serve teens outside the Library walls. We have several great school districts in our serving area that invite us to do booktalks, library card drives, and partner book clubs to serve their students.  Our schools and teachers are great partners to host our programs for teens around our Civic Engagement programming, including bus tours of Kansas City with information about real-estate law, author visits and writing workshops. We also partner with schools to offer our teen literary magazine, elementia, which includes writing workshops at schools, presentations to students and faculty, and more author visits. We also have a few very special groups that meet with teens in alternative high schools to talk about building early childhood literacy skills for young parents and building confidence and critical thinking skills for at-risk students.

We also have a served teens in detention and on probation for almost 15 years. We currently have a team of 7 staff members who serve the incarcerated (we have expanded this definition to include diversion and probation) both teen and adult. We have partnered with our county’s Corrections department to offer book groups, short story discussions, author visits and writing workshops to teens in our Juvenile Detention Center, Youth Residential Center, Adolescent Center for Treatment (in-patient drug treatment) and Evening Reporting Center (a diversion program). We have also partnered with probations, judges and court services to offer a book club geared for teens on probation called Changing Lives Through Literature, based on a program for adults from Massachusetts.

I think that bout covers it! But I am sure I will think of 10 more things later. It seems like there is always so much to do in Outreach.

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OUTREACH SERVICES FOR TEEN LIBRARY STAFF: WHAT SOME STAFF ARE DOING OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF LIBRARIES

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The American Library Association (ALA) defines outreach as providing library services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented populations; populations such as new and non-readers, LBGT teens, teens of color, poor and homeless teens, and teens who are incarcerated. As these populations are often marginalized and underserved, it is crucial for libraries to recognize these populations and provide services and programs to them where they are.

The President of YALSA, Candice Mack, is focusing her year as President with an initiative, “3-2-1 Impact: Inclusive and Impactful Teen Services,” which will focus on building the capacity of libraries to plan, deliver and evaluate programs and services for and with underserved teen populations.  Visit YALSA’s wiki to find and share information about serving diverse teens and building cultural competence.

Each month I will profile a teen librarian or staff working in teen services providing outreach services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented teens. The purpose is for us to learn, connect, network and share with each other the crucial work we are doing in this area.

John Huth is the Librarian for teens and young adults with disabilities for The Child’s Place of the Brooklyn Public Library.  The following comes from a phone call on October 13, 2015.

  • What kind of outreach services do you provide for teens?

I work with teens with physical and/or mental/cognitive disabilities, teens and young adults who are incarcerated, teens who are or were homeless and teens who are in foster care.  I go everywhere in the borough of Brooklyn.  We work closely with the My Library NYC librarians however my Library NYC is a new program (past three years) and The Child’s Place has been providing accessible services to schools in Brooklyn for many years.  The Child’s Place was established before we had an outreach department and before My Library NYC both of which were established in the past 3 years. I cover a large amount of special education schools providing books as well as adaptable video gaming equipment programs in schools.  I really try and bring the books to life to engage with the teens to their interests as well as engaging with them with gaming.  Some of the teens I see may have limited mobility so I have equipment that is adaptable and able to be put on their bodies so they can use the mobility they do have and still engage with gaming.  So much of their school is so structured and doesn’t necessarily focus on developing social skills and sharing but through the gaming they are learning a lot of these skills. Read More →

YALSA TEEN PROGRAMMING HQ

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What is the YALSA Teen Programming HQ?

If you haven’t heard about YALSA’s new Teen Programming HQ, this is where you can learn everything you need to know. Everyone working with teens in libraries is conscientious in offering programs for and with teens that;

1. Have direct teen input and are teen driven

2. Demonstrate high-quality in teen library programming

3. Have identifiable goals and learning outcomes

4. Include evaluation components to ensure the program the outcomes and goals.

The YALSA Teen Programming HQ provides all library staff working with teens with examples to help create these high-quality programs.

The Teen Programming HQ is a website that anyone can access so to learn about quality program ideas  Each of the programs in the HQ include a description, the cost of running the program, age group targeted, instructions for replicating, learning outcomes and an evaluation strategy.

Where do the Programming HQ Programs Come From?

This is where YOU-teen library staff from all across the country-are needed. For the HQ to be successful we need you to submit your tested programs for review by the HQ team of experts. (Find out more about the experts below.)  YALSA is looking for programs that support the ideas in the YALSA Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action report (frequently referred to as the Futures Report) and the YALSA Programming Guidelines .

Why the Futures Report and the Programming Guidelines?  Both of these documents focus on areas of importance and highlight skills teens need to develop to succeed in life. The documents also focus on how libraries can help teens achieve these skills.  Both talk about the importance of identifying learning outcomes and developing evaluation plans for programs and highlight reasons why these are important.  The documents provide library staff with real-life and research-based recommendations for ways to help teens entering the workforce gain much needed critical and technology-based skills.

The Programming Guidelines specifically are intended to guide library staff who design, host, and evaluate library programs with and for teens. They were developed to align with YALSA’s  Futures Report and are specifically intended to help library staff leverage skills and resources to provide relevant, outcomes-based programs to better the lives of all teens in the community.  (Which is what the Programming HQ is also intended to do.)

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OUTREACH SERVICES FOR TEEN LIBRARY STAFF: WHAT SOME STAFF ARE DOING OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF LIBRARIES

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The American Library Association (ALA) defines outreach as providing library services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented populations; populations such as new and non-readers, LBGT teens, teens of color, poor and homeless teens, and teens who are incarcerated. As these populations are often marginalized and underserved, it is crucial for libraries to recognize these populations and provide services and programs to them where they are.

The President of YALSA, Candice Mack, is focusing her year as President with an initiative, “3-2-1 Impact: Inclusive and Impactful Teen Services,” which will focus on building the capacity of libraries to plan, deliver and evaluate programs and services for and with underserved teen populations.  Visit YALSA’s wiki to find and share information about serving diverse teens and building cultural competence.

Each month I will profile a teen librarian or staff working in teen services providing outreach services and programs outside the walls of the library to underserved and underrepresented teens. The purpose is for us to learn, connect, network and share with each other the crucial work we are doing in this area.

Kelly Czarnecki is a Teen Librarian at ImaginOn with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.  The following is from an email conversation in  September.

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Looking to Create a Makerspace in your Library? Here are some ideas

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Makerspaces are popping up everywhere and the definition of makerspaces is constantly evolving like the spaces themselves. Makerspaces, sometimes also referred to as hackerspaces, hackspaces, and fablabs are creative, DIY spaces where people can gather to create, invent, and learn. The focus, actually, is on the type of learning that goes on, not the stuff.  Making is about learning that is: interest-driven and hands-on and often supported by peer-to-peer learning.  This is often referred to as connected learning.  Also, you don’t need a set space to facilitate this type of learning.  You can have pop up makerspaces at various library branches, afterschool programs, community centers, etc.  Or you can set up a ‘maker cart’ that can travel anywhere in the library.  Perhaps what your teens need most are maker backpacks that are stuffed with resources and activities they can do at home.

Why focus on maker programs and spaces in your library?  These types of activities help teens explore their interests and build skills that they need for college and careers.  The Institute of Museum and Library Services has a great two page informational sheet (.pdf) that talks about making and libraries. Share this with your supervisor to help them understand why these types of learning activities are important.

If you are thinking about ways to bring in some maker programs into your library, begin with  identifying what kind of  learning activities your teens want/need the most.  Digital, craft, technology, a mix?   Maybe your teens want you to work with them to create activities to do a little  bit of the above.  What do you need to get started?  First, build your knowledge of connected learning.  Your one stop shop for that is the Connected Learning Alliance.  Be sure to check out their free webinar archive.  Another very good connected learning resource to explore is remakelearning.org

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