Where Good Ideas Come From

by

As a summer project we read Steven Johnson’s book Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. It’s a book that while not at all focused on libraries, gave both us a lot of really good ideas about how librarians working with teens can be innovative and work towards innovative practices in their libraries. Below you can read about some of our favorite ideas and how we see connections between them and teen library services.

Error = Insight
Error as key in innovation comes across loud and clear in Johnson’s book. He asks readers to consider that it’s possible to “transform error into insight” and that “innovative environments thrive on useful mistakes.” Read More →

Jennifer & Linda Talk About Risk

by

This is a collaborative blog post written by a protege and mentor in YALSA’s mentoring program. Jennifer is the protege and Linda is the mentor. We’ve been working together over the past several months talking about how to effectively gain support for teen services and how to work with administration to let them know all about the great activities and work being done by teen librarians. This is our second post and the topic is risk in teen services.

Linda Provides a Risky Overview
Read More →

Jennifer & Linda Talk About Working with Administrators

by

This is a collaborative blog post written by a protege and mentor in YALSA’s mentoring program. Jennifer is the protege and Linda is the mentor. We’ve been working together over the past several months talking about how to effectively gain support for teen services and how to work with administration to let them know all about the great activities and work being done by teen librarians. As our conversations developed we realized that what we were talking about made for a great blog post, or series of blog posts. Our first post is on how to gain support from administration for teen projects. Read More →