My library has seen a surge of interest in volunteering lately, and we’re looking for ways to balance the number of people who’d like to volunteer with the energy and staff time it takes to manage a good volunteer program. We see lots of teens who have been assigned volunteer service as part of a probation agreement with the courts, and with the tight job market, some teens who can’t find work are searching for alternatives to gain experience that could land them a job in the future.
There’s this closet at work that I’m starting to clean out because it needs it. It’s been kind of funny tracking down where things came from in the first place as one person invariably leads me to and there’s usually a humorous story attached to it at the end. We’re also busy at work spring cleaning in a sense in the way we think about using things-particularly technology equipment. We’re taking into consideration how teens use it and what our own processes are in order to make some changes.
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In these podcasts, Kelly Czarnecki talks with Carla Land (Summerlin Library, Las Vegas, NV) and Katie Voss (Mary Institute and St. Louis (Mo.) Country Day School), the two ALA Emerging Leaders sponsored by YALSA in 2009.
Carla Land
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Katie Voss
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Every year, around this time, many of America’s high school students start turning their thoughts to one thing: prom.
Prom is a legendary night of gowns, tuxedos, photographs, limousines, coursages, spiked punch, romance, late-night hotel parties, and figuring out where in the world you are when you wake up the next morning. (If you don’t believe me, read Brian Sloan’s A Really Nice Prom Mess.)
At least, that’s what I’ve heard. I never went to prom, but I sure did hear lots of stories about it. Some may have been real, some may have been imagined, but it was all fascinating. Read More →
From time to time, YALSA teen blogger Katie and I will get together to have a heart-to-heart talk about issues affecting teen librarians from both a teen and librarian’s perspective. This episode: how do misconceptions slip into our daily routines and how you can we identify and overcome them?
Global Kids, Common Sense Media, and the GoodPlay Project have teamed up to present FOCUS. A multi-week web-bases set of online dialogues about digital life that is aimed to help put parents, teens, and teachers in touch with one another. Topics covered include privacy, identity, and several others. The discussions will take place April 13-May 4.’ Read More →
For Teen Tech Week this year I tried to do something more low key. Instead of having a big program I optioned to try and promote the different technology-related services the library offers by giving teens a list of questions to answer and tasks to complete. I tried to make them fun; the questions I used are below.
My goal was to promote library services, so I told my staff that they could hand out the questions to any patrons. I was given two $10 Borders gift certificates to give away as an incentive for the teens to complete 8 out of 10 tasks, and so far no teen has turned the sheet back in. Read More →
During Teen Tech Week (yep, this week!) Tutor.com is hosting a webinar highlighting two libraries-Central Rappahannock Regional Library and Omaha Public Library and conversation about attracting teens with technology. Tutor.com’s new online classroom will be showcased as well.’ Visit this page to register for tomorrow’s webinar which will take place from 1-2p EST.
When I was in junior high there was a small local restaurant my friends and I liked to go to. It served good sandwiches and it was a place we all went with our families. The thing was, when we were at the restaurant with our families, we received great service. When we went as a group of friends, the service wasn’t so great. We knew without a doubt that the adult employees didn’t like us at all. Eventually we stopped going.
I’ve been thinking about this experience as I’ve recently been reminded how sometimes adults don’t treat teens very well. I think, in many instances, adults don’t do this on purpose, they don’t intentionally treat teens badly. Read More →
The Johnson County Library (Overland Park, KS) is hosting Teen Tech Bingo this week. Teens are entered into a drawing for every five tech activities completed. Activities include make your own avatar and creating a video on animoto.com. We have mounted table-top tents on top of the public youth computers that point teens to the internet location where they can begin Teen Tech Bingo.
This is a self-directed activity, which helps because we can get very busy at the neighborhood branches. It’s easy for staff to recommend the activity, whereas putting together an afternoon program during the “schools out” session would require a lot more effort (i.e. schedule changes and program prep time).