YALSA Excellence in Programming Award Part II: Teen Fashion Week at ImaginOn

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A few months ago, I wrote about one of the YALSA Excellence in Programming Award recipients, Teen Fashion Apprentice at ImaginOn. ‘ This’ July, we hosted an entire week worth of fashion workshops — Fashion Week at ImaginOn — ‘ in preparation’ for a fashion show.

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The teens had explicit instructions for the creation of their fashion masterpieces:’  they must adhere to the theme, “Fashionably Ever After,” and their creations had to be made from 100%’ recycled materials. ‘ Both the literary or fairy tale theme and the challenges of working with unconventional materials lent itself to the creation of an extensive resource guide.’  Read More →

Teen Fashion Apprentice: Excellence in Library Services to Young Adults 2012 Program Award Winner

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by Marie Harris

At ALA Annual, Kelly Czarnecki and Jimmeka Anderson’ will accept YALSA’s Excellence in Library Services to Young Adults 2012 Program Award for the Teen Fashion Apprentice program at ImaginOn.

This unique program, first developed in 2012 by Jimmeka Anderson and Kelly Czarnecki, has expanded and grown to now include workshops at five library branches, with apprenticeships awarded at three locations in 2013. “The program gives them [the teens] the chance to get more hands-on experience… and see if it’s something they want to do in the future,” says Jimmeka.

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September Eureka Moments

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Even if you don’t work in a school media center, I’m guessing your life still tends to run on an academic schedule when you work with teens. So welcome to the new school year! Here’s what I think might be interesting, useful, or intriguing to you and your patrons this month.

  • If your teens are interested in what’s new in the going green movement, have them look more globally to see what’s going on. In coastal Ecuador, young people from farming families are heading up efforts to save, cultivate, and redistribute heirloom seeds to revitalize the environment and help farmers prosper. Part of an organization called FOCCAHL, 20-year-old Cesar Guale Vasquez travels throughout nearby areas collecting seeds from farmers and also hosts swapping events so that farmers can trade seeds with each other in order to have more vibrant and diverse crops. Now take that for inspiration and add to it your own library’s resources on climate change, farming, and nutrition and plan an interesting program that combines science with activism and see what your advisory board wants to do with it. Many libraries now are creating their own seed libraries, and whether they’re for wildflowers or corn, they can be a great way to bring communities together, get young people to work with older people, and freshen up your local environment while doing your small part to keep the world cleaner and greener.
    Matthews, J. (2012). Ecuador’s seed savior. World Ark, May 2012: 10-15. Read More →

App of the Week: InStyle Hairstyle Try-On

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Title:InStyle Hairstyle Try-On
Platform: iPad with iOS 3.2 or later
Cost: Free/Pro version with more hairstyles $5.99

InStyle HairStyle Try-On app iconDoes your library have beauty books? Does your collection include magazines that show celebrity hairstyles? Do teens talk about hairstyles and what they are going to try next? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions then this app is probably right for your library’s app collection. Or you might recommend it to teens who are interested in hairstyles but don’t necessarily want to take the plunge of getting a cut without really knowing what they will look like once scissors have touched their hair.

The great thing about this app is the user gets to see exactly what she will look like in a particular hairstyle. Here are the steps for seeing what teens, or you, will look like in celebrity hairstyles: Read More →