Blog Archives

How libraries can prepare to better serve teens in the future

6/25/2015

When I was 13 I didn't own a cell phone. I didn't pluck my eyebrows. I didn't spend hours taking pictures of myself and then Snapchat them to all my friends. I didn't feel inundated with unrealistic body image ideals presented by the media. Frankly, I just didn't care, and that's because I was still living in a kid's world. Sadly, I feel that with each trip around the sun this planet takes, children are entering the adult world sooner and sooner.

Being a teenager today is quite different than it was for me, just as my glamorous time of adolescence was different than my parents, and theirs before them. And I'm not just talking about today's popularity of social media or Minecraft or whatever the heck else is ~hip with the young folk~ these days.

Image via American Libraries magazine.

Like it or not for anyone who has already survived their awkward and acne-ridden teenage years, those young whippersnappers of today are tomorrow's future, and the ones who will be using the library (and everything else) long after the rest of us leave this world. Teenagers are society's real innovators, and they are shaping the future! During a time when teens have access to information and entertainment at the click of a mouse or the swipe of a finger, libraries need to find a way to keep them coming through their doors, regardless of what sort of technological (or hormonal) changes are occurring elsewhere.

In January 2014, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) released a report titled The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action. According to an article in American Libraries magazine published earlier this month called The Future of Library Services to Teens, "The report is the culmination of a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and spearheaded by YALSA’s National Forum on Libraries and Teens, which focused on the needs of teens and how libraries can support those needs."

"Teens are living in an environment filled with mobile technology. They can find and download music, movies, and personal or academic reading materials from anywhere, not just at the library. Yet many teens do not have the skills or access to use the technology available to them. And in some cases, library staff working with teens don’t have the knowledge, skills, background, or support to help adolescents in the way needed in the 21st century," -- The Future of Library Services to Teens, American Libraries magazine

Coming up with a plan for how libraries can serve and attract teens in the unforeseeable future can be a daunting task, and with limited budgets and staff (and patron) reluctance to change, it can be especially difficult for libraries to start adjusting. However, according to the American Libraries article, there are small ways libraries across the country can get the ball rolling now, including:

Hiring new staff to support digital media and learning initiatives and provide support to other staff and youth and families around the ideas of connected learning
Talking with a state youth-services consultant about YALSA's Futures report and its impact on the work that libraries in the state do with and for teens
Working with college and career readiness providers in the community in order to develop programs and services for teens that will help them succeed in life
Providing training to colleagues on the ideas embedded in YALSA's Futures report

But perhaps the most obvious way for librarians to arm themselves with the metaphorical weapons they need to secure a long-term teenage patronage is by *gasp* TALKING TO TEENS! Find out what sorts of services, materials and activities teens want and do your best to incorporate them. Don't just talk to the teens who walk through the library's doors -- you already have them hooked on books! Make an effort to reach out to teens who don't usual frequent the library and see what you can do to get them to open their minds — or better yet, open a book!

0 Comments

Local librarian identified as victim in Charleston shooting

6/18/2015

0 Comments

Waking up to horrible news is one of the worst things you can experience. Here's a brand new day, filled with endless possibilities and opportunities – that is, until the moment the bad news hits you. Hard.

All that promise of a new day – a new start – becomes tainted by news oftentimes completely beyond your control. When I was a senior in high school, the news was that my aunt had been in a car accident and would probably not make it. A few years later, it was that my mother was diagnosed with Stage IV Lung Cancer. A couple years after that, it was that my dad had been in a fatal motorcycle accident. Today that news was the shooting and death of nine innocent people in a church in Charleston, S.C.

Bad news is horrible – whether it directly affects you or not – because you know that somewhere, someone's life is being profoundly altered by a devastating and life-changing event. Having lost far too many people before their time in my short 23 years, I am heartbroken for all those affected by last night's senseless act of hatred and violence.

Not only did people lose brothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends in the Charleston shooting, but the community lost some very important and active members of society, including South Carolina State Senator the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, and the St. Andrews Regional Library Manager Cynthia Hurd, confirmed by the Charleston County Public Library's Facebook page earlier today.

According to The Post and Courier, "In a 2003 interview, Hurd said, 'I like helping people find answers,' adding that the best thing about being a librarian was service. 'Your whole reason for being there is to help people.'" County officials said the St. Andrews Regional Library where Hurd worked will be renamed in her honor, according to The Post and Courier.

Not only was Hurd a dedicated librarian, but Pinckney was also a tremendous advocate for libraries in the State Legislature. Clearly last night's shooting is a tragedy on many levels, but it is surely also a devastating loss for the South Carolina library community.

I'm upset that we've gotten to the point that people are scared to go to a movie theater, the mall, school or even places of worship because of the evil other humans are capable of. And the fact that more and more libraries feel the need to invest in active shooter training is disheartening to say the least.

I'm sick of the the social and racial tension, the bigotry, the hatred and the ignorance that keeps occurring around this country and the world. As President Barack Obama said earlier today, he's had to give statements about gun violence "too many times" during his tenure in office.

But what do we do? How do we stop tragedies like these from ravaging our communities? I'm not talking about what the politicians can do – I'm talking about what We the People can do.

Librarian Cynthia Hurd.
Photo via the Charleston County Public Library website.

In the above Facebook post, Hurd was called "a tireless servant of the community who spent her life helping residents, making sure they had every opportunity for an education and personal growth." While I don't have a fix-all solution to the issue of radical violence in this country or any other (no one does), I think that if people put a little more effort into living a life similar to the one Hurd will be remembered for – a life of helping and caring for others – we'd be one step closer to a better and safer world.

0 Comments

Replacing the children's books adults fear and kids hold dear

6/12/2015

0 Comments

First published in 1942, "The Pokey Little Puppy" is one of the best-selling and most overrated books of all time.

I was recently reading something posted in a Facebook group for librarians in which a bunch of my fellow book lovers were discussing the stories they dreaded reading aloud to children. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly to some, quite a few of the mentioned titles were some of the most iconic books for kids, including Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Marcus Pfizer's The Rainbow Fish. Even Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree was mentioned!

These titles, and others like them, were generally brought up by librarians because they felt that the books were too slow, too dull, or sometimes just plain old creepy. And while it would go against my moral code to say I could hate reading a book to a child ... I can see what my colleagues are saying – and they're not the only ones.

Gabriel Roth recently published a Slate article called, Why So Poky? The Scourge of Terrible Canonical Children’s Books, in which he shares his experiences reading with his young daughter. In the hilarious article, Roth unabashedly states:

"The problem is that young children have terrible taste and enjoy garbage. Another problem, which compounds the first problem, is that they want to hear the same books hundreds of times in a row. So for all the joys that storytime can offer, it frequently entails a kind of dismal self-abnegation that’s too excruciating even to describe as tedium – an actively painful sense of my precious time on earth being torn from my chest and tossed into a furnace," – Roth, Slate.

In his article, Roth is referring particularly to The Poky Little Puppy, one of history's best-selling children's books. And while kids may enjoy the story of the cute little canine, adults oftentimes see the book as being pointless, boring and lacking any real moral. As one of the original 12 Little Golden Books first published in 1942, this story has been passed down from generation to generation – but not because it is a captivating story. As Roth explains, the book's popularity and sales persist solely because of nostalgia. He goes on to write:

"Millions of people enjoyed The Poky Little Puppy as children, because it was cheap and because, being children, they had no standards. They grew up to be parents, remembered the book fondly from childhood, and purchased it for their own children," – Roth, Slate.

This "inter-generational cycle of crap," as Roth so aptly calls it, is what makes a lot of popular children's books be read over and over again (maybe to the chagrin of their parents and librarians). So what can we do to break the cycle? Replace those books with better suggestions!

A FlavorWire.com article written by Emily Temple picked up where Roth left off and recommends some great alternatives to those canonical classics adults dread and children love. Instead of The Poky Little Puppy, Temple suggests The Sweetest Fig by Chris Van Allsburg – "A highly satisfying story in which a mean dentist gets his due AND there’s a cute dog to look at AND there are Van Allsburg’s typical hazy-wondrous illustrations," writes Temple.

As the article suggests, maybe it's time to retire Robert Munsch's Love You Forever in exchange for Wild by Emily Hughes, an adorable picture book about a little girl who has known nothing but nature from birth. Perhaps one should swap out Hans Christian Andersen's The Princess and the Pea for The Princess Who Saved Herself by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa, a book inspiring girls to be their own heroes. After all, shouldn't storytime be enjoyable for everyone involved?

To view all of Temple's suggestions to replace those lovable but lackluster titles, click here.

Instead of this ...

... Try this!

"Well, obviously, real princesses are SO delicate that they’d feel a pea under 20 mattresses. And only the most delicate ladies are worthwhile marriage material for princes. That all aside, there’s not even a twist to this one," – Emily Temple, FlavorWire.com

"Now there’s a princess worthy of marriage (later, whenever she wants to get married) (and also, who cares, because marriage is not a prize for women or a benchmark for life). Let’s just say, that’s a real princess," – Emily Temple, FlavorWire.com

0 Comments

Library programming: Teaching a Blogging 101 class

6/9/2015

0 Comments

Friday I had the opportunity to incorporate some of my personal skills and hobbies into the Community Library's programming for the first (of many) times. How exciting!

There is a large demand for computer classes from our adult patrons, so I talked to my supervisor about leading a class dedicated to blogging, and she was excited to have one (Blogging about teaching a class about blogging .... I know, how meta of me)!

With a journalism degree from Marquette University and having blogged on and off for about four years, I felt that I had a lot of tips and tricks to offer others interested in learning more about blogs or starting one of their own.

Not only was teaching a Blogging 101 class interesting to the library's patrons – it was a great way to promote my own blog!

I designed the class so it could be beneficial for anyone who attended – from someone who doesn't even know what a blog is, to someone looking to launch a professional blog for a small business. I had five patrons register for the six available spots in the class, and ended up with having four of them attend – not too bad of a turn out for a small rural library on a beautiful Friday afternoon!

One woman in attendance was looking seriously into creating her own blog to curate self-produced content, whereas another was thinking about starting a travel blog to write about her vacations. Another woman in the class wanted to document stories of her experience being a nurse, and the fourth patron was exploring the idea of starting a photo blog for Schlitz beer memorabilia. There was a good variety of topics people were interested in blogging about, and a nice age range of program participants as well, which is always great to see.

Image via Pinterest.com

Because I am very familiar with and enjoy the functionality of Weebly.com for my blogging needs, I decided to have the class attendees sign up for a free account and publish their first post after giving them some introductory blogging information. We also covered how to use social media to promote a website and blog posts after they are published.

Public library programming is a great way to learn new skills or be introduced to unique hobbies. From blogging basics to yoga classes, craft time to book discussions and beyond – public libraries are always there to support their community members and enable them to be lifelong learners! See what free program is offered at your local library today!

To view the upcoming programs at the Community Library, stop in and pick up a copy of our program brochure or visit our website, communitylib.org.

0 Comments

Public libraries serve the homeless in more ways than one

6/3/2015

0 Comments

Homeless library patron John Hernandez reading, "The Power of Attraction" at the Sacramento Public Library in California. Photo by Fritz Hoffmann/Redux, via NationalGeographic.com

Public libraries are meant to serve everyone in their communities, and that means everyone – whether they have a fixed place of residence or not.

In a recent photo essay published in National Geographic Magazine, photographer Fritz Hoffmann highlights how some homeless people in California benefit from public libraries, including using them as quite places to read and learn, using their restroom facilities and using them as a place to get off the streets – either momentarily, or for good.

"Being homeless often means living off the mainstream grid, unplugged from the Internet, email, and streaming media. Public libraries provide the homeless with a way to connect, and many homeless say that browsing the stacks and reading a book there eases a weary street-level perspective of life," Hoffmann states in his photo essay.

I cannot help but smile when I look at these moving photos. They remind me of a shared sense of humanity, and the ability public libraries have to unite, lift up and love the people they serve. These photos show just how important public libraries are, and what a difference they can make in a person's life. You can view all the photos here.

As job resource and learning centers, public libraries provide the homeless with more than just a warm and dry place to go during the day. They provide them with a place to grow and thrive. Some libraries see such a high amount of homeless patrons that they are taking even further steps to serve their needs by bringing in specialized staff to work with the homeless.

Arleta Taylor reads First Corinthians in her pocket copy of the New Testament Holy Bible at the Sacramento Public Library Central Branch. Photo by Fritz Hoffmann/Redux, via NationalGeographic.com

The San Francisco Public Library was the first library in the nation to hire a full-time social worker as part of its staff. Since being hired in 2009, Leah Esguerra has helped about 150 formerly homeless library patrons find permanent housing, and another 800 have benefited from other social services provided by the library, according to PBS. Esguerra has also provided employment for formerly homeless library patrons by creating positions at the library known as "health and safety associates." These employees are tasked with monitoring the library for anyone who appears to be homeless and offering them help – be it informing them about area shelters, or working with housing agencies to find them a place of their own.

Homelessness is a major issue in this country, and many others around the world. And while some library patrons may be upset at libraries for their policies regarding serving the homeless, it is the duty of public libraries to serve and support their communities and the all of people in them.

To learn more about how libraries across the country are serving the homeless, click here.

0 Comments

How libraries can prepare to better serve teens in the future

Local librarian identified as victim in Charleston shooting

Replacing the children's books adults fear and kids hold dear

Instead of this ...

... Try this!

Library programming: Teaching a Blogging 101 class

Public libraries serve the homeless in more ways than one

Author

Connect with me online!

Archives

Categories