program ideas from Sakura-Con

Hello everyone,

Anne and I attended Sakura-Con way back on April 12th, and I've been meaning to share a bit of that experience, but couldn't think of the right way to approach the random information. And then I was thinking of ways to improve this blog, and realized this was a perfect place to download this sort of info. Especially after I spent a little time yesterday playing with the Flip video camera software and made a tiny movie with the footage we shot there!



Sakura-Con is all about celebrating anime and manga, plus the culture that surrounds them. I went with the main objective of coming up with programming ideas. I contacted a number of young artists, and unfortunately did not find many who were excited about teaching classes at the library (most were sweetly quite shy and inexperience in dealing with the public). Here are a few possibilities:

Elie and Rae - Above*Rain are based out of Lake Stevens.
Rebecca Barnes - Washington state - Bluessence
Rich Schleifer - Schleifer Studios - Bothell

Costumes are a huge part of Sakura-Con! One of my favorite parts was when they would have Cosplay photo gatherings scheduled, so kids who dressed as characters from the same anime would come together in one big group for photo ops. (Anne always has great photos). Probably wouldn't work as a library program, but maybe a cosplay party?

We attended an awesome Gothic Lolita fashion show, and afterwards I spoke to the presenter, Aimee Skeers, who said she would be willing to do her PowerPoint at a library for a program, and might be able to get her Lolita group to do meet-up as part of the program. (She is part of a Lolita convention in Bellevue this August) My idea is that the library could throw a tea party for them and the teens who attend. Could be fun!

I learned from the Seattle branch of the Consulate-General of Japan about the JET (Japanese Exchange and Teaching) program. They are very excited to promote this if you would like to have a program where teens and young adults can learn about the JET program. Contact Lynn at jet@cgjapansea.org for more information.

Another organization that might be worth talking to about doing something in the library is the Japan-America Society. They have a Japan in a Suitcase program they offer for young elementary school students, and Japanese Language and Culture Visits they do for secondary school students. Perhaps they could do a mini-immersion program for your anime group, or as a program?

Another both I checked out where the folks seemed interested in doing programs at the library was Tsubomi Seishin Kan Dojo - Japanese Martial Arts & Culture. They are located in both Shoreline and Everett adn teach Aikido and Iaido (Japanese swordsmanship!) They are part of the PNBA (Pacific Northwest Budo Association) who coordinates instructional programs on Japanese language and culture, including meditation, calligraphy, bonsai, flower arranging and tea ceremonies!

One final program idea that would be cheap and fun is to have a classic console gaming night. Borrow ancient Atari 2600, Nintendo 64, etc...from your staff and friends and let the teens experience the glory that is old school video gaming!

tattoo contest for teens?

This is a fresh idea I saw on GNLIB, from Susan Bohn of Hononegah High School :

Our high school library has a library advisory group and they help me plan events for the library. We recently had "ani-May-nia" and one part of the program was a drawing contest. The students submitted drawings inspired by their favorite manga characters and the kids at the program voted for their favorite. I had them turn in their entries prior to the day of the program so I could scan them and make them into temporary tattoos which we scattered on the tables for the kids to take during the program. The tattoo paper I used was a "laser temporary tattoo paper kit" by papilio.com. It costs $11.89 for a pack of 5 sheets. You need a color laser printer to print them. I used five sheets and made 125 tattoos, so the kids could take several. Our students really like contests--drawing contests, trivia contests, etc. This was a fun way to use the entries from the drawing contest and give something to everyone who came.

Pretty neat, eh?

Some display ideas for teen summer reading

I came across a very cool PowerPoint today by by Valerie Voss of Tulare County Library, in which she shares some great ideas for Express Yourself @ the Library. Though it may be too late to add any of these things as programs, you could incorporate a few of the ideas in to displays or local contests at your branch:

• Your Life in Six Words
• One/Two Minute Video Poetry Slams
• Teen photo display (found photo collage or teen art)
• Mail art (exchange with other branches?)
• Express Your Secret @ the Library (PostSecret type display)

Wish I had found this sooner...some really cool ideas!

Mindspot

Jonalyn forwarded me this awesome video today:



I'm very impressed with many things about what they are doing here. Especially departing from library lingo to make something new, hiring teens to help monitor and develop successful programming and spaces, and focusing on "user driven innovation". Plus, I really want a Infamous for Information caravan to showcase our stuff at local events!

Here is some further documentation (in English) about Mindspot (not). May I say, wow?

Free Poster?

For those of you who missed the ad in today's (this week's?) Unshelved:

Macmillan is offering a free 2-sided "teen reads" poster.

Looks, as my mom would say, snazzy. In fact, I should probably send the link to her...(she's a high school librarian, after all.)

I've ordered one.

Changes Parent Support Network

Another local resource well worth knowing about is the Changes Parent Support Network. They offer free ongoing peer support meetings to parents and guardians of acting out or self destructive teens and young adults in Snohomish County. Meetings happen every Thursday evening from 7-9:30 at the Family Tree Apt. Complex community room - 10110 19th Ave. SE Everett WA 98208. Please share with parents in need!

Getting crafty

Looking for fun project ideas for teen programs, or just yourself? Here are some of my favorite magazines/sites to browse:

Craft: the first project based magazine dedicated to the renaissance in the world of crafts.
Slightly geekier than the typical Michael's crafts crowd.

Make: technology on your time
Tech geek version of Craft.

ReadyMade: Instructions for Everyday Life
Very hip, environmentally conscious, and grades projects by difficulty and cost.
I love this incredibly simple project!: Photo Ops

Instructables: Make, How to, and DIY
People post their own how to instructions for more things than you can imagine!

Where do you go for how-to inspiration?

Helping hurting teens

So often when a teen loses a friend, or it witness to a violent crime, it is difficult for us as adults to know how to best help them grieve. We may not realize that some of their behaviors indicate that they still need more time and assistance to cope with this dramatic change in their lives. Even if their friend is still alive, they are changed, and either way the loss is hard, especially when you are already dealing with the challenges of teen life.

Happily, there is a local organization we can refer teens to when they are struggling with these difficult problems beyond our professional skills. Friends and Family of Violent Crime Victims is a group located out of Everett that is here to help both teens and adults who have suffered a loss or trauma, or are friends with someone who has and need help dealing.

And now they are starting up support groups for teens. To find out more, or refer a teen in need, call Nancy at 425.252.6081 or 1.800.346.7555.

Maggots in your nose? No thanks!

Today the YALSA blog featured a post on Smoking Smarties referring to this New York Times article:

Just Say No....to Smarties? Faux Smoking Has Parents Fuming
Crush Candy, Suck In Dust, Blow Out Puffs; Schools Fear It'll Make Cigarettes Cool

Apparently this is a trend somewhere...hard to say if it is widespread or if the media is just blowing it up. Teens crush up Smarties and pretend the dust is smoke. Or snort them, in a clear reference to hard core drugs. Some teens argue it is a healthy alternative to smoking/drugs, and of course parents/school/doctors are freaking out. Seems to me this should be enough to dissuade any reasonable teen:

Oren Friedman, a Mayo Clinic nose specialist, cautioned that frequent use could lead to infections or even worse, albeit rare, conditions, such as maggots that feed on sugary dust wedged inside the nose.

EW!

But is this really about reasonable teens? Or is it just those kids who are trying to get a rise out of adults. I remember obnoxious peers doing similar things with crushed up Cheetos/candy/sugar packets when I was a teen. Is this really a threat to society? Or just another case of teens successfully freaking out adults over nothing?

If nothing else, it can be a great conversation starter with teens in your library!

Teen dating violence - in the news, and in books.

I was disturbed to read this article yesterday:

Teenage Girls Stand by Their Man
IN the hallway of Hostos-Lincoln Academy in the Bronx this week, two ninth-grade girls discussed the pop singer Chris Brown, 19, who faces two felony charges for allegedly beating his girlfriend, the pop singer Rihanna, 21. At first, neither girl had believed Mr. Brown, an endearing crooner, could have done such a thing. Two fans show their support for Chris Brown outside the courthouse in Los Angeles. Readers' “I thought she was lying, or that the tabloids were making it up,” one girl said. Even after they saw a photo of Rihanna’s bloodied, bruised face, which had raced across the Internet, they still defended Mr. Brown. “She probably made him mad for him to react like that,” the other ninth grader said. “You know, like, bring it on?”

I'm absolutely horrified by the onslaught of support teens are showing for this violent behavior, and how willing they are to blame the victim. The Times article supplies some good links, some of which I'm adding to our Sno-Isle Teens de.licio.us page. But I would like to do a booklist on this sadly timely topic too. What books would you include on a teen dating violence booklist?

Read*Write*Think

Ok, so I've known about this organization for a while now, but only recently have I really taken a good look at their website. The have a whole page for grades 6-8 and another for 9-12. The coolest thing? The podcasts. Which also have their own page, and is currently featuring a great interview with Laurie Halse Anderson (who will be in Seattle at the Ballard Branch on March 24th! I can't go, since I'll be visiting my brother in D.C., but you totally should!).

It's primarily designed for teachers, but I get a kick out of podcasts, so I thought I'd share.

Very cool TTW program

Johnson County Library (in Kansas) has a very cool Teen Tech Week program on their website: Teen Tech Bingo!

Want to experiment with some cool Web sites? Try out the activities below. Complete any five of the challenges and you will be entered in to a drawing to win tech gift cards from local businesses. Once you have completed your five challenges, submit them with any links to your work to let us share them on JoCoTeenscene. For every five challenges you complete, your name will be put into the drawing. Go for a blackout, completing all the challenges, and increase your chances of winning.

How great is that? I totally want to steal this idea next year :)

28 Days of Advocacy

Over at the YALSA blog, they have been doing a full months worth of sharing ideas on how we can all be better advocates for teens:
Topics on the advocacy schedule for this month include:

• ALA advocacy tools
• Why advocacy is important
• Everyday advocacy in the school library
• Why advocacy should be part of a teen librarian’s job description
• Creating Partnerships
• And more

We hope these posts will help readers to become better advocates in their own libraries and also help to spread the word about why advocating for teens and libraries is important.

Much of this you may already know, but there are lots of great fresh little ideas there to check out, too!

Audiobooks are hot!

The Audio Publishers Association released the results of their 2008 consumer survey, and the results are pretty exciting:

28% of adults responding to survey listened to an audiobook last year.
53% of teens have listened to an audiobook.
52% of people aged 18-24 listen to audiobooks.
63% of children listen to audiobooks.

I'm a little skeptical of the reach of this survey, but as a long time audiobook fan (I depend on them for my commute!) I believe they are getting more popular...especially since you can now easily download them to portable players.

What are some of your favorite recent listens?

I've really enjoyed these recordings for teens:

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Terrier: Beka Cooper by Tamora Pierce

And for adults:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
The Deportees & Other Stories by Roddy Doyle
The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

The 2009 Rainbow List

From the ALSC blog:

"The Rainbow Project announced the 2009 Rainbow List, a joint undertaking of the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table and Social Responsibilities Round Table. Featuring well-written and/or well-illustrated titles with authentic and significant gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered/queer/questioning (glbtq) content for youth from birth through age 18, this year’s bibliography presents 34 outstanding titles, published in the last eighteen months and representing a broad range of glbtq experience...

Four titles stood out to the selection committee as especially deserving of recognition for their characters, stories, and quality of writing and/or illustration:

1. Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole (first novel)


2. 10,000 Dresses written by Marcus Ewert and illustrated by Rex Ray (first picture book)


3. Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon


4. Skim by Mariko Tamaki (text) and Jillian Tamaki (artwork)

"

Read the whole list here.

Facebook tips for Parents?

What a great idea for a class this is:

Stanford class to help parents be better Facebook friends with their kids
Eric Eldon | February 2nd, 2009

In the class, parents will learn how to talk with their kids about practical aspects of using the site, like the long-term risks of publishing embarrasing photos (college admissions counselors might see them one day), or the benefits of letting friends comment on drafts of class essays.

What a great way for parents to get comfortable with technology, understand what they need to know to guide their kids, and really connect with them better. I love it!

Anyone want to teach it at Sno-Isle?

thinking about using Twitter to reach out to patrons?

snoisleteens is getting ready to launch our trial Twitter site. Some other libraries are already doing this.

Here is a great blog post about using Twitter effectively and entertainingly for libraries.

Making a good combo of funny and informative seems to be the trick!

What would you like to see?

Fresh new article on the teen brain

From the YALSA blog:

"U.S. News and World Report followed up on their 1999 article “Inside the Teen Brain” with a feature titled “Deploying the Amazing Power of the Teen Brain” that reports on a Duke University program designed to empower teens to use their brains. The article covers basic brain changes, other factors for teen behavior and a quiz you can take to see how much you know about the adolescent brain.

A little understanding goes a long way in coping with unwanted teen behavior; for example, knowing that teens are more likely to react to your emotion than to your words serves as a reminder to librarians to stay calm, and take stock of your tone of voice and body language, not just what you say, when working with teens — they may be reacting to cues you send out, not to what you say."

benefits of social media marketing

A nice reminder of why we try to reach out in non-traditional ways to our teen patrons:

More 2.0 Image fun!

The Blatant Bibliophile Blog has a great post up on copyrite free images, altering images and other fun word/pic meshes. Worth checking out!

Marketing in Libraries

One thing that libraries have always struggled with is marketing. WE know we're great, but somewhere in our natural introversion we have a hard time screaming from the rooftops that we will, actually, improve lives through our services.

SLJ, recognizing that libraries have a hard time promoting themselves, has created an inexplicably named blog, Bubble Room, to address marketing in libraries.

I don't know if it'll be useful, but hey, there it is, just in case.

I actually really like this post, which talks about how the Rochester Public Library has a calculator on their site that totals the amount patrons have saved by using the library rather than purchasing the books they've checked out. I've always thought that we should print their savings on the check out receipt. That's one way to achieve validation through knowledge. ;)

Spread your Holiday Cheer

Every holiday season, we look for ways to spread the cheer and help others have a better experience during what can often be a not so happy time of year.

Donating food to your local food bank is and easy way to help people in your community. There are probably donation bins all over town this time of year.

The United States Marine Corps are collecting donations for Toys for Tots, and the Salvation Army has their bell ringers and red kettles outside many stores where you'll be shopping.

I recently learned of another way to spread a bit of extra cheer. You can send holiday cards to wounded American soldiers and veterans through a program sponsored by the Red Cross called Holiday Mail for Heroes.

You can send your cards to the following address, but they ask that they are postmarked no later than December 10th. That's just two days away, but you've still got time to pop a card in the mail!

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456


If you're in the Oak Harbor Library during the next couple of days, look in the teen area for the cards to sign. I'll be sending them off soon.

~Anne

very blog post on bullying

From Danah Boyd's blog:apophenia

reflections on Lori Drew, bullying, and solutions to helping kids

The most important thing that we need are digital street workers. When I was in college, college students volunteered as street workers to help teens who were on the street find resources and help. They directed them to psychologists, doctors, and social workers. We need a program like this for the digital streets. We need college-aged young adults to troll the digital world looking out for teens who are in trouble and helping them seek help. We need online counselors who can work with minors to address their behavioral issues without forcing the minor to contend with parents or bureaucracy. We need online social workers that can connect with kids and help them understand their options.

Danah Boyd is a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley and a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Her research focuses on how American youth use networked publics for sociable purposes.

Thoughts?

troubling teen trend

Here is a disturbing new teen trend to be aware off: self-embedding.

'Self-Embedding' a Troubling Trend Among Teens

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Self-embedding, a disorder where people wound themselves and then place objects in the wound, is an increasing problem among American teens, especially girls, researchers say.

Has anyone seen this? I find it very worrisome :(

great article on M.T. Anderson

I'm a huge M.T. Anderson fan (though I confess, I have not yet found the time to tackle his newest installment of Octavian Nothing).

Here is a terrific article about him, and his belief that teens want to be challenged:

Tomes for Teens
M.T. Anderson Gives Young Adults What They Want: Complex Epic Tales They Can Get Lost In
By Bob Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 29, 2008; Page C01

"It's insulting to believe that teens should have a different kind of book than an adult should... They know the world is complicated, and "they can tell when a book is simplifying life."

Friday afternoon humor

Have a great weekend...












...and drive carefully!

reassuring news about online socializing

The New York Times featured an article this week that has reassuring news for parents (and other adults) concerned about teens obsessive online communications, thanks to a study from the MacArthur Foundation:

Teenagers’ Internet Socializing Not a Bad Thing
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: November 19, 2008

“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, “Living and Learning With New Media.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

Thanks Penni for sharing this!

Morgue Files

I've just discovered Morgue Files, described as the "Public Image Reference Archive." Content is uploaded for public use - for free - and they only thing they ask is that the photographer is credited. These are usually high resolution images, something that isn't the norm on the internet - not for public use that I've found.

Seems like a useful site to know about. Goes along with the awesome Smithsonian Images and the Library of Congress' Flickr photostream (though not all of the last two are in the public domain).

(photo by Zach Carter)

Even the Canadians like teen gaming!

Ok, this is pretty much a fluff article, but it's nice to see friendly opinions about gaming in libraries.

I liked this sentiment: "Public libraries are, after all, a community's living room."

The protein of the article: "Video games are a means of drawing older children and teenagers into libraries at a time when they might be less likely to do so. Jane Venus, manager of children and teen services for the Ottawa Public Library, notes that many video games, like books, are beneficial to young minds. Older minds too. When video games were introduced to Ottawa libraries on a trial basis, they became popular with seniors during the day and with teens in the evening. When they were done playing, some teens stayed around the library and read books."

Brilliant author in Seattle Thursday

If you haven't had a chance to hear M.T. Anderson speak and are free Thursday night, I highly recommend scooting down to Seattle to check him out. He will be talking about the second book in The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing series...a series I hesitated to check out due to daunting language, until shamed by a precocious 7th grader into reading it. Great stuff.

Thursday • November 6 • 7pm
M.T. Anderson
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume II: Kingdom on the Waves (CANDLEWICK)
Reading & Book Signing
Seattle Public Library, Central Branch, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle

Who can be the most silent in the library?

I think this has to be one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. I'm thinking that it could be a fun program, with a few modification (ditch the slap machine, and maybe the old man...)

Nancy Werlin in Bellevue this Sunday

This Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 5:30pm at the Bellevue
Regional Library award winning author Nancy Werlin will deliver the
2008 Kim Lafferty Lecture. Nancy has been a National Book Award Finalist and an Edgar Award Winner. Her newest book Impossible has received four starred reviews.

Kim was a young adult librarian whose dedication to teens and to books, both professionally and personally, was profound and unwavering. She had a special connection with children and teenagers and put that talent to good use as a teen services librarian for King County Library System. Kim was also a strong advocate for intellectual freedom and fought strenuously for the right of individuals to choose their own reading material. Kim died of ovarian cancer in 2001.

teen library makeovers

Kathleen sent me this cool article about some Montgomery County libraries that got great and fairly simple makeovers for their teen areas. It also talks about how the designers worked with the teens to do this. Perhaps an area of community partnerships we might consider exploring?

The Library Teen Scene (Shh . . . )

Now, wouldn't it be nice if reporters would stop putting Shh into everything library related?

a cool non-profit to share with teachers

DonorsChoose.org is a cool website that helps teachers connect with donors who want to make a difference by sponsoring small classroom projects, such as book and equipment donations.

They also allow people to set up memorial funds and gift registries!

This could be a great support for doing collaborative projects with your schools.

Video games, simply bait for readers?

Nothing terribly new here, but a good summary of the latest arguments for (and against) video games and literacy skills:

The Future of Reading: Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers
Publishers, authors and even libraries are embracing video games to promote books to young readers.

Texting explosion

According to this article from the New York Times, text messaging passed up phone calls made from cell phones at the end of 2007, and from the looks of things, it will be double soon!

Letting Our Fingers Do the Talking
By ALEX MINDLIN
Published: September 28, 2008

Teenagers ages 13 to 17 are by far the most prolific texters, sending or receiving 1,742 messages a month, according to Nielsen Mobile. By contrast, 18-to-24-year-olds average 790 messages. A separate study of teenagers with cellphones by Harris Interactive found that 42 percent of them claim that they can write text messages while blindfolded.

How can we respond to this? I think it is time we started offering updates to teens by text message. Is we set this up as an option on our website, what choices do you think we should offer? Program reminders? New posts on their blog? If you were a teen, what would you want?

Squeeky clean fairy tales

There is a good article in The Boston Globe today about the sanitizing of fairy tales:

Fear of fairy tales
The glossy, sanitized new versions of fairy tales leave out what matters: the scary parts
By Joanna Weiss
September 21, 2008

Admittedly, this is nothing new and fairy tales are always evolving. I remember reading a collection of traditional fairy tales in third grade, and being shocked that the stepsisters in Cinderella were mutilating their feet to try and fool the prince. Certainly changed my view of things! Any more, when young girls come in asking for Cinderella, or Beauty and the Beast, etc...I always ask if they are looking for the Disney version right away. Too many years I tried to trick them into trying other versions, and 90% of the time they really only wanted the packaged princess.

Where do you see the shift, between kids who only want the squeaky clean Disney version of things, and teens who want the raw, disturbing fairy tales and their contemporary retellings? Are we softening things too much for children, leading to greater rebellion and distrust as teens? Or is society just adapting to trying to preserve innocence in a media saturated society?

I wonder what the other 3% are doing?

Survey: 97% of American youth play video games

The survey found that while young Americans don't necessarily play the same thing, nearly all of them -- girls included -- play video games of one kind or another.

And they don't just play by themselves. Nearly two-thirds play video games to socialize face-to-face with friends and family, while just over a quarter said they play with Internet friends.

"It shows that gamers are social people," says Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at Pew who led the report on the survey. "They communicate just as much. They spend time face-to-face, just as much as other kids. They e-mail and text."

Despite what some people might hope for, there's no going back. Gaming is a way of life for American youth. But as we know, it isn't all bad!

gaming and scientific thinking

Another encouraging article about great skills teens are building playing video games:

How Videogames Blind Us With Science

At one point, Steinkuehler met up with one of the kids who'd built the Excel model to crack the boss. "Do you realize that what you're doing is the essence of science?" she asked.

He smiled at her. "Dude, I'm not doing science," he replied. "I'm just cheating the game!"

Of course if they realized that their "cheating" was actually the scientific method, it might not seem half as fun ;)

A Teacher on Assigned Reading: "We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack Up"

Ok, I'll be honest, this article is directed toward teachers, and is written by a high school English teacher, but as it deals with how teens feel about the literature they are assigned in school. I think it's worth a read.

'"Butchering." That's what one of my former students, a young man who loves creative writing but rarely gets to do any at school, called English class. He was referring to the endless picking apart of linguistic details that loses teens in a haze of "So what?" The reading quizzes that turn, say, "Hamlet" into a Q&A on facts, symbols and themes. The thesis-driven essay assignments that require students to write about a novel they can't muster any passion for ("The Scarlet Letter" is high on teens' list of most dreaded). I'll never forget what one parent, bemoaning his daughter's aversion to great books after she took AP English Literature, wrote to me: "What I've seen teachers do is take living, breathing works of art and transform them into dessicated lab specimens fit for dissection."'

Strange, that's exactly how *I* felt in high school...

alarming report on teen girls

The YWCA has released a report called Beauty at Any Cost, which contains a lot of very disturbing information about the health, financial and the obsession with looks are costing the teen girls and women of America.

A discussion guide and non-fiction booklist can be found here.

Here are some recent fiction books on eating disorders, as well:

Looks by Madeleine George
Massive by Julia Bell
Perfect by Natasha Friend
More Than You Can Chew by Marnelle Tokio
Skinny by Ibi Kaslik

Any titles you would add if we were to do an eating disorders list?

how friendly is too friendly with teens?

One of the great challenges of working with teens is finding ways to show you care, to reach out, and to make connections...all while maintaining appropriate boundaries. These boundaries are important in helping teens develop into healthy adults, and when properly enforced they provide a sense of dependability and trust that is incredibly important for those of us trying to make a positive difference in their lives.

This article brings up some interesting points about friending kids online. Clearly MySpace and Facebook are wonderful places to connect with teens in an environment they are comfortable in, and I know many people who have had much success in these areas. But where is the line?

Online student-teacher friendships can be tricky
By Mallory Simon

CNN

"As an educator there is a line of demarcation between you and your student," Keith said. "It's a line that you cannot come close to, let alone step over. You've got to establish it from Day One and say, 'I'm not your buddy, I'm not your friend, I'm just your teacher.' "

As librarians, we have a slightly different position. We are authority figures, but not teachers. Where do you feel our line should be? How do you establish this line with your patrons? Have you ever been in a situation where it has been crossed? What did you do?

using texting to advertise to teens

This is something that has come up in conversations with teen librarians a number of times, but this article really hammers home the effectiveness and value to this approach:

Retailers know texting is the totally best way to reach teens
By Mark Albright

What do you think? I'm hoping in phase two of the Sno-Isle Teens: Your Library website we will have a form for teens to sign up for text notification.

How could libraries best use this? What sort of guidelines should we develop to insure the most interesting and effective communications?

looking for a fun activity for teen meetings?

Katy M. from the Selah (WA) Library suggested TAGAD-L trying pipe cleaner pictionary! I think this sounds like lots of fun.

What are some activities that your teens like to do at advisory board meetings and such?

a great response to a book challenged

I assume some of you have already seen this response to a book challenge as it has been making its way around the blogosphere for a few weeks, but I found it inspiring and a wonderful reminder of one of the many reasons we choose to work in public libraries. It would be a good addition to our training on intellectual freedom. Hooray for Mr. LaRue!

great article on video gaming in libraries

Thanks to Jeanne for passing this on!

Libraries' video games are teen magnet

Local program's success earns national attention

Thursday, July 31, 2008

By Elizabeth Gibson

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

"Libraries have gone through a lot of iterations since 300 B.C., when they were founded as a way to improve moral character," said Scott Nicholson, an associate professor at Syracuse who runs the Library Game Lab. "This is no different from when libraries first brought in fiction or started allowing children in."

Lots of good ideas to be copied from these guys!

what is "reading" in the digital age

Penni forwarded me this great article from the New York Times.

Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.

But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

Seems to cover both sides of the argument fairly thoroughly.

Thoughts?

summer reading humor

From Unshelved:












Thanks to Kathleen for sharing this one.

Hope your summer is going swimmingly...

fun contest for your library

Do you have great volunteers looking for something fun to do this summer?
Are your regular teens super creative?
Do you have mad decorating skills?

Then you should consider working with them to enter Unshelved's Pimp My Bookcart contest.

Check out last year's amazing winners. Better get started soon...deadline is October 31st.

Author Interview: David Lubar

Video interview with author David Lubar at Adlit - Adolescent Literacy for parents and educators.

David Lubar is the man behind the popular — and hilarious — "Weenies" short-story collections, and critically acclaimed titles Dunk, Hidden Talents, and Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. Lubar is best known for his humor, but his young adult books are also filled with plenty of adventure and suspense.

Interacting in Virtual Worlds

One of the topics for discussion at the ALA Annual meeting for the YALSA Board of Directors was if the organization should devote resources to creating a presence on Second Life. In the end we decided it wasn't a reasonable investment at this time, but it did get me thinking about the future of online services to teens.

Are any of you active on Second Life? What benefits might there be for librarians?

Google is dipping its toe into the pond, but in smaller way:

Google Introduces a Cartoonlike Method for Talking in Chat Rooms

Facebook is working on something similar. In your dream world, what would libraries have?

Arg! Looking for a September program idea?

September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day! What fun programs could you have in your library? Here are some ideas for a pirate party.

And don't forget our pirate booklist! Make a great display.

D&D in the Library

Dungeons and Dragons groups and libraries can make great partners! Recently two Sno-Isle Libraries were approached by teen D&D groups about having regular meetings in their libraries. This is a fabulous opportunity and we are glad to be able to accommodate. And just in time, here is a blog post from librarian and gamer Ian McKinney about getting started:

Dungeons and Dragons in Libraries

Looks like he will have more on running the programs, so be sure to set up a feed to his blog if you are thinking about having one of these groups!

OMG FEED IS HAPPENING!!!

(You've read MT Anderson's FEED, right?)

This article poses the idea that because so many people's primary source of reading material is web-based that the source is beginning to affect not only how we READ, but how we THINK.

Add in the fact that more and more profit is ad based...

And then the fact that there's practically a whole language used just online (oh, and in txt)...

Pretty soon we'll all have the interwebs plugged into our brains...

It's a ridiculously long (do I think that b/c my brain has changed? Ugh.) article, but interesting.

A Little Late

But I'm just now reading SLJ's may issue. If any of you've missed it, I've found useful:

Jordan Sonnenblick's article about NCLB (I met him at Ballard library a week-ish ago. He's lovely).

Anastasia Goodstein's article about attracting teens through marketing tactics.

Highlights include:

• Ypulse,
• Muxtape,
• Mixwit,
• Crunchyroll (a site a couple of MY teens are always telling me about),
• Teenhut and
• some philosophy (clearly the most important part, ESPECIALLY if you aren't quite sure how to approach teens - or a good reminder).

Katrine Watkins' article about The Google Game taught me a few new ways to search and reminded me of ones I forgot.

Heard of MMPG? Christopher Harris' article is about PMOG - and how it might just be a harbinger of Web 3.0... I'm a little scared.

An Expansive New Linguistic Renaissance

New study reassures adults that teen communications are not dumbed down, but actually more sophisticated than once thought.

Instant messaging 'a linguistic renaissance' for teens
15 May 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Mark Peters

In a paper to be published in the spring 2008 issue of American Speech, the researchers argue that far from ruining teenagers' ability to communicate, IM lets teenagers show off what they can do with language.

So, there! LOLFOMA at disbelievers, yo.

Teen Retreat

Check out the cool program my friend Sara did with her teens in Multnomah County:

Q. What’s Better Than a Teen Council?

I would love to do something like this with our Teen Advisory Groups someday. Maybe next year?

tweens explore identity on web

A mom gets her tween to give her a tour of some social networking sites aimed at teens. Nothing groundbreaking here, but nice for perspective and to hear about what tweens are into right now. I was most amused that her daughter likes to pretend she is a French single mom with twins.

FASHION & STYLE | May 8, 2008
Cyberfamilias: Today, I Think I'll Be Hippohead
By MICHELLE SLATALLA
For the under-18 crowd, there are new ways to reinvent yourself online.

An assortment of articles

First up is an article from the Washington Post, reprinted in the Seattle Times. Now I like these newspapers. But this article is awful, IMHO. The problem I think I have with it is that I don't really trust the study. I look at the list, especially for the older grades (Besides just lumping 9-12th grades. Please. Like 9th graders are reading what 12th graders are. Whatever.), and I see well, gee, I wonder if some of those books are required reading at 80% of schools out there? I want to know what the top books for pleasure reading are. It's not that I don't think that there'd be duplications, I'm just not terribly surprised that Of Mice and Men shows up when everyone I know had to read it in high school. Did the survey at all cover whether the students enjoyed these titles? Furthermore, I question whether the survey was even balanced when you get what I consider a biased quote from guy who's company did the survey:

'"I find it reassuring ... that students are still reading the classics I read as a child," said Roy Truby, a senior vice president for Wisconsin-based Renaissance Learning. But Truby said he would have preferred to see more meaty and varied fare, such as "historical novels and biographical works so integral to understanding our past and contemporary books that help us understand our world."'

Furthermore, there wasn't any real kind of reporting on the survey itself. What were some of the questions? Did that guy write any of them? Was there another goal? And why does every. single. article concerning youth and reading have to compare whatever to Harry Potter?

I'm probably just cranky 'cause I had such a great weekend and didn't want to come back to work today.

In happier articles...

Containing this quote which I'm going to plaster somewhere: “Teen books are like adult books, without all the bull****” H. Jack Martin, assistant coordinator of young adult services at New York Public Library. That's awesome, right? I think so. And it epitomizes why I dig teen lit. The article is all about what makes YA lit not adult lit. Sherman Alexie was on the panel and there are some great quotes from him, as usual.

We've all read and loved Madeline L'Engle, right? New book, published posthumously (obviously) but written in the 1940's. It's said to be the most autobiographical of her work. Don't know about you, but that intrigues me. Although I hope that cover isn't the one they are using...

Further cannibalizing from PW: Twilight Zone is gonna be a series of graphic novels!