Admiring adolescence from a safe distance

The basics @ your library

2009-01-21T23:25:00.000-08:00

Last week, I had a healthy snack program for our teens. I had ingredients to make healthy, cheap, and easy snacks, but all of the peanut butter and apples were set aside for smoothie making. While the teens were lined up waiting to create their own drinks, I came across one teen who was ready to make his smoothie and when I said to him, "Just measure out the liquid ingredients," he replied with, "Oh, I don't know how to measure stuff."

What?! Really?!

Maybe I'm assuming too much. Maybe I haven't realized until now how lucky I was to have parents who were able to be home with me. Maybe I'm forgetting how much money is being cut from school budgets. Maybe it's all of these; but I was completely surprised to see a 15 year old boy not know how to measure 1/4 cup of yogurt, milk, and OJ.

In a world where you buy a laptop in January, only to find out by March it's way out of date, we can never forget there are a lot of basic skills (tech related and non-tech) that are slipping through the cracks of our youth. And remember that not everything has to be attached to a computer or cell phone. Now for some Basics @ Your Library program ideas:

Cooking skills - don't have to involve any heat... make smoothies and have your teens cut the fruits/veggies, use measuring spoons/cups, reading recipes, etc.
Sewing stuff - have a reconstruct your t-shirt day: bring a bunch of old shirts (or have the teens bring their old shirts), a sewing machine, needles, scissors, pins, buttons, etc. and just let them go and get creative on old clothing!
Board game day - put away that Wii and 360 and bust out the good old board games. Connect Four sounds like a silly kids game, but it actually gets the teens thinking about strategy and thinking on their toes. It also is less likely to break down.

I'm sure you can come up with your own ideas. These are the ones I have at midnight on a weeknight.

Internet Safety

2009-01-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

Research was recently published that showed teens talk about their "risky" behavior (sex, drugs, violence, etc.) pretty openly on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook:

From Washington Post

Well, of course they are.

But why was the big question throughout the article. Here are my thoughts as to the big W:

As the article stated, your MySpace/Facebook profile is like a diary. It's very personal and tells a lot about you... the big difference is that it's public.
Many people (teens and adults) feel like there is still a sense of anonymity when posting on their profiles.
Teens are still trying to push buttons, show off, be the unique one... these are things they are talking to their friends about, and now that their friends are also on these sites, they feel okay stating them online as well.
They feel that it's a place where their parents won't find.

I agree with what many of the doctors said about how parents should approach the issue. We can't stop teens from using these sites (I can barely stop myself from checking my Facebook every hour), so us adults need to be aware of the sites and have conversations about what is appropriate and not appropriate.

Many public libraries have already started having programs about Internet safety, and I know of one local high school librarian who has had many discussions with his students about it as well. ALA has some really good resources to use as well as FTC.

FTC Site
ALA Site -- has some good information on how library employees can talk to customers about the issue
Netsmartz.org
Palo Alto Medical Foundation -- information about chat rooms and email

October is LGBT History Month

2008-10-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know. October is more than half-way over.

But it's never too late to put up a book display!

Many of us probably know that June is Pride Month, but did you know that October is LGBT History Month? And did you also know that October 11th is National Coming Out Day? Well now you do!

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, but it is important to recognize events like this. All teens go through difficult times regarding their self-esteem, identity, peer pressure, etc., but LGBTQ youth are having experiences that can be extremely devastating:
- LGBTQ Youth are 3 times more likely to to attempt suicide than other youth.
- 41.7% of LGBTQ Youth say they feel unsafe in their school.
- In 2006, it was estimated that 42% of homeless youth identify themselves as LGBT, and there is evidence that it could be even higher now.

Many may be thinking, "how will a book display make a difference?" It will show young people that your library is aware of LGBTQ youth and are open to providing them with the information and support they need. Remember when you're reaching out to this audience, you're not only communicating with the "out and proud" teens, but those who are still questioning their sexuality or those who may be completely terrified to tell anyone.

For more information:
http://www.glbthistorymonth.com/glbthistorymonth/2008/index.cfm
http://www.glbthistory.org/
http://www.hmi.org/HOME/Article/Params/articles/1320/pathlist/s1036_o1222/default.aspx

Zines beat Blogs

2008-07-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

Last month, the "What Teens Want" conference in Manhattan presented a survey that asked teens what kinds of technology are hot. Here's the short and sweet summary of it:

WHAT'S HOTTER?

* 93 per cent say internet rather than TV.

* 71 per cent say texting rather than instant messaging.

* 69 per cent say magazines rather than blogs.

* 65 per cent say Mac rather than the PC.

* 57 per cent say Facebook rather than MySpace.

Source Buzz Marketing Group.

I wasn't really surprised about any of it, especially the blogs one. Magazines are the perfect media form for teens: lots of pictures, short articles, advertisements to tell them what's cool, information that's always current, and "flipability". Impatient teens don't want to have to navigate through blog entries to find something interesting to look at.

If you'd like to read the entire article that summarizes the findings of the survey pretty well... check it out here.

Yay for high gas prices!

2008-07-01T21:09:00.001-07:00

The New York Times came out with an article about how gas prices are affecting teens' summer plans: As Gas Prices Rise, Teenagers' Cruising Declines. Not only are teens not using their cars very much, they are instead going to movie theaters, hanging out in parking lots, or becoming mallrats.

As teen librarians, we should be taking advantage of their stationary status and turn our libraries into one of these gas-saving hangouts!

Many of us already have Summer Reading and related programs, but the key to bringing in teens and then keeping them over the summer is to create programs/services/etc. that is consistent. Weekly gaming days, free Internet, air conditioning or just having some craft materials handy for them to fool around with set in the minds of teens that the library is a decent place to hang out.