Welcome back to Season Eight of Linking Our Libraries! We are so happy to have you with us today!
We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange. Our members are libraries of all sorts: public, schools, academics, special libraries, archives, and history centers. Join us in working thorough skills library staffers can use to be more successful in their work!
Today we are going to talk about skills that will be useful in most libraries. Working with teens is not everyone’s favorite part of library service, but this is an important group in the library. We will walk through some steps to help you to serve these patrons who can be energetic advocates for your library!
The Basics:
Teens can be a great segment of your library community – filled with energy, and ideas, and ready to bring new things to your work! And those same attributes can make them a challenge to work with, especially when they turn that same energy to not-so-great ideas. This is true of any group of people in the library, but it seems to be more noticeable in teens.
So today we will look at the latest work from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) to help everyone working with teens to build their skills. For those who already enjoy working with teens: great! Here are some new ways to think about what you are doing, and how it can continue to build. And for those who have been hesitant to engage with this group: getting comfortable with some new ideas and strategies may make it easier for you both.
We are taking today’s material from the American Library Association’s YALSA page, and will link to all of this in our show notes. They provide a lot more material than we will discuss today, including charts and infographics, so check them out!
The first time this group set up some specific standards for teens was in 1981. Those were the same standards we all worked with until 2010. And since then, libraries of all sorts have worked on a different type of approach toward teens. We have become much less of a shushing profession, just here to keep people quiet while we handed them books. Now libraries are ready to help patrons – including teens – to learn new things, build new skills, and to reach out with our patrons in new directions while we build, create, and keep trying new things. There are also fewer dedicated librarians or library staff dedicated to serving teens, so it is increasingly important to share these skills across all staff.
The Competencies
They have identified ten different competencies for us to use with teens. Then, for each of these ten competencies they have set up a chart to show us all the different levels of achievement in each one: developing, practicing, and transforming. You can check out each of them to get more ideas for yourself. The link is in our show notes page.
Let’s walk through them now.
- Teen Growth and Development: Knows the typical benchmarks for growth and development and uses this knowledge to plan, provide and evaluate library resources, programs, and services that meet the multiple needs of teens.
Here are a couple of ways you could use to practice this competency:
Engages teens in college and career readiness activities that build on their strengths and meet their individual needs, interests, learning styles, and abilities
Applies information on teen growth and development, culture, and learning styles to all areas of library practice, including collection development, reference and user services, outreach, and programming
- Interactions with Teens: Recognizes the importance of relationships and communication in the development and implementation of quality teen library services, and implements techniques and strategies to support teens individually and in group experiences to develop self-concept, identity, coping mechanisms, and positive interactions with peers and adults.
Builds relationships with all teens throughout the community and with representatives of diverse cultural groups to inform the strategic development of library services and programs that address community needs and fill gaps, and to promote their use for/with all teens, including those unserved or underserved by the library
Creates opportunities for all teens to express their needs and interests in a non-judgmental and welcoming environment
- Learning Environments (formal & informal): Cultivates high-quality, developmentally appropriate, flexible learning environments that support teens individually and in group experiences as they engage in formal and informal learning activities.
Creates library environments that value, affirm, and respect diverse interests, needs, cultures, learning styles, and abilities
Encourages teens’ communication and interpersonal skills in a safe and inclusive environment
- Learning Experiences (formal & informal): Works with teens, volunteers, community partners and others to plan, implement and evaluate high-quality, developmentally appropriate formal and informal learning activities that support teens’ personal and academic interests.
Uses a broad collection Ineffective Teaching Strategies, tools, and accommodations to meet individual needs, building cultural strengths, address learning differences, and enhance learning
Build Activities And Interaction Year-round that promote critical thinking, problem-solving, intellectual openness, and multiple literacies
- Youth Engagement and Leadership: Responds to all teens’ interests and needs, and acts in partnership with teens to create and implement teen activities and to foster teen leadership.
Design Activities That Support teen acquisition of self-confidence, and leadership and teamwork skills
Encourages Teens in opportunities to connect with the community through service learning and civic engagement projects
- Community and Family Engagement: Builds respectful, reciprocal relationships with community organizations and families to promote optimal development for teens and to enhance the quality of library services.
Applies strategies promote the value of high quality teen library services as part of the overall library’s mission and goals through library strategic planning and governance, and the political process
Builds and demonstrates reciprocal and cooperative relationships with other library staff and administrators, families, and community partners to meet the needs of all teens, including the unserved and underserved
- Cultural Competency and Responsiveness: Actively promotes respect for cultural diversity and creates an inclusive, welcoming, and respectful library atmosphere that embraces diversity.
Describes cultural and environmental effects on learning, behavior, and development and the implications this has for library collections, programs and services
Build relationships with culturally specific organizations and other relevant community partners to improve and expand library services
- Equity of Access: Ensures access to a wide variety of library resources, services, and activities for and with all teens, especially those facing challenges to access.
Delivers library services and programs inside and outside the library to ensure equitable access for/with all teens that support the development of digital citizenship skills
Creates opportunities for teens to actively engage in speaking up for the need for equitable and inclusive access to library services
- Outcomes and Assessment: Focuses on the impact of library programs for and with teens and uses data to inform service development, implementation, and continuous improvement.
Develops a strategic plan for teen services that aligns with the library’s mission and community needs, and uses the plan as part of the assessment process
Uses data driven practices to inform decision making related to equitable and inclusive teen library services
- Continuous Learning: Acts ethically, is committed to continuous learning, and advocates for best library practices and policies for teen services.
Participate in activities,projects,and events within the library and allied fields
Practices ongoing self-reflection, self-assessment, and problem-solving strategies to promote professional growth
If you are not doing all of these things today – that’s fine! None of us can know everything, and be able to do everything at once. It is a process of learning new things, and working to continue building skills. You know that nothing just stays the same, the world keeps changing and teens will continue to need some new things and some of the same old stuff. We all need to just keep going, keep trying, and keep reaching out to connect.
Remember the thing we say all the time: We not are in the business of handing out books, we are here to connect people to information. That might be books, it might be programs, it might be digital projects – it’s less important than making that connection. So, keep up to date with all the cool things you could be doing, keep looking ahead to see what is possible for you and for your library, and keep connecting people to those things.
Resources for you to consult:
- Competencies at a Glance (.pdf): A chart of the Competencies
- Competencies Snapshot (.pdf): A quick, one page snapshot of the Competencies.
- Ready to Go Presentation (PowerPoint) this slide deck provides an overview of the Competencies and reflective activities for library staff to use when facilitating learning related to the Competencies.
- Professional Tools: a curated list of resources organized by competency area
- Free webinars: beginning in March 2018. Each one will be facilitated by knowledgeable youth development experts and library staff and focus on a different competency. All free webinars will be held from 2:00 – 3:00pm, eastern, the second Thursday of the month. Webinar recordings will be available for those who can’t participate in the live session.
- Twitter chats: the last Thursday of each month beginning in March will serve as a follow-up to the webinars, for those who have questions, want to share ideas, etc.
- YALSAblog posts: check out the YALSAblog for periodic posts that dig into the competencies
Books Read
And now we have one of our favorite parts of each episode: sharing books! Each of us will share a book we are reading. Links to each book will be on our show notes page, with a link to Amazon.com. If you buy a nice book – or anything else – Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits. Thanks in advance!!
- You Should See Me in a Crown, by Leah Johnson
- My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going with Your Gut, by Hannah Hart
Conclusion
Thanks to you for joining us this week! It’s always better when you are here with us!
Here are a few quick takeaways from today’s discussion – our ten competencies:
- Teen Growth and Development:
- Interactions with Teens:
- Learning Environments (formal & informal):
- Learning Experiences (formal & informal):
- Youth Engagement and Leadership:
- Community and Family Engagement:
- Cultural Competency and Responsiveness:
- Equity of Access:
- Outcomes and Assessment:
- Continuous Learning
Be sure you are subscribed to Linking Our Libraries in your favorite podcast app – or just stream it on our website.
If you want to hear more about books, subscribe to our podcast Reading With Libraries in that same favorite app. Get a new episode each week, with more book suggestions.
Check back in with us next week for another library skill!