Tag Archives: Teens

Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist

10 Questions to ask yourself about your teen services

Question Mark, Ipswich, 13 December 2012Looking for further ignite the teens at your library or school media center? YALSA has got some questions to get you thinking about how. The best part is these aren’t just random questions but ones based on ongoing research relating to teen library services. Ready for the deep dive? Check out the YALSA article “The Teens Speak Out: What Teens in a Tech High School Really Think about Libraries…and What You can do to Improve their Perceptions” for the research behind the questions. Here are the questions to get your mind thinking:

  1. Can teens find quiet spaces for reading and studying in your library and vibrant spaces for hanging out, socializing, and creative activities?
  2. Do you avoid charging fines and other penalties that can keep teens away from the library?
  3. Do teens help you decide what you stock in the library?
  4. Are you fighting against the stereotype of libraries as just book providers?
  5. Are you going to where the teens are (outside of the library) to market your services?
  6. Are you working to ensure that all library staff exhibit positive, welcoming attitudes toward teens?
  7. Are your policies framed in positive language?
  8. Are you matching your services to your teen community’s unique needs?
  9. Do you provide opportunities for teens to demonstrate their knowledge and accomplishments, such as avenues for displaying teen fiction, teen photography, teen computer game designs, teen music compositions and performances, etc.?
  10. Do you work hard to bring the teens in your community together at your library, either face-to-face or online?

Check out the whole article now!

Read more from CMLE

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/n7jl7xd, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Pew reports on Teens, Social Media, and Technology

pew_teensA Pew Report from April 9th, 2015 details how teens are using social media and technology. Facebook still remains the most popular social network with Instagram and Snapchat second and third. 92% of teens report going online daily, with 24% of teens going online “almost constantly.” Like most Pew reports, there’s a lot of data and text to read and interpret. Pressed for time? Check out the summary.

Read the full report, click here.

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Bibliotherapy for teens: includes awesome booklists

Girl with bag 5Library Journal recently published the coolest, feel-good piece that would make any self-respecting librarian swoon. The heart of the post is that basically, we all want to give the end user the perfect book, the perfect match for their needs. What if the end user is a teen, and they want fiction about characters with mental health issues that match theirs? Welcome to the term bibliotherapy!

Consider that some teens need to hide their mental health issue out of self-protection in a stigma filled world. As the author points out….”kids with mental illness–kids with pills–can be confronted by others trying to buy or steal them. They can also be targets of ridicule.” Therefore, these teens often feel frustrated, alone and afraid to ask for what they need. As librarians, we need to make these books easy to find. Reading is never a replacement for professional therapy, but reading  about fictional characters who share your issue can be comforting to the isolated teen! The right books can help.

Erin E. Moulton is a teen librarian and an author and did a fantastic job writing this post. She includes the research base around bibliotherapy, her sources for her 16 mental health categories, and best yet, includes book lists for each disorder. May is Mental Health Month so you have time to consider your collection now. Do you have enough of these titles for a display?

Erin’s blog post is:  Bibliotherapy for Teens: Helpful Tips and Recommended Fiction
Erin’s display ideas are also available on Tumblr

NEW (Added 12/12/14): Bibliotherapy for Teens: An Expanded Booklist by Ashleigh Williams – written based on reader feedback!

Let CMLE staff know if you decide to do your display, we would love to share it with everyone!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/ofmn3md, licensed under CC BY 2.0

 

 

 

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

YALSA News: Teen Read Week

TRW14_lowreslogoGet a jump on 2014’s “Turn Dreams into Reality” themed Teen Read Week by visiting the Teen Read Week website. Teen Read Week is a national adolescent literacy initiative created by Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) with its purpose to encourage teens to be regular readers and library users. Teen Read Week isn’t until October 12-18, but its never too early to line up resources or get ideas for planning your week’s activities. You don’t even need to be an ALA or YALSA member to take advantage of this great resource.

2014 Teens’ Top Ten nominees

YALSA also officially announced the 2014 Teens’ Top Ten Nominees on April 17 in honor of Celebrate Teen Literature Day. A list of the nominees with annotations can be found on the Teens’ Top Ten website. This can be a perfect reading list to share with your students for the summer. Teens are encouraged to read the 25 nominees before the national Teens’ Top Ten vote, which begins on August 15 and runs through Teen Read Week.

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

2014 Teen Tech Week Materials

Image by nic519. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by nic519. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

Looking ahead to 2014, YALSA (ALA) has exciting news about   Teen Tech Week which will be March 9-15, 2014. The theme this year is DIY @ Your Library and it presents a chance to showcase your non-print resources available to youth. The purpose of this week is to demonstrate to teens and their families, the positive influence of libraries in their communities.

Free monthly webinars will begin in December, but you need to register.

Free toolkits are available online to help plan and publicize this week at your library. For additional creative ideas, click on the Makerspaces In Your Library or Game-Based Makerspaces posts by CMLE. Or, link to an article featuring Sauk Rapids-Rice High School’s new monthly, mini makerspace.

YALSA, Young Adult Library Services Association’s mission is to feature resources for youth ages 12-18 by, “… offering teens a space to extend learning beyond the classroom where they can explore, create and share content.”