Katie Anderson, Youth Services Consultant, Oregon State Library

 

 

As I mentioned in my intro, I am a consultant for youth librarians so I don't serve tweens directly.  I provide consulting to all youth librarians in Oregon, and for those libraries that don’t have designated youth librarians I help the director with youth services issues.  Here is a snapshot of Oregon libraries and tweens. 

 

 

The Good:  Oregon has a lot of well-educated youth librarians willing to take on additional responsibilities such as conducting trainings, and we have a lot of youth services training opportunities.

• The State Library and the Oregon Library Association have a good relationship—we work well together to identify common goals and accomplishing them together.
• The Oregon Library Association’s Children’s Services Division (CSD) and Young Adult Network (OYAN) are strong, active groups.  Many members also take leadership roles in PNLA, YALSA, and ALSC.  They are well-trained, follow trends, keep up-to-date on research, are eager to share their knowledge and experiences, and want professional development opportunities such as conducting trainings, participating in statewide projects, or serving in leadership roles.
• CSD members serve 0-12 year olds and OYAN members serve 13-18 year olds.  The tween population overlaps these two groups, and they have started to explore partnering to support tweens.
• CSD provides 2 trainings a year, OYAN has just added a training component to their quarterly meetings, and both sponsor about 6 trainings each at the Oregon Library Association’s annual conference.
• Every even numbered year the State Library (me) coordinates a youth services training for children’s and young adult library staff who do not have Masters degrees in Library and Information Science.

 

The Bad:  Many libraries have barriers to training, networking, and resources.  And, many of them don’t have enough staff and resources to implement age-specific programs—at most these libraries provide a family storytime for young children and a summer reading program for all ages.

• Oregon has dramatic geography that, while beautiful, can isolate over 2/3 of the state during winter.  The Cascade Mountains are hazardous to cross from November through May, practically cutting off the central and eastern part of the state from the valley where Portland, Salem, and Eugene are located. The central, eastern, and southern parts of the state are sparsely populated, towns often being hundreds of miles apart with not so much as a gas station or even bill board between them. 
• Libraries in Oregon vary greatly from Multnomah County Library, one of the best performing libraries in the country, and several libraries that are open 12 hours a week with 1 part-time staff person and library expenditures under $15,000 a year.
• The libraries that need the most support only have one or two part-time staff members, and in several cases staff aren’t internet savvy enough to use email effectively let alone participate in online training.
• There are 216 public libraries and branch libraries in Oregon.  Approximately 45% of these libraries have designated youth library staff. 

 

The Ugly: Almost nothing is being done specifically for tweens in Oregon libraries!

• No tween specific training has been provided in Oregon.
• While a handful of CSD and OYAN members are passionate about tweens, as far as I know none of us have had any national or online training regarding tweens.
• Currently only a handful of libraries are providing tween specific programs, resources, and services.

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From Meg, Teen Services Coordinator, Meekins Library, Williamsburg MA

THE LIBRARY

 

Meekins Library is a well supported library in Williamsburg MA. Williamsburg is located in the foothills of the Berkshire Mts. It is suburban (borders Northampton) to rural, lots of farms, and the population is very spread out.  The total population is 2,427, (small!) with 179 between the ages of 10-14 and 126 between 15-19 years old. . Race-wise, 2,377 are white, 6 are black, 12 are Asian, 16 are Hispanic. The vast majority if parents have at least a BA or higher. I feel that this is because there are five ivy-league colleges within a 15 mile radius (Smith, Mount Holyoke, Amherst, Hampshire, UMass). Many parents work at the colleges. Politics-wise, the Pioneer Valley isn't called "The Happy Valley" for nothing. It is EXTREMELY left-leaning (probably because of all of the students) and we take our politics very seriously. Most of our patrons are VERY politically conscious and are very open minded. Which makes my job easier!

 

THE TWEENS

 

The tweens themselves have a wide range of interests and abilities. There are quite a few 4H ers, farming kids, homeschooling families, professors kids, just a real mix. The schools in Williamsburg are a little different than in most places- there is no middle or junior high school. The tweens go from the elementary school to the regional high scxhool in 7th grade. I think this makes the 7th graders a little more mature than most. This also means that there is a wide spread between the 11 year old 6th graders still in the elementary school and the 12-13 year old 7th graders in the high school. Makes it very interesting socially! They are also very spread out geographically. My library attracts tweens from four hill towns and this means that they need to get rides from friends or parents to get to any events or programs.

The Meekins Library went through a 50% expansion in 2005 and now has a wonderful community room that is great for gaming and for meetings of the tween/teen advisory groups. The teens have a space on the ground floor, which is really the basement but has windows that open outside, so you don't feel that you are below the main floor. The teen fiction and non-fiction have their own spaces and teen graphic novels are seperated from the adult graphic novels. There are a couple of bean bag chairs and a comfy couch in the teen space and I encourage them to decorate  the space and make it theirs.

Last August the Meekins won a $20,000, 2 year LSTA grant "Serving Tweens and Teens" to expand their services to the tweens/teens. Before this there was very little happening for the older kids. I work 10 hours a week, doing mostly programming for them. I run the TAG's and keep the Facebook page up to date. I work with the library director and the childrens librarian in planning programming, and doing all of the publicy and networking around the programming.

 

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From Morgan, Youth Librarian, Walker Branch, Kent District Library, Walker, MI

 

The library system I work for has 18 branches and a service center. We are the largest system in Michigan. The branch I work for is the 7th largest branch in the system. Our city has approximately 17,000 residents. Our current building is inadequate in size and we are stuffed to the gills with everything from a coffee maker, 2 self check machines, living room furniture and of course, large stuffed animals. Over 60% of our circulation is childrens and teens materials.

 

Our tweens are varied in some ways but are very homogenized in others. I very rarely see any non-white children here in the library. Also, West Michigan is known for being right-wing conservative and very religious. I have to stay on my toes about readers advisory - especially in the 'Books that won't make you Blush' category. We also have many home-schooling families so I help many moms pair novels or non-fiction titles with their curriculum.

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From Rory, Teen Coordinator, La Vista Public Library, La Vista, Nebraska

 

 

The Library

 

 

La Vista is currently one of the fastest growing cities in Nebraska. It is a relatively young, incorporated in 1960, and progressive city situated southwest of the Omaha metropolitan area contiguous to the cities of Bellevue, Ralston, Papillion and Omaha. We are a community of nearly 17,000. The original public library, that I attended when I was a child, was a small 4,000-square-foot building by city hall that was opened in the 1970s. In 1999, the library was asked by Metropolitan Community College to act in partnership with the college’s new Sarpy County Center location. The library agreed to serve not only its La Vista patrons, but also act as the main library for Metro students and moved into a part of the Metro Sarpy Center campus in its own 24,000-square-foot library. We have a HUGE children’s section (it takes up more than half the library itself), an adult section, a teen zone, a reference section, and a small computer lab.

 

 

The Tweens and Teens

 

 

I’ve only been in the position as Teen Coordinator since June of this year, so I am still very new with everything. The Teen Zone was sectioned off from the adult fiction and nonfiction (where all “teen” books were placed) in 2005. We are still a very small city and a small library so the Teen Zone is just this one section tucked away in the front corner of the library. The teen fiction currently holds about 2,000 books. I’m not sure of the numbers on nonfiction. The fiction section is on shelves that run along the back wall of the Teen Zone while new books are prominently displaced on standalone shelves with nonfiction also on those shelves close to normal paperback books for adults.

 

 

Unfortunately, while the tweens and teens of La Vista love to read and love their library, this is a very family-oriented, community-oriented, extracurricular activity loving city. The girl who held the position before me from April 2008 until June only did Summer Reading Program activities and programs. She did nothing during the school/winter months. So nothing was advertised for Banned Books Week or Teen Read Week, etc.

 

 

I came into Summer Reading with the role of carrying out the programs she created and scheduled. For my library “tweens and teens” is anyone in 6^th to 12^th grade. So for SRP we had about 70 teens that signed up. The major demographic of my teens are from the local junior high—so, yes, more so “tweens” than high schoolers.

 

 

The problem I am facing now with winter programming is since my predecessor did not offer anything during those months the teens are unaware that the library offers them things to do during the school year. They might not know because they are so busy with school and extracurricular activities that they haven’t been able to make it up to the library to get the programming schedules. I work an eclectic shift (M – 8-11, T/TH 9:30 – 9, F – 8-1) so I have planned to offer a teen program from September to May every Tuesday and Thursday evening. My predecessor didn’t even work nights so that is why all the activities were only during summertime when teens could come in during the day.

 

 

I know my teens love a variety of programs from the summer reading: movie nights, crafts, gaming, book club, etc. So the challenge I face is getting the word out that there are programs during the school months too and hoping that the teens aren't so overwhelming busy with their other activities that they can come to some of the library's programs. Luckily, I have made a few contacts with some media specialists and teachers throughout the community, but many of my requests have gone ignored. Since winter programming just started, we’ll see how it goes in the upcoming months.

 

 

Since my library is very small, a “successful” program is one in which one person shows up. The most successful program in the library’s history was a Teen Mystery Night I put on (my first program ever!) during SRP in August. I had 24 teens show up. It was so popular the adults were complaining and I held it again in September for the adults (which to my knowledge was the only time there has ever been any kind of program for adults at my library besides a hardcore book club and sewing club). I’m holding a new TMN this October during Teen Read Week so I’m hoping to have big numbers on that program.

 

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From Lina Crowell, Children's Librarian, Warren County Library, Warren County, New Jersey

 

Tweens at my Library

 

The Warren County Library is a four-branch library system located in a rural area of the state.  Although I do have some direct involvement with our youth patrons, as the only children's librarian in the system, my job is not so much hands-on as it is to be a consultant and advocate.  The children's department includes children, tweens, and teens. "Tween" is a term just beginning to come into use at our library. 

 

At three of our branches the young adult books are shelved in an area apart from the children's books.  This is important as it contributes to the teens' sense of worth and helps them think of themselves as grown up.  At our headquarters the YA books are still interfiled with the juvenile fiction.  I am slowly working to change this.  None of our buildings has a tween section but I can see where there is a need for this.  As kids grow up they don't want to be associated with "baby" books but they not quite ready for the older YA books.

 

Some of our tweens are voracious readers, others are not.  Fantasy seems to be the preferred genre.  Our few programs for this age group are varied in topic.  We have a teen book discussion group that is advertised as being for kids 13 - 18, but a sixth-grader was allowed to join when she asked if she could.  The branch manager, who coordinates the group, tells me that this young lady often has a better understanding of the books read than do some of the older members of the group.  So much for the myth about grade level reading!  I am not a teacher, but I do make up grade level lists because we get requests for them, but I always tell people that they may want to check lists a grade or two both above and below the requested grade.  This is currently the only tween/teen program that runs year-round.  The bulk of our programming is held during the summer reading program. 

 

Our most successful programs are those that involve a craft.  We called them programs for teens, but tweens were more likely to attend.  Our most successful programs have been those in which the kids made no-sew tote bags, made a locker mirror, and learned how to draw manga from a manga artist. 

 

We tried two new programs this past summer that appealed to tweens.  One was a book review blog, in which tweens and teens were asked to submit reviews of books they had read.  This was done in response to a request from a girl who had asked for a way to read reviews written by other kids and to be able to access them online.  The message here, I believe, was "We don't care what the experts think of a book.  We want to know what other kids like us think."  The other program that had broad appeal was a secret book of the week contest in which a clue to a book was posted each week and the kids had one week in which to submit their answers. 

 

Several factors seem to effect attendance at programs.  One, and perhaps this is the most relevant, is the fact that my library is located in a rural county.  The county library serves the townships in the county.  The towns are served by their own municiple libraries that are not part of the county system.  So all but one of our libraries are located outside of town, making it hard for kids to get to the library without their parents providing transportation.  The one library that is located within a town (the library headquarters is located in the county seat) sees quite a group of middle schoolers come in after school, but because they live in a non-resident area they are not library patrons, meaning they cannot get library cards unless they pay a fee.  Without a card, they can use the computers but cannot check out materials.  Most of these kids come to the library to be with their friends, use the computers, and do their homework.

 

A second factor that effects programs is that of peer pressure.  If the overall perception is that it is not cool to be a reader, many kids will not come to reading-based programs, but they will come to craft or entertainment programs because they are "fun."  Or if they do take part in a reading-based program, they don't talk about it in a group.  One girl who submitted several reviews to the blog also came to the craft programs but never talked about books.  Also, this past week a middle school teacher who was at the library with her class saw a flyer for our Teen Read Week activities and asked for some she could give to the class.  She said she knew several of her kids would like it even if they didn't act like it when they were actually at the library.

 

Finally, it seems that those kids most inclinded to come to programs are already busy with other activities.  When schedules conflict, they must choose which one to attend.

 

I would like to start new programs for tweens, including book discussion and gaming.  My own video game skills are laughable, so I'm hesitant to begin a program.

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From Susan Bakhru, Media Specialist  Argyle Middle School, Montgomery County, MD.

 

The Tweens in my middle school range in all incomes from low income to quite well off.  They are a highly diverse group because of all the international organizations and companies that abound in the metroplitan area.  Our students represent 46 dfifferent countries and there is about 48% African-American population with a 30 % Hispanic, 15 % asian and the rest is "Caucasian".  In looking closer though, the highest percent are tweens who are bicultural or biracial.  Many of our tweens speak one other language.  I think that is the most interesting factor.  My School is a Magnet School for Information Technology and Design.  Students take two technology classes unless they nead a reading class.  We have ten computer labs of 30 computers in each lab.  We also have two "Mac" labs in addition.  Yeah!.....I think we are fairly unique for the United States.

 

Our Tweens range in reading comprehension and the latest "educational fad" is now to link them with their lexile so they can choose books within their range.   This is coming from the reading teachers.  I always make sure the student has at least one book they like, and I don't make it easy for the reading teacher to find books by lexile.  We have a high population of boys in our lower reading classes and right now they are very excited about "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid."   I have noticed that our Hispanic reading scores are not much better than our African-American reading scores.  I am targeting boys and trying to find reading material that will interest them.  I'm not too picky about what it is either.  I figure that if I can get someone excited about reading that it is a beginning and a way to draw them back to find something more they like.

 

Students are active in the school.  They can come to the media center before school, after school, at lunch and through the day with a pass from the teacher.  They also come to do research and they come with their whole class to check out books.  Most students use the computers in the media center to finish homework, print, play games and show one another "how" they did something in technology class.  We have a core of readers who also come and "hang out" and browse for books.  I have a VERY hefty budget for books this year because I got extra money to spend.  The media center is gonna be "STACKED".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Lynne Ring

 

The Library

The library I serve is located in Richmond, Texas, a small, but growing, community in Fort Bend County, south of Houston.  The library, George Memorial Library, is the main library of an 8-branch system.  While it has the largest holdings of the eight libraries, it is not the busiest branch in terms of circulation.  However, it is open 64 hours a week, more than any other in the system, and it routinely has the highest number of people recorded during our door counts.  This becomes an interesting fact when you look at how our customers use our library versus how the library is being used at other libraries in the system.  We are busy, but many of our customers are not necessarily using or checking out books.

The Tweens

At Fort Bend County libraries, we define teens as ages 11-14 for purposes of collection development and programming.  Books for older teens are purchased and housed in the Adult Collection.  So, we are, in practice, focusing on tweens, in great part, with our teen programs. 

We currently have a Teen Book Club that meets once a month at 6 p.m.  At most, a half-dozen students attend, and often there are fewer.  Our other teen programs do better in terms of attendance, especially in the summer, but reading-related activities are not usually a big draw.  Popular programs, like Guitar Hero, Wii games, and cookie decorating draw large crowds of up to 50-60 teens.

The Challenge

A low percentage of the customers at George Memorial Library have library cards, so our guests rely heavily on visitor passes to use the computers.  Many young people visit the library without their parents and are not able to obtain library cards, which require a parental signature.  That also prevents them from checking out materials when they leave, so it impacts their ability to continue reading something they may have been reading or enjoying when visiting the library.

But my true challenge is that I am pressed to entice tweens and teens at this library to read at all. I have had more success at other libraries in the past, so I continue to try different techniques.  But I have been here for four years now, and I have only a handful of students, in this age group, that I can call by name and that I discuss books with and with whose reading habits I am familiar.  And most of those students I met when I visited their schools. They then came to see me at the library, interested in whatever I had booktalked or told stories from.  I see a lot of enthusiasm upfront, but only a handful of these tweens become long-term customers. After school visits in the spring, I see many tweens who become regular library users through the summer, but these tweens disappear once school starts again. Then, I am frustrated that I do not have enough long-term exposure to establish relationships with these students.

Many of our regular tween customers are latch-key kids, or kids who are dropped off at the library as an alternative to being left home alone while their parents work. This group includes a surprising number of foster kids. Many latch-key kids stay at the library for long hours after school, often until after 6:00 pm, and sometimes until closing (9:00 pm). Interest in books has been very limited with this crowd. They seem to be primarily interested in socializing with friends and using computers for games, watching music videos, etc.  On a few occasions, we have been able to entice a couple of these regulars to visit our teen programs, usually by letting them know that we have refreshments, but this group of tweens seems particularly reluctant to accept help with books, because they are self-conscious of peer-pressure from other kids who are recreating in the teen area.

This snapshot is quite different for other branches in the system.

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From Gina:

 

I work at the Main library in West Bloomfield; we also have a smaller branch location.  The area is extremely diverse, tends to be more affluent, with very strong patron support.  Because of our size, number of computers, and quality of collection, we have many people from neighboring communities come to use our library.

 

We are really beginning to focus on our tweens.  Our YA area is actually a separate room located in the adult area of our library.  The youth area aims to collect up through grade 5, so when I purchase teen fiction I need to consider the tweens as well.  We have implemented a communication system between me and the youth librarian in charge of J fiction, so we make sure that we purchase tween fiction, but also do not over purchase tween fiction.  There are some books, such as the Wimpy kid series, that we have in both the teen room and youth. 

  

We unfortunately have not had large teen or tween participation in library programs in the past.  I am hoping to be able to change that.  Fortunately, we have teamed up with the schools and Community Ed for “Tween Time”.  Beginning this week, another librarian and I will be visiting local middle schools for after-school activities.  We plan on bringing games, starting book discussions, and doing what we can to get this group of tweens using the library.   

 

One of the more interesting aspects of my location is that we have many immigrant families.  A lot of the parents did not grow up with access to an American-style library so it is new to them as well as their children.  What is great is that I find a lot of parents are just as interested as their children in what we have to offer.  Another great thing that I love about our tweens (and teens too) is that our library is a hang-out.  They come and do their homework, socialize with friends, join in our open-gaming programs (we have Wii’s and X-box 360’s), and use the library. 

 

As far as the myths go, I can see them everyday.  Especially Myth #9.  We recently had an 8th grade assignment where they needed to read a sci-fi, fantasy, or historical fiction book, depending on their teacher.  But any book that was suggested for their age, or on an 8th grade list somewhere, was far too easy for these students.  They also read a lot of Shakespeare in middle school in this district.  Myth #4 was addressed by this year’s Summer Reading Club.  To participate, tweens and teens could earn a first prize by reading 12 hours.  Any kind of reading, just 12 hours total.  But they could get a second prize by completing 5 pursuits on an online game board—these ranged from checking out a video game, reading a biography, or posting an online review.  We gave them a lot of ways to “read” this summer. 

 

From Valerie:

 

As I stated in my introduction, I am currently unemployed but hope to return next summer to the library system I came from.  For this assignment I will focus on that library and will describe it and the tween population, as it was when I was there.

 

Library and Community:

 

The Richlands branch library is located in a small rural farming community and shares a building with the county museum.  It is part of a four library system.  With nearby Marine base, Camp Lejeune, the population is a blend of military families and locals with longtime ties to the community.  The community’s farming aspect has brought a large Spanish-speaking population too.  Richlands, a conservative and economically challenged community, offers little entertainment for the youth population other than sports.   The adult circulation stats indicate the items with the highest circulation rates are DVDs, paperback romance, and Christian fiction. 

 

Tweens:

 

Due to military deployments many of our tweens are living in single-parent homes.  Since the Marine base sits about 30-40 minutes from Richlands, the military families tend to rely not on base resources for assistance but each other and families in the community.  We have a large population of home-schoolers as well.  When I first took on the branch manager position, moving from Youth Services, I was told that the young patrons in Richlands didn’t read fiction.  Statistically, it was true that there was little movement in the area of youth fiction, although the YA collection circulated at a high rate.  Once we began to weed the collection and began programming to support our youth fiction, the numbers increased dramatically.  The nonfiction section tends to be used primarily for school grade level projects.  The programs we have offered directly for tweens have been well received and the TAG we began became, due to interest, primarily a tween program as well. 

 

I agree with your points about all of the myths.  Some are more relevant to my experiences than others.  Myth #3 addresses the topic of readability.  Many of our patrons are caught in the battle with the schools to find books that are matched to their child’s reading level and/or point value.  As a small library we don’t have many of the books listed, particularly the nonfiction ones, we also don’t label by reading level the ones we do have.  This often puts us at odds with parents.  Although we don’t agree with this measure of matching book with child we struggle to keep parents happy, schools satisfied AND keep kids reading what THEY find interesting.

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From Keira Digel Drake, Library Assistant, Athens Academy, Athens, GA. 

Our library serves both middle (5^th-8^th) and upper school (9^th-12^th) students as well as faculty, staff, administration, and parents. Unfortunately, the state of our library two years ago was fairly poor – it seemed to give the impression of the place where ‘old books went to die’. The average book age was 27 years old. Many of our fiction titles were dirty or falling apart. Our nonfiction was inconsistent and did not support new assignments in the curriculum. Electronic resources were limited. And some books, though not ‘bad’, were just not right for a school library. Our head librarian conducted a massive weeding across the entire collection at the end of the 2008 school year and we are currently rebuilding the collection, particularly sections of the non-fiction collection and our young adult collection. Fortunately, we have a beautiful space and good start for our collection as well as teachers and students eager to use the collection and an administration willing to provide a decent budget to support our efforts.

 

Our fiction collection is divided into three sections – adult fiction, young adult fiction, and juvenile fiction – with our tween collection primarily located in the juvenile fiction section. There is often a fine line between the young adult and juvenile fiction collection and we have lots of students, especially our tweens, moving between the two collections. However, the split does help to support our middle school students and their limited time in the library. Though they are given a number of opportunities to come to the library, they are often running in with only a few minutes to pick out a book and get back to class. Splitting out the collection allows this group, particularly our 5^th and 6^th graders who are new to this library, to quickly browse through a collection of books where they are very likely to find something of interest. The older middle school students who are more familiar with the collection easily float between the two collections to find a book of interest.

 

Our tweens are all capable readers – no doubt about that. However, we still are challenged with the typical stumbling blocks that come between tweens and their reading – the attraction of ‘screen-time’ activities, talking with friends, extracurricular activities, texting with friends, Facebooking with friends (did I mention communicating with friends?). We are always working with teachers to find a good balance between pleasure reading and the classroom novel – we have some students that can manage mulitple books at one time and others that can only focus on one book at a time. We also have reluctant readers and students with reading-related learning disabilities that struggle to find a book they are comfortable with as well as those voracious readers with whom we can barely keep up.

 

Many of our tweens are excited about series novels – of all kinds. Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a big hit right now as is Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak. Erin Hunter’s Warriors series (and variations there of) is a hit among some while James Patterson’s Maximum Ride and Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider is big with others. Once they find a series they love, they seem to burn right through them.  

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From Gail:

 

The branch library I work in is approximately 9,000 square feet and we have a small teen area with tables and chairs, computers with games and MS Word products and, of course, the teen collection – books, magazines, graphic novels and some non-fiction. This area is adjacent to the internet computers, so after school when the kids come in the area is full of kids waiting for their turn to get on the internet. It is first come, first served regardless of age, since we don’t have space to set aside internet computers just for teens or adults. Many of our regular older patrons know not to come in after school if they want to use a  computer! I don’t normally deal directly with the teens unless I am covering the public desk. Our programming is conducted by central library staff who come out to the branch; however, I can suggest programs I think would work and sometimes help out with the programs. I also make sure the rest of the staff has access to and is familiar with teen literature and resources they can use. One thing we have learned is it is next to impossible to get kids to sign up ahead of time for a program and also hard to entice some teens away from the internet to come into a program, unless we offer snacks (pizza, cookies, etc.) probably because its not “cool” to do that in front of their friends. Also, we have had the most success with craft programs. We also offer a summer and winter teen reading program that have been pretty successful. We have a very diverse group of tweens in the branch library. I looked up the school report card from our nearest elementary school and based on my own unscientific observations I think this is a fair reflection of our tween population at the library:

 

Racial/ethnic background

·        32.8% white

·        11.2% black

·        34.9% Hispanic

·        14.6% Asian/Pacific Islander

·        6.5 Multiracial/ethnic

 

Other information:

·        Low-income rate: 23.7% (families receiving public aid, live in institutions for neglected or delinquent children, supported in foster homes with public funds, or eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches.)

·        Limited English-proficient rate: 21.6% (students eligible for translational bilingual programs)

·        Attendance rate: 95.8%

 

As you can see from the data above we have a diverse group, many of whom are lower income and/or speak a language other than English at home, who frequent the library.

 

Kids use the branch library for a variety of reasons. The main reasons I see are:

·        After-school hang out until dinner/parents come home from work

·        Social gathering place to meet with friends

·        Free internet access – surfing, social networking sites, chat, games

·        Games – find Wii, DS, PS3, Xbox games to check out and/or to play games in library on our CD-ROM game computers or board games available in the library

·        Homework

·        Recreational reading

·        Library programs – weekly after school movie, (new) monthly tween pizza & craft programs

·        To chat with staff

 

I agree with all the myths talked about in the article. I want to comment on a few of the myths in relation to my own teens:

 

Myth #1 – Kids must read only “good” books and not be allowed to wallow in popular fiction.

·        A few years ago when we added graphic novels to the teen section and really started paying attention to ordering “popular” teen materials our circulation in that area increased 400%!

 

Myth #2 – Readers are easy to spot/nose in a book.

·        The must be here – our circ stats show they are checking out the books. Also, we recently started a program (not exactly for tweens, but…) called “Read to a Dog” where kids sign up to come in to read aloud to a trained service dog and it has been a huge success at my branch. Kids we’ve never seen pick up a book because they were too busy using the internet signed up. No pressure on the kids AND they can pet a dog.

 

Myth #3 – Readability (lexiles, etc.) is a good way to match kids to books.

·        Kids and parents put too much emphasis on the points rather than whether or not they will like the book and reading becomes a chore rather than something enjoyable.

 

Myth #9:   Having grade level lists is a good idea.

·        We are often asked “Where are the books for (insert any grade) and we tell people they are all interfiled since kids read at such different levels even in the same grade. We don’t want to create a stigma by telling kids they should be reading certain books when they are too hard (or easy) for them.

 

Myth #10 – One size does not fit all.

·        You can have shelves full of books, but if you don’t have something for various tastes they will just sit there. Again, when we got graphic novels and made sure we got the latest popular titles, it reflected in our circulation statistics. To me this illustrates that you need the right book for the right reader – or at least need to make the materials available.