Article on Teen Services

At our most recent Youth Services meeting I got to review some awesome points about working with Teens. My talk was based on this amazing article: http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2015/07/30/10-questions-to-ask-about-your-teen-services/. I highly recommend this article to not only Teen Services librarians, but to other librarians who come into contact with teen library users. It has a ton of great information, and really addresses the main concerns and things teens are looking for within a library.

Here are the things I covered at the meeting:

Teen Space (even just being welcoming if you do not have a designated teen space/quiet spaces, some libraries do not because of size constraints.)

Fine leniency (This is case by case and may need to be discussed with a director. Try to keep fines as least detrimental to the teens as possible, teens generally do not have money! This is also a great conversation starter with teens, because you can really find out ways that the teens can pay things off, for example, maybe giving a list of a great manga series the library needs in lieu of money or shelving books. It also encourages the teens to be responsible and start working with money in a less high-pressure environment.)

Get teen input on activities, materials, magazines, books

Outreach Find out where the teens want to go, what areas of the community they want to reach out too, and how to make that happen. Schools are an obvious and good place to start outreach with the teens, but when possible find out where it is they go or want to go.

Positive attitude/Positive language

Cater to teens interests An example of this is polling them for different activities. I do this with our Art Club by giving the teens a picture list of different art activities to choose from. It gets them interested, invested, and makes it more likely they will show up to be part of Art Club! This can apply to lots of other interests and activities, it is so important to just get teens involved in the conversation and provide ways to cater to their interests. 

Talk to them like people ( You do not have to be cool or anything just be you!) If you do not know what lingo a teen is using, do not try to use it too! Instead, use this as a conversation starter by asking them what the word/thing/phrase is that they are talking about. I have done this with the teens, and trust me, it is infinitely better than trying to be cool and talk like they are without really knowing what it means. 

BE GENUINE!!

That is all I really have, I do not think I can put it better than this article, so please read and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Email me to talk more Teen Services: dstates@yorklibraries.org 

Dawn states: What is your best teen tip?