Teens are platform agnostic and spend much of their time online engaging with social media and gaming. Gaming has become very popular with 81% of teens playing games online and over 30% of households owning a gaming device. Teens are also highly connected through mobile phones, with many owning smartphones and preferring to communicate through text messaging. Popular online communities for teens include social networks like Facebook, Flickr, and MySpace as well as virtual worlds like Second Life. Some libraries are adapting to these trends by creating spaces for gaming, hosting virtual worlds, and providing areas for instant messaging and online socializing.

1. Equal Access Libraries Youth Trends

2. National Youth Trends Teens: Are Platform Agnostic Live Online Consume Micromedia Create Content

3. Games are like books, they are just another format

4. Gaming is the medium of choice for the millennial generation

5. Gaming Stats 81% of teens play games online 25% of US homes own a PlayStation 32% of households own a handheld gaming device

6. Cell Phones 1 in 5 teens say they can't live without their cell phones* 38% of teens own a cell phone * 44% of teens say text messaging is their communication of preference* 47% of teens use cell phones to take photos Multimedia/SMS** *Disney Mobile/Harris Interactive. **M:Metrics

7. We Live Online IM: 800+ million messages a day; 62 million users Facebook/MySpace Teen Second Life

8. Map of Online Communities XKCD. http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/online_communities.png © 2007 Randall Munroe. Used with permission.

9. Instant Messaging (IM)‏ AOL – 90-95% of teen users AIM Meebo: 80 million messages a day IMVU Gaim Trillian

10. Social Networking Apps Facebook: 23 M Flickr: 4 M Friendster: 29 M Gaia: 7 M Livejournal: 12.9 M Myspace: 176.5 M Teen Second Life: 65, 000 There.com

11. http://www.voya.com Pop Quiz!

12. Library Trends Spaces Collections Staff

13. Service Models Carvers Bay (SC) Branch Library (gaming) Imaginon, NC (TSL)‏ Hennepin (MN) County LAPL Teen’Scape (gaming)‏ Thomas Ford Memorial Library (IM Ref)‏

14. Imaginon Charlotte, NC http://www.imaginon.org/index.asp

15. Hennepin County Library Hennepin County, MN http://www.myspace.com/hennepincountylibrary

16. Thomas Ford Memorial Library Western Springs, IL http://www.fordlibrary.org/chat/

17. Carver's Bay Branch Georgetown County, Carver's Bay, SC http://www.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=13796

18. Space Models Seekonk (MA) Public Library Los Angeles (CA) Public Library Teen’Scape Ocean County Library System, Tom's River NJ

19. Seekonk (MA) Public Library http://www.seekonkpl.org/

20. Los Angeles (CA) Public Library http://www.lapl.org/ya/

21. Ocean County Library Tom's River, NJ http://oceancounty.lib.nj.us/Teens/teens.htm