Theresa Foster and Carly Shilling presented on making lasting connections with teens in the library. They discussed the importance of having programs for teens such as anime club, gaming nights, and a teen advisory board. They emphasized communicating with teens through social media and having a dedicated teen space in the library. They also talked about stocking popular materials like graphic novels, manga, and displaying new books. Maintaining a successful teen advisory board requires consistent meetings, activities, and opportunities for volunteering.

1. P R E S E N T E D B Y :
T H E R E S A F O S T E R ~ O C L T E E N L I B R A R I A N
C A R L Y S H I L L I N G ~ O C L C H I L D R E N ’ S & T E E N L I B R A R I A N
Making Lasting Connections
with Teens in the Library

2. Theresa Foster, Teen Services
 Barnegat Branch of OCL for 2+ years
 Prior to OCL, worked as the
Virtual Branch Manager of ACLS
 Monthly
• Anime Club
• Teen Advisory Board
• T(w)een Maker Night
• Other notable monthly celebrations
 Weekly
• Tuesday Night Drop-In Gaming (DiG)

3. Carly Shilling, Youth & Teen Services
 Long Beach Island Branch of OCL for 3+ years
 Has worked with OCL for 9 years
 Yearly
 Autism Awareness in April
 Monthly
• Teen Advisory Board
• Teen Craft
• Gaming Fun
 Weekly
• Family Programming/Drop In Crafts

4. Keep Them in the Library!
 Having a strong, unified youth services team (YS & YA) can
help you home-grow children who already love the library into
tweens and teens who will love the library too
 Ageing out – Going from juvenile  tween  teen  18+
 Remember – they are growing into adults
 The importance of tweens
 School visits is a must!

5. Communicating with Teens… in the Digital Age
• Be where the teens are: in the
library, in the community,
and online
• Digital natives
• Follow the trends
• Word of mouth still works
• Find a linchpin
• Do your best to tap into their
needs

6. Popular Social Media
• Facebook – The trademark name in social media
• Twitter – Micro-blogging, short messages only, follow others and
share your own
• Tumblr – Micro-blogging, long messages, photos, videos, etc.
follow others and share your own – More teens are on Tumblr than Facebook
• YouTube – Video-sharing, mostly user-generated clips
• Instagram – Photo-sharing for photos sake, can include messages
• Pinterest – Photo-sharing, pin board style of themed collections
• Skype and FaceTime – Video chat, different platforms

7. Communicating with Teens…in the Library
 Tweens and teens look up to their library staff advisors as
objective adults who care about their needs, who want to
listen, who they can have fun with, and who will encourage
them to grow into lifelong library users

8. The Teen Zone
 No matter the size of your teen area…teens need a sense
of ownership
 The Teen Zone in a large/medium sized branch:

9. The Teen Zone
 The Teen Zone in a small sized branch:
 The Long Beach Island library’s Teen Zone takes up a corner of the branch.

10. YA Displays
 Theme your displays with books &
multimedia
• Let the teens give you the ideas
• Let them help choose the books
• Let them be creative
• Post the pictures online
• Reuse as much as possible

11. Popular Materials for Tweens/Teens
 Hook them into the right book and they become
lifelong readers!
 Know what’s popular in:
 Books
 Graphic Novels/Manga
 Magazines
 Music
 Multimedia
 How can you do this? Read YA!
 Or keep abreast with news publications, such as
YALSA, SLJ, VOYA, or even Entertainment Weekly

12. Popular Materials for Tweens/Teens
 Get your teens interested by:
 Booktalking
 Booktrailers:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBenU9-0yYc
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldyMb9cneAQ

13. Comics & Graphic Novels
 Superhero
• American Standard since
1930’s
• DC Comics & Marvel are
the Big 2
• Superman
• Batman
• Spiderman
• Wonder Woman
• The Avengers
• Justice League
Non-Superhero
• More often Graphic Novels
• Fiction, Non-fiction, Anthologies
• Real Life & Life Lessons
• Classics
• Biographies / Memoirs
• Non-Fiction / History

14. Manga – Japanese Comics
• Originally published in Japan
• Major part of Japanese publishing industry
since 1950’s
• Also refers to cartooning AKA Anime
• Shonen AKA Adventure / Fighting
• Shojo AKA Romance / Feminine
• Fantasy, Science Fiction
• Slice of Life
• Historical
• Sports, Games

15. Popular Materials for Tweens/Teens
 Guide your teens with:
 Booklists
 Stickers on book spines
 Displays

16. YA Programs/Clubs
 Anything with FOOD!
 Hair chalking
 Glitter tattoos
 Beauty
 Anything DIY
 Magazine Bowls
 Anything “about me”
 Performers/Presenters
 **System Programming**
 Pinterest http://pinterest.com/

17. YA Programs/Clubs
 Crafts:
• Gear towards a wide age
• Repetitive
• Reinvent the old standard

18. Crafts Continued…
• Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle
• Find crafts that allow them to tap into their interests and
express themselves

19. Gaming @ the Library
• Library isn’t a quiet place anymore, but with limitations
• Let them do the work
• Have an assortment of game types, i.e. video, board, open, retro
• Organize tournaments
• Keep it T-rated
• Don’t stress on stats
there is a lot of competition
• Homework
• Sports
• Jobs
• Etc.

20. Volunteer Opportunities
 TAB (Teen Advisory Board)

21. TAB
 What we do: TAB meets once a month to come up with
program ideas, crafts, games and sometimes just to hang
out! Teens need to know that the library is an active
social hub where they are always welcome
 TAB members accrue community service hours for:
 National Honor Society
 Religious requirements
 College applications
 Resumes
 To stand out in a competitive academic world

22. How to Grow Your TAB
 It’s like tending a garden
 First, plant the seed
 Recruit members. Spread the word/build interest among regular teen library
users and new users
 Feed and water
 Meeting times (same time each month is best)
 Elections
 Set ground rules
 Snacks are a must!
 Have an agenda for each meeting
 Plan social activities
 Make time to enjoy each other
 Work with a budget – Friends/Library Budget

23. How to Grow Your TAB
 Watch your TAB grow
 Maintain your TAB group
 You will also lose members, but gain new ones too
 Keep a membership list (names, email addresses, cell phone numbers)
 Communicate with members via email or phone calls.
 Membership Perks
 Charisma and enthusiasm can go a long way
 Remember: Teens are discovering their individuality. They are
looking for a place to belong with others like themselves. The
elements of a TAB can be an important life-experience for teens

24. Justifications for Having a TAB
 Gives teens a sense of “ownership”
 The benefits of mixing tweens and teens in a TAB
 Develops lifelong readers and library users
 Teaches teens responsibility
 Grooming future library assistants/librarians? Yes!

25. TAB Differences and Similarities Between…
 What works for a medium/large sized branch:
• Monthly meetings with President, Vice,
etc. running meeting
• 1 hour of meeting content, then socialize
• Have them choose the programs and age
groups targeted
• Let them “own” their ideas
• Sub-committees as needed
• Have guest speakers
• Reward as needed
• Snacks a must, food as leverage
• Find what works for you
and your teens

26. TAB Differences and Similarities Between…
 What works for a small sized branch
 Long Beach Island library has more tweens than teens in TAB

27. General Teen Volunteering
 Teens can come into the library to
accrue community service hours
without having to join TAB
 Have a wide variety for both
shy and outgoing personalities
• Book Reviews that go on display
• Adopt-a-Shelf
• Monthly programs & activities in
the Summer
• Have opportunities geared to their
interests, ask them what they like
 S.A.I.L

28. Working Off Fines
 Teens who have fines can “work them off”

29. Professional Relationships with Teens
 Incorporate your personality
 Be fun, but professional
 Keep it PG-13
 They are NOT your friends on Facebook, etc.

30. The Do’s & Don'ts with Teens
 Do – snacks, snacks, snacks!
 Do – music
 Do – restricted access only
 Do – you know the old saying: treat them the way you
would want to be treated
___________________________________
 Don’t – be intrusive
 Don’t – be a pushover
 Don’t – let them interfere with your work
 Don’t – tolerate bad behavior

31. Drama Queens & Know-It-Alls
 When teens go bad
 Innocent until proven guilty
 Bad behavior traits:
o Rubber band slinging
o Cursing
o Horse play
o Ignoring authority

32. Questions?