1. Best
Practices
Assignment
Opinion
Post
#3
Teen-­‐Led
Story
Times
in
the
Library
By
Rebecca
Buckley
LIS
506
Concluding Thoughts
I am glad that I chose Teen-led Story Times in the Library as my topic for this
Best Practices assignment as it has really validated my implementation of this
type of program in my own library. I thoroughly enjoyed reading some of the
articles and got some great ideas for further implementation with my Student
Library Advisory Council. It is great to see that so many libraries have found
success using teens to serve young children. I found so many other great articles
(listed at the end of my Annotated Bibliography) examining the worth of training
teen volunteers in more traditional library service as well. I look forward to
reading more of these and perhaps taking a few ideas to my SLACkers for
feedback. I am highly motivated to successfully use student volunteers because
of staffing cuts and a very busy library schedule and intense workload. Student
volunteers can be a handful, but if I train them and manage them pretty strictly,
with lots of verbal praise and occasional sugary treats, I could end up with a
great staff of student workers.
I wasn’t all that surprised that I didn’t find any research or articles related to
school libraries implementing such Teen-led Story Time programs, but that has
motivated me to consider writing my own article. I think that the model of my
own Children’s Library and Teen-led Story Times in my high school library
might serve as a great example for other high school libraries with neighboring
Early Childhood Centers or Centers that are on campus, like mine is. I can see
how much good my own program has done with my teens and with the
preschoolers and so far, there has been very minimal cost. The program builds
confidence in teens and young children as well as building relationships between

2. myself, the Youth Services person at my local public library and my teens. It’s
been an exciting opportunity for all involved!
When I asked my students about their experience with the Children’s Library
and Teen-led Story Times at my school, all of the kids were very enthusiastic.
They mentioned how they were learning really handy skills now so that they
could help their little brothers and sisters or cousins learn to read better. One girl
mentioned that now she understood how important it was to read aloud to small
children and that literacy is more than just words. She said that when she has
her own children, she would take them to the library every week and read aloud
to them every night before bed. One of the students said that he enjoyed playing
with the little kids and he thinks it’s important that small children have positive
role models. He said that, as an African American male, he thinks that it is
especially beneficial for small children that they know he loves to read and to
read aloud to them! I have two teen participants that receive Special Education
services and I think that they get the most out of participating. They were so
excited to share their books with the young preschoolers and I could see an
immediate ego boost when they had that captive audience of eager young faces
listening to their every word. Seeing that is so rewarding to me! Teen-led Story
Times are beneficial for all involved and I look forward to implementing some
new ideas, as well as share experiences from my own program with others in the
future.