Teen Advocate Helene Blowers, a 2007 Mover and Columbus Metropolitan Library's (CML) director of digital strategy, calls colleague Julie Scordato “one of the most passionate teen services advocates I know,” for her work with YALSA and her presentations and articles on gaming and advocacy for teens.
Known for installing gaming in all 20 CML facilities, Scordato—not a gamer herself—sees games as a way to advance library goals. Once staff are playing and talking with the kids, “when you suggest a book, they listen.” Believing that library staff should provide a safe place for teens, she sees games helping “shy teens come out of their shells and dominant teens become better team players.”
Blowers praises Scordato's “amiable tenacity,” an attribute that encompasses her contributions to the profession and to CML. Beyond the gaming rollout (and presentations nationally), she oversaw the main library's teen room renovation and coordinates all teen author visits.
Scordato wants to make advocacy her niche in the library world, helping librarians learn how to attract support from staff and the community and turn teens into “a customer group that's authentically and equally valued.”
