Teen Spirit in the Library—Best Practices in Teen Library Services Webcast
Dodie Ownes -- Library Journal, 6/17/2008 8:55:00 AM
- Mutual respect key to teen library use
- Flickr and YouTube keep teen users engaged
- Teens should help design their virtual as well as physical library space
Over 700 attendees participated in the June 10 webcast of Teen Spirit in the Library: Best Practices for Teen Services (you can still view it), sponsored jointly by Polaris Library Systems and LJ. Though nasty weather (including tornado warnings!) raged in Polaris’s home base of Syracuse, NY, moderator Bill Schickling, CEO/president, promised webcast attendees that the show would go on, introducing panelist Michele Gorman, teen services coordinator for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, NC (PLCMC).
Gorman discussed the “radical trust” her library has established with teens, noting that mutual respect is at the core of making teens comfortable in the library, so that it potentially becomes their Third Space, and in turn allows library staff to be comfortable with them. She also explained how the support of her administration has made it possible to create and maintain strong teen programming.
Jen Maney, manager of Pima County Public Library’s Virtual Library (Tuscon, AZ), led attendees on a fabulous tour of public library web sites that use 2.0 social networking tools, including simple, free sites such as Flickr and YouTube, to keep teen users engaged and involved in the library’s teen activities and events. Noting that the color palette teens selected for their homepage was not really “something I would pick, but it is their site,” Maney shared many exemplary library teen sites that are worth stealing ideas and concepts from.
Teens design their own space
Christine Pearson, Maricopa County Library District’s (AZ) web designer and developer, spoke about the important role teens have in designing their virtual as well as physical library space, using Maricopa’s Teen Oasis web destination as an example. The Teen Oasis homepage design reflects the need for frequent updates, allowing staff to keep the look and content fresh. Maney and Pearson’s presentations prompted a flurry of questions on how to obtain signatures/approval for use of reviews, comments, etc., in this increasingly libelous society. Maricopa and PLCMC have been able to create permission forms that address all those included.
Scott Nicholson, Syracuse University School of Information Studies, NY, updated attendees on the research being done in the school’s gaming labs, and among librarians across the nation. A majority of public libraries responding to a university study indicated that as teens became more involved in their local library, circulation of materials and attendance at teen events grew significantly. What is gaming (gaming can include board games, video games, geocaching, etc,...a broad range of activities)—and who are gamers (generally refers to videogame players)—were important differentiators, which Nicholson expounded on, simplifying the concept for attendees in terms of observers, participants and doers.
Top concerns
With hefty attendance and close to 70 in-session questions (see below), presenters were pleasantly overwhelmed by audience response and queries. Top concerns? Staff working in teen spaces who “just don’t like teens,” funding for the creation of physically separate teen areas in the library, and selling the concept of teen services to administration.
Q&A:
Thank you for attending the LJ/Polaris Library Systems Teen Spirit in the Library webcast. A multitude of questions posed during the webcast have been answered, which you can find below.
Thank you.
LJ WebCast Editors
Q: I would like to expand what we offer online for our teens but am encountering resistance from higher up. How would you recommend dealing with this?
Jen Maney: What are you trying to expand? What do you want to offer online? Do you want to use social tools? What kind of resistance are you getting?
I have called my efforts on social sites “online outreach” since outreach is something everyone understands, and something that libraries generally value. I also wrote up guidelines for the use of our MySpace profile. I let admin know that I am trying to reach an audience that may not traditionally use the library (which is why I want to use non-traditional avenues).
Q: How do staff and teens add cover art? We subscribe to Bookletters, but cannot get a solution that will enable a broad user base to add images. Do you interface with the images in your catalog via the ILS api?
Jen Maney: We have Bookletters also. The only way I know to get cover art loaded is to send it to Bookletters and ask them to load it. I haven’t heard of any other solution.
If we don’t have the cover in our catalog, I send it along to Content Cafe, who will also upload it. We use Content Cafe for cover art in our catalog.
Q: Do any of you know of any libraries who are using a ning site?
Jen Maney: I did a search on Ning (the search box is sort of hidden in the upper right hand corner, grayed out). It looks like there are libraries using Ning.
Short list (there are more):
Ipswich Library
Delray Beach Public Library
Camarena Library Staff
North Brunswick Public Library
Newport Way Library
Q:How can we make a YouTube video?
Jen Maney: If you have a digital camera, you’re set.
I found a couple of sites with short, easy steps to follow:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2036208_youtube-video.html
And on YouTube or here. We use a digital camcorder to make videos at my work for staff training, however, the videos we have on YouTube were professionally created. We got a grant, and worked with a local video company to make those teen book trailers.
Q: With all of these pictures and names, what about security (e.g., we need permission to post any picture of a minor, and usually get it for using names.)?
Jen Maney: My library only posts full names of minors on any photo if the minor’s name has already been published in some other media (for example, a newspaper article about a poetry contest), and only if we have permission to use the minor’s image. We have a release form that we use. If the person is a minor, a parent or legal guardian must sign it. Usually I only list first names with last initials on our website or Flickr.
Q: I have been using Flickr for a couple of years but because my board requires me to get parental permission for any pictures posted online I find it difficult—teens hardly ever return permission forms! any suggestions?
Jen Maney: We have this problem too. I don’t know that there’s any way to completely solve it. Teens are a transitory group, and they don’t seem to remember things like forms. One of the ways we’ve gotten better returns is by doing the forms at the teens’ school. Teachers are our allies! They get the forms signed, then gather them for us. This has worked for poetry slams and contests where we’ve contacted schools to invite classes to participate.
Q: My library has a website and blog—should there be both? What should be placed on one versus the other?
Jen Maney: The blog may serve a different purpose than the website. The blog allows your customers to comment back to you on things you post. It is more like a conversation than your regular website. Should there be both? If it is working for your library, then YES! My library does not yet have a blog, since I can’t seem to get people interested in writing for it, but I’d love to have one, so that I could hear from our customers on a regular basis.
What should be place on one versus the other? Well, there are no rules, but I’d say your website is for content that you “push” out to your users—news, rules, policies, information, etc., about your library. On your blog, you may want to post a variety of things—book reviews (allowing comments may start a conversation about the book), services the library is offering/has changed (allowing comments may mean you get feedback on those services), information about events in your libraries and/or around town (if your audience is teens, you may want to mention other things around town that teens might like). But really, there are no rules. You can post what you want where you want. If you want comments back, post to your blog.
Q: How many youth librarians do you have in your libraries?
Jen Maney: My system is large; 25 libraries, so we have a lot of teen librarians. At smaller branches, the YA librarian may serve double-duty as the children’s librarian as well. At each location, someone is assigned to be the YA librarian, so we must have at least 25. At the larger branches, we also have Library Associates who help the teen librarian.
Q: How do you initially let teens know about your library’s web presence?
Jen Maney: I’ve heard of libraries that set up tables at local shopping malls, with balloons, t-shirts, and other items that have the library’s URL on them. They had tons of giveaways with the URL on them.
One of the things we’ve been doing in general to alert the public about library services, programs, etc., is making web banners for the local newspaper’s site. It costs us $250 per banner, and the banner runs for a month. We’re posting the banner on the alternative newspaper, not the regular newspaper, in an effort to reach a younger audience. This paper (Tucson Weekly) is read by college students and high school kids as well as adults. It is a more liberal paper.
I’m also for traditional methods: bookmarks, school visits, posters in schools and in library teen centers. If you have money to run ads, that’s great, but not every library has that kind of budget.
Q: How do you develop a 2.0 web for your teen area?
Jen Maney: This will depend on what resources you have available. If you have a tech staff or techy people on staff, you could host something like Wordpress on your own servers. Wordpress is very powerful, and can essentially be your entire website. Take a look at this library (from my slides), if you’d like to see a library using Wordpress.
If you don’t have the capability of hosting something on your servers, you can create accounts on 2.0 sites, and link to them from your regular website. This could be any sort of 2.0 site: Flickr for photos, Blogger for blogs, YouTube for videos, etc.
Start by getting some feedback from teens. Do focus groups and ask teens what they want from the library’s website. I went to our teen sleepover and asked groups of teens for feedback on our site. They didn’t come to the event for that reason, but it was great to have a “captive” teen group to talk with. You can do that with other teen events, if getting focus groups together doesn’t work for you.
I was curious if teens would IM/chat with us, if we offered this service. They all said yes. Now I just have to convince staff that this won’t be a huge burden on them.
Q: Can I get a copy of the release form you use?
Jen Maney: R E L E A S E
Creative Writing/Artwork/Photographs/Videotapes/Images/Audio
I _______________________________, give my permission for
(name of individual or parent/guardian)
the creative writing/artwork or photographs/videotapes/images/audio by/of me
and/or my child/children,
______________________________________________________________,
(name(s) of individual and/or child/children)
to be used by Pima County Public Library. I understand that, if selected, the creative writing/artwork or photographs, videotapes, images may be used in broadcast, print, and electronic media across the country and internationally, including the World Wide Web.
In addition, the creative writing/artwork or photographs/videotapes/images/audio may be used in any Pima County Public Library publications, advertisements, video productions, and public service announcements. I also understand that my child(ren) or I shall receive no compensation for use of the creative writing/artwork or photographs/videotapes/images or audio. Additionally, Pima County Public Library does not intend to provide any identifying information when it makes use of the images. I hereby release and hold harmless Pima County from any and all claims or liabilities arising out of the use of such creative writing/artwork or photographs/videotapes/images as described above.
Signed: ___________________________ Date: ____________________
(signature of individual or parent/guardian)
Print name:
____________________________
Address
____________________________
_________________ zip ________
Phone:
____________________________
Q: What are the ways that you seek teen input in the services and websites of the library?
Jen Maney: We do several things. As I mentioned, I went to our teen sleepover and asked groups of teens for feedback on our web site. We do online surveys when we want teen input on things. This year, we did an online survey (using zoomerang) for teens to vote on the teen summer reading theme. We also have teen advisory boards and teen advocates that meet at various branches.. We’ve also tapped into that great resource; teens who work for us or volunteer for us. Our YA coordinator is also on several local advisory boards for other agencies that serve teens.
Q: Trying to get teens to express their opinion on anything, library related or no, can feel like pulling teeth. any suggestions on how to tailor your surveys and solicitations so that teens will take an interest and respond?
Jen Maney: Oh, I agree. I have noticed that if it’s specific (like our teen summer reading survey), we get a lot of responses. Teens seem to want to give specific feedback/opinions. We get a lot of book reviews posted to the teen summer reading site, also, which makes me think that they will respond if what you want is part of something they are already doing. General questions like “what do you like about the site (or the library)” are met with um’s and I don’t know’s. I asked questions like, “What sites do you like to visit on the web?” “What do you do on those sites?” to get the ball rolling and start a conversation about what they like online.
Q: Do any of the presenting libraries use educational tools online to serve students in thier community?
Jen Maney: You may already know, but Pima County Public Library uses Tutor.com.
Q: Does the library own the software for the 3-D programs, recording programs etc., for them to use at the library? Can they check out this software? How did you get laptops to check out? Was it purchased from grants?
Jen Maney: Pima County Public Library does not have software available for teens to use, other than what is freely available to download, like Audacity for sound recording or podcasting. We do have computer labs and laptop labs at some branches. Some of our YA librarians offer classes for teens on blogging, etc., using the labs and laptops.
Q: What is a good way for teens to post reviews on our library website?
Jen Maney: You could do this several ways. We use E-Vanced Solutions Summer Reader program to get reviews on our summer reading pages. It cost us about $3600 this year. I’m not sure how their pricing model works, but we are a big library system; 25 locations, serving one million. You could also use a blog. Darien Library does that. You can allow comments to get teens to post.
Another way would be more manual. Stick up an online form, asking teens to submit reviews, then post them to a static HTML page. I’ve done that in the past. The only problem with it is that it is not as quick for the user. They have to wait for you to post their reviews. Click here for an example.
If you want to use a social site, you could use MySpace or Facebook. Ask users to post their reviews to your comments section on MySpace or to your wall on Facebook. I haven’t seen anyone doing that, but that would be super easy.
Q: How do you keep track of all the paperwork, like who is in the photo?
Jen Maney: We group the release forms by year, then event. So all forms are together for one event. Then filed by year. We don’t keep track of who is in which photo. If we have release forms for each teen at the event, we know we can use the photos. When we have some teens who don’t do the forms, and others who do, I rely on the teen librarians to identify the teens who gave us a form. I only use those photos.
Q: At present we have to have photograph release forms signed by parent/guardian for minors giving us permission to use the photos on our website or in the newspapers. Do any of you require that for the photos you post on your site, MySpace, Flickr, etc.?
Jen Maney: Yes, we require a release form for any use of photos. I only post photos to our website, Flickr, MySpace, etc., if we have releases.
Q: You mentioned that you faced many restrictions when first setting up your teen website...how did you get around these to wind up with your current site?
Christine Pearson: We had to be willing to take small steps and keep going forward. The first step was just to get some space on the site that was dedicated to teens. Restrictions meant that we didn’t have free range on content or design to achieve everything we wanted, but at least we had something.
Then we looked for opportunities to keep moving forward. We actively looked for ways to use our online presence such as including an online version of our Teen Zine or putting up teen book reviews collected during Summer Reading. Some ideas were given the green light and some didn’t get off the ground. When our district was taking a look at the physical teen spaces we pushed to include a redesign of the site, incorporating our new Teen Oasis concept. We surveyed the teens and used the results to back up what we wanted to do. We pointed out what other libraries were doing successfully, and we brought up statistics and studies showing that the web was a good way to reach teens. Also, we had to be willing to do a lot of the work ourselves. We couldn’t expect our IT department to come up with a new design and constantly be looking for ways to improve it, or for the District to pay an outside design firm. Fortunately we had enough web savvy staff members on board that we were able to do that.
I don’t want my past tense to give you the impression that we are done. The same process goes on, but with each success it gets a little easier to get to the next one.
Q: Do you know of any research that supports gaming in a high school library?
Scott Nicholson: I’ve got an article (PDF) out with our data on the topic so far at. We got about 30 teacher librarians to tell us about their gaming programs. We are doing the survey again for 2007 gaming programs.
Q: How do you handle conflicts that result with gaming from HeroClix, MagicCards or Pogs without penalizing large groups of kids (I’ve seen it almost turn into gambling)?
Scott Nicholson: With any issue with gaming, you have to step back and say, “What is the goal of the gaming program?”
Q: Is Magic, Heroclix, etc., meeting the goal of the gaming program?
Scott Nicholson: Not all games will be appropriate for use in library gaming programs. If these games are creating a different gaming experience than is your goal, then you change the games. These games, with their collectable aspect can lead to the gaming experience you describe.
It would be difficult to make a rule that would stop what you are trying to prevent (I used to play Magic, so I understand that it was designed with an “Ante” rule where you put up a card, winner take both cards) and trading (which is also a very popular aspect of these games). If game components changing hands is part of the experience you want to avoid, then you may have to choose different games.
Again, it points to the need to consider the goals of the program, and to choose games that create experiences that meet those goals.
Q: What do teens prefer to play on most: Wii, xbox, playstation...?
Scott Nicholson: That question is like asking “What format to teens like to read in, hardcover or paperback?” It misses the point—reading a book is not about the format of the book; it’s about the content in the book and the reading experience. Same is true about consoles; it’s not about the console itself. It’s about the activity you are facilitating with the console. This gets back to one of my main points about “games” versus “gaming.” You are thinking about “games.” You need to first think about the gaming experience you want to facilitate. What are your goals in games? What are your desired outcomes? What are the different demographic groups that you want to reach out to with the equipment? Only then, can you decide upon hardware.
Q: What does the research show about gambling among teens if they are gaming in libraries?
Scott Nicholson: I’m not sure there has to be a connection between the two. I would assume the same policy that governs gambling in the library during all library events would be held up and enforced during gaming events. Gaming is just another program done by the library. I don’t see any special connection between gaming and teens gambling—if they want to gamble, they will have better ways to do it than through a library gaming program. The ante element of Magic and Pokemon does not have to be used in a library gaming event.
