As of today YA Library UK is on hiatus due to a death in my family.
Update 15/02/2012: the contest is still open, but it may take longer to select winners and mail prizes.
As of today YA Library UK is on hiatus due to a death in my family.
Update 15/02/2012: the contest is still open, but it may take longer to select winners and mail prizes.
Money is in short supply these days. However, teens with a great idea for improvements or events that take place in or related to the library can still apply for money. You can find a list of current sources of funding here. Starbucks Youth Action is offering funding for young people right now. Applications due by 9 AM on 5 March 2012.
If you already work with a small group of teens (a reading group, Teen Advisory Group, or just a bunch of library regulars you’ve gotten to know), you may notice that they have ideas for improving the library. This type of event would be great if it ever happened, they say. That collection of books is deficient, they claim. In many cases you may not have the time, budget, or supporting staff to execute their ideas, even if you know the ideas are strong. The good news is that in many cases, you can help young people implement these ideas themselves. By providing guidance and appropriate advice, you can assist them in creating the teen library service they want to see.
Even in the current economic climate, there is some funding is available to young people leading projects in their local area. The primary criteria of these projects is usually that they be teen-generated and teen-led. Many of them (like 02 Think Big) also expect there to be adult supporters involved. That’s your role! You can also help teens structure and articulate ideas, and assist them by helping them break intimidating aspects of projects or applications into manageable tasks. You’ll act as their supporter: librarian and cheerleader rolled into one.
Premise: The teens you work with have a great idea! They want to host a manga day, or to start a volunteer programme to help younger readers, or to improve the teen space, or something probably much clever than anything I’ve come up with. Now what?
Break the process into five steps:
Get Permission
Brainstorm
Choose Funding Source
Be Realistic and Optimistic
Fill Out the Application
Get Permission
If you need permission for some portion of the project, ensure that you have it. If teens obtain funding to revamp the teen area but your supervisors aren’t keen, that money may never go to fund a great project. “We’ll fund it ourselves!” usually makes a winning argument.
Brainstorm and Choose a Funding Source to Apply To
Take a look at the various funding pots. Is the proposed project a £300, £3000, or £30,000 project? The easiest way to establish this is to guide them through the particulars. This is an area where you’ll definitely be of help, as you most likely have more experience articulating the finer points of a project and drafting budgets. Help them turn general assertions (“we want it to be awesome”) into specifics (“we want a new set of awesome books that cost £200”) through brainstorming.
Be Realistic and Optimistic
Next, take a look at the applications. Maybe the £30,000 project is amazing, but given the needs of the application (that a certain amount of hours be dedicated, for example, or that other funding be secured), the £300 grant is the best to start with. (Again, you can help by demonstrating how the project can be broken into meaningful chunks.)
Complete that Pesky Application Form
Young people need to be able to articulate the following (not necessarily in order of importance!): 1) why the project is important to them; 2) how it will benefit them and others (in the community); 3) how they will deliver the project; 4) what they’ll deliver, when they’ll deliver it by, and how much it costs. The last issue (what/when/cost) doesn’t have to be exact, but it does need to demonstrate some concrete pre-planning. Other considerations – depending on size and scope of the project – might include how they will consult their peers/those benefiting from the project, and how they will evaluate the project.
Your role here is to guide, not to dictate. Allow them to write the proposal. You can help by offering structural hints when they get stuck, editing, and finding helpful reference materials (this last one is especially handy when compiling a rough budget or helping them locate local demographic information). You liaise with staff and supervisors; young people commit their time to the project.
Young people will benefit from the project itself, which will not only empower them but will also boost their CV. I also recommend that you offer volunteer hours (there will be a post about this soon) and recommendation letters to young people who become regularly involved in these types of projects.
The benefit to the library is tremendous: young people will know – or find out – how to reach and benefit other young people in the area. Their projects will help the library build rapport with local teens and the broader community. It also helps support projects that the library wants to develop but couldn’t otherwise fund.
Maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “But the teens in my library aren’t proactive.” Many young people aren’t used to feeling empowered to enact change in their communities. Engage them in a dialogue about improvements they’d like to see in the community. Take their ideas and concerns with respect. Let them know that there are funds (and adults!) who can assist them in achieving these goal. (Of course, you don’t have to embrace every project idea with open arms; “swimming pool in the library” is a good part of a healthy brainstorming session but should probably never grow beyond a daydream. That said, if you do end up building a swimming pool in your library, please tell me, because I’d love to have a swim surrounded by books.)
If you’re reading this and thinking, “great, but I don’t already know the teens in my library,” start reaching out to those already using your service. Introduce yourself, host an event, or reach out to teens in the community. For those who are feelings daunted based on time constraints, look out for an upcoming post about reaching teens in just a few hours every week.
Tags: teen funding, teen librarian, teen library funding, young adult librarian, youth funding, youth librarian, youth-led projects
To say thank you for your interest in teen library services in the UK – and HOORAY for 100+ email subscribers and 400+ Twitter subscribers – YA Library UK is hosting a giveaway! I will randomly select TWO winners to win a bundle of three new YA novels OR Cool Teen Programs for Under $100 OR Young Adults Deserve the Best: YALSA’s Competencies in Action OR The Ultimate Teen Book Guide (your choice!). (Both winners will receive the prize they select, even if they both choose the same prize.)
Entries to the giveaway close on 2 March.
The contest is only open to residents of the United Kingdom. This is YA Library UK, after all!
Tags: teen librarian, teen library, ya book giveaway, YA books, ya lit, young people's librarian, youth librarian
When YA Library UK reaches 100 email followers to this site (and, hopefully, 400 Twitter followers!) there will be a prize draw for followers in the UK! So far my ideas are as follow: 1) YALSA’s Cool Teen Programs for Under $100 (plenty of stuff in here that still applies in translation) or 2) a bundle of new YA releases! Or, 3) I could pick several winners for several new YA releases. There’s also 4) Something else (activity packs? Promotional materials?). What do you think? What would you most like to win? Comment, tweet, et cetera. (There are currently 98 email followers, so it’s very close!)
Now back to your regularly scheduled links round-up:
New research suggests work experience reduces the drop-out rate, leads to greater employability of young people.
How to put ‘the “Teen” in Your Teen Space’, a post about getting teens involved and excited about your library’s activities.
In response to The Hunger Games‘ pending release, Springfield-Greene County Library has created Hunger Games website, and a roster of a week’s worth of library activities for teens.
Pinterest is the “rising star of social media”. It’s easy to use, highly visual (like Tumblr!) and worth getting your library involved with while it’s hot.
A new book website called Small Demons finds and lists all the things mentioned in your favourite books: places, people, other books, movies, music, et cetera. The site is still in its nascent stages and doesn’t have many books added yet, but in time it could serve as a great help in planning programmes and displays (for example, I can imagine around a popular book of “books and/or music and/or films enjoyed by the characters”).
This is from 2011 but it’s new to me (and thus maybe to you): Sherman Alexie on why the greatest books for young people are “written in blood”. Alexie writes, “I have yet to receive a letter from a child somehow debilitated by the domestic violence, drug abuse, racism, poverty, sexuality, and murder contained in my book. To the contrary, kids as young as ten have sent me autobiographical letters written in crayon, complete with drawings inspired by my book, that are just as dark, terrifying, and redemptive as anything I’ve ever read.”
Tags: hunger games, hunger games activities, hunger games film, small demons, teen librarian, teen library, teen library services, teen programming, young adult librarian, young adult library, youth librarian, youth library
Are libraries dying? American librarian Karen Jensen has set out to prove they’re not by creating the 2012 Project, an ever-growing collection of pictures of teens using libraries. She hopes to have 2,012 photos by the end of this year (click here to see a scrapbook of photos already collected).
Most teen library services advocates (whether librarians or otherwise) spend time and energy trying to communicate the value of teen library services to colleagues and the public. (We also spend time communicating these to teens, but that’s a different story.) It is especially challenging to communicate the value of certain core jobs that appear unglamorous (like stock editing) or considered to effect specific demographics only (home library service).
How do you communicate the value teen library services the value isn’t always quantifiable?
There are always clear PR moves: inviting councillors to teen events, notifying local papers of all that’s on offer for young people. I wonder, however, if sometimes the essence of the service gets lost. Last year I was inspired by Meanwhile, The San Francisco Public Library, which captures some of the more ephemeral benefits of the service. That’s one of the reasons I like the 2012 Project: it’s one thing to be told that teens use our services, and quite another to see photos of happy, engaged teens in the library.
How do you think we can communicate some of the less articulable qualities of our service to teens? What are the best ways that our libraries do this, and what are our biggest blind spots?
Tags: library marketing, library promotion, teen librarian, teen library, young adult librarian, young adult library, youth librarian, youth library
Don’t forget, Saturday 4 February is National Libraries Day!
University applications set to show slump after tuition fee hike of about 9%. This does include overseas students. I’d be interested in seeing figure for UK students. This is the steepest fall in 30 years.
Read about a week in the life of a secondary school librarian on Big, Friendly Librarian.
Teen Librarian has compiled a list of great graphic novels about the Holocaust.
Photos from a completely amazing Harry Potter-themed party for teens (seems like this could also be used with children, or maybe even put together by teens for children!).
I love this visual list of ideas for a Teen Summer Read programme called “Own the Night” (her teen library Pinterest is also worth a look in). As far as I know there haven’t been any recent summer reading programmes for teens in the UK (anyone know differently? Give a shout in the comments!), but it’s one of my librarian dreams. I do know that Southend Library held one some years ago (through the Reading Agency, I believe) and it was quite a success. There’s certainly potential there.
Wondering what Pinterest is and how you can use it in your library? Read 5 Ways to Use Pinterest in Your Library.
Tags: graphic novel list, harry potter, holocaust graphic novels, teen librarian, teen library, tuition increase, uk university, ya librarian, ya library, young adult librarian, young adult library, youth librarian, youth library
The Hunger Games will be out on the 23rd of March. Already a wildly successful YA trilogy in the US (and popular in the UK, too), the film is bound to create fresh interest in the books. Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, a poor sector of a dystopian United States called Pan Am. When Katniss’s younger sister is selected as a “tribute” in the yearly state-sponsered teen-on-teen battle royale – the eponymous Hunger Games – Katniss volunteers to take her place, knowing full well that she will probably die in the process.
Film trailer:
Due to the popularity of the books, many American libraries are already hosting Hunger Games events. I would recommend preparing with extra stock – buy plenty of copies of all three books in the and considering events, but holding off until after the film is released, as I suspect many British teens will become fans of the trilogy after they watch the film.

In the meantime, you can read the books yourself and look at the District One Capitol Couture website – a very clever introduction to some of Pan Am’s obsessions.
Read-Alikes
You will probably get requests for more books like The Hunger Games. YALSA put together a list of classic and contemporary dystopian books for teens: The Future Sucks – A Visitor’s Guide to Dystopia. (One addendum to that list: the classic dystopian novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.) They have also compiled a short list of post-apocalyptic teen books at Dystopian vs. Post-apocalyptic Teen Books. There is an older list of 50+ dystopian YA books at Bart’s Bookshelf, and a shorter but very recent one compiled by on Wired. Alternately, type “dystopian YA list” into a search engine of your choice in order to yield extensive lists.
Displays and Activities
Tons of ideas for activities and displays. Here are my two favourite lists:
Feed Their Hunger for the Hunger Games from Teen Librarian’s Toolbox and and older (but still very useful) post from Youth Services Corner Hunger Games Party Ideas.
Do you have anything planned to respond to interest in The Hunger Games and dystopian YA?
Tags: hunger games, hunger games film, library events, teen librarian, teen library, youth librarian, youth library
What will you be doing for National Libraries Day on February 4th? Here are some suggestions. Does anyone have plans to get local teens involved?
Update on cuts to youth services:
Children’s services bear the brunt of grant cuts, says a new research paper put out by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. (Thanks Anne Harding for the link – and co-authoring the research.)
Related: cost of illiteracy to UK ‘tops £81bn each year’.
DIY your brain:
Nerdfighters/vlogbrothers John and Hank Green have released Crash Course onto the world. Crash course provides introductions to world history and biology. If you’re not already familiar with him, John Green is also a very popular YA author, and the series will no doubt be popular with teens. Check out the introductory Crash Course video
Speaking of John Green: I Hacked John Green’s Wesbite introduces librarians to (positive) hacking and provides some free tools to use with teens.
Since we’re on the topic of hacking and computers, I recommend Codeyear, a free coding course. It’s offered via the (also free) Codecademy. Why should teens (or librarians) care? Read Douglas Rushkoff on how he’s learning to code – and why you should too. I also recommend Rushkoff’s book Program or be Programmed.
Book and writing competitions:
Secondary school students can enter the Read This! competition to win vouchers for themselves, and an amazing book voucher and author visit for their school! Deadline: 16 March 2012.
The Gentleman Press writing competition for ages 13-21 is open until 31 January 2012.
Young people can enter to become Amnesty International’s young human rights reporter of the year. Deadline: 20 February 2012.
Teen librarians/YA lit:
Poetry inspires YA novelists. This reminds me of a Sylvia Plath-themed session that went over surprisingly well with a group of older teens. I handed out various books of her poetry and The Bell Jar.
Don’t forget to read the January edition of Teen Librarian Monthly!
Tags: codeyear, teen, teen librarian, teen writing competition, uk budget cuts, uk cuts, ya lit, ya literature, young people, youth
I used to work at a public library. I don’t anymore. In fact, right now I don’t work in any library at all.*
Last year, the local council cut my (former) library’s budget exponentially. The library was allowed to cut any aspect of its services except one: we couldn’t close any branches. It was decided that meant cutting all of our enquiry desk staff and reallocating them to outreach positions (at a pay cut for those who had been librarians). After minimal training, library assistants were reallocated to the few remaining reference desks.
The local council knew branch closures are such a hot-button issue. They were likely aware that both staff and the public would put up a fight if they closed a branch. So instead, they went for something without a public face: cutting staff essential to providing a quality service.
The cuts were announced around the same time that certain necessary government services went online. The government failed to provide training programmes for those with low or no computer literacy skills, so local council employees referred the baffled and upset to the library with the vague words, “they might be able to help you.” New patrons flocked to the library. Demand increased while staff numbers began to dwindle. It was disheartening and put a tremendous strain on all of us. I had no idea what to do about it, or whether I could do anything at all. In the end I left.
YA Library UK will continue to run, some changes need to be made. This site was created for people who had the enthusiasm to provide teen services in their library, but who faced barriers like inexperience, limited budgets, and staff resistance. People who needed a demonstrable outcome to get real support for teen services, but didn’t have a clue where to start, or any guide to teach them. People who were doing the YA ordering and trying to figure out how to get the books young people actually wanted to read.
In many cases these concerns have become subordinate to cuts and closures. Without a library, a staff, or a budget, how can we provide a service to anyone, let alone teenagers?
I want to hear from you: what are the main challenges you’re facing in your library? Closures? Budget cuts? Staff cuts? If you’re still running a teen library service, what are your challenges there? Budget? Local (dis)interest? Colleagues who laothe teens? In some libraries, I know that many of these issues intersect.
In response to your feedback, I will formulate new directions for YA Library UK that respond more effectively to the current climate in public and school libraries. So please comment below (anonymous commenting is on!), tweet or email me and let me know about the challenges you’re facing.
*If you’re wondering what I’m up to these days, you can visit the updated about page.
Tags: budget cuts uk, library closures, pling, save libraries, teen librarian, teen library, teen library services, uk library, uk library closures, ukpling, young adult librarian, young adult library, youth librarian, youth library