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Focus on Young Carers: Carers Week 2011

13 Jun

Association of Carers' Young Carers logo

This week (13-19 June) is Carers Week. The Children’s Society defines young carers as “children and young people who care for parents or siblings who suffer from chronic illness or disability.” How can library services reach and assist teen carers? Several months ago a few colleagues and I spoke to an active group of young carers in our local area. Below are a few ideas I gleaned from that chat.

The first and best thing to do is to find out more about young carers and get in contact with local carers groups. Limitations on teen carers time may restrict them from getting involved with regularly scheduled library activities, so it can be valuable to find out what type of library offering might suit their needs. For example, a traditional in-person book group might not meet a young carer’s needs, but a group that takes place online and only periodically meets in person might be more effective. portable library services may also be useful to young carers.

Libraries can be useful resources for teen carers, but like other teens, most young carers are unaware of the full extent of library resources. Outreach can be mutually beneficial, making carers aware of the library’s resources while simultaneously providing feedback on ways in which the library can enrich its collection with books for carers and make those materials accessible.

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The Importance of Large Print YA (and How To Promote It)

29 Nov

Liz Burns is familiar with techniques for promoting Large Print Young Adult books: she works at the works in the New Jersey State Library Talking Book and Braille Center. Here’s what she has to say about the importance of large print books:

Our customers include children and teens with low vision and reading disabilities, both who specifically request large print.

Parents and teachers don’t always know that large print is available, or how to find it in your catalog/library. Teens don’t always want to self-identify that they need large print because it requires disclosing the reason they need it.

To have your collection be a success, I would suggest letting local schools (especially the special ed staff) know that you have these books.

Covers of Twilight, My Swordhand is Singing, and The Northern Lights

Several popular books available in Large Print.

For those of us in public libraries, how can we promote our large print collections? Well, as Liz has mentioned, partnerships are important. It’s vital that young people who want or need the books are aware of them, even if they’re too embarrassed to ask you for certain titles.

Include large print titles in presentations, activities or book talks to local secondary schools and colleges. If your library provides services for older vision impaired people, try to find out if they have contacts within organisations for the vision impaired.

Which titles should you hold in YA Large Print? Plenty of popular titles to start out with. In time, once you’ve established contacts with teens who access Large Print, teens can help select stock and expand the collection. It might also be useful to have a some Large Print classics, as these are often on school curriculums.

One last note: at present my library has a relatively small selection of Large Print, but al the titles are borrowed frequently. Plenty of teens (and adult YA readers) want Large Print. It’s just a matter of connecting readers with our collections.

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It Gets Better Project (for GLBT Teens)

19 Nov

A massive pro-GLBT, anti-suicide video project called It Gets Better has spread across the the USA. It Gets Better encourages GLBT youth, no matter how awful their current circumstances are.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans youth (and adults) who need to talk can call the London Lesbian and Gay helpline at 020 7837 7324, open every day from 10am -11pm.

These inspiring videos remind me about how those of us working in public and school library services need to do all we can to support GLBT teens. In the next couple of weeks I’ll post more about ways that libraries can assist young GLBT youth including and beyond collection development.

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Beyond the Dominant Culture and Good Intentions: Diverse YA Books and Stock Selection

16 Nov

In “the power and peril of prepositions” the YALSA blog addresses an issue very relevant to all libraries:

“With our new age of books that truly reflect, engage, and explore other experiences—those of people in situations and worlds where class, color, gender, sexual orientation, language, religious tradition, and ability matter—we need to remember that these various experiences matter to all of us, not just to readers who identify with the specific demographic depicted in the specific book.

‘Books about teens in wheelchairs aren’t just for teens in wheelchairs or for teens who know someone else in a wheelchair. Books that explore life from the viewpoint of a Jewish Latina anxious for her first kiss from a boy don’t belong in a ghetto where only straight Jewish Latinas get to hear about them.”

I don’t know about everyone else out there, but I encounter this problem a lot in my library: we who order the books assuming that a book about a person of a certain identity will only be read by people who share that identity. The irony is that this is probably not how or why most of us library employees read. In fact, we’re often inclined to reach outside our own identities in the desire to access engaging stories and new experiences.

So when we’re ordering YA book, it’s worth keeping in mind that just because we haven’t identified a local gay teen community, or transgender teen community, or black teen community, or a community of disabled teens, doesn’t mean that buying books that address those experiences isn’t important. Teens will expand their perspectives by picking up these books and connecting will well-drawn characters and exciting stories. You also raise the chances of teens who do identify with the protagonists being able to find books that reflect their life experiences. Regardless, the most important thing is to order these YA books–good YA books–and promote them like crazy.

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