Final Project
Reaching the Teen Scene
Background
According to the 2007 Annual Report “St. Louis County Library District was established by a vote of the residents of St. Louis County in 1946. A five member Board of Trustees, appointed in accordance with RSMo 182.050, governs the Library. The Library District is comprised of 20 branches and 10 bookmobiles. The population of the service area is 870,000.” (Cruise 2007). Approximately 42,000 High School residents and 111,000 juvenile residents utilize the system, but as the library is currently reclassifying their card system to be juveniles up to age 11 and eliminating the high school patron type in favor of a teen patron type that would encompass those 12-18, the exact number of teens is currently unpublished.
The Current Situation
Currently I am a part time employee of one of the many branches. I am the first part time employee in the area to be assigned to a programming section. No doubt you have guessed that I create, and facilitate the teen programs at my location. At first I was very skeptical, and unsure as to how to proceed. I knew that our programs left much to be desired, and that for the most part the teen set is generally just at the library to use the computers, search for anime/manga or their other favorite book genre. During the past year, I have spent much of my time learning the ins and outs of creating effective teen programming. But typically my local branch has attendance at teen programming of only 10 teens on average, and this is the norm for most of the area.
The library as a whole has really put a focus on improving their teen relations in the past six months to grow our teen involvement. The library began the transformation by creating a position for a teen services director. Last year we received state Grants to create Teen spaces at a few of our locations and have gathered together the local teen population for their input in to the spaces that will be serving their needs, so that all of the locations are different. We have focused on creating more fun programming such as the recently conducted Twinkie Transformations and Oreo Art (attended by 35 teens a record at my branch!), and Video Game Night. They have also begun to update the teen page on the website including recently written book reviews by teens and for teens, but they do not yet allow the interaction that a web2.0 service would offer and that teens are familiar with. I feel that the internet website, while informative, falls short of what teens are looking for, and could be a great catalyst to improving teen attendance of the library. By including web 2.0 features such as a wiki, a blog, and podcasts I would like to make the website more participatory, and give the teen population an online destination that will connect them to the library.
The Plan
The first section I would revamp is the homework section, to help the teens become more aware of the services offered by the library. I would like to create podcasts using opensource software from Audacity which would offer tutorials on our many databases. I’ve been through the databases classes that are taught and by the end I can’t remember what the first one is and my eyes have glazed over. What is needed for teens is a short podcast covering one or two related databases at a time. We must remember that attention spans are limited with podcasts, so covering too many would lose the audience. Start up time would be intensive to record all the podcasts, and a new podcast would need to be created for any databases that are added to our current available databases, but once recorded there is no upkeep required. We would also need to train two or three staff on how to record the podcasts. In addition I would include a meebo chat box to ask the librarian for reference work. The reference department already has two staff covering the chat feature at all times, putting a chat box on the teen page would encourage students to use the feature more frequently.
A new feature to the teen website is book reviews, we are currently only putting up book reviews done in conjunction with the summer reading club, and there is no interaction or comment feature. I believe that the book reviews by teens and for teens should become a regular feature, and should be in the form of a blog that teens could comment on and interact with. I would pick a new book coming out each week and ask for volunteers from the patrons to review the book, which could then be posted by the librarian to the blog. I would not necessarily give the teens the ability to post the book reviews without first having a librarian review them for content and grammar, and to ensure that copyright is not infringed, but the ability for teens to have their opinions heard would be a great way to get the teens involved. Obviously this would require the teen services librarian or someone else appointed to review, post the blog, and monitor/approve comments to ensure spam is not an issue while ensuring teen opinions are heard, but in the end I think it could be a very rewarding service.
The last update to the site that I would make would be to add an events wiki from pbwiki which would list current, upcoming and past events, and event suggestions. That way as events occur, teens could add in what they did at the event, maybe add pictures similar to the Australia Travel wiki located at http://www.australiatravelwiki.com/page/Wiki+Photo+Album?t=anon, and suggest events they think would like to have at the library. This way teens could share their experiences with those that were unable to make it, and to remember the events. We would also have feedback on each event in a timelier manner, and teens would be more likely to speak freely than they would if they were talking to a member of the staff.
The updates I have proposed would require some time and effort, but would require no additional strain on the budget. A member of the IT staff would be required to implement the changes, and the rest could be maintained by the teen services librarians as part of a daily routine. The end result would be greater communication between the librarians and the teen population. To celebrate the launch of the new online gathering place for teens, I would throw a party at all locations simultaneously in the computer labs where the teens could all practice adding to the events wiki and seeing how other locations also can add to the wiki at the same time, I would also sign up volunteers for the book reviews at this time, and get their feedback on the podcasts so that any changes that were necessary would be made immediately.
