A Mini-Rant

In my travels around Queens lo these long months, I've heard somethings that are, well, kind of scary to me. I am not naming names or pointing fingers, but I want to clear up a few things. And I will try REALLY hard not to be too harsh, knowing that everyone is super busy, funding is low and getting lower and teens are . . . complex people to work with/for. That said, here we go:

1. To those who have suggested that anything on the shelves (ie. books that . . . aren't very good, are falling apart/held together with tape and a prayer, are older than the teens they are meant for, etc) is better than nothing on the shelves: NO!!! NO, NO, NO!! I know your book budgets are small, I really do, but what teen is going to read garbage just because it's there? WOULD YOU? The solution to this is to be SMART about how you spend the little money you have, by knowing what YOUR TEENS read. Don't waste money on a Fantasy title if all the ones you have sit on the shelf collecting dust. If a teen comes in looking for it, well, that's why we have (the admittedly slow and cranky) reserve process. Weed, people! If your shelves look empty, use them to merchandise the nice, quality stuff you do have. Use large book ends to make program flyers, book lists, contest rules, teens' art and writing, etc, into a display (tape the stuff to construction or other colored paper, staple it around 3 sides to a second sheet of paper and slip it over the bookend--voila! instant display!) and scatter them around the shelves. Be creative! But don't settle for crap for your teens. EVER.
2. To those who say "teen programs don't work in my library" this may be true, but it may also mean you need to rethink what "program" means. Let's face it folks, none of us are teens and while we may be able to relate really well to the teens we know, their world and their experiences are VASTLY different than ours were (cassette tapes, anyone?). The point being, THEY know what they want and need from us. We can think we know what they want, and we can know what we think they need, but the bottom line is that THEY need to tell us and we need to work with them to make it happen. So a program in your library may just be opening the program room one afternoon a week for a teen hang-out where you put out some magazines, your new books, maybe some music (played at low enough volume so no one has to yell to be heard of it!) and just chat and listen. Some amazing things can come from something so informal and you can use that to build better relationships and more relevant programs for them (or not--the hang-out may be all your teens want, you have to ask to find out!).
3. To those who say "my teens don't read" do not despair! Most teens DO read, it just may not be novels or biographies, or whatever. They read plenty online, they read magazines, and they may read on their own away from judging eyes. Remember that, unfortunately, plenty of teens struggle with learning disabilities, a lack of skills, or other obstacles that make reading difficult for them. It's hard for me, a voracious life-long reader to image something that gives me such joy being so painful for some teens, and it really does break my heart that it is. Something a colleague who is a literacy teacher in NYC's juvenile detention centers talks about is making it possible for teens to have ownership of their own literacy; adult learner programs do this all the time by having students write about their lives, their families, their worlds. Teens are super creative and yearning to express themselves so if you feel like your teens don't read (and if they love to read!), look for ways to get them to write--poetry, rap and other songs, stories. If that's too much, get them to talk to each other and to you--storytelling is an innate human skill but they need space to do it.

The bottom line for all of this is that YOU MUST SPEAK TO YOUR TEENS!! Get to know them, watch how their power dynamics work, figure out who has group influence and work with them. Ask them about school, about their lives, their dreams, their futures. Give them room to be themselves but help them learn to respect boundaries (by working with them to establish them). Especially if the teens you work with are from a different cultural, racial and/or ethnic heritage than your own, conversations and dialogues are ESSENTIAL.

That is my mini-rant for the day.

As always, team, I am here to help so PLEASE call on me if you need me! I love to weed and merchandise and make displays, I love to talk to teens, I love to create programs and I can't do all of that in my cube! Use me, people. USE ME!!