teens

Sorry I've been silent of late but we have been in the throes of relocating from Colorado Springs, CO to Clarksville, TN. Mark has taken a new position in the IT Department with Austin Peay State University. We've been in Clarksville now for about a month and we are slowly settling in. In addition to relocating, I'm currently co-writing a new book for teen librarians and teachers with Tara Cannon (previously of the Pikes Peak Library District). We are so very excited about this book as it focuses on a topic very near and dear to our hearts--teen nonfiction.

There's a rampant philosophy of sorts running around libraries these days concerning teens. Plan programming that's just for fun and once they're in the door they'll pick up some books and be back. The East Teen Center has been open for about a year and a half and I was afraid that the ETC was proving this mantra to be false. For the most part I see teens who come to the teen center to read and to study and then I see teens who come in to play video games. I don't often see the two cross these invisible lines. In fact, I was rather disheartened to see comments from the last ETC survey like, "get the geeks out of here" when asked how we could make the ETC better. I'm also not sure if that comment was calling the readers and studiers "geeks" or vice-versa :)

Spoiler Alert

Please note, this blog is most definitely full of spoilers so if you haven't read these books yet, please do so before continuing with this post.

My teen services team is currently developing a new strategic plan to direct the next several years of service. In an attempt to keep our strategic plan feasible we've decided on four seemingly simple goals. When I first started this position 5 years ago, we created the first ever teen services strategic plan for this district and unfortunately were mandated by the higher-ups to design our plan as a mirror to the library's plan. The plan became a behemoth that was quickly set aside and referred to only in reports and presentations.

Last Saturday was the Colorado Teen Literature Conference in Denver, CO. Attending were 300 teachers, librarians and teens. I'm always surprised at just how many teenagers actually come to this conference. Get up early on a Saturday to discuss literature with your teachers and librarians, what? I'm not sure that I would have been such a diligent student when I was that young.