Why We’re Here

I’d like to ask you all to put on your Armchair Philosopher hats for a moment and ponder two things. Ready? Here we go:

Who was I when I was a teenager?

AND

Why am I here now, working in a public library, working with teens?

To me, librarianship is a calling. It’s about books, yes, but it’s more about bringing what’s inside those books (and websites, audiobooks, ebooks, magazines, newspapers, programs, etc.) to PEOPLE! And my extra special favorite people are teens and tweens.

Many of you have heard me say that I would not relive my own tween and early teen years for all the money in the world. This is what I think about when I’m working with a particularly . . . challenging . . . teen. It’s hell being a teenager—thank goodness it doesn’t last long and it’s not contagious! But teens are still sponges—they are learning, growing, changing--often right before our eyes.

Did you know that what teens experience in these years actually gets hardwired into their brains? So if they are being exposed to new things, new information, new skills, that will make their brains all stretchy and bright.

And what better time to help them figure out who they are and who they can be and make their brains and stretchy and bright as possible than summer?

If we frame Teen Summer Reading (for ourselves, at least) as an adventure and an opportunity to help teens in this way, not just as a two-month long exercise in pain and futility, it can’t help but become more fun, not just for teens, but for us, too.

To misquote Sesame Street’s Abby Cadabby: "If you're a LIBRARIAN," Abby says, "you get to help people find their dreams. Not just with magic. My mommy says that you don't need magic for everything. Sometimes magic is just being a good listener to someone and helping them find their way. And know what's in their heart. If you can help people see be what's in their heart, that's magic AND LIBRARIANSHIP."

Cash in the Coffee Can = $54.00

What’s The Big Deal about Summer Reading Anyway?!

All of my rants about numbers = funding = proving our worth, aside, is there really a point to teen summer reading?

You be the judge:

Teens continue to acquire literacy skills through middle and high school (especially true for English Language Learners) so they can still lose ground if they don’t read over the summer.

And the lost ground of previous summers has a cumulative effect so kids and tweens who don’t read over the summer can literally become teens who CAN’T read. These trends are especially true for low-income youth and for boys (especially boys of color).

In addition, while reading scores for elementary school students have improved in the last twenty years; they’ve been declining among high school seniors since the early 1990s (“To Read or Not to Read,” National Endowment for the Arts, 2007).

And reading is good for teens (and communities) in other ways. Readers make better citizens! Adults who read often and well have better-paying jobs, enjoy more hobbies and leisure activities, and are more likely to be volunteers and to vote (NEA, 2007).

So, given this information, it seems pretty clear to me that teen summer reading MATTERS, don’t you think?

Cash in the Coffee Can= $40.00

The Coffee Cash/Community Service Challenge

I believe, fully and completely, that Queens Library can register 10,000 teens for Summer Reading 2011. So I am putting my money where my mouth is. My coffee money.

Every day until June 9, 2011 (the "official" kick-off of Summer Reading 2011) I will donate the $2.00 I would normally spend on coffee to the Coffee Cash/Community Service Challenge (I back donated from 10/2/10 so there will be a nice round $500).

If at the end of the summer, we have registered 10,000 or more teens, I will donate the $500 I have saved to a charity of the Queens Library YA Librarians' choosing.

Now, I KNOW that Queens teens are the most voracious readers in the city so I am adding a second challenge. If the Queens teens log 25,000 or more books during Summer Reading 2011, I will donate 25 hours of my time to a charity of the TEENS' choosing.

To keep me honest and to help everyone remember the spirit of Summer Reading, I will blog everything Thursday morning for the next 35 weeks with an update on the amount saved for the challenge and ideas and information about teen summer reading.

Fall is in the air but summer will be here before we know it!

Happy reading!

Vikki :)

Queens Library
Coordinator of Young Adult Services