Ten Tips for Teen Summer Reading: #6

A Friendly Wager

So you know how mayors of cities competing in big sporting events always wager something on the outcome of the game? Why not do that with another library?

Find a colleague in Queens (or anywhere, for that matter) and bet their teens what your teens will do this summer. You could wager on

• number of teens signed up
• number of books read/logged
• number of books reviewed

Have the two groups of teens figure out the wagers--make them fun and appropriate to your library. In the spirit of competition, both libraries will win!

Cash in the Coffee Can: $446

Ten Tips for Teen Summer Reading: #5

Outreach

Where are the teens in your neighborhood when they're not at school, home or your library? Find out and find them there. If the teens won't tell you, ask the adults--they'll be happy to let you know where mobs of teens are. Whether it's just by hanging a flier in the window of the pizza place or visiting the local community or rec center, bringing the library TO teens who aren't regular library users can open doors.

Day camps and vacation bible schools may have younger kids as campers but most will have teen counselors--make sure those teens get signed up. Get to know the non-profits in your community, especially those that work with teens and see if you can do a Summer Reading event there.

Cash in the Coffee Can: $432

Ten Tips for Teen Summer Reading: #4

Peer Pressure

Several libraries did very well last summer by using their teen staff, volunteers and regulars to get other teens to sign up. Think about it--it can't be SO awful a thing to do if other teens are pushing it, right? (see--peer pressure) Even better, see what your teens think would be the best way to get other teens signed up and take their advice whenever possible.

We have some Target money set aside to support and reward libraries that make the best use of teen volunteers and Book Buddies so be creative, be focused and put those teens to work!

Cash in the Coffee Can: $418

Ten Tips for Teen Summer Reading: #3

Summer Reading = Advocacy

Many of the libraries that did well last summer on their Summer Reading numbers used registration as part of their budget advocacy campaigns. Numbers have meaning to the folks holding the purse strings, so being able to increase our SR numbers during the threat of cuts is HUGELY important.

Appeal to teens and adults by reminding them that signing up for SR is another way to show support for Queens Library. Remind them what next summer will look like if we lose funding this summer.

Cash in the Coffee Can: $404

Ten Tips for Teen Summer Reading: #2

Be Creative

It's tough to do Summer Reading on a shoe-string budget. The good news is that there are lots of ways to entice teens to participate that don't cost very much.

The J librarians have come up with lots of wacky stunts that get the kids reading (and make great news stories and anecdotes for funders); why don't we? Think about it--what do teens love more than being able to feel superior to adults, so think of a challenge that will be both meaningful for them and potentially humiliating for you.

Creative programming helps, too. I got some great ideas for the SR brochure that aren't going to cost a lot. Build on the theme of One World, Many Stories--it's so perfect for Queens!

Challenge your staff, too. The registration targets created by CLS and CEL administration are meant to encourage agencies to work as a team to reach all ages for Summer Reading. But, if you're a competitive bunch, see who can register the most people. Decide what that person should get for winning (a few extra off-desk hours?).

Cash in the Coffee Can: $390

Ten Tips for Teen Summer Reading: #1

Try the schools.

It doesn't always work, but they can be a great way to get a huge boost in numbers. The easiest way is to ask the schools for a list of the teens' names after you've visited the classes or an assembly--many schools will do this and it saves them and you lots of time and those little registration papers.

Remind teachers that since they're assigning summer reading anyway, the teens might as well sign up for Summer Reading to make it official.

Offer to speak at a PTA or other meeting to reach parents. If you are doing classroom visits and are limited on incentives (sorry, but we ARE poor), bring a couple of things to either raffle off or award as prizes for trivia--it's a great way to tie together book-talks and Summer Reading and get the teens (especially middle schoolers) excited.

If you can't get into classrooms, try a "Summer Reading Great Race." Split your staff into teams and see how many schools they can drop off fliers at during a set amount of time. It can't hurt to at least get a foot in the door and leave materials in the office. If your staff is VERY small, race yourself (and make sure to reward yourself with something cold to eat or drink!).

Cash in the Coffee Can: $376

Literary Short Stories with Teens--Take 2

Back in January, I attended a training in Princeton, NJ with People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos to conduct their NEH Grant-funded Story Talk program for teens here in Queens.

I became involved in this grant accidentally. A colleague from Westchester County mentioned having worked with this program (I mentioned it briefly in my 1/28 post) in the prisons in Westchester. They sounded so cool I emailed them and within a couple of days, they had added Queens Library to the list of libraries to be trained under the grant (lesson: it never hurts to ask).

So I did the training and lined up my first partner site, a group home for older teen boys with severe emotional disabilities (say what you will about me, I never take the easy road!). But at the training, the P&S folks talked about the size of the group they wanted and I didn't think I would be able to get that with the boys, so I shopped around for a Queens Library with a big teen population it might work. I found one (which I am not going to name; some of you know, for the rest, it doesn't actually matter) and scheduled the 8 weeks of programs there and also at the group home.

I started at the QL site first. I had a group of about 15 teens, mostly 7th graders, a little younger than the grant's target age of 14-18. The story I selected from the stories P&S supplied for the first series of programs was called "Do Not Attempt to Climb Out" by Anndee Hochman (who, btw, besides being a writer, does P&S programs with adults). I picked this one for a couple of reasons: 1) because I had already worked with it during the training so I felt very prepared and 2) because it has an ambiguous ending that I figured would get their attention. Ever the optimist, I arrived with all my supplies, plus donuts and juice and got ready to be a facilitator.

And then spent the next hour trying to get the teens to stop talking, stop hitting each other, sit down, sit up, etc.. I will admit that I left the library a basket case, went straight to do another program, went home and had a drink. But I also don't give up that easily, so I went back the next week to try again. It took 20 minutes for a slightly smaller group to sign an attendance sheet and things went downhill from there. I did manage on both occasions, to read the story aloud and start a discussion, but both times, the discussion was such a struggle I felt no one, especially the teens, got anything out of it. The second week, I ended early and we decided that it wasn't the right time and we'd try it maybe again in the future.

I was off the next day (that fluky 70 degree Friday) and walked from my apartment across the bridge over the Belt Parkway to walk the promenade under the Verrazano Bridge. I sat on one of the benches and was trying to just meditate about life and suddenly knew I had to try again with the library group. So I am.

This Monday, I did the first session with the boys in the group home. I had 7 participate. I might have had more but 1 who was interested can't be in the same room with one of the others who wanted to attend and another hadn't taken his meds while he was home for the weekend and had to be taken to the hospital. Again, I had selected "Do Not Attempt to Climb Out" and amidst the drama, started reading. Amazingly, there was not a peep out of the group as I read. The discussion, as at the library, was a struggle, but I held on to the listening part as hard as I could, knowing that was the first step (the staff assured me that the fact that 7 boys came in, listened attentively and tried to participate was a HUGE success).

Today, I got the newsletter from P&S and on the back cover is a book review of a memoir by a woman who taught poetry classes at San Quentin maximum security prison. The program manager who reviewed the book included a quote, told to the author by her supervisor: "'To survive and do a good job working in prison, you have to hold onto what it is you want to do and, at the very same time, let go of all assumptions that you're going to get it done the way you first planned.'" I had to laugh because isn't that pretty much what it means to do a good job doing library programs with teens?

It's so easy to forgot that lesson. Especially when we have high hopes and high expectations for a program and have this crazy dream notion of perfectly behaved children sitting silently and attentively (what? you don't have those teens?), reality is such a let down. But it shouldn't be. It is what it is and we just have to keep picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off and trying again. I know this. We all KNOW this. Feeling it on those days who want to cry in your own program is a totally different thing.

But may tomorrow, at the library story program, I'll remember.

Cash in the Coffee Can: $362