Northbrook+Public+Library

[|Photo set of Teen Loft Space and some screencaps from the website]

I spoke to Pam, who is not the YA librarian. She says that there are some high school teens who are on the advisory board, and that the Finals Cafe last week for GBN students brought in 123 students (on one of the three days, I think she said, but I'll find out better when Karen, the YA librarian, gets back to me.) She said that there are some patrons who keep coming back once they hit college.

But I'll get more information when Karen gets back to me.

What I observed was a large number of Hardcover and Paperback YA books (separate section from the middle school collection.) They're running out of space, though, and the Hardcovers are along the wall outside of the Loft area, basically in a wide "hallway" created by the dividers to the teen space, on the way to the kids' area. There was a huge Manga/Graphic novel collection, a ridiculously huge audio on CD (three stacks, 3 shelves high!) and 2 stacks of Playaways! (See pictures) There was a whole side of the stacks for Teen Nonfiction, and as we all know, there isn't a lot of teen nonfiction in the world, so that is impressive. There are some tables and some computers, but the only girls in there mid-day on a Saturday looked like tweens to me. The website advertised that there was a study room that had a flatscreen that you could hook your laptop to for group work, but I wasn't sure where to find that. But I did notice that the glass boxed study rooms (for any patron use) were completely sound proof. (A lady was playing music so her kids could dance while she worked, and when the door was closed, I couldn't hear it at all.) The area is sunny and welcoming.

But there was no librarian anywhere near the area. I hung around for a long time, and no one came. Finally I walked to the children area, by the picture books, to ask about it. And the librarian I needed (the one who buys the books), wasn't working. This is a problem. Teens shouldn't have to wander to the picture books to get assistance from someone who doesn't really know the collection anyhow.

Tonight I attended a Teen Youth Board meeting. There was pizza and soda, and they had about 15 kids there, ranging from young tween to 17 year olds. There were 5 Glenbrook North students in attendance. They learned about the new catalog, and then they got to go out, pick 10 books, and put a teen recommend sticker on the spine, like a genre sticker. They then got to add reasons they selected to it into the catalog on the website under their screenname. Awesome.

They have a book club that meets every few months at Starbucks. They used to partner, but then the manager changed, and now they don't, but the library buys the drinks and provides paperback books before the club. Usually they've done populist books (all the Twilight, all the Hunger Games...) But they're doing Nation by Terry Prachett because a teen advocated. Karen says she'll get back to me on how that goes.

For Tweens, she can get "Party" programs, of food, games, and crafts (like LoTR party, Stars in the Sky Party) But not teens.

Two programs that were epic fail in Northbrook that are hits elsewhere? Poetry slam and Rockband. They all have gaming systems at home, so why would they come to the library to take turns playing it? So unilaterally wealthy communities are not the place for video game parties, perhaps. She has no idea why Poetry Slam failed. (Berwyn, where I intern, has a Poetry Idol program that is successful with teens and 20somethings.)

The teens decorate for summer reading themes. I can't wait to see what they do with Midsummer Knights Dream.

Using 2.0 technology, she does book talks at the middle schools via video that is pre-shot and then played. She is also involved in an online book conversation about Part Time Indian with 8th graders, where she and the school librarians steer the conversation in the right direction. She also goes into schools to lecture on database use.

Another fail? An electronic submission collage on book or theme. The kids who did it did a great job, but they were loyal library kids. So she's not doing it again.

She gave away a Nook for summer reading. She doesn't know if this motivated more kids to read or not, since they can afford a Nook anyhow, but she needs a big prize in that community.

She has major space problems with the collection, but her YA books have a huge circulation rate. Like over half her collection is always gone, and in the summer, it get depleted.