Anyway, the purpose of the day was to gather YA Librarians and to brief them on a series of topics. Workshops that were provided included Teen Behavior in the Library, Bullying, Teen Summer Reading Programs, School/Public Collaboration, and Funding for Teen Programs/Programs on a Shoestring. The last three workshops each met twice and we could only attend two out of the three, so I chose School/Public Collaboration and the Funding for Teen Programs. I really enjoyed every workshop I attended.
- Teen Behavior at the Library. The panelists were Alissa Lauzon, Teen Services Librarian at the Haverhill Public Library; Bernie McCann, Behavioral Specialist/Adolescent Mentor at the Haverhill Public Library; and Donna Johns, Librarian at Newton North High School. The three discussed different behaviors at the public and school libraries. Haverhill hired Bernie, who works at the public schools, as a behavior enforcer at the library. He and Alissa described themselves as a yin/yang with some of their beliefs in regards to teen behavior but that they work well together because of that. Interestingly, the teens call Alissa by her first name, while Bernie is called Mr. McCann (although he joked that the teens sometimes call him the "Terminator") They both stressed that it's very important to have the teens involved in any discussion regarding library behavior. Haverhill also has a policy that if you don't have a purpose in the building, then you can't be there. I think this was seen as harsh by some, but I also don't like to critisize policies of libraries where I don't work, since I don't know firsthand what the situation is. At any rate, it seems to work for them, and I liked how Bernie and Alissa balanced each other. They seem to make a good team. Donna discussed behavior at her library, and of course had some different insight. She said that she sees the school library as a bridge between the classroom world and the outside world, an image that I really liked. (side note -- some members of the reference department and I had a chance to see Donna give a Readers' Advisory workshop at Metrowest and it was very good. I highly recommend attending that program should it be offered, again).
- School/Public Collaboration: The panelists were Liz Manning (Beverly Public Library), Kira McGann (J.V. Fletcher Library in Westford, my old place of work!), Susan Beauregard and Amy Lannon (Reading Public Library), and Tricia Horan (Chelmsford Public Library). I naively did not think I needed this workshop because I do some collaboration with some of the school librarians, here. I was very wrong to think that. There is so much more that can be done. Reading has a very strong relationship with the schools. For 17 years, the library Friends group and schools' PTO groups have cosponsored author visits. Some of these authors have included Caroline Cooney, Paul Zindel, and Mitali Perkins (who gave such an excellent talk at our staff meeting, last year). Their reference librarians also were guests at a teacher in service day to show the library databases to teachers. They also consult with the school library teachers when purchasing databases which I found fascniating and such a no brainer. They've also been conducting 6th grade tours for the last 23 years, which inspired me to consider thinking about those again. (Incidentally, they give cookies at those, too, and recently changed to hyop-allergenic cookies from a bakery called, "Home Free". Unlike some staff I know, they apparently were not given a hard time by their co-workers for changing the cookies. ahem) The library also sells some of the summer reading books for a discounted price as a fundraiser for the library. Interesting concept.
The Chelmsford Library also does some great programs with the schools including reserach nights in which the middle school libarians and some teachers come to the library in order to help students who are doing research for a large project. They also coordinate something called a Read-In, in which high school students read out loud to younger children and are shown how by the YA librarian.
The Beverly Library also works very well with her school librarians, and she includes them on all her e-mail lists. She also makes regular school visits and collaborates on the school summer reading lists.
The public library in Westford has a program that has only grown since I've been there. Back in my day, the children's librarian, library director, and I met periodically with all of the media specialists, as well as a reading specialist. In addition to productive meetings, this was also a way to get to know the other librarians on a personal level. (We usually met for tea. I loved it). Because of this, I was able to visit the schools and talk about the YA summer reading program. The group has now grown to 13 members, and the members have written a joint statement which appears online. - Funding for Teen Programs/Programs on a Shoestring This session consisted of four librarians who broke off into small groups. Unfortunately, (late) lunch was announced in the middle of this session so I was only able to visit with two of the small groups. I met with Brandy Danner from the Wilmington Public Library and Eliza Langhans from the Marlborough Public Library. Brandy discussed what to do when you have low attendance at your program. (Don't give up. Why was there low attendance? etc) Eliza discussed what she referred to as guerrilla programming. Because she was having trouble with teens attending advanced planned workshops, she does a lot of last minute programming with teens who are there such as trivia contests, etc. I would have liked to have been able to talk with these two more as I feel both of these are relevant to our YA programming.
- Bullying/Cyberbullying: The panelists were Ellen Miller from the Worcester County D.A.'s Office and Shawn Weld, School Adjustment Counselor at Sky View Middle School in Leominster. This was my favorite panel of the day. (albeit one that made me extremely glad that I am not a teenager.) It will be really hard for me to do this panel justice and I'm sure you're all sick of my writing at this point. Ellen shared some good websites as well as some disturbing statistics regarding cyberbullying, including via text messaging. Shawn's presentation was how his school reacts to bullying and troubling situations between two students. In some cases, they conduct peer mediation (although usually when two friends have a falling out) which are positive ways of dealing with the problem. In many cases, it's hard to know who is the bully. At any rate, I think we all learned that regardless of how we work with kids this age, we all share a common goal of wanting them to be safe and respect one another.
