Beginners' Guide to Teens in Libraries

Author Name: Tammy Gantz
Library System: Washington County Free Library

Top 3 things learned:

1. For teen programming, keep abreast of pop culture.
2. Be genuine when dealing with teens.
3. Try large trophies for teen events, do it big.

How to implement: 
Keep everything in perspective when planning teen events. Try to find out about the teens in the community so events can be planned
that reflect the teen's interest.

SEO for Libraries

Brian Flook (President, Power Marketing, Hagerstown, MD) lead our third and final webinar this morning in our marketing series and some hot topics were raised, like SEO. 

SEO = Search Engine Optimization "is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's unpaid results..." Basically, it's how to get your website to appear high in the top 10 results list when someone searches for keywords related to whatever it is your website represents. 

If someone searches for "free kids classes" in Google, does your library's toddler time event page appear? 

How about if someone searches for "civil war events?" Does your library's history speaker series appear? 

If not, perhaps your website could benefit from some SEO, for which there are a few different methods such as indexing, crawling, and pay-per-click services. 

Since this seemed to be a hot topic for a lot of people, I'm going to look into scheduling another webinar or perhaps in-person workshop on SEO for Libraries. In the meantime, ALA has a self-paced online course - it's not free but it's relatively inexpensive - that you may want to consider if this topic is of interest for you. 

Best Books of the Year Series

Author Name: Christopher McGee
Library System: Allegany County Library Systems

Top 3 things learned: I have lists of titles for Juvenile Fiction, Juvenile Nonfiction, and YA Fiction. I guess each list is "a thing," even though they contain numerous things each. :)

How to implement: I will use these lists for reader's advisory. I am working
the desk at Frostburg now for one day each week. In addition to tween and
teen patrons, that branch also has a number of education students from
Frostburg State who come in looking for titles that are geared for these age
groups.

Additional learning: It would be helpful if the presenters gave less summary
and subjective opinion (e.g. "I really loved this book.") and spoke a little
more toward appeal factors to help us place the book in the right patron's
hands. There was some of this, but it would be more beneficial to have that
be a greater focus for this type of webinar. That said, I greatly appreciated these sessions, and I thought the online format worked well.

Best Books of the Year Series

Author Name: Kelley Gordon
Library System: Carroll County

Top 3 things learned:
Titles of new books to include in upcoming story box for Storytime Express
vehicles.
Titles of new books to add to Storytime Express collection.
Titles of books to review for reader's advisory.

How to implement: See above

Reflection Image:
http://www.wmrl.info/sites/default/files/webform/santa%20doll.jpg

Best YA Books of the Year Webinar

Author Name: Crystal Adkins
Library System: Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County

Top 3 things learned:
I heard about a number of titles that I was unaware of prior to the webinar.

I also learned more about some of the titles that slightly piqued my interest
throughout the year.

I liked the additional resource/handout that was titled, "Additional
Recommendations. It has a number of other titles, not mentioned in the
webinar, with descriptions.

How to implement: 
Take a look at my notes and handouts and try to pick a few to order for our teen section. Also, I now have a great list to refer to for Reader's Advisory.

Best Young Adult Books of the Year

Author Name: Susan Miller
Library System: Carroll County

Top 3 things learned:
1. Books worth recommending to young adult audience.
2. Books that I will read during 2015 for better reader's advisory and
personal enjoyment.
3. Books titles that I can list for displays, etc.

How to implement: 
These titles will be instrumental in reader's advisory at both school booktalks as well as in the library. Displays of these top books will draw more attention to them at the branch.

YALSA Institute, Beginner's Guide to Teens in Libraries

Author Name: Julie Iden
Email: julie@relib.net
Library System: Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County

Top 3 things learned:
1. Why it is important to include teens in your library programs
2. How to provide good customer service to teens
3. Ideas for teen programs

How to implement: 
I might have a teen job fair at our library. It would be a good opportunity to collaborate with local businesses and other agencies. We could offer a class on interview skills and resume writing before the actual job fair.

Beginner's guide to teens in libraries

Author Name: Maryland Appel
Library System: Allegany County Library Systems

Top 3 things learned:
The 40 developmental assets for teens - they seek support/attention from
others if they aren't getting it at home.

Teen patrons need different interactions when they are looking for
information or items in the library - don't assume, don't "point" locations,
listen to what they are saying.

Teens know the latest trends, don't get left behind - keep abreast of what is
important to them to be able to communicate.

How to implement: 
I loved the idea of planning a calendar of events. Brainstorming with other staff members on relevant activities to attract teens or tween patrons to programs. Expend more effort in attracting those that are not regular users by working more closely with the Community Outreach librarian to get information to county schools.

YALSA Institute, Beginner's Guide to Teens in Libraries

Author Name: Beau T. Bradley
Library System: Washington County Free Library

Top 3 things learned:
-The schedules (and attitudes) of teens often match up with those of staff

-Teens will respond to outside the box thinking

-Teens use the library for many different reasons, often different from other
patron groups

How to implement: 
I have planned some upcoming programs that I think will match the wants and needs of teens well.

Additional learning: I would be interested to attend a program where we would just come up with lots of ideas for teen programs. The goal would be to leave with a whole pile of great ideas.

YALSA: Beginner's Guide to Teen Services

Author Name: Jennifer Ross
Library System: Washington County Free Library

Top 3 things learned:
1. importance of getting ALL staff to regard teens as a valuable and important group at the library
2. importance (and difficulty) of remaining informed of cultural trends with regards to teens and their needs
3. more ideas for seasonality of programs

How to implement: We came up with a good calendar of programs relating to the time of year by month that I will be using to add some more consistency to my branch's programming calendar.

YALSA Institute, Beginner's Guide to Teens in Libraries

Author Name: Sarah McGuire
Library System: Allegany County Library Systems

Top 3 things learned:
1. Having a teen board is a GOOD idea!
2. Different ideas on how to get teens to events, and different events to
have for teens.
3. Keep trying!

How to implement: In each teen book place a small survey asking what would
they like most out of their local library.

YALSA Institute: Beginner's Guide to Teens in Libraries

Author Name: Crystal Adkins
Library System: Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County

Top 3 things learned:

1. Potential Tasks for Teen Volunteers
2. 40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents
3. Seven Development Needs for Young Adolescents

How to implement:
I can now give our high school students some direction when they want to
volunteer. I am more aware of the developmental needs of teens.

YALSA Institute: Beginner's Guide to Teens in Libraries

Author Name: Barbara Twigg
Library System: Washington County Free Library

Top 3 things learned:

1. New programming ideas for teens
2. Better ways to interact with teens
3. Ten Commandments of YA reference work

How to implement:
I plan to use some of the programming ideas.
I will try to use the ten commandments of YA reference work while working
with teens in my library

YALSA Institute: Beginner's Guide to Teens in Libraries

Author Name: Christopher McGee
Library System: Allegany County Library Systems

Top 3 things learned: 
To be perfectly honest, I can't say I learned anything. I'm not a beginner in teen services. I had several classes in library school, and I try to stay up on teen services trends. I still enjoyed the workshop, though. Since I don't work with teens on a regular basis, it was nice to gets some reinforcement for what I "think" I know. :)

How to implement: I continue to be an advocate for teens. I will support the
activities of our staff members who do actively work with teens. I do work directly with Kate Livengood and Kate Metzger, both of whom were at this
workshop and provide teen services in their branches.

Additional learning: I should have marketed this workshop harder to our staff
members who shy away from teen services or don't desire a teen presence in
the library. Instead, we made the workshop voluntary; consequently, our staff who have an interest in teen services attended. It seemed a little like it was preaching to the choir.

Best Books of 2014 Kid & YA Fiction

Author Name: Ashley Fedele
Library System: Kent County Public Library

Top 3 things learned:
1. The wonderful variety of Kid Fiction books
2. How to have a variety of books to choose from in the Kid Fiction category
3. Reader's Advisory for Kid Fiction

How to implement: 
I can more easily recommend children's fiction to interested parties by having a well rounded group of newer books to share.

Additional learning:
I would really have loved to see a more balanced look at YA fiction. I found the RA aspect was too heavily focused on 'issue' books. Where was high fantasy? Romance? Mystery? etc. I really struggled to find books I have actually been asked for (by topic). While those books are most likely excellent reads, I really wanted a much more balanced look at the age grouping.

I would love to see more of these done in various genres (mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, true crime, etc.). So many people only read one genre and perhaps having a basic "guide" to a different genre would be interesting.

Best Juvenile Fiction Books of the Year

Slides available here: http://www.slideshare.net/sameddington9/bcb-fiction-2014-for-wmrl-webinar

In case you missed the Best Books of the Year: Juvenile Fiction webinar today, you can watch the archive:  http://bit.ly/BBOTYJuvFiction

Description: 
Join Sam Eddington & Rachael Stein (Eastern Shore Regional Library) as they thoroughly book-talk their way through their favorite books of 2014 - including some audiobooks, as well! They regularly read and review juvenile literature on their For Those About to Mock: A Mock Newbery Blog.  

Learning Objectives:

1) Participants will be able to list at least 10 of the best juvenile fiction books published in 2014.

2) Participants will be able to recommend these books to appropriate readers when answering readers' advisory questions.

3) Participants will be able to identify at least one of these books that they would like to read in 2015.

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