Youth Participation Services

Week 11 we spoke about youth services and getting to know your audience is an important aspect of program planning. The manual gave a lot of ideas about programming and raised several issues of how to implement a program, what to do about attendance and the overall success of a program. Of course sometimes teens don't show up for programming or book clubs in a library and I have seen that happen. There could be several reasons for this. It is easier to get 8-12 year olds involved in book clubs. They still have parents bringing them to the library and these kids have a genuine love for books. I am planning to organize a collaborated discussion with a librarian from Grand Army Plaza Library to do a book club discussion this week on The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick. We decided that it is best to start to speak a little bit about the author and then introduce the characters, setting and plot of the book. For the most part the book club consists of the same four tweens that come every month. They choose the genre and book they are interested and the librarian prepares a discussion. This is the reason why I'm trying to be on top of the American Civil War subject.