Information services

The class 9 readings questioned the common issues a Young Adult Librarian faces from day to day. The authors do not have definite solutions for these issues but promote the idea that the librarian should be flexible enough to adapt to the situation as it comes. I think that this is something that is done in every profession and since a public library is not a school we should cater to teens in a way that will make the library a favorable place for them. When I was reading the manual I began to think of what I would do in the situation of the problem posed. I would follow the policy of the library but I would like to think that the library would be liberal in serving the public.

Our profession as librarians is all about alleviating the conflict between the patrons and the library. We are not interested in losing popularity. Since we want to please everyone we are sometimes "stuck between a rock and a hard place." Parents can be difficult and administration can be skeptical. The most important issue that young adult librarians seem to face from administration is: why should we continue to support YA when our main measure of success is still circulation and YA has lower circulation than children's or adult materials? The circulation numbers may be lower for YA but it may be not. For example, if the budget for children's materials is $20,000 and they circulate 80,000 items; but if your budget is $5,000 and you circulate 30,000 items, then YA has the higher circulation-per-dollar ratio.

Teen Week Booktalks for class 8

Teen Week Booktalks from Scholastic

On Monday Deborah Gregory came to the Brooklyn's Central Library where I intern. She came during teen week to promote her new book called Catwalk: Strike a Pose. I liked the way she spoke about her passion for fashion and her inspiration for her work. She is a journalist, a young adult writer and fashion designer. She has a bachelor's degree in Writing and a degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has a great sense of humor and she is happy with her profession. She grew up in a foster home and when she was growing up she wanted to be part of a music group. This inspired her to write about a music group. She also began sewing when she was 11 years old and so her love for clothing has been prominent in her books. I liked the way she addressed the teens and asked them questions about their dreams.

She spoke about the fashion industry and the writing industry. It was difficult for her to get into the writing business because of the barriers that many black people face. She spoke about her traveling and interviewing Destiny's Child music group and how she started her own movie called Cheetah Girls. She read a chapter from the first and second Catwalk book. Then she quizzed the class on what she has read and whoever got the right answers got a signed poster of theCheetah Girls. She also did a practice fashion model walk with the girls to some music. The girls enjoyed listening to her and she grabbed their attention well. She spoke about the characters of the book and what the book is about. She also used a lot of acronyms in the book such as a.k.a.

She came dressed in a pink outfit that she made herself and she said that pink is not just a color but a cattitude. I thought she was pretty funny but she also gives hope to young girls that they can achieve anything they want. She has even mentioned that one of her good friends is one of the judges from America's Next Top Model television show. I was glad to be a part of this event.

Literacy Debate

The readings for class 6 were concerned with collections for young adults. After reading the New York Times article by Motoko Rich I understood that the online readers extract greater benefits from reading than the book readers. Online reading builds on the traditional reading skills and requires new skills. These skills include the ability to navigate the We and to synthesize information in many different forms. Reading books differs in several ways from online reading. Book readers many form questions less frequently; searches can be limited to the table of contents and index. Book readers may interact less directly and less often with one another than online readers. The only benefit to reading books is that readers have high confidence in them and the information is often already organized and synthesized.

Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? article made me question my own literacy skill progress. I think that I agree with some of the teens that the web gives more opportunities to interact with the article and other users. It gives you a feedback and several viewpoints. It also gives more suggestions for reading updated and similar articles. I'm in favor of the web. I don't agree with groups that are against the web as a learning tool.

Intellectual Freedom

I enjoyed last weeks presentation by Amy Chow on Collection Development. I was interested in learning the perspectives of other students on the purpose of the collection. The readings for week 7 were about intellectual freedom. The Amy Pattee article on the dilemma of incomplete sexuality education made sense for me as a future librarian who needs to purchase ya materials for the library. There is no federal law that supports sex education which teaches about both abstinence and contraception. In my experience as a teen I think it is mandatory. Some teenage boys didn't know the importance of contraception when I went to school and maybe the lack of education was the reason why they didn't. I agree with the author that teens should see sex as an emotional and not just a physical experience that is special and not to make it trivial. Purchasing the right non-fiction materials for sex education is important for the ya collection.

I also browsed through the YALSA resources for social networking and found them to be helpful for teens, parents, librarians and community leaders. The Toolkit for Librarians discusses what social networking is and how it facilitates learning in schools and libraries. I agree that there should be no block on software that enables people to form virtual communities via the computer. These technologies have many positive uses and are an ideal environment for teens to share what they are learning. It can also improve reading and writing skills and it could be a tool for a meaningful experience as a part of a community with similar interests.

Marvel versus DC Comics

Last week we discussed Marvel and DC comics so I went online to search for some. The following link http://marvel.com/has free digicomics that you can access and you can find descriptions of the characters. You can also read the news on your favorite upcoming comics and get a look at the behind the scenes sketches. This site is not just for people who like to read comics but also to draw them. The link http://www.dccomics.com is also a resource to get news on comics and to read the blogs. The site features previews and discussion boards for fans.

According to our manual, chapter 9 gives interesting suggestions for promoting library services such as working with a local hip-hop group to produce a public service announcement and/or video about using libraries. I think music is a great way to bring people together. Teens are listeners of radio and this is one way to get through to them. The Parent Teacher Association is also a network to keep in touch with. Since e-mail is used by a huge population and is a popular way of communicating this is an opportunity to promote your library through an e-mail list.

YA Staff: Knowledge, skills and abilities

Offering quality customer service is an important responsibility for a young adult librarian. The best way to find out what those services should be like is from the teens. The sample survey distributed in class was a good example of a way to evaluate the library services because it included most of the library services. The survey had given the option to choose which ones need improvement and which ones were done well.

According to our manual there is a lot of training to be done with teens and teachers. This is something that I thought about today when I was at the "Back to School" Meeting at the Grand Army Plaza. This meeting talked about a program that will be available for high school students grades 10-12 who are interested in working in libraries. This program is called a "Multicultural Internship" Program where 50 high achieving teens will do 200 hours of service from November to June and will receive a $250 stipend for their work. This is a great way to teach teens to be information literate and to be able to use those skills further on in their career.

In addition, the Brooklyn Public Library has established a special link for parents and teachers on their website to get helpful information. Librarians need coordinators of young adult services to answer questions concerning improvement of services to teens in the libraries. The library is flexible and works better if it takes time to address these questions. Librarians are proud of their hard work and they give each other credit for goals achieved throughout the year. If a program worked for a certain library it goes into a special survey called a "Survey Monkey." I learned a lot of important library information at the meeting and I hope that I will be able to participate in the ones to come. It is difficult to reach the ideal reference service mentioned in the manual but if you try to address most of the concerns and show that you care about teens this will improve library attendance and circulation.

Specific service audience

The Prensky article made the idea of learning more fun. I think that using video games such as The Monkey Wrench is an exciting new perspective on learning. The article is optimistic about the benefits of this type of learning. I believe that most educators are interested in making education more fun and this could be a sign of progress. Personally blogging is not new to me but I am still trying to get used to this new way of learning that is used in so many of my courses. For example a student may post something incorrect in a blog but the professor might never comment on or correct the mistake. I find this counterproductive. Unless the students have better knowledge than the professor how would you know that you are getting the optimal education you are there for. Maybe this is just a way for making it easier for students to express their thoughts or make them more significant because it is published for all to see. There are several internal assets involved in this type of learning such as achievement motivation and personal power. Those assets are definitely important in the development of young adults.