21st Century Learning Labs for Teens

One of our readings for this week, Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens are Really Doing Online cited a Pew Internet and American Life study that found, “Fully half of all teens and 57 percent of teens who use the Internet could be considered content creators," that they have "created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations” (21).  

This made me think of a post I read recently on the IMLS blog about a new project that will build 21st century learning labs for teens in libraries and museums around the country.  Following a national competition, the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the MacArthur Foundation announced where these 12 new learning labs for teens will be built.  Based on the YOUMedia teen space at the Harold Washington Library, these learning labs will be spaces where teens will be able to work with their peers as well as mentors to use both digital and traditional media to pursue their own areas of interest and create their own content, while also building information literacy skills in an unstructured environment.

This project will also involve collaboration with multiple organizations within the community.  According to the IMLS blog, they will involve “partnerships with local educational, cultural, and civic organizations to build a network of learning opportunities for young people.”

The winning libraries are:

San Francisco Public Library

Rangeview Library District and Anythink Libraries (Thornton, CO)

Howard County Public Library (Columbia, MD)

St. Paul Public Library (St. Paul, MN)

Kansas City Public Library

Columbus Metropolitan Library

Free Library of Philadelphia

Nashville Public Library

You can see a complete list of the winners, along with descriptions of the individual labs that will be constructed at each site, here.  

Ann Curry’s “If I Ask, Will They Answer?”

I thought Ann Curry’s “If I Ask, Will They Answer” article from this week’s readings was interesting in its attempt to address the lack of information on young library users’ experiences while looking for GLBT-related information in libraries.  The study Curry conducted, in which teen “Angela” approached reference desks at 20 different libraries to ask for materials that would help her start a gay-straight alliance at her high school, had some pretty disappointing findings.

• Angela gave only 50% of the librarians positive comments in how they responded to her question.  Only three librarians showed her how to use any sources such as the library catalog or the Internet to find information.
• Some of the materials identified by library professionals were not relevant, such as adult booklists or even picture books.  And in one case, a library staff member conducted a partial reference interview, mumbled something, and then walked off and never returned!  Clearly, improvement needs to be made on librarians’ awareness of relevant GLBT resources.
• I thought it was great that one particular librarian was not only enthusiastic and helpful in locating appropriate resources, but then directed her question to the YA librarian who emailed Angela with more information, and then even mailed her a packet of articles, booklists, and other resources all within a few days.

While I was reading this, I did wonder how specific the librarians’ behavior was to Angela’s question.  For example, how many of the librarians would act inappropriately and be unhelpful for other types of reference questions?  And does Angela’s age have anything to do with how they responded?  Curry does acknowledge that it would have been useful to have a “double deception,” i.e., have Angela ask another general reference question at a different time to determine a more direct relationship with the GLBT question.  But as Angela pointed out, “It doesn’t matter to a GLBT youth whether the librarian is nasty to everyone, not just her.” 

First Lines Book Display

On the YALSA Website this week, there was a great post by Morgan Doane about a Great First Lines YA Book Display.  She explained how she created the display by selecting YA titles that had weird/silly/attention-getting first lines.  She then created a template for posters that displayed the first line of each book next to a stack of the books.  I thought this was a great way to get young readers interested in a certain book by giving them a "teaser" to grab their attention.  Check out her post and my comment and leave your own suggestion for a great first line in the comments!