Teen services librarians have been innovating and spreading connected learning approaches ever since the framework was first developed. This post describes how the Upper Skagit (WA) Library has put connected learning into practice, a reflection motivated by a collaborative research project with the Connected Learning Lab. It is also a teaser and the first of a series of blog posts tied to a project report that will be released later this month, Transformative Outcomes Through Community Engagement: How Public Library Staff Can Foster Connected Learning Teen Services.
A three-year project funded by IMLS, the Transforming Teen Services for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (TS4EDI) project investigated the challenges library staff face and the support they need for designing and sustaining connected teen learning experiences, including in rural and small libraries. Researchers engaged in:
The project produced reports tailored to public library leadership and teen services staff, with key findings and recommendations, as well as checklists for how to put connected learning in practice. These publications, and related resources for library leaders, staff, and researchers can be found on the Connected Learning through Libraries resource page of the Connected Learning Alliance. |
As a Library Director, I’ve always thought that the biggest library asset was the staff, both in connecting with the community and in bringing passion, expertise, and excitement to their jobs. I have always viewed my job as one of support, being the cheerleader and advocating for the staff. For me this has always included doing training on my own and listening and taking outside of the box suggestions seriously, as well as making some of my own.
We are a small rural library, serving less than 5000 patrons, and two and a half years ago, we didn’t have a teen program nor a teen librarian. Teens have never been seen as a priority in our community, and instead are often treated as a nuisance. That’s exactly why staff pushed so hard for a teen space when we moved into our new building in 2021. When I started, not long after we moved into the building, the teen room was a plain white room with no character – now it’s a colorful room full of teen drawings, seating, and food.
Once the few regular teens who used the library discovered we had a teen room, the staff quickly realized that we couldn’t just be static observers. All of the staff took training on working with teens, and we all talked about what we learned and how to implement it. As a whole, we made a big effort to talk to the teens that came into the building, showing them the teen area, and taking their thoughts and opinions seriously. We started small, talking and working with the few regular teens who came in. We asked their opinions, bought the books and manga they requested, decorated the room using their feedback, and purchased a gaming system and games that they wanted to play. This paid off – the teens started bringing friends to the library to hang out.
Image: Courtesy of Upper Skagit Library.
Eventually our regulars grew, and we were able to leverage that into programming and a partnership with the school. Now the school has a bus stop at our library after school every day, and it is regularly used by the teens. Teens frequently hang out at the circulation desk when it is slow, and are very eager to volunteer and help us out. When staff has downtime, the teens will sometimes ask us to join in on their games. I’ve spent longer in the teen room schooling the teens in Mario Kart than I would like to admit.
One interesting aspect of our getting to know the teens and making the library a place for them is how the community reacted. The community that had regularly called the teens pests was now happy and proud of them. Community members wanted to drop things off for the teens to use, which is how we ended up with a full dungeon master starter kit for D&D. This evolved into our most popular teen program series. We received old gaming systems and games that we hooked up and the teens enthusiastically played.
We also received food. Our community has a large portion of the population that live at or below the poverty line. Many of our teens are latchkey kids and don’t like being alone at home for large portions of the afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, this often meant that the teens were hungry when they got to the library, or would become hungry if they were in the library for more than an hour. I remember being voraciously hungry as a teen, and started keeping some snacks on hand to hand out when a teen would tell us they hadn’t eaten lunch that day and were hungry.
What started as an informal thing grew, when one teen had a meltdown caused by stress and lack of food. We had a wakeup call about how much food insecurity there was among our teens, and our community as a whole. In response, we created our snack basket program: an actual basket of prepackaged snacks I buy in bulk and put in the teen room. What started out as a small program is now a grant funded program, and one of our most popular draws for teens. And once the community realized what this program was, they responded by donating snacks and money to the program.
Image: Courtesy of Upper Skagit Library.
Image: Courtesy of Upper Skagit Library.
As the teens continued to come in and became more comfortable, our regular patrons would start to reach out to them. One of our patrons, a retired woman who spends her days at the library at the table right by the front door, has adopted the teens as her de facto grandchildren. She welcomes them into the library when they come in after school, listens to their problems and gives them advice, and asked to start a library crochet program so that she could teach the teens to crochet after one teen expressed an interest in learning. Now we have a small group of teens who sit at the front of the library every week learning a new skill, and excitedly drag their friends along to learn as well.
While these are only a few examples of our teen outreach efforts that connect the age group with the larger community, we are by no means finished. In fact, I’d say our staff has only really started. We have plans for connecting with our wider community and have been searching for local funding sources. Our local American Legion has been very generous and enthusiastic in supporting our teen writing program and have stated excitement in seeing the kids succeed. We are a small community with few opportunities for teens – but we are hopeful that by showing the rest of the community that our area is filled with amazing enthusiastic teens, we’ll be able to leverage more people, funding, and expertise to continue to add programs, resources, and opportunities.
Guest post by Erica Brown, Director of Upper Skagit Library (WA)
Erica Brown is Library Director for the Upper Skagit Library in Concrete, WA. Erica graduated from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and spent a decade working at libraries in Indiana, before moving back to their home state. They have over 20 years in the field, and have a passion for working with adults and underserved communities. Now they work in a rural community like the one they grew up in, and they are very excited to provide the types of services they wished they had access to when they were a kid. When they’re not in the library, they can be found adventuring with their dog.
