NEWS AND REVIEWS

AN ONGOING PROGRAM FOR TEENS IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES

 

PURPOSES OF PROGRAM

To form a community of teen readers

To provide a forum for sharing books

To provide a forum for teens to talk about issues that are important to them

To provide enjoyable activities at the library for middle and high schoolers

To validate teen opinions on books and other matters

To solicit online teen book reviews from group participants and the wider community

To create a searchable database of submitted reviews

To use peer interaction and website reviews to promote reading of all kinds

 

TWO COMPONENTS OF PROGRAM

This program is made up of two components.  One is a weekly program for teens designed to be made available in two age groupings, one for middle schoolers and another for high schoolers.  A youth librarian facilitates, but the goal would be for the teens to provide most of the content– news items that they think are important and reviews of books they have read.  The second component is teen book reviews posted to a teen section of the library website, preferably preceded by a linked genre/subject listing of all reviews and also searchable by title and author.  The web component would be open to the teen community at large in addition to those who attend weekly meetings

 

A. MEETING COMPONENT

 

Sequence of Events

1) Greet and nametags and a solicitation of contact information

2) Facilitator self-introduction

3) Program description including Web component

4) Icebreaker

5) Book review by facilitator

6) Young adult prepared book reviews or news items (generally encourage

     them to share even if it’s only a few sentences about a favorite book)

7) Explain and distribute handouts

8) Thank, invite back, and solicit suggestions.

 

Location

Neighborhood public library in the most comfortable and private area available.  A meeting room would be best.  There participants would not have to be self-conscious about other patrons who happen to be at the library.  I would envision a floor circle with beanbags or other back rests if the budget allows.  Chairs
around a table would also work.

 

Intended Audience

Both middle and high school students, but in separate groups and on separate days.

 

 

 

 

 

Time

One hour each week.  After school is one option, but I would suggest weekday evening hours, perhaps 7:30-8:30pm, to avoid conflicts with other after school activities.  I would envision nearly continuous implementation, but it would be prudent to take a week or two off, perhaps during school breaks to encourage new participants in a “new” session.

 

Promotion

All library programs including this one should be promoted on the website.  It is essential to have at least something on the homepage, and a simple “Teen Pages”
link may not be very effective.  Lobby for a prominent “For Teens” homepage area with links to “programs,” “research help,” “book lists,” “read teen reviews,” and “submit a review.”  The last two would support the web component of this program.  Also print flyers mentioning both aspects of the program and post them on the entry doors, somewhere in the young adult area, and at each computer terminal if possible.  Have them available at the circulation desk and send them to local schools asking that they be posted in the school media centers and other information centers, and that an announcement be placed in the school bulletin.  Think in terms of where teens gather (bus stops, favorite shops, convenience stores, espresso bars, fast food places, etc. and ask to post them there as well.  On the flyers, suggest that participants think about books and/or news items they’d like to share, but also include words like “or just come and listen” to avoid scaring some away.  Also solicit suggestions, anonymous or otherwise, on the flyer.  Public interest spots on local radio stations might be available as well. 

 

Funding

This program can be mounted with minimal cost apart from the labor involved, but it would be nice to underwrite the weekly snacks, the cost of flyers and other printed materials, the cost of beanbags, and perhaps some books to give away.  In the Seattle area, the Paul Allan Foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would be likely to provide funds in response to a grant proposal.

 

Materials List

1) selection of young adult books and newspapers and newsmagazines from the collection

2) nametag materials

3) notecards for “registration”

4) Zobmondo: the Outrageous Book of Bizarre Choices by Randy and Darcy Horn, published in 2001 by

    Workman, ISBN: 0761124209.  If the book is not in your system, it is available from Amazon for

    $9.95, and I also found it on Half.com for $4.23.  Alternatively you can gather materials for a different     

    icebreaker if you prefer.

5) handout describing program and asking for suggestions

6) booklist handouts

7) a handout with ideas about what to include in news and book shares

8) a list of questions to prompt yourself to draw out book information and start discussion..

9) snack items – keep it simple, canned pop or bottled water and popcorn or chips or crackers. 

 

Advance Preparations

Decide if any rearranging of meeting space will be necessary on the day of the program.  Devise a method/materials for creating nametags.  Collect favorite

teen books, especially ones that are currently experiencing high circulation, for display during the meeting.  Also collect newspapers and newsmagazines for

the same display.   Plan an ice breaker.  The one suggested here uses the book Zobmondo: the Outrageous Book of Bizarre Choices by Randy and Darcy

Horn.  Create a booklist handout that covers a wide variety of teen-appropriate books including some nonfiction.  Devise a handout describing how you

envision that the weekly meetings will precede.  Ask for comments and suggestions!!!  Include your email address and your telephone number.  A physical

box for anonymous reply might also be utilized.  Make one and leave it on your desk.  Devise a handout to suggest information that should be included when

books and articles are shared with the group.  Create enough book reviews to fill the hour, in case none of the participants have much to say the first week. 

Purchase snack items.

 

Day of Program Setup

Arrange the meeting space, setting up book, newspaper and magazine displays.  Lay out nametag materials.  Have snack items conveniently located.  Have

stacks of the booklist, program description, and book review suggestions handy.

 

Some Scripting for the First Meeting

Greet participants as they arrive and ask them to make a nametag.  Also ask participants to write their name and contact information (or library card #) on

a notecard.  This can be voluntary, but the data will be invaluable for issuing personal invitations to other events, or for soliciting targeted program review

information from participants who choose not to return.  Introduce yourself and explain what kind of sharing you would like to see go on at the meetings. 

Talk about the opportunity to write reviews for the online database as well.  Emphasize that though you will be at all the meetings, you would prefer that most

of the book and news item sharing and discussion eventually be contributed by the participants.  Ask for suggestions and make clear that they can be done at

any time, and even anonymously by email or through the suggestion box if they prefer. 

 

Run an icebreaker.  One suggestion is to obtain a copy of Zobmondo: the Outrageous Book of Bizarre Choices by Randy and Darcy Horn, published in 2001

by Workman, ISBN: 0761124209.  If the book is not in your system, it is available from Amazon for $9.95, and I also found it on Half.com for $4.23.  As the

title suggests, this book asks a person to decide for example whether they would rather

·        Have to play dead to avoid being shot by a terrorist -OR- to avoid being killed by a lion?

·        Have a little red blinking light in the lower corner of your vision -OR- have a constant pinging in your ear?

·        Be the circus person that the knife thrower throws knives at -OR- the one who puts their head in the lion's mouth?

·        Chew shards of broken glass -OR- sit on a lighted barbecue grill?

Each page also has some interesting factoids.  You can either do all the asking and reading, or you can pass the book around the circle, having each person ask 

and read.  In either case, ask for the answer
and why they answered that way, but also make clear that anyone can pass if they want. 
My suggestion is to have any 
activity be a whole group interaction so that all participants begin to learn about all members of the group at the same time.  The questions in Zobmondo are 

off-the-wall enough to be non-threatening, but the participants can actually get a sense of personalities from the responses.  

After the icebreaker pass around snack items and while they eat, give a book review, providing by example what you would like them to do when they share a 

book.  Next ask if anyone came prepared to talk about a book or news article.  If that stalls, ask people to describe a favorite book in a few sentences even if 

they didn’t prepare ahead of time.  Finally, with time left and no more volunteers, offer some more of your prepared book or news reviews.  Thank everyone 

for coming, pass the handouts around explaining what they are as you do so, invite everyone to come back, with a friend if they like, and during the week find 

a book or magazine they might want to share.  Solicit suggestions.

Some Scripting for Subsequent Meetings

I would envision that most meetings of “News and Reviews” would proceed much like the first.  Copies of original handouts could be available for newcomers. 

New ones with fresh topics like newly acquired books could be created.  An icebreaker or traditional beginning might continue to be helpful to get the ball rolling.  

I could see reading from Zobmondo each week.  When you get through that book, there are several similar books listed at Amazon.  Hopefully the participants 

would begin to prepare items to share and take over most of the content themselves, although the librarian facilitator could always give one review if it was 

agreeable to the group.  As teen reviews are posted to the website, those could also become part of the discussion.

B. WEBSITE COMPONENT

The goal of this part of the program is to expand the benefits to many more young adults than can be served by an onsite program.  The simple act of asking 

for the opinions of teenagers can be validating in itself.  Teens whose reviews appear within the database will experience an even greater level of validation.  At 

least in theory, teens will be more likely to read books recommended by their peers.  

Soliciting Reviews

Ideally there should be several ways of submitting reviews.  Floppy discs and email attachments might be a possibility if they do not pose too great a system 

security threat.  Teens should also be able to mail or hand deliver print copies which can then be scanned into the system.  A web form should be developed 

as well.  My preference would be that the only structured part of the form be the information about the reviewer (at least name and age and contact information) 

and the citation information.  The review itself will seem most authentic if it is free form.  However, submitters can be given ideas about what to include in a 

document linked from the solicitations page, similar in many ways to the equivalent handout for the onsite program. 

Promotion

Most of the promotion methods for the onsite program are equally valid for the website component.  Of primary importance are descriptive links from the 

homepage of the library website.  Although the teen review database can be mentioned within promotional material for the onsite program, I think it also deserves 
separate promotion of its own.  Some teens that can not, or would not, participate in an onsite program, may actually be interested in submitting, or at least 

reading peer reviews. It may actually be best to get the onsite program going first, soliciting reviews to post online from participants.  Once there are actually at 

least a few reviews in the database, simple website and flyer suggestions to “Check It Out” may prove very effective.  If, on the other hand, you are having 

difficulty getting onsite participation, implement the database first.  It may be possible to seed the database by convincing one or more teachers to require a 

submitted review as an assignment (although in that case each student should be able to choose whether they actually want their review published or not.)  

Then the submitters, especially the spontaneous ones, can be personally invited to the onsite program. Even if unsuccessful, the personal acknowledgement 

would encourage further participation in the online review process.  In this and all promotion, keep an eye to reaching teens who are not currently users of the 

library and its website.  Widespread flyer distribution and school visits are a way to begin.

Reviewing the Reviews

Though I believe it would be possible to develop software to organize and index the reviews in a searchable database, each one would have to go though
human review to reject any that were grossly unsuitable for publication for one reason or another.  The reviewer should be notified why the library can not publish their review, and if possible a dialogue should be opened to encourage a publishable revision. 

EVALUATION

Pre-Implementation Surveys

Spending a lot of time developing and promoting a program only to have it poorly attended can be discouraging and expensive, at least in labor costs.  Especially 

with this age group, it may seem hard to predict what programs they will support.  One can of course research what programs have been successful in other 

libraries.  It would also seem possible to survey your potential participants before actually implementing any programs.  The age group is easily located in the 

schools that they attend.  With school support, a survey could be delivered and collected there.  One could be designed to specifically evaluate the probable 

success for a particular program like this one, or probably more efficient, a survey could ask about a number of possibilities, including scheduling issues, in order

 to truly find out what your constituent teens would like in their library.

Post-Implementation Measurable Outcomes

There are a number of parameters by which this program could be evaluated once implemented.  The following are all measurable outcomes:

·        How many teens attend the onsite program?

·        When they attend, do they return?

·        If they do not return, can you solicit a reason(s) through informal contact or formal survey? 

·        Is there some growth in attendance over the weeks?

·        Do participants provide content in the form of news items or book reviews?

·        Does that participation increase over time?

·        Do onsite participants and other teens submit reviews to the online database?

·        Are the review pages viewed?

·        Is there a significant increase in circulation when a book receives a positive peer review? 

Less formal, but equally important, is the observation of non-verbal cues at onsite meetings and the continual solicitation of format ideas, comments, and 

suggestions from the participants.  If the program is at all successful, I would suggest making up a more formal survey at some point to quantify this data. 

 If participation is poor, some revisions can be tested, especially in the area of scheduling discussed below.  If there is participation, but a problem with retention, 

non-returnees for whom you have collected contact information can be polled either formally or informally. 

Promotion Evaluation

Asking participants either formally or informally “how did you hear about this program?” will provide you with information about which of your promotional 

methods are most effective.

Time Component

If participation is poor in the onsite program, it might be wise to try scheduling alternatives.  Perhaps a different day or time would work better.  Perhaps 

bi-weekly events fit better into busy schedules than once-a-week scheduling.  Perhaps teens are daunted by the idea of a continuous program and would like 

a session with a definite beginning and end date.  Perhaps they actually prefer one-time events.  Onsite sharing of book reviews could be tried in any of those 

formats.  One form of single event scheduling that seems popular is the overnight lock-in.  This also could be attempted.  In deciding which of many possibilities 

to try, it is best to get as much teen input as possible to streamline the trial and error process.

Possible Revisions of the Website Component

The existence of extensive teen reviews at Amazon.com suggests that, at least in their large customer pool, there are numerous teens that are pleased with the opportunity to express themselves in literature reviews.  Without viewing statistics of those webpages, I can only assume that since I am interested in reading 

review information available at Amazon.com, teens also would be.  If there is a problem soliciting reviews from teens, one thing to examine is how Amazon successfully does so.  Perhaps for most librarians, the biggest hurdle would not be not there, but in the process of obtaining the approval and support of those 

in charge of maintaining the library webpage.  Even successful onsite programs reach relatively few participants in comparison to the potential audience for online library reviews.  Therefore, I would be the most concerned with the Website component’s success. If you can not get technical support, it might be possible and worthwhile to develop a program in which your young adult department serves as conduit for submission of reviews to a third party site.  If some permutation of online reviewing is successfully established, any lack of success in the onsite program can be addressed by switching to a stronger connection to the website 

reviews. One could for example have acknowledgment parties for published reviewers or anniversary parties to celebrate its existence.