Teen Program Showcase

The Teen Program Showcase on Friday was also largely a waste of time and extremely disappointing as I’d been looking forward to it. I refuse to link to the handout as the only one posted has NOTHING to do with what was actually “presented” during the session.

I hated the format of this session. I’d been expecting a series of short presentations highlighting the best of the best and what worked and what didn’t followed by a Q&A session. Instead, reps of the various programs were scattered around the room and attendees were expected to travel from station to station. Several of the stations were unmanned, as their representatives were “double-booked.” Since attendees were constantly on the move, the reps at the stations were constantly repeating the basics of the program over and over again to newcomers and there was very little opportunity to ask questions.

When I did ask questions, I was extremely disappointed with the answers. “We don’t do CRAFTS” was my favorite response. When I asked about the SAT Prep series one library had offered, the librarian enthused that it normally costs a student over $500 to attend. Noticing my horrified expression, she hastened to explain that they had gotten a small discount from the company…and that they have a very large programming budget and an extremely supportive (and wealthy) friends group.

At another station showcasing Seattle Public’s Art Night at the Library I was told “It’s easy to put on an operation like this. Anyone can do it. Local teen theater/spoken word/visual art/dance/musicians performed for free and we partnered with over 50 community agencies who shared the publicity and refreshment costs.”

I was really intrigued by a book trailer/book review video contest. When I asked how they’d done the filming and editing at the library and what equipment they’d used my question was met with blank incomprehension. Why would they do it at the library? This was all done by the teens at home with their own video cameras, computers, and editing software. All the library did was announce the contest, provide a site to post the videos to, judge the entries, and give the winner a Flip. My explanation that many of my teen users don’t have internet access or computers of their own, let alone video cameras et al. surprised and shocked the librarian. For the record, I think this program has a lot of potential—it looked like a lot of fun but we’d need to tweak it to meet the needs of our communities. We’d need to supply a camera and the mobile computing lab and offer kids who needed it time to film in the meeting room and then edit their films. Maybe we could do a teen info lit class on making movies and the joys of YouTube? Sno-Isle Regional Library has run a similar contest the last several years--check out some of the teen's entries over here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=snoisleteens under "Book Trailer Contest." Doesn't that look like fun?

What the Teen Showcase brought home to me is that there’s a profound lack of understanding of the economic realities of rural libraries and rural communities. And that things are done very differently on opposite sides of the state. We don’t have the resources that say, Seattle, is drawing on. What’s a library to do in St. John, for example, where they are THE community organization? We need programming options that don’t rely on a huge population, a massive community network, and deep pockets. (Sonia and I would be willing to showcase some of these programming alternatives at the next WLA meeting. Anyone else care to join us? Sonia’s even come up with a name: “Teen Programs for the Rest of Us.”)

The East/West disparity was further illustrated during the Awards Luncheon when one of the Friends Groups from Whidbey Island compared their fundraising efforts to St. John’s building of a BRAND NEW LIBRARY. The West Side effort was laudable, too, but we’re talking apples and oranges. Totally different customer base in terms of population, economy, education, interests, you name it. (If anyone’s interested, BTW I think a road trip to St. John is definitely in order…sounds like their librarian has accomplished feats wondrous strange. Drop me a line and we'll set a date!)