NMRLS Newsletter - February 2008

Youth Services Column
By Susan Babb

How Do You Measure Up?
Highlighting a Standard for Public Library Services to Young Adults in Massachusetts
By Melissa Rauseo, Young Adult Librarian, Peabody Institute Library, Peabody

(Editor's Note: This will be an ongoing series of articles describing how different libraries, both school and public, are meeting and implementing the Standards or Benchmarks as written by their state organizations of MLA and MSLA. We welcome other contributions! Please submit to the Editor, Susan Babb, at <susan@nmrls.org>)

"Cooperation among public, school and other libraries in the community is essential to serving young adults well."
The Massachusetts Library Association's Standards for Public Library Services to Young Adults

Developing good working relations with schools is often cited as one of the most challenging aspects of being a youth services librarian. It is, however, one of the most important. I owe much of the success that I've had as the Young Adult Librarian in Peabody to the partnerships I've developed with our local schools.

Children's Librarians can often reach their target audience through parents. Teens are much more independent and YA Librarians need to make contact with them directly. This is where the schools are indispensible. Let's face it: teachers have a large captive audience of YAs every day. Whether it's recommending young adults to serve on your teen advisory board or plugging your latest program, having allies in the schools can make your job much easier.

Working with schools shouldn't be difficult. When you talk to them, you'll realize that most teachers and principals are already big library fans. Like public librarians, however, they are busy. To smooth the way for great collaborative projects, I offer a few tips:

Tip #1: Make connections however you can. Talk to teachers who tutor at the library or use staff who have relatives/ friends in the schools to gain an introduction. Our library's been trying for years to make a connection with a local parochial school, but we didn't have any luck until one of our library aides whose family is active in the school stepped up. She was able to arrange for a meeting with the principal and now we have some great projects planned.

Tip #2: Don't overlook private, charter, and vocational schools and special programs within the public schools. Some of our most rewarding partnerships have been with the Peabody Vocational High School and the Community School Program for students with emotional disabilities. We are currently collaborating on an Automotive Club with the Vocational High School and have plans to create future programs that take advantage of their students' talents. Basic sewing, easy carpentry projects, and cupcake decorating are all on our agenda for future cooperative programs. Cool YA programs that are teen led and involve the schools. What could be better?

With the Community School, we've done book groups, library tours and are hosting a drum circle together next month. Because their program is often overlooked and they have few resources, they are eager to work with us and get onboard whenever we contact them with new ideas.

Tip # 3: Start small, work up to bigger projects. With our middle school, I started by offering to help the school librarian introduce students to our online databases. After that I started recommending books for the English Department to add to their summer reading list. Now the middle school and the library collaborate on multiple projects every year. We have done poetry events, drug awareness programs, read-a-thons and more. They are a major partner in our Serving Teens and 'Tweens LSTA grant and we are exploring the possibility of starting an after school Homework Help Center, which would require a high degree of cooperation and collaboration.

Tip #4: Impress them! Once you get in the door and have a small project planned, strut your stuff. Show them how dedicated and enthusiastic you are about your work. Dazzle them with your knowledge of YA literature or display your love of databases. Help them see you as the resource that you are.

Tip #5: Remind them that you exist! As we all know, it's easy to get caught up in the day to day business of working with teens. If you haven't talked to your school allies in awhile, drop them an e-mail letting them know about the great new program you're running or the book that you just read that their reluctant readers would love.

Once your library realizes how wonderful school/ library collaborations can be, don't be surprised if other staff members get involved too. Our director and assistant director worked with the Life Skills (special needs) students from Peabody High to open the library's latest venture, the Bookworm Café. Two students and a teacher now run a coffee cart in the YA Room five mornings a week and sell baked goods from the culinary arts department. Coffee and sugar- the best reasons I've ever heard to put in the effort that school/ library cooperation requires.

Summer Reading Program Updates For the latest updates on Summer Reading programs, the online reading program ReadsinMa (Evanced software), and what's happening in libraries with pictures, visit the NMRLS Summer Reading blog at http://www.nmrls.org/youth/summerreading/.

Workshop announcements and notes, pictures of Teen Spaces in the Region, and cool Teen programs are found at http://www.nmrls.org/youth/yaweb/.