December Passive Program for Teens: What's Your Favorite?

I'm a big believer in passive programming. But it's not always successful -- there are passive programs I've tried to absolutely no response from the teens. 

Then there are the passive programs which I've put together without much thought or planning and they've gone over very well. This is one of them.

I worked the weekend of Thanksgiving and it was quiet. I got thinking about how much I want to know what my teens like a little bit more, and I was thinking about how fun it would be if teens told each other what it is they like. Because it's been a rough winter here already, I thought encouraging thoughts of favorite and good things would be worthwhile. 

Enter: tell me your favorite. 

I grabbed a snowflake picture, pasted 4 to a sheet, and printed off a pile of them. I cut them into squares, then tossed them into a brochure holder, along with a bunch of small pencils. I did not write anything on the flakes at all. Instead, I made a sign that simply asked teens to write down their favorite things on a snowflake. It could be a movie, a television show, or a book, and it didn't need to be anything new. They didn't have to put their name or any identifying information. 

I used one of our display cubes which faces the seating area in the teen section to put the flakes and sign up, along with our raffle box for completed flakes to be put into. I printed out duplicate signs about the program and hung them around the teen area and stepped away. 

Every few days -- I only work 3 or so days a week -- I would check the box. The first week or so, there was nothing in there. I didn't get too worried though.

Then in the second week, my box of teen favorites exploded, and it hasn't stopped seeing flakes since. As I've gathered them up, I've cut them into circles and then taped them to the sides of the stacks. And I think by seeing those flakes on the stacks, teens not only feel like they're being heard and cared about, but they're encouraged to contribute, as well.

There are flakes on the ends of four of our shelves. After I took the photos, I noticed that there were a few more in the box to be hung, too.

One thing I worried about with the program is the thing you always have to worry about with a passive program and teenagers: would there be something inappropriate?

Of the 50 or so flakes I've had turned in, there was only one thing that couldn't be hung . . . and I almost hung it anyway to embarrass the teen who wrote "I like secks :)". Instead, I put it in my file folder at work to remember that teens will always make you laugh because of stuff like that. Since I'm the one collecting, reading, and hanging these guys up, it was no big deal at all. 

The program took about 15 to 20 minutes to pull together, and because it's been so well-received, I think I'll leave it up through the winter, even as I swap out the actual passive programs next month. In the summer, perhaps I'll do the same thing. The cost was a couple minutes of Google image searching, copying and pasting, some white paper and black ink (I didn't even print them in color), and time to cut and hang them up periodically. 

There are no incentives, no prizes, and no rewards for teens who do this. But the value is they see their voices being heard in the library and they get to see that this is really their space. 

Passive programming ideas for "Beneath the Surface"

Passive programming is something I think a lot about. I've talked about it before at ALA, which included a lengthy list of ideas for passive programming. It's something I want to continue thinking about and implementing because the more opportunities you provide passive programming for your teens, the more they will engage in and with it.

While thinking about what programs I want to offer this summer to my teens, I've also kept a separate list of passive programs I want to implement. There are the obvious passive reader's advisory ideas, including book displays on mermaid books, on other worlds, on zombies, and on intergenerational stories (because our personal histories lie beneath our surfaces). Then there are a few others on my mind.

If you're looking for some easy passive programs to implement this summer, here are some of the ones I'm considering:

• Scratch art. Make up a bunch of homemade scratch boards, leave them out in your teen area, and ask the teens to make their own art. Yes, this will require some cleanup, but leave garbage cans in the area for the teens to do some of the cleanup themselves. Then display the art in the teen area. If you want to, you could employ some of your teens to make publicity out of their scratch art for other programs. 

• Black out poetry. But rather than use newspapers or magazines (which you can), why not rip apart some of those ARCs gathering dust on your shelves? Then if they happen to wander off, no one loses anything here. Leave out (or have a sign for where teens can ask for) markers, colored pencils, and crayons. Then display the art. Again, maybe some of your crafty teens can help you make some publicity for other programs through their own black out poetry. 

• You know the incredibly popular "Blind Date with a Book" display going around the internet right now? Take a spin on it. Cover your books with paper bags or construction paper, and in addition to the short description you might include to entice readers to check out the book, ask them to design a brand new cover for the book ON the blank paper. Display those covers. Put them on your social media, and hang them in your teen area. You could make an entire gallery of new covers for older books. This is the perfect way to also move some of those books that are still great but have dated covers. It's sort of like peer reviews, but instead of writing reviews, the teens are offering peer cover designs. 

• Something else that is "beneath the surface" is personality. How many of your teens know their Myers Briggs type? Pull together a bunch of personality tests in print or digitally and let the teens go to town. Let them share what their type is. Of course, provide information about what that means. There are great infographics floating around you could display in the teen area or share via your social media. 

• Origami. Do I need to elaborate? Leave instructions for how to make anything that might be "beneath the surface." Put out paper. Let them go to town.

• Trivia challenges. Let the teens answer a series of questions (and let them cheat, if they want to). Have them submit the answers and pick a winner or two every couple of weeks. Prizes could range from ARCs to earning extra points toward whatever the summer reading goals are or the chance to create a display of their favorite books or it could be just the sweet feeling of being victorious. 

• Haiku contests. Pick a topic. Tell the teens they have x-amount of time (a week, two weeks) to submit their best haiku on the subject. Display the best. Or, display them all and let the teens vote on the best ones. Good topics for haiku trivia this summer include the outdoors, zombies, anything under the ocean, and so forth.

• Post Secret. I introduced this to some of my teens a couple years ago and they loved it. They each made their own secrets using old magazines and pre-cut post card sized cardstock. Either let the teens do their own Post Secrets or give them a topic they have to do it on (you're a mermaid -- what's your biggest secret). 

This is a very small sampling of ideas. I plan on spending some time reading Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist and Phil Hansen's Tattoo a Banana to mine new ideas or flesh out some thoughts I've had which haven't come to fruition just yet. 

Do you have other suggestions for passive programs to try this summer that go along with the theme? Or which don't go along with it at all? 

Easy passive programming for teens

I've not forgotten about this blog! I'm making it a goal to try to blog a couple times a month here with either programming ideas or something related to librarianship as a career. What better way to stick to that one that offer up one of my coworker's brilliantly simple and well-received passive programs!

With the election going on this month, we wanted to let the teens have a chance to practice democracy in the library. We talked about options for what the teens could vote on, and since we still have a wildly popular anime and manga collection, why not let the teens vote on what new series to add to the collection? 

The program involved creating a ballot of potential anime and manga titles (with a blank spot for a write-in candidate) and the teens filled it out, then stuffed it in the box. It ran for one week -- election week -- and the response was pretty darn good. Of course, the winners for both would be what's added to the collection.

So what was on the ballot? For the anime side, there was Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Durarara!!, Natsume's Book of Friends, and Shakugan No Shana and for the manga side, there was A Devil and Her Love Song, Durarara!!, Earl and the Fairy, and GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class.

We're lucky to have a really nice display cube right at the entrance of the teen area, so it's easy to catch attention there. 

Aside from this being a very easy to develop teen program and one that runs itself, this kind of voting program really lets teens have a voice in their library. How empowering is it for them to know they got to help choose what materials are in their own collection? Plus, it helps you as a librarian figure out what is and is not popular (which is particularly helpful when neither you nor your coworker find manga/anime your strongest area).

Summer Reading: A Passive Program

We're doing three summer reading programs for kids this year, separating pre-readers (birth-4), youth (4-12) and teens (12-18). Those who fall in between are welcome to choose which they want to join.

I won't go into details about the program structure yet, as I want to see how it plays out for a couple weeks first, but one of the things I'm doing for both the teens and the youth of all ages is a weekly passive program that looks like this:

I bought 8 water bottles that were sold with the summer reading theme for kids and 8 for teens (the dark blue nalgene bottles). I then went to the grocery store and bought a ton of treats -- goldfish crackers, m&ms, skittles, gummy words, animal crackers, etc. In each bottle, my volunteer and I counted out candy, something different for each of the 8 weeks of our program, then closed the lid. Every week, the kids and teens each have a shot to win the bottle of candy for guessing the number inside. Ah yes, it is tricky, since the kids can't actually see what's inside, so they have to believe in the sign:


Every Monday, we'll go through the responses and the kid with the closest answer wins.

There are pre-cut sheets of paper asking for name, phone number and guess for them to use right at the desk, as well.

I already know this is one of my favorite programs this summer. Why?

It gets the kids and teens to come in every week. It's exceedingly simple, requires virtually no staff time (except for when we counted out the candy and when we'll go through answers) and yet, it's one that even today, on our kickoff date, we had a number of participants in. Everything's already in the bottles and sorted, so it's a quick Monday morning prep program, and I cannot wait to present the winners their little souvenir each week.

As I mentioned, today was our kickoff for the program. It was cold and rainy, and since our events are outside under a tent, the turnout was a little disappointing for our magician. But the magician was excellent, and the kids who were there had a total blast. The jokes were just right, too, that the adults could enjoy them. I had one mom tell me how fabulous the performer was, too, which I relayed to him afterward (when he gave my intern and I some other magic tricks).

So far, sign up looks good, and there are almost as many teens signed up as littler kids. My goal's to double the size of teen participation this year from last, and we're already at nearly half of last year's numbers on our first day.