Going Mobile

Pictured above is most of my new teen mobile collection, built thanks to the generous support of the Family Dollar/YALSA grant I won for the summer. I've been asked a lot about it, and I thought I'd give the run down of the whys and hows of going mobile.

How it started

One of the challenges of our community is that, despite being fairly small, we are spread out. We serve hundreds of square miles of farm land, and we live in a county where there is no public transportation. Despite our library's fairly favorable location in downtown and about a mile from the schools, no location is ideal in a rural setting.

That got me thinking about teen participation in the library. Many teens can walk over after school for programs, but what about teens during the summer? Then I started wondering why I couldn't make the effort to serve the kids and do it where they were: the school. Summer school here is one month long, Monday through Thursday, and every kid who attends also receives a free lunch.

And here, I thought, was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. I could go over to the lunch room for an hour once or twice a week, bring a selection of books, and bring all of the necessary summer reading club materials, and then I could get the teens involved in the program without them needing to trek to the physical library building. Moreover, I knew this would be an opportunity to get to know the teens in my area a bit more and it would be a chance to gauge what kinds of books my teens were reading. Since my teen collection is upstairs and my office and the desk I work at are downstairs, it's not always easy to know what is moving.

Planning

Admittedly, I didn't go about this in the most logical way. The logical manner would have been getting in touch with the school prior to applying for the grant to set this collection up. The challenge to that, of course, is what happens if the grant doesn't get approved. I knew I didn't have the budget to fund this myself (at least, I didn't think I did -- more on that in a minute), so my plan depended upon the grant.

When I found out I got the money, that's when I got in touch with the school's summer school coordinator, as well as the school librarian. We met to talk about the logistics of the collection. I had envisioned buying a selection of new books and having the kids check them out with their library cards, but after this meeting, I changed my plans, and I think I did so for the better.

Some of the considerations that needed to be talked about included the check out process -- did the kids need their library cards? It seemed like a hindrance, since many kids don't have cards for the precise reason I mentioned before: transportation. Then there's the issue of fines: how do you charge for late or lost materials? That could get the parents involved and get tricky. Then there's the issue of storage and transport. That was the easiest to tackle.

After that meeting, I brainstormed and came up with a plan of attack: I'd buy only paperback books, teens could check out books with their library card, school ID, or simply their name and phone number, and because I was doing a paperback collection, I wasn't going to charge overdue or lost fees. Of course, I wouldn't tell the kids that. I just gave them a due date (the last day of summer school) and it would be taking my chances. I was lent a book truck from the school library and given space in the administrative offices to park it. Easy enough!

Purchasing and Organizing

Creating my collection was actually very easy. I've done a ton of book talking this year, and I had a good sense of the kinds of books my kids were interested in. So naturally, those were first picks. Following those, I decided to really focus on titles that the kids wouldn't get quick access to elsewhere: popular teen fiction written in Spanish and a selection of titles with appeal to reluctant readers. When I budgeted for the collection, I gave myself about $600 to play with. I believe I ended up spending about $550 and came away with over 80 books -- keeping in mind that Spanish books are almost twice the cost of English editions of the same work, I thought that money stretched quite well. I also pulled a few personal copies of extra paperbacks I had at home since I knew they'd go to good use here.

As books rolled into the library, I pulled my copies from the tech room. I didn't know how I wanted to mark them, but after thinking about how I'd use the collection after this summer, I figured I should follow our standard marking procedure. Barcodes and stamps were attached, but I did not include spine labels. I wanted to make this a true browsing collection, and since that step is a quick and easy one, it could be saved for later, when we included these titles in our general collection post-summer.

Since I didn't want to add these books to my library's standard catalog because of the set up of the program, I went about organizing the books through LibraryThing. I kept it quite simple, and I included a private field in my login side for me to include the names of the kids who checked out the title (along with their phone number and a record of how many times a particular title checked out). You can see my entire library collection by going here, and then toggle the library collection on the top left to "Teen Mobile Collection."

Preparing For Day One

I knew I'd have a cart available to me, but everything else I knew was on my own. I made two signs to post on the book cart and brought an acrylic holder to include a third. They all were simple, explaining that these books were from my library and anyone could check them out. And oh, here's a chance to sign up for the summer reading club. I emphasized that since the kids were already going to be reading for homework, they should sign up and actually earn prizes for their homework.

That's the line that sells them.

Along with those items, I brought with me a paper check out log. Because I didn't want to have the liability of losing a computer nor did I know about the internet availability at the school, I thought writing out the books and kids information by hand would be easier. I could transfer that information to the LibraryThing account upon returning.

I also brought a handful of summer reading program registration cards, reading logs, activity sheets, and prize money, along with envelopes that showed what the prizes for that week were (so kids who checked in the first day or any time after could know what the choices were and participate right there). We'd, of course, put their prize entries into the real buckets when we got back to the library.

Day One in Action

When I got to the cafeteria, where I was setting up for the kids lunch hour, I had no idea what the arrangement would look like. I came in, took a seat at the table nearest the front of the door, and got all my materials in order. I was ready!

At first, there wasn't any interaction. But then, the kids started reading my signs and talking to me -- so many knew me from the classroom visits, they felt comfortable just walking up and asking what I was doing. And when I told them, it was like I turned on the light. They were thrilled, and they were asking how to check stuff out, how much they could check out, and how they could sign up for the club. It was a wonderful opportunity to be face to face with the kids for even 30 minutes!

Filling out the registration cards and explaining the program was so much fun, and on the first day, I registered 5 new kids for the program (many who came to see me were already a part) and I checked out books to 5 kids, too. For getting no advertising in the schools beyond what I mentioned in classroom visits, it was a huge success!

When I got back to the library, I simply input the student information into the private field of the LibraryThing account, slipped the registration cards into our library's bigger file for them, and was done for the day. I made the mobile collection registration cards a different color than our regular ones, to make retrieving them for our return trips easy.

Days Two and Three and On...

On day two (which was two days later), we were able to register 5 more teens for the program and we received nearly all of the checked out items from two days before and checked out material to a lot more kids, too.

Day three, I let my intern take over completely. I want her to have this project now, as a way to really work with teens the way I know she wants to. She came back that day having registered three more kids and checking out a wealth more items. We also had people check in their reading logs, meaning that when we go back tomorrow, kids will get their prizes delivered to them.

That's part of the deal, of course: we're bringing the prizes to the kids, making their participation in summer reading little more than doing the reading and showing us their logs.

Impressions and Take Aways

This program was so easy to coordinate that I hope it continues in the future. I want to make it happen next summer and maybe in a more regular way. Integrating into the classrooms could be a potential next step, even. But for now, here's what I'm really getting from it:

• Kids are dying to read. They're interested in the popular fiction (and fun non-fiction) titles, and giving them few restrictions is key. Because in the end, they're good kids. The books will come back. They have been coming back for us each time we return.

• Getting to spend one-on-one time with the kids helps me learn who they are and helps them learn who I am, too. I had a brother duo come up to me, one in 7th grade and one in 10th. The 7th grader recited to his brother all about the program, verbatim, from what I had shared during my school talks. The 7th grader signed up eagerly while his brother talked about how it was a scam. I assured him it wasn't, but it was his brother who convinced him to sign up because he trusted me and knew me. Honestly, this was one of those moments that made me realize how important going TO the kids was. It builds a huge sense of trust in me and in my organization.

• We signed up more than 12 kids in our 3 visits. That's 12 more kids actively involved in our reading program. Would they have signed up if we weren't at the school? Likely not. We're more mobile than them, and we're catering to their needs.

• Hearing and seeing what books excites the kids helps me in thinking about not only collection development, but also in programming. My kids are RABID about Raina Telegmeier's Smile and Zombie Haiku. I sense a worthy program in comics and in, err, zombies.
  

• We're tapping an opportunity that has huge growth potential. Why can't we have this collection at other events where we'll see the kids? Maybe events where we'll see kids AND their parents, where then we can also get kids who don't have cards their own cards? This experiment will lead to more experiments, which, if I remember correctly, is one of the key aspects of being a librarian: trying things out.
  

Conclusion

We still have a couple weeks left of the program, so I'll update again at the end. I'm eager to see what changes and improvements can be made for the future, and I'm eager to see how much involvement we gain, now that the kids know we're there.

This is a program I'd highly encourage other librarians who serve teens to consider, especially if you find yourself in an area like mine, where transportation is a huge issue. And though the start up costs are high, they can be cost effective for any budget. All you have to do is pull paperbacks from your own stacks. You can save good books that come into your donations, too. Once you set up the initial collection, it's yours to use however. I plan on popping mine back into regular circulation at the end of summer, but I plan on keeping the LibraryThing list so I can pull these titles out again for other outreach opportunities.

Summer Reading: Teen Edition

It's that time of year: the frantic time known as the weeks before summer reading. This year, I'm in charge of the entire shebang for kids age 0-18, so it's even more work than when I've done it before. But I think it's going to be mega rewarding, as well.

I'm putting together my presentations for classroom visits, and I wanted to share my middle and high school presentation. I'm pretty pleased, and as you can see, we've got insane programming and prizes for the kids -- much of which was donated or paid for through the YALSA/Dollar General grant I received. How lucky!

Again: I'm never going back to Powerpoint. Prezi is really the best way to give an in-person presentation, and it's way more fun to put together.

Teen Summer Reading Club 2011 on Prezi

Teen Tech Week: We Went QR

Two weeks ago we kicked off Teen Tech Week at my library with a very innovative program for teens: a QR treasure hunt. For those who don't know what a QR code is, it's a small barcode like the one above that can be read via a free app on one's smart phone or, as in our case, an iPod touch with a camera on it (the newest ones).

I was extremely fortunate in setting up this program, since I collaborated with Drea, who works at a library a couple hours south of where I am. I'd been planning on doing a program like this since the fall, and when Drea said she was interested in something similar, we decided to plan it together since it's a bit of a huge undertaking.

Before I dive into the nuts and bolts, I want to say that doing something like this does not require quite what we did. Drea and I both are fortunate to have had some help from a few authors to make some of the clues happen, but this is by no means necessary. And for those who might be interested and do want videos like ours, the ones we got were name free and with permission from the authors, we may be able to share our clues with you.

Drea and I spent a few hours one night plotting out the potential clues for our program. We wanted to make sure that while teens participated in this event, they were also secretly learning something about the library (and qr codes). So, we brainstormed what we had in our respective teen departments and what we could pull from. We ended up with about 20 clues that led teens through not only videos from authors, but to our respective online catalogs, book lists, and even to the posters and furniture. We also talked about which authors we might be able to have help us out, and we were blown away to get the help of Melissa Walker, Blythe Woolston, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Melinda Metz, and Loretta Ellsworth. Each made us a short video (under a 1:30) wherein they were able to pitch their books and then drop a clue for teens to move through the hunt.

To begin this program, I had to make one large purchase: an iPod touch. This cost roughly $200. I decided to purchase this because in my area, teens do not have much access to smart phones. It seemed unfair to me to expect anyone to participate in a program without the expensive equipment. Fortunately for me, I received a donation from a local organization, and the money went toward this purchase. Additionally -- and this was the plan from the start -- I decided that teens who completed the treasure hunt would have the opportunity to win big for participating. The iPod would be the prize (restored to factory settings, of course, before they could pick it up). So, while this was a pricey start up, this ensured fair access to the equipment AND served as a prize/incentive for participation.

When I got the iPod, I charged it, as well as loaded a free QR app onto it. I taught staff how to use the equipment by encouraging them to run through the hunt so they could answer questions that might arise. In addition, I made all of the books involved in the hunt non-circulating; this was done in the event one of our codes would check out. Fortunately, we're part of a big enough system that kids interested in checking out these books would be able to get them in a day or two from another library.

There were few instructions for my hunt. The teens were given a small handout with problem solving tips (answering things about what to do if they lost the qr app while going through the hunt or wanted to exit a video). They were allowed to borrow the iPod for the program with a library card or student id, and they were led to the first clue seen above. That qr code led them to a video produced by one of Drea's teens that explained how the program worked. She also dropped them to their first clue -- a book about a Violet who walks a runway by an author with the last name Walker. Easy enough!


On the back of the book was the qr code. After snapping that clue, they were led to their first author video:



Cool, right?

I won't show off the entire hunt, but Melissa's clue took them to one of our reference desks (I made sure to put the same qr code on both desks to cover my bases).

And from there, they were led to a few other places, including:


A poster in the teen area. This qr code actually linked up to the catalog record for Beautiful Creatures, wherein Kami and Margaret talked about libraries and led them to the final clue.

Besides just static things, I also made the kids work for their clues with puzzles:


And then there was the book list clue. At my library, we don't have a reader's advisory program set up yet in the teen area (something I am working on), but this was a great opportunity to get one book list out on tech books. I noticed later that some of those lists were actually being used and left in places that weren't the holder -- a sign that the kids were using them!


One of my favorite clues was the QR code that led from the reference desk to a post on my library's blog. I talked about award winning books -- the Morris, the Printz, and the Cybils -- and then asked the teens to find the Morris winner. And how cool they got to hear from Blythe herself about what an honor it was to win the award!

Another clue led kids to crawl on the floor and look beneath the big chair in the teen department.

Our final clue was to the book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (yes, this was purposeful). When kids snapped that code, they were led to a Google form to fill out and be entered for the grand prize.


The form asked them for the basics -- name, phone, grade -- as well as asked them to name three books or authors they heard from. I did this in the event one of the kids got lost in the hunt and skipped clues. The last question was whether they'd do something like that again. Every entry said yes (woo hoo!).

This program, while it took a bit of set up, was easy to run. It required staff involvement only in the iPod loaning process, and we're extremely fortunate that our teen area was close enough to the reference desk that we didn't have to worry about the iPod walking away. We also had identification for the user and informed them that the iPod had a tracking device on it (which it did). We had no problems at all.

The biggest issues we had coming out of the program was some confusion on the part of the teens in figuring out how to use the device. It's a time-consuming program, as a program with such a huge prize should be. One of my regular teens said it took him over an hour to do, but he enjoyed it a lot. I think the fact the teens got frustrated at times is important, as it's a lesson for them that not everything will come easy to them. But this was a safe environment to try things out and learn, and they got to try something with equipment that they didn't have to worry about breaking.

I would do this program again in a heartbeat and I recommend something similar to other libraries looking for a way to incorporate technology and reading. As someone who'd never used a qr code myself, I thought this was such a cool introduction to the power they have, and it really encouraged me to think about how I could incorporate these things into my work. I even wrote a grant application in hopes of a little funding to try using them as part of our teen summer reading program.

One big frustration I had with the program -- and one you should be wary of -- is that our wireless network did not play nicely with the iPod. The pop-up we have that requires guest wireless users to agree to behave on the network would not come up on the iPod, and we were unable to access the wireless. To resolve this problem, we chose to allow the iPod onto the staff wireless network, and staff members who lent out the iPod logged the teens onto the network. We had no problems doing it this way. I also locked down the iPod to ensure no additional apps could be installed, since those purchases would come on my credit card. Again, we had no problems. Teens are good people -- and they were way more interested in doing the program than trying to cause problems with the iPod.

Ever tried something similar or heard of something similar? Tell me about it.

Book talking: Middle School

My favorite part of the job, no doubt, is getting the books into the hands of kids. For me, there's no better way than through book talking.

I've been book talking all day to the 7th grade at our local middle school. In 6 hours, I reach 200 kids by doing nothing but talking about a cool mix of books and showing off book trailers.

This time, I mixed things up. I usually only talk 7 or 8 titles all day. Today, though, I decided to put up 20 titles and play it by ear. I'm just talking and showing what I feel like, and I an gauging it on the kids, too.

Top picks so far? The kids LOVE the trailer for The True Meaning of Smekday. My most requested titles so far are Trapped, The Chosen One, and Dirty Little Secrets. They're also feeling Meanwhile.

Favorite moment so far, though, has been hearing the kids share their own 6-word memoirs, as well as letting one kid do the book talk for Chasing Lincoln's Killer for me. If you don't let your kids do the talking once in a while, well, you're missing out. Sometimes, they sell the books to their peers even better than you.

Here are today's books. Ever talked these? I'd be happy to share my tips and suggestions if you want to get started.

March 2011 Booktalk @ Phoenix Middle School

View more presentations from aramteens

Middle school book talk

I haven't forgotten about this -- it's just been busy. A handful of good stories times mixed with a couple of real bummers. I'll tell you about those soon.

But today I'm spending the entire day in 7th grade again, talking books. Lots of books. I've talked a few of these titles before at my prior job, and they're all natural sells. I try hard for this age to mix fiction and non-fiction, though this talk seems heavier on fiction.

Besides these books, I'm bringing a bag of new titles I won't be talking but that either haven't moved much on the shelf or look appealing. I have the honor to give a number of these students their first library cards today, so I'm offering them the chance to browse a small sampling of what all our library has to offer them.

Have you talked any of these titles? Have you had success? Check back to see what these kids loved most!

Phoenixtalk dec2010

View more presentations from aramteens.