All About Teen Volunteers

This summer, I was tasked with being in charge of the teen volunteers. If you've ever worked in (or visited) a public library in June and July, you've probably been at least peripherally aware of teen volunteers working there. They are incredibly important to making the Summer Reading Program happen because it is, as I lovingly refer to it, the children's librarian Olympics. We are constantly running, programming, craft-prepping, and helping patrons at a wildly accelerated rate. We couldn't do it if it weren't for those amazing teenagers who need community service credit to graduate high school (and/or are just good people who want to help out) (and/or couldn't find a paying job and their parents want them doing something over the summer). Whatever the reason, we're thrilled to have them.

After our system's volunteer coordinator forwarded me all 30-odd applications, I sent out two emails. The first was to people who had never volunteered here before, asking them to come in for an interview. I set aside a couple of Saturdays and scheduled four teens per hour. I saw each of them for 10-15 minutes, during which time I asked them a few questions to get to know them better and find out where they would be best suited to work in our library. I didn't turn anyone away; simply presented them with the forms to get their badges and welcomed them into the program. I consider the interview more of a formality than a necessity; it gives the kids job experience and gives me a chance to meet them one-on-one before the summer starts.

The next step was to organize a mandatory orientation. I had one on a weekday evening and the other on a Saturday morning, and let all 35 volunteers know that attending one or the other was a requirement for participating in the program. Orientation included individual introductions, icebreaker games, popcorn reading off a PowerPoint to make learning the rules a little more engaging, and then standing up for a high-energy shelving activity lead by the manager of our pages. At the end, one of our other children's librarians ran a Jeopardy-style trivia game about the rules we had discussed earlier in orientation.

The best part of orientation was inviting any staff member who wanted to attend. This had not been done in the past, which caused a bit of a disconnect between non-youth services staff and the volunteers. This year, several managers and librarians from other departments attended, which was great for both sides to get to know one another.

Once everyone was oriented, I made schedules for the SRP desk, weekly storytime helpers, and one-time program assistants. Some of the scheduling was done manually in Excel, and for other parts of it I used SignUpGenius.com. Something new that I implemented this year was a daily reminder email sent out to all teens who would be working the next day. I found this cut down on the kids forgetting their shifts or being late.

Possibly the biggest bummer of facilitating teen volunteers is keeping track of discipline. We did have several instances of volunteers having their phones out during programs or desk shifts, which can become a disciplinary offense if it happens a lot. The bigger infractions were being late or missing a shift without calling; we made it clear that two no-call-no-shows equals termination, and there were two instances of this over the summer. In terms of discipline, our entire department learned that we will need a more consistent flow chart for next summer. 

The best part was pinpointing the volunteers who exhibited leadership skills and having the bility to give them more to do. For example, three of our most dedicated volunteers were my assistants during Theater Day Camp, where they often lead games and acting lessons while I only supervised. I loved seeing these young people blossom into leaders!

An important end-of-summer ritual is the teen volunteer thank you party! All three of our children's librarians worked together to plan the party complete with food, gifts, and activities for the kids to enjoy. The party was held after-hours in the library, and they got to run wild in the empty stacks for a scavenger hunt! After that we had dinner and a karaoke party in the Program Room.

I am excited to say that overseeing the teen volunteers is something I will continue to do throughout the 2018-19 school year, so I might be posting updates about our year-round volunteers periodically!

YA Diversity Book Club 2017

My vision for this book club is to provide a space for all teens who enjoy reading and talking about what they've read. I put the word "diversity" in the title because we focus on books in which the characters belong to marginalized communities: racial, ethnic, disabled, LGBTQ+, homeless, mental illness, abuse, etc. I have found that reading books that explore marginalization is a great way to open up the conversation in a non-threatening way. After reading these books, kids will open up about similar experiences they have been through or witnessed their friends going through. It's part book club, part safe space, and part social; I want my teens to leave this club knowing that I am here for them, as are their new friends, if they are having a hard time for any reason.

Since I have not been keeping up with entries about my teen book club since I started it in the summer, I figured I would do a 2017 wrap up and then start monthly entries about it in 2018 as meetings happen.

Reception about this program has been varied, because the type of highly-motivated teens that a book club tends to attract are also super busy with other extracurricular activities. During the summer, a lot of our teen volunteers were very involved, but that dropped off in September when everyone went back to school. I still have exactly one very involved member, who has been doing their best to talk it up at school and their other activities. For the moment, however, I am just working on getting the word out and recruiting more teen readers.

January will be a planning meeting where I'm asking the kids what they would like to read. I am trying to lure them with pizza, so we'll see if I get any new members.......

In the meantime, here are the books we read in 2017 along with Goodreads links, why they fall into the category of diverse books, and a short review.

September: If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan

I fell in complete love with this book. Farizan does an amazing job of explaining the difference between being gay and being trans to readers that might not understand it, without breaking out of the character's voice. The ending was heartbreaking, but also exactly what I hoped would happen.

It's diverse because: Iranian culture, LGBTQ+ themes (lesbian and trans)

October: All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brandon Kiely

I actually originally read this book for a class in grad school about YA literature. It's very timely because it talks a lot about a Black Lives Matter-esque movement without actually using the name of the real-life movement. Alternating between the POVs of two teen boys, one white and one black, we get to see all sides of a story dealing with police brutality.

It's diverse because: Racial issues and teaching tolerance

November: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I have to say, I am not usually a fan of fantasy, but I loved this book! It's like the Harry Potter universe, except the kids sometimes drink, curse, and have sex. The spells are also much more modern, and it explores the idea of magic being a concrete substance that you can own, spend, and run out of. Also, Rowell does an amazing job of writing in British voices across all six or seven narrators, even though she herself is American. Halfway through reading I found out that it is actually the book from Rowell's other novel, Fangirl, and was written after Fangirl was published and popular. Now I have to read that one as well!

It's diverse because: British culture, LGBTQ+ themes (gay)

December: None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio

I read this book last year and did not have a chance to re-read it before our December meeting, but I still remembered it well enough to have a conversation about it with the one member who showed up. I like it because it is written by a doctor who specializes in Intersex patients, so all the medical facts are correct. Gregorio also does a great job of capturing all the characters' emotions, especially the main character's. What I dislike about this book is the utter cliche that is Kristin's high school life. She's a pretty, popular athlete who desperately wants to win Homecoming Queen and have sex with her boyfriend, and then it all comes crashing down when she finds out that what has been masquerading inside her as ovaries are actually testicles. The only downside to the diagnosis as far as I can tell is not being able to have biological children, if you wanted them. Otherwise, the devastation Kristin experiences and the merciless bullying her schoolmates subject her to when they find out seems incredibly dramatic and over the top. The best character is the mentor she finds through an Intersex support group, a self-assured lesbian who helps her understand her condition and develop a new outlook on life. But, it's a worthwhile read and a great example for teens of how to accept yourself no matter what curve balls life throws at you.

It's diverse because: LGBTQ+ themes (intersex)

Play Book BINGO Live!

This event was the culmination of a whole summer's worth of passive programming.

For the whole summer, I printed BINGO boards that I made for children, tweens, and teens, and left them at the circulation desks so kids could pick them up and mark off what they read. There were spaces for actual books that had pictures of the covers, and there were also spaces with descriptions of books such as "A book that takes place in Arizona" or "A book with an LGBTQ+ main character." For these spaces, the kids could choose their own books as long as they applied to the description, and write them in.

When the boards were returned to the library, participants received a prize from the treasure chest if they had completed one row, and $2 to spend at our used book sale for a totally full board. Click on the pictures to enlarge for a closer look.

Picture book board 1

Picture book board 2

Picture book board 3

Tween/middle grade board 1

Tween/middle grade board 2

Teen/YA board 1

Teen/YA board 2

Teen/YA board 3

Finished tween board!

Finished picture book board!

Finished picture book board!

For the BINGO Live event, I printed and laminated 20 BINGO boards with book cover art in each square (the fill-in-the-blank concept would have been too difficult to incorporate in this program, I think). I created a slide show with the cover art and brief synopses of all the books that appeared on every BINGO board from the passive program. Then I randomized the slide show so the slides would appear out of order, and projected the slides on the wall.

We played several rounds, including a couple of total blackout rounds. The winners of each round received a snack of their choice from my snack bin and a $5 gift card to our book sale.

What I liked about the passive BINGO program was that, like the Summer Reading Program itself, it encouraged children to use their summer vacations to read as much as possible. It also gave a mix of book suggestions and opportunity to choose their own.

For the active program, I was able to show more than 50 titles to a group of people who may have never heard of them. Not only that, but the group was diverse in age. We had a family with little ones drop in, a couple groups of middle- and high-schoolers with their chaperoning adults, and even several retired adults who like BINGO! I was delighted by the turn out, and will definitely repeat a Book BINGO program again.

Book Notes

This is a program I put together as a drop-in for teens and tweens, but it would have been applicable for readers of any age. The goal was to write inspirational notes that we will leave in books in the Young Adult section, especially books with difficult themes such as suicide, drugs, abuse, rape, and difficult LGBTQ+ issues. It was a really easy one to put together, and well-received by out summer visitors, especially a group of teen volunteers.

Here are some of the many amazing messages the teens wrote, on the template I made so they can be recognized by our staff as a piece of a library-sanctioned program:

They had a good time coming up with encouraging, funny, and uplifting messages to add to our circulating library books.

I will be making color photocopies of the originals and replenishing the supply in our YA section every few months. I kept the originals so that they will not get damaged in circulation, and I always have them to refer back to.