The Loudoun Youth Initiative was conceived in 2005 when the county’s Board of Supervisors recognized that the needs of the area teenagers were not being met. Overnight, services to teen residents became an objective of many departments—especially the library’s. Having long supported teens through literature and programs, library administration was enthusiastic about finding new ways to support them. An opportunity to do just that came in 2006 when the Rust Library closed for renovations. Part of the redesign included the 4,000 square foot A.V. Symington Teen Center, a space designed by teens, with the explicit goal of serving teens. This goal was fulfilled by hiring three full-time dedicated teen services librarians and three part-time library aides, and in July 2009, the county’s teens had a library space all their own. Within that same time frame, each of the other six branches restructured their personnel to include a part-time teen services librarian, and some even repurposed floor and wall space with lights and comfy chairs to entice young patrons to relax and spend time in the branch. Finally, in 2013 the Gum Spring Library opened which added another 3,000 square feet of enclosed teen library space.

It was only after the hiring of the dedicated teen services staff that expanding library programs to accept and encourage nationwide participation was born. Linda Holtslander, division manager for programming, said of the shift, “At a [teen librarians] meeting I asked ‘Should we let everyone participate in It’s All Write?’ and it was a resounding ‘yes!’. We didn’t care where they came from; we simply wanted to celebrate teens who write.” She continued, “The neatest thing about this contest—people say no one reads anymore—but here are 200 people who are writing things they know people will read. That they want people to read.”

Since 2009 we have had 53 out-of-Loudoun teens submit stories for It’s All Write, and one submit to our Film Competition. With submission numbers for those programs averaging 184 and 22 respectively, those non-resident numbers are encouraging. At the heart of these programs is the opportunity to celebrate creativity.

In planning for the 2014 Film Competition, we are already devising ways we can utilize our technology to teach teens filmmaking skills, such as screenwriting and sound editing. We are in talks with professionals in the area who are interested in leading workshops on attaining better sound quality with an iPhone. A recent donation from the King-White Family Foundation of 10 Air Macs and a portable charging station, we are hoping to host film-editing workshops at each of the eight branches. These workshops will teach the teens to elevate something from its most basic level to something transformed, or something new. A true artist—be it a painter, author, or filmmaker—knows that no work of art is ever complete; it can always be improved upon or modified to fit a different theme or idea. This same theory can be applied to teens in nearly everything they create, and we should be working with them throughout that creative process.

In addition to offering the teens a creative outlet and the use of advanced technology, we offer them interactions with industry professionals. For It’s All Write, we host a series of author-led workshops on genre-, fiction- , and short story-writing, and writing prompt sessions to get their creative juices flowing. These programs are well-attended and appreciated. (In fact, when adult patrons saw how much attention was being given to the teen writing contest, they demanded their own, and Write On was born this past summer.)

Every librarian and library programmer knows that support from the staff goes a long way in making a program successful. After each branch employed a teen services librarian, LCPL was able to move forward with offering large-scale programs to teens nationwide. Each branch serves teen users in its own way, and we all come together to host large events a few times a year. We are as dedicated now as we were in 2006 and 2009, and we eagerly await upcoming programs, as we anticipate more opportunities to work with teens to develop their creativity and technical skills.

Fresh Paint traces the development of teen services for a new public library in an underserved community.

Espresso Book Machine final product

With the recent installation of the Espresso Book Machine at our Rust Library, and the popularity of self-publishing with Kindle Direct Publishing (or another of the myriad self-publishing platforms), anyone can be an author. We are often approached by authors (both popular and self-published) as well as book agents and publishers asking if we would like to host them for a book discussion, reading, or signing. Our inclination is to say yes because “Libraries are in the reading business,” as marketing librarian Nancy Dowd said at our Staff Development Day last year. But many authors leave the program details to us, putting us in a tentatively enthusiastic position of figuring out what to do. While that is stressful—Will anyone come? Will the author hate what we did?—it is also a fun opportunity to engage our audience by trying something new. No two books are the same, so neither should two author events.

Teens waiting for Jay Asher to begin

So how do you plan an author event that is more than a C-SPAN-like reading and Q&A session? First you should know the book. And by “know” I mean read. I rarely recommend a book that I haven’t read, so there is no way I would ask someone to take the time to read the book and attend the event when I have not made the effort to do so. Knowing the themes, parental guidance factors (sex, drugs, violence), and style of the story help me recommend the book to the right audience. I didn’t give Thirteen Reasons Why to every teen girl who came into the Teen Center looking for “a good book.” Instead I probed, asked what their favorite books and hobbies were, and suggested from there. Do we want hundreds of people in the audience? Yes. Am I willing to lie to readers about how much they would like a book, just to get them there? No. My library’s Teen Center has a bigger tween scene than teen one, so inviting Jay Asher and his tale of suicide was a tad worrisome for us. Luckily, a perfect mix of young readers and adults attended the event, quelling our fears.

Jay Asher with It’s All Write promo

Jay Asher’s visit in the spring was a two-day experience that took him to the juvenile detention center, a high school, my library, and the It’s All Write short story contest awards ceremony. His presentation at the high school was only for students who had submitted essays to their teachers. A local bookseller sold Ransom Riggs and Tahera Mafi novels at their co-headlining event, which was candid and hilarious as they introduced each other and gave out swag to anyone who asked a question. Prior to Bruce Coville’s book reading and Q&A, young readers were encouraged to create “fan art” at a table set up in the Juvenile section. We usually offer pizza, free stuff, books for sale, or activities as a way to break the ice between staff, the audience, and the famous person standing at the podium. All parties involved seem to appreciate this approach because it keeps everyone engaged instead of sitting around waiting for the author to make the first move.

We are currently working with a local author to plan a YA Writer’s panel, which includes giving ARCs of some of the authors’ debut novels to our teen book club members. Elise Nader, author of Escape from Eden (Merit Pr.), has already committed to five copies for the giveaway. Working directly with the teens is a great way to determine if we should continue with the program, as their input is the most significant. The relationships we have established over the past six months with our teens are helpful in planning future programs.

Fresh Paint traces the development of teen services for a new public library in an underserved community.

We are Gum Spring Library and we are officially a community resource.

Our programs, planned with no idea as to their potential popularity, have been wildly successful (except the showing of Up which only had one attendee, which makes me worry that our future animated film showings won’t be well-attended either). Crafts, (non-animated) movies, and Teen Cuisine (learning to read nutrition labels, chop foods, and follow recipes) have all been met with enthusiasm and repeat attendees. But the overwhelming number of our attendees are 12-14 years old.

This realization that tweens are our most frequent Teen Center users has forced us to look closely at our upcoming programs. Since September, October, and November programs have been on the books since late May, we cannot remove or add anything. Instead, we can only tweak what is already planned in order to make it appeal (and be appropriate) to a certain crowd. For Teen Read Week (Seek the Unknown @ your library), we are hosting Blind Date with a Book, which encourages teens to check out a book whose outer layer is concealed, with the hopes that they will try a title they otherwise would never have picked up. But if the current trend remains the same, should we self-censor the titles we choose to wrap up so we don’t unintentionally scar a 12-year old-girl with the scathing language of Sherman Alexie’s incredibly well-written and powerful book Flight (Grove Pr., 2007)? We want to expose program attendees to great books, but should we sacrifice titles with mature or jarring content just in case a younger teen picks one up?

In September we are hosting a series of SAT prep workshops and seminars for teens, and have already been asked by numerous parents if their 12- and 13-year-old children are allowed to attend. What we thought was going to be popular with high school juniors and seniors is of real interest to our tween patrons. Should we restrict the attendee age to high school sophomore or older, or allow any teen? Will letting younger teens attend keep older teens from seeing the programs as productive?

Tweens are an often underserved demographic in libraries, as are teens as a whole, so my colleagues and I are very happy to have so many of then attending our programs. Planning tween-specific programs in conjunction with (or at least with advice from) the children’s librarians will be very important going forward. On the other hand, keeping the space relevant for older teens is just as important. How can we welcome both, without giving either end of the age group an advantage over resources, programs, or attention? One way is to ask the age of all patrons. On many occasions this summer we have asked children to vacate the game room because they are not old enough, just as we have asked 19 and 20 year olds to leave because they are too old. Maintaining the age restriction of the Teen Center takes time and effort, but the teens who qualify to stay in the space usually respond with appreciation. No babysitting, no being babysat. Welcome to the Teen Center, where you are responsible for yourself.

Fresh Paint traces the development of teen services for a new public library in an underserved community.

Crickets…

And it hits you. They don’t have any favorite memories of a summer reading program. They don’t even know what a summer reading program is, save the fact that it’s a volunteer opportunity. Why? Because they’ve never participated in a Summer Reading Program (SRP). Because the only libraries they have ever known are their school and Gum Spring, the one that has only been open four months.

“Let’s start over. Welcome to the Summer Reading Program!”

This is a unique problem, but (as I have said about every problem I have faced at this new library) a good one to have! This is my opportunity to start fresh, and an even better opportunity to squelch any bad habits before they form.

Opening Day, SRP 2013

So as to not re-create the wheel, I modeled the Gum Spring SRP volunteer program after those established at other branches in our system (including my previous branch), and tweaked it to include Gum Spring-specific items and to incorporate my own rules about volunteering. This was the perfect opportunity to make big changes to the volunteer program, because there is nothing the teens can compare it to. Some of those rules are:

You must register for, and attempt to complete, the Teen Summer Reading Challenge Card. (Teen volunteers should be setting an example for our younger patrons and supporting the very program they are volunteering for.)

If a patron asks you a question to which you do not know the answer, you should walk them to a librarian. (Volunteering in the library is a perfect opportunity for teens to learn job and life skills. Admitting that they do not know the answer, and subsequently looking for the answer, is a learned skill and a sign of maturity.)

With over 100 volunteers to coordinate, I went high-tech in scheduling the volunteers. I set up a Gmail account to send and receive email correspondence with the teens so as to not clog my work inbox, and established a blog as a one-stop-shop for information, schedules, and last-minute notifications.

Every Thursday afternoon I post the scheduling holes I have for the upcoming week (Sunday-Saturday). The teens then email the Gmail address, requesting 1-2 shifts in addition to their usual shift, and I respond only if they were the first to request that time. This was the most unbiased way I could think of to allow volunteers to pick up extra hours. Furthermore, I limited the number of shifts each teen could work per week to three (no more than six hours). Teens (especially in this region of over-achievers) tend to spread themselves thin, and I did not want the library to become a place—like school, work, or, (unfortunately, for many) home—that made high demands of them. Teens have an opportunity to gain workplace experience at the library, but should not be held to the stresses that are inherent of the workplace.

In addition to the volunteer program and the few dozen programs we have scheduled, we have also set high expectations for the Teen Center. The Game Center will likely be utilized every minute of every day, and we will offer lots of reader’s advisory to teens looking for fun summer reads and mandatory assignments, and for parents looking to keep their teens entertained on long car rides and rainy days. Unfortunately, we will also have the recite the requisite “You are not quite old enough to use the Teen Center” speech with children, and the “We have designated this as a safe space for teenagers only, so parents and other adults are not welcome to hang out for extended periods of time,” with reader moms and gamer dads. It is not an easy conversation to have, to exclude people from the most inclusive of places, but it is one the entire library staff is committed to reciting in order to motivate teens to return to the Teen Center.

Fresh Paint traces the development of teen services for a new public library in an underserved community.

SRP is Loudon County Public Library’s (LCPL) biggest event of the year, drawing in thousands of readers, families, and program attendees. In order for the program to progress smoothly, we implement a teen volunteer program. Over 100 teens commit to serving at least one 2-hour shift for every week of the 9-week program (barring vacations and camps, of course). Their duties range from registering patrons of all ages for the event and setting up online accounts (for tracking their progress) to distributing tickets for popular sessions, and preparing popcorn for movie events.

As coordinator for these volunteers, I want to use the best possible methods of registering, scheduling, training, and employing these teens. I chose the methods practiced by a colleague in the Children’s Department who has spent years perfecting the volunteer program. It includes a 90-minute orientation, a blog with weekly updates of time slots in the schedule needing to be filled, a Gmail account for corresponding with volunteers, and an appreciation party. One obstacle I will face is supervising them. The registration and prize table will be downstairs in the open lobby space, but my desk and the Teen Center are located upstairs. At our all-branch staff meeting this month, I invoked the “it takes a village” concept for overseeing teen volunteers: if you are in the vicinity of the registration table, swing by and interact with the volunteers, even if only for a moment, and greet them and ask if everything is going well. This will open the floor for questions or concerns that they may have, and might also make them more comfortable with interacting with adults. I take my role as teen volunteer coordinator seriously, both in terms of ensuring that the library’s goals are met, and in aiding the teens in developing workplace-appropriate skills such as punctuality and time management.

The programs we elected to host came from various sources. “Teen Cuisine” is a nutrition-based program advertised for budding chefs and young athletes. Both “Camp-in with Books” (teens reading to children in a camplike setting, indoors) and “DIY Teen” (a weekly craft program) were successful events at another LCPL branch that we hope will be just as popular at Gum Spring. Though not successful at other branches, we hope that our weekly “Teen Screen” film showings will encourage teens to spend the hottest hours of every Thursday afternoon indoors with friends, bean-bag chairs, and popcorn. When submitting our summer plans to the programming and marketing divisions, we purposefully left out the movie titles. Instead, we have asked the teens for their input via our dry-erase board hanging in the Teen Center. (So far we have only had to nix one.*)

But despite the fun programs we have planned, we are faced with the same concern as every other public librarian: what if no one participates? We are offering a free young adult book to everyone who completes the Teen Summer Reading Program challenge (thanks to our Friends group), as well as an entry into our grand prize drawings of Target gift cards and games. In an attempt to draw them into the library every week, we will set a guessing jar on our desk, filled with items one might find “in your backyard”—think twigs, stones, bottle caps, and more. Prizes will include obnoxiously large candy bars and free coupons for frozen treats.

Gum Spring is not the only library to worry about participation numbers. We all want our patrons to take advantage of everything our libraries have to offer. How do you encourage patrons to get involved with your Summer Reading Program?

*Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is hilarious, but not quite library-appropriate for teens.

Fresh Paint traces the development of teen services for a new public library in an underserved community.

The look of surprise on their faces reminds me that many of our neighbors never experienced a library until we opened six weeks ago. I take that as my cue to deliver my thorough yet brief elevator speech on the fabulousness that is the public library. The breadth of our collection, the number of programs we host, and the Teen Center Game Room piques their interest, but I end my spiel by giving the patrons the power: “The library is here to serve you, so please let us know what we can do to make you want to be come back.” As they leave the Teen Center (pictured right) shaking their heads in amazement, I know I have turned yet another person on to the potential that lies within the public library. I truly believe that it is my job to deliver what patrons want and need in the format they desire, be it online, print, or face to face.

But as any librarian can tell you, not everyone is excited about the library’s array of offerings. Some people believe our collection should be strictly educational and appropriate for all ages, with no regard to entertainment value. Within weeks of opening our doors we began fielding questions from a few concerned citizens who were voicing dissatisfaction with the library owning and circulating video games. These games are available for browsing both online and in-person, and are available for check-out to anyone with a library card. Anyone of any age can check out any video game the library owns. That is a standard that we follow as endorsers of the American Library Association Bill of Rights, part of which reads:

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library services.

But that standard is not endorsed by these community members, who are concerned about children being able to access materials with mature content. Our director, Chang Liu, responded publicly to this concern at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, saying: “The responsibility of controlling or monitoring children’s access to the library materials resides with the parents or legal guardians. We expect parents to be with their children if they are concerned about what kind of materials, books, magazines, or other things that their children might be getting.” The conversation will likely continue, as the Board of Supervisors is also in the people-serving business and must practice due diligence.

The ALA Bill of Rights was established in 1939, and 74 years later we are still having the conversation about what is appropriate for whom, and if the library is the proper place to be offering certain materials. Even a brand new library with all of its shiny new things and endless possibilities isn’t immune to censorship and opposition. I choose to see this as a positive situation; as just one more opportunity to show our new patrons how seriously we take our mission, how high we set our standards, and how much effort we are willing to put into defending the rights of patrons of all ages to check out the materials they require and the materials they desire. All for the low, low membership fee of $0.00.

Opening Day

The days leading up to Opening Day included the last-minute training of pages, a one-night volunteer orientation event, and no fewer than four walk-throughs of the entire building to make sure that trash cans, signs, and library card application stations were appropriately situated. There was very little panic and rushing in those days leading up to the opening because we all knew what needed to be done—we needed to be ready to serve our customers, and by gosh, we were.

This isn’t to say we didn’t have a few minor issues. For example, it took three adults to get the teen volunteers into and out of their mascot costumes. Times that by seven costumes and three shifts of volunteers, and we had a full-time, daylong task that required more time than we’d anticipated. Luckily, we had extra staff on hand to assist. A librarian from a nearby school, which provided nearly 50 percent of the day’s teen volunteers, was a huge help. She assisted our volunteer coordinator and the volunteers on her own time, and her selflessness did not go unnoticed.

Another problem we ran into was the demand for library cards. We thought setting up four stations in addition to the permanent desks would lessen the wait time. We thought wrong. Customers were waiting in line for approximately 10 minutes to obtain a library card, and although that may not be bad for most retail lines, we were hoping for shorter wait times. (Side note: I can’t imagine how long the lines would have been if we hadn’t created hundreds of cards before Opening Day at the various outreach events and schools we attended.)

What was the most unfortunate incident? I developed a massive head cold on Saturday, the day before we opened. I pushed against it as much as possible, but by Sunday, it had completely taken over. That’s what happens when one opens a library on Saturday, and a week later, gets married. That’s right folks, in a seven-day period, I was not only throwing a 6,500-person party at the library, I was hosting my own (albeit much smaller) “big day.” The anticipation, excitement, and yes, I’ll admit it, the stress, got the better of me. Next time I host a huge event, I’ll make sure to stock up on multivitamins and sleeping aids.

Fresh Paint charts the development of teen services at a new public library in an underserved community. Gum Spring Library is Loudoun County’s (VA) eighth branch and will serve more than 100,000 residents. It’s one of the county’s largest public-private partnerships.

When I first wrote about volunteers, I mentioned that they needed to be trained before we opened, so they’d be ready to serve on day one. As it turns out, we won’t need them on day one—or day two, three, and four. In fact, we won’t need them for the first nine days. Our teen volunteers will eventually be shelving materials, reading to children, helping with kids’ crafts and programs, and more. But there won’t be much for them to do until a week or two after we open. Postponing their training for a while has given our volunteer coordinators a huge sense of relief, and it allows us to concentrate on opening day.

Coordinating volunteers for opening day has been overwhelmingly rewarding. Thanks to an enthusiastic school librarian at the nearby John Champe High School, we’ll have more than 30 teens from its Interact Club working various shifts, wearing mascot costumes, assisting at the children’s gaming computer, and passing out giveaways. We’ve visited local schools and teamed up with middle schools, and as a result, we’ve received dozens of emails from people who are interested in volunteering for opening day. In fact, we’ve had so much interest that we’ve had to pull down our SurveyMonkey interest form because we couldn’t accept any more help. What a great problem to have!

We’ve responded to everyone who has contacted us, thanking them for their support and describing various ways in which they can volunteer in the future. We’re also looking into the possibility of hosting groups of volunteers, since many clubs and groups have asked us how they can help the library, and it would be a shame to turn down such enthusiastic teens.

The training session for our opening day volunteers will take place in the evening: they’ll each receive an exclusive tour of the library and a T-shirt, and then we’ll break into small groups to assign specific duties. The volunteer staging area for the big day will be the circulation workroom, a behind-the-scenes space with plenty of room for the bi-hourly shift changes, changing costumes, and snack consumption (or as I like to call it, filling the gas tank). Having all of these logistical details set so far in advance has been helpful. A smooth volunteer operation means that we’ll have fewer details to worry about, and we can focus on welcoming our new patrons and telling them about the library’s services.

I’ve taken a similar approach with my ten pages. All of them are new to the library (though they’re not all new to shelving, thank goodness!) so my co-supervisor and I are training them in shifts on the days leading up to the opening. Unfortunately, they won’t have a “typical day” until well into March, but a solid orientation and training session will prepare them for the “other duties as assigned” that they’ll soon encounter, such as picking up orphaned materials, straightening shelves, and shifting the collection. Once the library is in normal working order, the pages will be able to see when these side tasks need to be taken care of, and they’ll feel confident in their abilities to carry them out.

I have (much more successfully) done this at every other juncture in my life, including the (final) family move to Maryland, three colleges, and a dozen jobs. I took what I liked about myself and refined the details. As for the not-so-likable elements, I trashed them. I knew there was a better me just waiting to be born. With our new library opening in less than two months and my transfer to the new building coming next week, once again I’m in a time of transition and I’m redefining who I am as a teen librarian, a peer, a supervisor, an advocate, and a friend.

Many of the responsibilities I have at my current library are following me to the Gum Spring Library. My biggest responsibility is that of page supervisor. I took over that role in December 2011, when the person who’d been supervising the four pages had to take an emergency leave. My own supervisor helped me ajust to my new role, though many of the job’s nuances I learned as time progressed. To help out my successor, I’ve created a document that describes the duties (official and unofficial) of a page supervisor. I also used this opportunity to reflect upon what I’ve learned. In effect, I gave myself a performance assessment. I’ve already begun working on a new document on the training and supervision of the pages who will arrive in February.

Much of what I’ve learned while supervising pages transfers neatly into my role as a teen volunteer coordinator. My goal is to teach our young volunteers about the library, encourage them to work and play there, and give them a solid opportunity that builds both their character and their resume. I know I let some of our teen volunteers fall through the cracks in my old branch’s very busy volunteer program. Instead of giving each of them the personalized attention they deserved, I let a few simply sign in, do their tasks, and then leave. Even if that was the kind of experience they’d expected, it wasn’t what they deserved. Teen volunteers should be nurtured to view the library as a “third place”: a place to keep organized, fun, and safe, and mostly importantly, to be proud of. As I train my replacement and the new Gum Spring teen volunteers, I’ll be sure to keep the number of volunteers at a manageable level. That way, my peers and I in the Teen Center can create meaningful relationships with them, and instill a sense of responsibility and of place in them.

As I sit at my desk, contemplating which documents, folders, and ARCs to get rid of and which to take to my new library, I’m doing the same thing with my role as a teen librarian. We are rarely given an opportunity to reinvent ourselves, but when we are, we owe it to ourselves and to those we work with to take a moment to reflect on ways that we can improve.

Gum Spring opening day collection

Fresh Paint charts the development of teen services at a new public library in an underserved community. Gum Spring Library will be Loudoun County’s (VA) eighth branch and will serve more than 100,000 residents. It’s one of the county’s largest public-private partnerships.

The new Gum Spring Library in Loudon County, VA, will need volunteers to shelve materials, organize the book sale area, discard old materials, prepare crafts for the children’s department, help with the Summer Reading Program, and more. In addition to these daily volunteers, we will need Opening Day volunteers, with special training, to help direct patrons around the building and wear the mascot costumes, among a myriad of other tasks. It might seem tricky to collect names and contact prospective volunteers by February 23, 2013 when we don’t have an operational building yet, but, as it turns out, the volunteers have taken care of that problem, too.

Through our library Facebook page, Friends group (FROGS), library website, and school and outreach visits, we have a list of over 65 teens interested in volunteering at the Gum Spring Library. I have received emails and calls from teens interested in helping the library. I was even approached by a Girl Scout wanting the library to be the beneficiary of her Gold Award Project. A high school librarian I met at a meeting between local educators and public library staff recently contacted me regarding the Interact Club’s interest in helping with Opening Day activities, as did a middle school parent liaison who leads a group of student leaders. This outpouring of interest is more than helpful; it is imperative to our success as a functioning library. We are fortunate to have these individuals and groups as future volunteers. Now that we have an ever-growing list of volunteers, how and where do we train them so that they are ready on opening day?

Training volunteers can take as little as 30 minutes and should include a tour of the building, a review of the sign-in/out procedure, and a walk-through of tasks they may be asked to complete. In a perfect world, we would host volunteer orientations at the new branch in the weeks leading up to the opening. With the branch still incomplete, this isn’t possible. Instead, we could lean on our partnership with the local middle and high schools to host shelver orientations in their libraries. I could show my Introduction to Shelving PowerPoint, distribute handouts, and assign the teens “homework” of completing an online shelving test, or given enough time, give each teen a cart and test them on how accurately they ordered those materials.

The downside is that volunteers would not be learning to shelve in the building where they would be volunteering. Gum Spring Library’s 40,000 square-foot, two-story layout will take time to get used to. It has separate areas, spine labels, and rules for shelving in adults, teens, children, and media.Training in 400 square feet of school library space will not give any idea of the scope of the task. Furthermore, the school library might not use the Dewey Decimal System (DDS), leaving the teens without experience sorting by number, author’s last name, and title. Approximately 25 percent of the teens I train as shelvers do not ever return to volunteer, or, upon completing the online quiz or the slip test tell me they did not like the attention to detail and/or the monotony of sorting and shelving. If the volunteers were trained without hands-on practice of DDS, would they be turned-off or overwhelmed when they finally did experience it?

All this leaves me still solving the problem of how to orient this valuable volunteer force by Opening Day. I hope we can train them inside the new branch, but we may have to call on school libraries and/or other public library branches to lend us some space. If so, we’ll make the best of it, but the teens will need even more flexibility than we usually expect of them.

Fresh Paint traces the development of teen services for a new public library in an underserved community.

It was important for me to establish a calendar that set a standard, but left plenty of room to grow. I was inclined to host dozens of programs during the first few months in order to show the community everything we were capable of doing, but heeded the advice from the director who advised me to leave enough room in the schedule to add, but never to take away, programs. Adding programs as we get to know the community’s interests is a step forward; cancelling a program because of overbooking or realizing there’s no interest in it is a step backwards. While we may not have as many programs planned as other libraries, we have plenty of wiggle room in the schedule as well as preapproval for last-minute additions, if need be.

Although I was trying to keep the overall number of programs relatively low, there were just too many programming opportunities in March that I couldn’t pass up. So that month, we’ll be celebrating Teen Tech Week with a weeklong QR code scavenger hunt, and we’ll be hosting a mathematician who will talk about the role of women in mathematics to celebrate Women’s History Month. These nationally-celebrated themes allow librarians to be creative with programming and show patrons that libraries are for more than just books, which our patrons—many of whom are first-time library users—might not know.

With two full-time teen services librarians and two full-time assistants, we have plenty of time and talent to host “stock” programs, including a book club and teen advisory board. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel with these tried-and-true programs, just some tweaking to make them applicable to our patrons. Other branches host monthly anime and graphic novel clubs, Picturing America art clubs, and writing clubs. We’ve left our schedule open so we can offer these types of programs if our teens express interest in them (we hope they will!).

Taking into account holidays and special celebrations, but not wanting to stretch the staff thin, I scheduled a Saturday afternoon to make Mother’s Day cards and a Monopoly tournament during spring break. Setting up a craft or game and occasionally checking in to see how they’re going is all that’s required, though a librarian should be present during these activities. We can help make cards or even be the Monopoly banker! These opportunities are perfect for building relationships with teens, and we should take advantage every chance we get.

The library hosts annual county-wide programs for teens, including a summer reading program, an AnimeCon, and a film competition. When the Gum Springs library opens in February 2013 we’ll be in the middle of accepting entries for our third annual “It’s All Write” short story contest. The deadline to enter is early March, so beginning in January, we’ll have to publicize it as much as possible during outreach events at our local schools, as well as on our social media pages.

Planning programs is difficult enough, but now we need to tell people about them before we open, in just three months. Our talking points just went from informing teens of our existence to informing them of the specific programs and events we have planned. We’re now passing out program flyers printed with program names, dates, and times. We’ll use what we have scheduled as a jumping-off point, and make additions and adjustments as we get to know our patrons interests, likes, dislikes, and desires.

Right now, if you live in Gum Spring, the nearest public library is nine miles away. To reach it, you have to drive on construction-laced, heavily trafficked roads into a neighboring county, and that’s why many adults don’t use the public library and aren’t familiar with its resources. At one of the back-to-school nights, parents of middle school and high school students were shocked to learn that we’ll be offering free ebooks, as well as computers, printers, scanners, and a 3,000-square-foot teen center that will be right in their own backyard (or, no more than a five-minute drive). When she heard the news, one parent sighed and said, “Why didn’t I know about this before now? I would have saved so much money!”

Unlike some of their parents, most teens are thrilled that they’ll finally have “something to do” when we open. Currently, there are no teen-friendly hangouts nearby, and our teen center will be a welcome addition for them. Unfortunately, some community members have already expressed concern about teens loitering around the new building. “Will the teens be loud and disruptive?” they’ve asked. “Will they compromise the safety of the library?” To which I’ve proudly responded, “No.” Not only does the library have rules regarding appropriate behavior, but teens, though sometimes loud, aren’t a pack of hooligans looking to cause trouble. In fact, teenagers are the perfect library users, checking out materials they need for assignments, browsing the collection for fun stuff (including DVDs, games, and good books), forming groups and working collaboratively, using technology, and keeping librarians aware of emerging tech trends. Sure, some kids may loiter, but that’s what we want them to do! We want them to take advantage of our free resources, talk to us, and form their own community. We want them to learn, teach, and grow, both with us and because of us.

Some adults fear teens because they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be one. Teens are works in progress, trying to figure out who they are and where they belong. Libraries encourage individual growth by recommending books, hosting age-appropriate programs, and providing resources and opportunities for kids to develop. The library can also bridge the gap between the generations by creating opportunities for adults and teens to interact on a level other than parent to child, or teacher to student. Teens, being naturally adept at all things technology, can assist reference librarians in running computer and technology programs for adults. Mom-and-daughter book clubs, intergenerational gaming nights, and even volunteering side-by-side in the library are just a few ways that adults and teens can foster mature relationships inside the library. To use this decade’s buzzword, these are genuine “teachable moments.”

Although the new library will soon be the new kid on the block that every teen wants to get to know, some adults are bound to feel uncomfortable with that. But if we can properly educate them on how to use the new library and help them see that the teen center is a safe, supportive space for kids, then our library will become a true community center.

Friends of the Library
So far, the most inspiring group we’ve worked with is the Friends of the Library, which has been an established group for nearly 10 years. It lobbied county administrators and residents urging them to support a new library. Once the bond was passed, it hosted silent auctions, book sales, and family fun walks to raise funds for resources and scholarships. Partnering with them is critical to our success, because they’ve helped us learn about the local community’s interests and issues, including such topics as new schools and future construction projects.

Being a teen librarian, one of my main needs from the Friends is financial support for teen programs. Our large-scale programs, such as the annual AnimeCon and summer reading, are paid for by budgets set at the administration level, but small (though significant!) programs such as the book club and teen advisory board, as well as prizes for gaming tournaments and materials for craft programs, rely on the Friends for financial support. The Friends are supportive of teen services, but I still need to make a case for why the teen services department deserves their hard-earned funds. When the time comes to request funds, I plan to tell them about the conversations I’ve had with educators, parents, and mostly importantly, teens themselves, who have told me what they need and want from their new library.

Schools
One of our Friends is a volunteer in the public school system and used that relationship to set up a meeting for us with local school librarians. Though not all schools in our jurisdiction were represented, the topics we discussed at the meeting resonated with all of them; we talked about sharing materials, providing space for student-to-student tutoring, in-school visits by librarians, field trips to the library, and getting library cards into the hands of students.

One teen-specific topic we discussed was the last-minute rush to complete the school’s summer reading assignment, when we inevitably run out of assigned books. I advised the librarians to work with teachers to get the list to us as soon as it’s finalized, so come August, we’ll have the books that their kids need. We also discussed an idea to reduce the physical stress on students: lending textbooks to the library to shelve in our reference collection or in our teen center so that kids won’t have to lug those heavy tomes home every night. Sadly, this argument is an age-old one, and it’s usually rejected because of the likelihood that very expensive textbooks may be stolen. Even some colleges and universities refuse to lend textbooks to their students, for fear of never seeing the books again. But the conversation is one worth having, especially if the outcome will benefit teens.

Of course, these partnerships and conversations won’t end when we open our library. Educators have unique perspectives on teens’ needs, and we need to stay in touch with them to understand and respond to those needs.

I am fortunate to work for a county that sees libraries for what they are: critical to the growth and development of a community and the individuals that reside within it. Come Spring 2013 there will be an eighth library branch in Loudoun County, Virginia, the Gum Spring Library. Over 40,000 square feet of space will deliver materials, programs, education, and entertainment to an area of the county that has never had a library. In fact, that is the charm of building a library in that area; we will introduce thousands of residents to something that they have never had access to.

In this “new normal” where budgets are malleable and futures uncertain, it is exciting and hopeful to see a brand new library built, its walls painted, and shelves stocked. But it is only after the building is up that the excitement really begins; community outreach, programming, and building partnerships and relationships with area organizations, schools, and groups are what really give breath to a library. Finding what works for the new set of users is a fun challenge to meet head-on. Over the next few months I will give you an insider’s look at what goes in to opening a new library. I may not influence the collection (we have a strong Collection Development Division dedicated to that), or the furniture (I requested something comfy), but what I do participate in, you will read about. You can also track the physical construction of the building from the library’s Flickr account and Facebook account.