PVLD Director's Blog

Growing Up Online

BAck in January the PBS program Frontline aired this program on "Growing Up Online".  The entire episode and a lot of interesting supplemental material is available on the Frontline website.  It will take about an hour of your time to view all of the "chapters" - but I found it was an hour well spent in terms of the insights I gained into how today's teens, the first generation to grow up with the Internet as a fact of life, are using the technology.

The program doesn't shy away from the risks of being online, including a poignant segment on the tragic consequences of cyber-bullying, and I have to confess that even my Internet-embracing self was shocked by some of what the kids were doing online. And as a childless person I sure felt for the parents interviewed!  (At the same time the former adolescent in me was also moved by the way some of the kids interviewed were using the Internet to connect with, empower, and validate their deepest selves in ways that would be impossible in the physical world).

In the end I appreciated Danah Boyd's comment to the effect that these kids live in a society with fundamentally different properties than the one I grew up in, and this is not going to change.  Strategies like blocking access to the parts of that society that make us fearful are not at the end of the day going to keep kids safe.  As fast as we block access to something, an alternative will spring up. What we need to do is teach people how to live in this new society safely - just as we teach them to look before crossing the street or to wear a seatbelt.

Libraries are already playing a role in helping people understand how to be safe online, but it seems to me there is more that we could do....

Rocking at the Annex

A couple of weeks ago the teens at the Annex were participated in our first ever "Rock Band" competition organized by Annex staffer Kali Merina.  If the success of an event can be judged by the noise levels, this was a chart-topper (Apologies to our neighbors, especially the PV Board of Realtors who have the misfortune of being directly below the Annex.  Next time we'll do it after normal business hours!)

Looks like fun, doesn't it!

 

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Digital Generation Gap

The other day I was talking on the phone to my 16 year old niece in Canada, who was telling me about her new haircut.  I said "Sounds cute - email me a picture" to which she responded "Just look on my Facebook page"  Duh!

The conversation reminded me of a couple of articles that I came across a few weeks ago about parenting in this digital age.  The first, from the New York Times, talks about how text messaging is changing how parents and kids communicate.  The second, from the Washington Post, is about the perils and pitfalls of parents becoming "Facebook friends" with their kids.

Both articles make some interesting points about privacy.  I'd never though of cell phones and text messaging as enabling kids to have more privacy, but as the New York Times article points out its a lot harder for your parents to know what you are up to if you are accessing the Internet from your cell phone, or sending a text message to a friend rather than talking on the phone where your parent can hear at least one side of the conversation.

I also thought the Washington Post quote from Steve Jones, University of Illinois Professor and digital communications expert was interesting -

"What they want to keep most private is not something they wish to keep from strangers, it's the things they want to keep from people that know them," he said. "It's 'I don't care what someone who doesn't know me finds out. But I do care about what someone I know intimately [does].' "

On the one hand, a technology gives parents a much greater ability to stay in touch with their kids, but on the other hand that same technology allows kids to conduct a much greater portion of their lives in ways that are hidden from their parents.

Part of growing up is expanding the parts of your life that you want to keep private from your parents, so there is nothing new in that.  What is new I think is the extent to which technology is enabling that process to happen earlier and faster than ever before.

The articles also made me think that PVLD's policy of requiring parental permission for minors to access the Internet via library computers is of greater symbolic than practical value.  Kids who want to use technology to "hide" stuff from their parents will find a way to do it whether they use library computers or not, and kids like my niece who have little to hide will let even their aunts and uncles be their Facebook friends.  I hope we aren't creating a false sense of security.       

More reasons I love this job

While I love my job, some days and weeks seem to be more of a struggle than others andthe past couple of weeks fit that category.  Little issues to be resolved, too many meetings, not enough time in the sunshine, and the lingering effects of being sick over the holidays have been sapping my energy. 

Even during this low-period, though, things happen that remind me that this is a great job in a great community -

1.  Last week we opened an envelope that was probably dropped off at the library over the holidays but didn't get opened due to staff vacations and illnesses.  Inside was $50 in cash and a letter, written in pencil on looseleaf notebook paper, that read

"Dear Librarians,

I would like to donate my birthday money, $50, to this library.  I enjoy coming here to rent books and use the study areas.  This library is a very important and helpful place to me.  Thank you and I hope you have a great holiday.

Sincerely,

[Name withheld to protect privacy]
5th grader of Montemalaga

Now if that doesn't lift your mood I don't know what will!

2.  Yesterday a local family came to the Annex with their arms loaded with boxes which turned out to be the hot video game "Rock Band" which they were giving to the Annex.  Within 1/2 hour the kids had the drums, guitars, and microphone set up and it has been in constant use ever since. 

3.  Over the year-end period there has been a steady stream of donations to both the Friends of the Library and PVLD.

All of this is evidence that the library is making a difference in our community, and people appreciate what we do...and that's what makes the tough days and weeks worthwhile!

What does this mean for libraries?

Michael Stephens of Tame the Web ( http://tametheweb.com/ )posted this today with the simple command "Go. Watch. Now."  From the cultural anthropology students at Kansas State University -

Happy Birthday to the Annex!

Annex Birthday Party - big crowds
Originally uploaded by pvldteens.

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since the Annex opened! Yesterday the Annex staff celebrated with a birthday party - and I got the following email from Ali Orr last night -

"FYI today’s Annex Birthday Party was a huge success. We had 61 attendees! They ate 10 pizzas, played lots of games, 4 of them won cool prizes and (the best part of all) they even helped us clean up the popcorn which was *everywhere*. There were two boys who wanted to use the vacuum. We had to have them alternate so they both got to do it!

We also had quite a few new patrons – I would estimate around 10-12. I talked to a few parents who were quite excited to learn about the Annex and 3 seniors who said they had heard about the Annex and wanted to check it out. (Of course, I encouraged them to come back tomorrow morning for the OWL event.) "

As you can see from Ali's email older adults also think the Annex is cool! Today we are having our third event for OWLs (Older Wiser Livelier adults) at the Annex.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to making the Annex a success - especially the Peninsula Friends of the Library for providing funding and being willing to take the risk of a new venture, our partner Freedom4U who does such a great job of running the Annex on the weekends, the Annex staff past and present (Ali, Justin, Kristen, Kali, Ji, and Melanie), the Facilities staff for not only doing the construction work to create this fabulous space but also keeping it clean, and the Adult Services staff who have created the OWL program (especially Debra and Louise). THANK YOU!

Cartoon about the Annex

It's great to have newspaper articles about the library, but you know you've hit the big time when you are the subject of and editorial cartoon!  Today's Palos Verdes Peninsula News had this about the Annex opening its doors to Seniors -

Download annex_cartoon_in_pv_news.pdf

Video Gaming in Libraries

Video Games, originally uploaded by pvldteens.

PVLD staff have been talking a lot about how to incorporate video gaming into our services, programs, and collections so I was pleased to see this posting on the "Designing Better Libraries" Blog

http://dbl.lishost.org/blog/2007/03/31/libraries-and-gaming/

Why video games in libraries?  Because they support many of the things we see as our core mission!  They provide intellectual stimulation, facilitate skill-building (e.g. problem solving and manual dexterity) and as this photo from the Annex shows - they even promote social interaction and community building.  They can even impart real knowledge - at last year's Public Library Association conference one of the speakers told of bringing his son, who has Downs Syndrome, to Boston for the first time.  As they travelled around the city the boy, who had never been there, pointed out various landmarks and even helped give directions.  Where did he learn how to navigate Boston?  From a "Tony Hawk" skateboarding video game that is set in that city!  Some games - think "Dance Dance Revolution" or Nintendo Wii - even promote physical activity.

And video games aren't just for teens! Check out this video from the Sedgebrook Senior Center in Illinois!  You'll need to scrolll down to the video called "Calling all Bowlers".

http://www.erickson.com/ericksonvideogallery/evlPlayerver5.asp?videoname=sportsActivitiesStreaming&var2=7

This New York Times article also discusses the seniors and video games 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/arts/30seni.html?_r=1&ref=arts

Here at PVLD we have taken our first steps into the brave world of video gaming by having video game stations at the Annex (and hosting our first ever video game tournament at the Annex during Spring Break this week) and offering video games for circulation at the Miraleste Library, and soon at Peninsula Center Library.

Ideas we are exploring include:

• Offering video game based programming for seniors at the Annex on weekday mornings when the space is otherwise unused.
• Creating a "PVLD Gaming" website with links to games and information.
• Purchasing a number of handheld video games (e.g. Gameboys or PSPs) that could be used for game tournaments using our wireless networks.
• Purchasing handheld video games for circulation to give people a chance to try them out.
• Sponsoring a "guild" or team in an online multi-user game such as "World of Warcraft"

We'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!

Information Literacy

Information literacy is a topic that many librarians are talking about - usually in the context of teaching people how to effectively use the many online information resources now available.  Through our partnership with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District PVLD librarians have been delivering information literacy training to middle school students across the Peninsula.  Our focus has been on topics such as how to tell whether a website is likely to have reliable, authoritative information, the traps of relying on Google and Wikipedia, and how to use the library's subscription databases. 

Given our involvement with information literacy I was very interested to read an interview of Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT that appeared in this month's American Libraries magazine.  Mr. Jenkins was asked "Where do you rank traditional information literacy among the proficiencies millenials need?"

His response gave me one of those "aha moments"! He said

"Young people absoultely need to acquire very traditional research skills that will allow them to discern the quality of information they are acquiring from various sources. But in a world where itis often difficult to determine the source and status of the media we are consuming, traditional literacy skills are no longer sufficient.  We should no longer consider young people to media literate if they can consume but not produce media.  It's like confusing penmanship with composition'.  Wow!

This message was reinforced when I turned to last Sunday's New York Times magazine intending to start the crossword and the following caught my eye in a letter to the Editor -

"I am a high-school student dismayed by much of the content my peers routinely exhibit through their blogs and MySpace profiles.  In his advice to the college interviewer who Googled a prospective student, Randy Cohen....wrongly equates an online profile with the traditional "pen-and-paper" diary.  When we teenagers allude to illicit activities and display revealing photographs, our chief motivation is exhibitionism, not secrecy.  We want to attract attention from friends and strangers.  If profiles produced by potential students and employees already reflect poorly on their authors, then universities and employers have every right to worry about other distasteful statements that may find their way into inappropriate posts in the future"!  Double wow!

What a wonderful role libraries can play in giving people the skills they need to create media responsibly!  Some libraries already get it - elsewhere in American Libraries was an article about Cheshire Public Library in Cheshire, Connecticut which uses teens to create the Cheshire Public Library Podcast (www.cheshirelib.org/teens/cplpodcast.htm ).  The same article highlighted Denver Public Library's recent contest where teens created videos on YouTube about how they had fun at the library, with  the winner receiving an MP3 player.

Talk about Win/Win - programs such as these give kids vital skills in media creation and help promote the library too!  Now I'm thinking about what we could do here at PVLD to stretch into this new dimension of "information literacy"...any ideas?  any volunteers?

The Annex - Teens as 2nd class citizens?

Shortly after the article about our Annex was published in VOYA (see my blog post of a few days ago!) Young Adult Librarian Ali Orr got a very nice email from Dr. Anthony Bernier of the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.  While generally very complimentary about what we have achieved with the Annex, Dr. Bernier raised one very thought provoking point -

"...I appreciate how the staff is trying to connect young patrons back into the main library, but would only suggest that the decision to segregate out young people from the broader public space represented by the library can also send an opposite signal...that YAs are not "really" part of the public.  I know that is not your intention, I'm just wondering if that issue came up and what conversation might have been had around it."  Ouch!

Ali, Young Reader Department Manager Laura Henry, and I winced when we read this because we were very sensitive to this issue as the Annex concept developed and we discussed the issue at length. 

To provide some context for people who haven't visited, our Peninsula Center Library was expanded and remodeled in the mid-1990s and has an open plan design with a large children's area, but no space designated for teens.    About four years ago my predecessor commissioned a study of the entire library space, with one of the goals being to address the need for teen space and services.  Our building design makes incremental change difficult, so the outcome of the study was a proposal for a large-scale reconfiguration. Implementation of the recommendations would have cost over $3 million in 2003 dollars!

Several years ago with the assistance of our teen volunteers we carved out a "teen corner" with comfortable seating and an expanded collection of books, magazines, DVDs, and videos of interest to teens.  This space is not adequate to meet demand, is often occupied by adults (a definite deterrent to teen use!), and does not adequately address our need for appropriate space for teen programs and activities.   

The Annex was intended to be a cost-effective way to meet our need for teen space and has proven to be just that.  The initial fit-out cost of about $100,000 (carpet, paint, lighting, furniture, computers, shelving and collections, etc.) and annual operating cost of another $100,000 (about the same as it would cost to operate a dedicated a teen space in the library) we have a teen library space that serves nearly 1,000 visitors a month. 

Now to Dr. Bernier's comment about whether the Annex sends a signal that teens are not really a legitimate part of the public to be served by the library.    As I noted above, this was a big concern that we have tried to address in a number of ways:

1.  Ensuring that the space was designed as a LIBRARY space, not just a generic youth center.  A lot of attention was paid to creating a collection of popular library materials, and the reward has been seeing the kids actually using them.  We also have a dedicated YA Librarian for the Annex.

2.  Maintaining adjacency to the "main" library.  The Annex is only about 100 feet from the "main" library and the kids move freely between the two facilities.

3.  Educating staff that the Annex is not a place to "send those noisy teens" and that the teens are welcome in both places.  This has perhaps been the biggest issue as many employees were delighted at the thought that there would be a place other than the library for the teens to go.   We seem to have overcome this perception although I think more rotation of staff between the two facilities would help us lay it to rest once and for all.

4.  Continuing to improve the Teen Corner in the Peninsula Center Library and to encourage use of the main library by Teens -  we recently painted the area to match the Annex, house the entire collection of circulating "Young Adult" CDs and DVDs in this area rather than the Annex, will be adding a collection of circulating video games (also available only in the main library and not the Annex), and are in the process of relocating shelving to provide more space and replacing the sofa and armchairs with "teen friendly, adult unfriendly" furnishings such as beanbags.

We are seeing the results of these efforts:

• BOTH the Annex and the Peninsula Center Library are heavily used by teens.  There has been no reduction in teen use of the main library facility - if anything this has increased.
• An overall reduction in customer complaints and disciplinary issues involving teens.
• Increased Teen programming now that we have a more appropriate space, and
• My favorite indicator - a request from one of our older patrons that we create a "Seniors Annex"!

Now that we have seen the Annex in operation, I'm not sure I would abandon the concept in favor of an "in library" teen space even if I had the opportunity.  In my mind the Annex concept has some real advantages:

1.  Flexibility.  The use of storefront space requires minimal capital investment and forces the use of flexible design principles.  If need be we can easily relocate the entire facility to a larger retail space, expand into an adjacent storefront, etc.  This would be much more problematic (and costly) in a space that was integrated into the library building.

2. Enhanced ability to leverage partnerships to expand services.  Through our partnership with Freedom4U we are able to provide 7-day operation of the Annex at the cost to PVLD of 4-day operation and to offer programs and activities at times when the main library is closed - for example weekend evenings.  This would be more difficult and costly if we had to keep the whole library open and worry about staffing and building security for the library as opposed to just the Annex. 

3.  Opportunity for the library to take a leadership role in meeting a long-standing community need.  Our community has recognized the need for better facilities and services for teens for decades but with four independent city jurisdictions serving a total population of only 70,000 and a mobile teen population the problem has never been solved.  The fact that, through our partnership with Freedom4U, the Library District has found a cost-effective way to not only provide better library services but also meet the need for a teen center has put us in a true leadership role in our community in a way that simply creating a teen space in the library would not.

In many ways we have the best of both worlds - a terrific teen library space that is well-integrated with library operations, and a teen center that provides a cost-effective solution to a long-standing community need.  The payoff has been tremendous community support for the Library District as a whole, inclusion of the Library District in activities and discussions that we were not previously part of, and through increased teen use of the library a means of connecting with a population that we have found hard to reach in the past... no, not the teens themselves - their parents!